One of the biggest criticisms of scripture generally is the extent to which humans were involved in its production. On the one hand, we can’t really expect scripture to be effortlessly beamed down from heaven to flawed and imperfect humans and then interpreted flawlessly and recorded perfectly, can we? But on the other hand, how divine and trustworthy can scripture be if flawed humans were involved in writing it, compiling it, editing it, and publishing it? In this episode of Church History Matters, we discuss an important, albeit not foolproof, process to mitigate against human weakness and error in scripture, and that’s called canonization. We look at the difference between scripture, scripture canon, and what we call the harmonized scripture canon. We discuss why these distinctions matter, what’s involved in the process of scripture canonization, and we look at how the production of the Doctrine and Covenants itself offers us a valuable window into this important process.
This is the fifth episode of our 10-part podcast series on Joseph Smith's Revelations and Translations. For a full transcript of this episode, as well as show notes and additional resources, visit our website at doctrineandcovenantscentral.o...
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Originally published September 19, 2023
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