Pearl of Great Price

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Pearl of Great Price

I had a reader send me an inquiry about the Pearl of Great Price (PoGP), a short collection of canonized LDS scripture which offers translated writings from Moses and Abraham, as well as an enhanced version of Matthew 24 and a short history of Joseph Smith's early experience through the publication of the Book of Mormon. Specifically, the reader is looking for additional details on the publication history of the PoGP. Here's my best link: the Encyclopedia of Mormonism article on the PoGP, by Kenneth W. Baldridge. Anyone with other good sources, please note them in the comments.

May 25, 2005 at 06:19 PM in LDS Scriptures | Permalink

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An Ensign article:

From Mission Pamphlet

Posted by: Justin | May 25, 2005 at 06:34 PM

H. Donl Peterson's The Pearl of Great Price: A History and Commentary.

Also the Book of Abraham Project

Posted by: J. Stapley | May 25, 2005 at 08:29 PM

I'll throw in the token (what some would consider) anti link.

Posted by: Darren | May 25, 2005 at 11:17 PM

"translated writings from Moses and Abraham" - sorry, can't let that go by without a comment about JS' Book of Abraham papyrii being thoroughly, and completely, translated by modern scholars as common Egyptian funeral texts. This wasn't one of Joseph Smith's finer moments...

Posted by: Sean | May 26, 2005 at 07:59 PM

Sean, it's tough to come up with a one-sentence summary of the contents of the PoGP to a broad audience. If I call them "purported translations of writings from Abraham," then other readers get unsettled. It's sort of like walking a tightrope while people on two opposing sides below take aim with peashooters ...

Posted by: Dave | May 27, 2005 at 10:02 AM

Sean:

Mormon's generally accept a definition of "translate" that is rather dynamic. Most mormons in this forum will have no qualm with the fact that the papyri are not the text of the book of Abraham.

Joseph also "translated" the bible - i.e., he added stuff that was never there and made editorial changes.

Posted by: J. Stapley | May 27, 2005 at 05:04 PM

Mormon's generally accept a definition of "translate" that is rather dynamic.

Yeah, that is kinda required, isn't it.

Posted by: Darren | May 27, 2005 at 11:50 PM

Agreed. "Put your head in a hat and read what the magic stone says" is not how I would have defined "translate."

Posted by: Ann | May 28, 2005 at 10:17 AM

I'm the one who asked the question. It is for a priest in our ward who was just asking about the basic history of how it became a standard work. Justin's link to the Ensign article is just what I wanted. Thanks!

Posted by: Graham Wing | May 28, 2005 at 06:22 PM

Graham, I would recommend at least discussing that the PoGP is at least somewhat controversial outside of the chapel. Otherwise, you run the risk of being One More Leader who knew something was up and didn't mention anything is this kid ever googles it and learns things from the evil internet. I wish one of my leaders had said something, had they known (it could be something as TBM as "some former mormons use the history of the PoGP as an argument against the church").

Posted by: Darren | May 28, 2005 at 09:53 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

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