A Study of the Doctrine and Covenants
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Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 1940 A Study of the Doctrine and Covenants John William Fitzgerald Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the History of Religion Commons, Linguistics Commons, Mormon Studies Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Fitzgerald, John William, "A Study of the Doctrine and Covenants" (1940). Theses and Dissertations. 4683. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4683 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. A STUDY OF THE DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS A THESIS SUBMITTEDSUBMIT TO THE DIVISION OF RELIGION OF BRIGHAM YOUNG university IN PARTIAL fulfillment OPOF THE requirements FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE BY JOHN WILLIAM fitzgerald 1940 acknowledgments the writer ives special acknowledfacknowledgmentment and sincere appreciation to dean asael C lambert of brinhambriwhambrigham young university for his helpful suggestions his careful and constructive criticism during the full course of the preparation of this thesis the writer is gratefula to professors russel B swensen sidney B sperry and ariel S ballif for read- intinginf certain parts of the manuscript and for giving helpful suggestionssursunCICrestionsrestione for its improvement the writer appreciates the kindness of professor wilford M poulson for the help he gave the writer in obtaining a corrected copy of putnam and mcgregormcgregors verbatim copy of A book of commandments appreciation is extended to the following limmrTIXlym alvin smith and mr A william lund of the church historianhistorians office without whose cooperation the study could not have been done the writer is grateful to grandma furbushPorbush of union utah for her kindness in loaning the writer an 1835 and an 1852 edition of the doctrine and covenants the writer expresses his gratitude to his wife mary elsie barr fitzgerald her constant aid and encourage- ment have been an inspiration iv TABLE OF CONTENTS chafterohapCHAPTERCHAP PAGE I1 statement and limits of the problem 1 significance of the study 2 limitation of data and procedure used 53 II11 introduction to part one 0 e e 6 title pages and descriptions of the var- ious editions of the do ctrlnedoctrine and covenants 9 list of editions of the doctrine and cov- enants and date of eheeeetheir espectrvrespectivee printingspaintingsprintings 67 preface to the first edition of the doctrine and covenants 9 e e 9 6 6 68 preface to the first english edition of the doctrine and covenants 70 section on marriage 0 0 0 D 0 0 0 0 0 e 74 general assembly 0 0 0 0 0 0o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 s 77 iliIII111 introduction to part two 84 copies of introductions to sections in 18351855185201852 1876 and 1921 editions of the doctrine and covenants 9 9 9 e 0 e e e 0 86 table giving section numbers of the corresponding sections in the four editions mentioned above s v e e e 231 V table of contents chapter page IV introduction to part three 0 0 t 0 t 239 copy of vatYatmaterialerial containing changes taken fromprom A book of Ccommandmentss and the 1921 edtttoedittoeditionn 0ot the docdoedoctrinetrine and covenantscovenants 0 0 t t t 0 a 0 e t 245243 table containing a list of the numbers of the corresponding chapters and sections in the above two volumes 0 0 0 0 517317 copy of introductions to chapters in A book ofoj Commandmentcommandmentscommandmentsocommandmentqso 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 520320 V summary and conclusions 0 10 6 16 0 4 D 0 0 529329 APPENDIXI e t t t 0 0 0 0 0 t 0 0 t 0 e t 0 0 0 0 s 547347 bibliography 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 b 0 b e 579379 Aa&xkexaexacx IL ssi CHAPTER I1 statement of the problem the general topic of this thesis is the changes that have occurred in the doctrine and covenants through its various editions beginning with A book off commandments which was printed in 18531833 to the 1937 edition of the doctrine and covenants limits of the problem furforpurposes of this study the problem has been limited to the following tasks 1 A description of each edition of the doctrine and covenants giving title page general description measurements and any other identifying characteristics of each one of the several editionseditionsditionslons 2 A comparison of the introductions that appear before each section in each of the editions issued in 183501835 185201852 1876 and 1921 3 A careful comparison of the sixty five chapters contained in A book of C ommandmentcommandmentcommandments s with corresponding sections in the 1921 edition of the doctrine and covenants to show changes in wording and meaning 1 T1 see introductiintroductionoi to part three 2 the writer has given no special consideration to changes in punctuation or in footnotes that have occurred in the various editions or to any revelations that were received by the prophet joseph smith or by any of his successors which do not appear in any edition of the doctrine and covenants 2 it Is not within the scope of this study to make any detailed comments or explanations as to why any par- ticular change or changes in wording or meaning in the doctrine and covenants took place that point is left to anyone who cares to pursue the subject further general statements setting forth the writerwriters opinion concerning certain changes are given in the conclusions no consideration has been given in this study to any foreign language edition of the doctrine and covenantcovenants 3 significance of the studstudy the writer thinks that this study is significant 1 to the writwriterwriterswritertseriserts knowledge no literature or co- mplete body of information is extant concerning the problem with which this study deals 2 the original copies of the early editions of the doctrine and covenants are becoming more scarce as 7rar proof of the existence of such revelations is provided by the verbal statement of elder joseph fielding smith historian of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints to the writer 3 time goes on and definite means of identification will become increasingly important 3 this study marks the starting point from which further studies in this field can be developed sources of data the sources of data that were used in the prepar- ation of this study were the following 1 valid copies of the various editions of the doctrine and covenants 2 putnam and McGregmcgregortsmcgregormcgregorasortsorrs verbatim copy of A book ofoj commandmentcommendmentcommandments s the date and where it was published are not known to the writer limitations of data and procedure used there are materials in this study which were copied directly from the original printed editions where certain editions of the doctrine and covenants are listed as the same edition more than once yet appear with different dates the writer was not able to learn the reason fforroror this listing 53 A certain complete list of the editions which the writer understands have been printed by the church of IT3 historians of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints could give the writer no explanation of the above question 4 jesus christ of latter day saints since 18541834 could not be found by the writer it is possible that there may be one or more editions not mentioned or described in this study an original copy of A book off commandments was not available so a verbatim copy by putnam and mcgregor was used this copy the writer understands is essentially correct4correctcorrects 4 valid copies of all editions described in this thesis were examined personally by the writer however the large amount of detail that is contained in this study precludes perfection but through much checking the writer believes that errors in the writerwriters work have been reduced to a minimum 7 verbal opinions of professorfwilfordprofessoirwilfordfond X1cac poulson brigham young university anandanaa mr alvin smith assistant historian church of jesus christ of latter day saints PART I1 CHAPTER II11 introduction to part one part one of this study endeavors to give a co- mplete description of all the editions of the doctrine and covenants which the writer could obtain A copy of the title page of each one of the editions printed up to 1900 Is given there also appears a copy of the title page of the 1921 edition together with the in- formation that is contained on the reverse side of it with the exception of the edition of 1921 1 which is used for comparisons all editions printed since 1900 and which the writer exexaminedned are described but the title pages are not exhibited in this study since the only changes that have occurred in those editions are the date of publication and perhaps a change in dimensions of the book itself the writer deemed it unnecessary to give here the title pages of each of the editions from 1900 to 1921 because of the insignificant differences that have occurred in them as just noted for the same reason title pages and contents of all editions issued subsequent to the 1921 edition are not presented in this report fbotnotesfootnoteshave been used in part one to make more clear some of the information that is presented in this chapter 7 the first title page given here is a copy of the title page of A book ojof commandments that was published in part in zion 1pap missouri in 18351833 that is the only instance