Jesus taught, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). That is what all scriptures ultimately have in common; they testify of Christ. There are lots of details, nearly 2500 pages of them, and it is easy to be intimidated by the gigantic corpus of the scriptures. Five libraries comprise the current standard works of the Church: The Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Each one is made up of separate books (the word “Bible” means “library”).
These books can be like a mountain, intimidating to climb. When we spend a few minutes crawling over one or two verses, we can miss the overall shape of the mountain. It becomes visible when we step back and try to get a big-picture overview.
The people in the Book of Mormon who witnessed the resurrected Savior, and interacted with Him, were extremely fortunate. It says that Jesus “expounded all the scriptures unto them which they had received” (3Ne. 23:6), and gave them more. I do not believe that means He read all the scriptures to them; rather, it means He explained the scriptures to them, perhaps giving summaries, an overview of what they had in their sacred records to that point. This says to me that such an exercise is at least possible. In the New Testament, the resurrected Savior taught two disciples when they did not even recognize Him: “…beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27).
Perhaps He taught them how their scriptures were about Him. Whatever the nature of the discourse, Mormon describes it thus: “…Jesus…expounded all the scriptures in one, which they had written, [and] he commanded them that they should teach the things which he had expounded unto them” (3Ne. 26:14).
Jesus dictated new scriptures from Old World prophets into the Nephite scriptural record. “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things…” (Ninth Article of Faith).
I would love to have heard Jesus’ summation of the brass plates and other sacred records.
Below is my attempt, not to summarize what the scriptures have in common, but to summarize themes that differentiate each of the five standard works from the others. I feel there are themes and purposes in each of the standard works, distinct emphases that set each one apart from the others (though there is a huge amount of inevitable overlap between them). The following is my summary of each of the standard works and themes they contain outside of that large area they have in common.
Old Testament
The Old Testament gives us several creation stories. It gives us the story of the creation of the world, and its baptism (the Flood); it gives us the story of the creation of the House of Israel, and its baptism (in the Red Sea); it also gives us the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament starts off by giving us the general law of God, His rules for humanity to Adam and Eve. Moses gives us The Law (“Torah” means “The Law”), and the rest of the Old Testament is the story of people breaking (mostly) and keeping The Law, and the consequences of their choices. The prophets teach The Law, and encourage Israel to keep it, to return to it.
You could sum up the whole Old Testament with one word: Obedience.
The story continues to this day; we are still making the same mistakes and committing the same kinds of sins, violating the same laws now as then. One scripture to capture the essence of the Old Testament: “…choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh. 24:15).
New Testament
With all those violations of divine law, there must be punishment. The New Testament tells us the story of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay for our sins. He atones for our misdeeds with His own blood, voluntarily suffering and dying in our place so that we will not be damned. He is also resurrected, a fact witnessed by gospel authors and many others. Four witnesses give their own personal accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The disciples spread this “Gospel” (“good news”) to the rest of the world, and the world eventually kills them all, just like Jesus. One word to summarize the New Testament: Sacrifice (the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.) One scripture to sum it up: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
The Book of Mormon
Now that Jesus Christ has paid for our sins, we need not be damned. That is justification. But what about the evil in our hearts that got us into this mess to begin with? We still have the inclination to sin; how do we get rid of it? That is the next step, sanctification, being cleaned up on the inside.
The Book of Mormon explains, better than any other book, what we need to do in order to access the power of the Atonement. We must have faith in Christ, repent and be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost. We must also be extremely humble before Him and humbly accept whatever assignments He gives us. The Book of Mormon explains how to be spiritually reborn, changed in our natures, and receive divine strength beyond our own, also called “grace.”
The Book of Mormon teaches us how to survive spiritually and physically in this fallen world. It gives us an economic picture of the Gospel, explaining how a free, affluent people can avoid the pitfalls of wealth (which makes it pertinent to America and the modern world). It shows us, transparently, the differences between fake messengers (antichrists sent by Satan to shake faith), versus true missionaries sent by God. The book itself is also a mighty missionary tool, meant to “gather scattered Israel” home (Come All Ye Sons of God, Hymns, 322).
One word to summarize the Book of Mormon: the Gospel (both how to receive it and how to teach it). One scripture to capture the essence of the book: “And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost…” (3Ne. 9:20).
The Pearl of Great Price
This is the most exotic book of scripture we have. Its provenance is incomparable. It contains the seven testimonies of the seven prophetic heads of seven dispensations. Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith, each speak to us from this book.
It also contains the sublime doctrine of our premortal existence—that each of us lived with God as His spirit children before the creation of the earth. Before the “beginning” of the Old Testament, there was a council in heaven, and we participated in it. We cannot remember that life because of the veil, but every person we meet who is born into this world chose Jesus Christ as his or her Savior, and elected to follow God’s plan and come to this earth.
The provenance, or origins, of these books is unlike anything else. For instance, Joseph Smith receives revelation about lost writings of Moses, who describes the discourse of Enoch about Adam’s spiritual rebirth.
It is a book of generations, from the beginning of the world to modern times, telling us where we came from. There are extraordinary doctrines and events described in it. Adam is literally baptized by the Holy Ghost with water, then spiritually with fire; Enoch (who has literally been erased from the Bible, save one verse only) sees an intimate vision of God weeping; he hears the earth itself speak; pictures from papyri are used to illustrate Abraham’s accounts.
We read of Abraham receiving astronomy lessons directly from God about other populated worlds. The Lord puts His hand on Abraham’s eyes, and he sees creation and the stars unfold before him. Moses meets Jehovah face to face, and then confronts Satan, on a mountain top. Joseph Smith, a fourteen year old farm boy concerned for his salvation, meets the Father and the Son in a grove of trees in the First Vision. Jesus preps His ancient and modern disciples for His Second Coming in an inspired review of Matthew 24. This is an exotic collection of scripture, with astonishing theophanies and breathtaking vistas.
Tacked humbly to the end are the Articles of Faith, thirteen simple statements of our beliefs about us, God, Christ, the fate of His Church and Kingdom, and the whole world in the last days before the Second Coming.
A few words to summarize the Pearl of Great Price: Generations, Dispensations, Patriarchal Lineage, Priesthood, Eons, Premortal Beginnings. Two verses of scripture to sum it up: “…there is nothing that the Lord thy God shall take in his heart to do but what he will do it…thou wast chosen before thou wast born” (Abr. 3:17, 22).
The Doctrine and Covenants
In the first four books of the Old Testament, Moses writes as an omniscient third person narrator telling a story. In Deuteronomy, the fifth book, he goes from narrator to first person guide. He tells the Israelites to wake up and behave, and speaks to the reader as if he were face to face: This is how you build a society acceptable to God.
Our book of Doctrine and Covenants partakes of that same spirit. Instead of reading stories and narratives, suddenly Joseph Smith is quoting directly from the Lord. “Thus saith the Lord” dominates the Doctrine and Covenants. And what is He telling us to do? Just as with Moses in Deuteronomy, Jesus is speaking through His current prophet (Joseph Smith, then) and giving us instructions for building Zion, and a Zion people.
Just as the Pearl of Great Price hints at our divine origin as daughters and sons of God, the Doctrine and Covenants tells us plainly that, when we cooperate with God fully, one day we will be exalted and become just like Him. We can only do this as husband and wife, permanent family units. Little wonder the D&C emphasizes organizing us into a family, church, and community; we will have to enjoy each others’ company forever, and learn to share “all that my father hath.” The Pearl of Great Price teaches our ancient premortal origins; the Doctrine and Covenants gives us a clearer view of our divine potential and destiny.
One word to sum it up: Consecration. Two verses to capture its essence: “When the Savior shall appear we shall see him as he is…And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy” (D&C 130:1-2).
Intent
This is my summary of motifs that set each standard work apart from the others. Beginnings, The Law, and The Fall, in the Old Testament; Atonement to heal The Fall of Adam and our sinful state in the New Testament; Tutorials about accessing the sanctifying power of the Atonement in the Book of Mormon; The deep origins of the world and our spirits in the Pearl of Great Price; Learning from the Lord’s mouth about building up Zion and our potential to become like God one day in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Nephi’s brother, Jacob, says, “For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming; and not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also all the holy prophets which were before us” (Jacob 4:3). That is the ultimate purpose of all scripture: encouraging faith in Christ, bringing souls to Him through repentance, ordinances, etc.
While the Christian world has varying degrees of trust in the infallibility of the scriptures (the Bible), some to an extreme degree, the authors of the Book of Mormon are open and frank about their flaws.
Moroni, the final author in the Book of Mormon, says, “Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that…ye may learn to be more wise than we have been” (Mormon 9:31). They leave the door open for us to be smarter than they, and learn and grow. This is typical of the love of parents for their children.
The Bible gives us story after story about direct communication with God, but today’s religions based solely on the Bible (or other books) are doubtful about whether such manifestations are available for duplication in this day and age. They say, in essence, “A Bible! A Bible! We have already got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible” (2Ne. 29:3). The authors of the Book of Mormon, and the revelations and teachings given to and through Joseph Smith, all leave personal revelation wide open to us as individuals, and encourage us to tread in their footsteps, to come up to God and receive knowledge from Him for ourselves.
As Joseph Smith taught, “…God hath not revealed anything to [me], but what He will make known unto [you], and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them…” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 149).
