Joseph Smith’s Uncanonized Revelations, a Review

Joseph Smith’s Uncanonized Revelations, edited by Stephen O. Smoot and Brian C. Passantino, is a new collection of revelations by or attributed to Joseph Smith. It builds upon the research and publication of documents by the Joseph Smith Papers Project, drawing together the relevant documents into one easily accessible place and providing context for each. The main section of the book focuses on revelations that can reliably be attributed to Joseph Smith while an appendix contains revelations that either are attributed to someone close to Joseph Smith or are late, second-hand recollections that may or may not be accurate and authentic reproductions of Joseph Smith revelations.

Access to these documents and their context is useful in understanding both the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the nature of Joseph Smith’s revelations (including those canonized in the Doctrine and Covenants). Particularly noteworthy are two revelations relating to plural marriage, adding more validity to the assertion that Joseph Smith introduced and practiced plural marriage. (As a side note, adding those two revelations—one to Marinda Nancy Johnson and one to Newel K. and Sarah Ann Whitney—to the Doctrine and Covenants would double the number of contemporary women mentioned and addressed in the collection, bringing the total to four!) And one document that provides some interesting insights into the nature of the revelations is Oliver Cowdery’s “Articles and Covenants,” a revelation that Cowdery received that was textually based on the Book of Mormon and which was later expanded and revised by Joseph Smith in the revelation that is now Section 20. The document helps to show how Joseph Smith considered the revelatory process to involve revisions and development of some of the documents rather than each being an ex nihilo creation that was perfect in its original draft.

The book is very good at providing context. It offers an introductory essay up front and then information related to each revelation in the same chapter as the revelation in question. Most often, the introduction is considerably longer than the revelations themselves (though most of the revelations are very short, which is likely to be part of the reason they were never included in the canon). All of these introductory pieces are well-researched and well documented. This also means that the bibliography in the back is a treasure trove of suggestions for books to read when studying the Doctrine and Covenants next year.

All around, I’m impressed with Joseph Smith’s Uncanonized Revelations, edited by Stephen O. Smoot and Brian C. Passantino. The book is very accessible and provides an impressive array of documents and information relevant to the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement.