Doctrine and Covenants
The book "Doctrine and Covenants" ( Engl. "Doctrine and Covenants") is one of the canonical Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints and some other Mormon churches. It first appeared in 1835; a partially identical predecessor font called " The Book of Commandments" had started to be printed in 1833; the “Book of Commandments” could not be completed because a mob had destroyed the printing press.
content
The book contains many revelations believed to have been given to Joseph Smith from Christ , as well as a few revelations to his followers and official statements from his followers. In most of the revelations, Christ appears as the speaker who uses the word "I" to refer to himself. To this day they serve to organize and guide the above church and have shaped its theology and structure more sustainably than their other holy scriptures, such as the Book of Mormon . In particular, the Mormon priesthood , temple service and the concept of life after death find their doctrinal basis here, and the well-known ban on alcohol and the polygamy practiced in the meantime , as well as the attitude towards it, go back to sections of this book.
Editorial history
Some passages were added by successors of Joseph Smith with the express approval of general membership in general conference . A number of Smith's teaching lectures (the “Doctrine” of the book title) that preceded the revelations (the “Covenants”) but were not canonical were removed in the early 20th century, but the book's established title was retained.
Use in other churches of Mormon origin
The versions of this book for the various Mormon denominations vary considerably. For example, the Community of Christ has now deleted the sections that refer to the baptism of the dead and not even included the section teaching polygamy . In return, her edition of the book contains a number of revelations from her own line of prophets. In addition, the order and numbering of the sections of the book is different between churches, as the main Utah Church rearranged them chronologically in 1876 and added sections from other Smiths' writings, while the other churches kept the old thematic arrangement.
There are also churches that emerged from Mormonism , but in which the “Doctrine and Covenants” as divine sources of revelation and holy scriptures are not recognized or used at all. This applies, for example, to the Church of Christ with the Elijah message and the Church of Christ (Fettingites) . The Church of Christ (Temple Lot) uses the "Book of Commandments" from 1833.
criticism
Critics of the Mormon churches point to some differences between the “Book of Commandments” and the first edition of “Doctrine and Covenants,” particularly the removal of references to practices such as dowsing . In more recent times, many cover names inspired by Hebrew words have been changed in the edition of the main church, which in the old editions served to keep the identity of the named persons or things secret. These aliases were replaced by the real names of the intended persons, because the reason for the secrecy no longer applies today, long after the death of everyone involved.
