The Pearl of Great Price is part of the canonical

Standard Works The Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church, the largest in the Latter Day Saint movement) are the four books that currently constitute its open scriptural canon. The four books of the standard works are: * ...

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(LDS Church) and some other

Latter Day Saint The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded b ...

denominations. It began as a pamphlet of documents published by Franklin D. Richards in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, England in 1851. It was later revised and canonized in 1880 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first paragraph of the Introductory Note in the LDS Church edition of the Pearl of Great Price states: "The Pearl of Great Price is a selection of choice materials touching many significant aspects of the faith and doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These items were produced by

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thou ...

and were published in the Church periodicals of his day." The Pearl of Great Price contains documents that have had a large impact on the beliefs, teachings, and theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For example, it provided a basis in text for the practice of gathering, a passible God, premortal existence, and a text that was used to justify a ban on Black Latter-day Saints participating in temple and priesthood rituals. The name of the book is derived from the

Parable of the Pearl The Parable of the Pearl (also called the Pearl of Great Price) is one of the parables of Jesus Christ. It appears in Matthew 13 and illustrates the great value of the Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven. This is the penultimate parable in Matthew ...

told by Jesus in

Matthew 13 Matthew 13 is the thirteenth chapter in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament section of the Christian Bible. This chapter contains the third of the five Discourses of Matthew, called the ''Parabolic Discourse'', based on the parables of th ...

The current version of the Pearl of Great Price contains five sections:

Book of Moses

The Book of Moses begins with the "Visions of Moses", a prologue to the story of the creation and the

fall of man The fall of man, the fall of Adam, or simply the Fall, is a term used in Christianity to describe the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God in Christianity, God to a state of guilty disobedience. * * * * ...

(Moses chapter 1), and continues with material corresponding to Smith's revision (JST) of the first six chapters of the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

(Moses chapters 2–5, 8), interrupted by two chapters of "extracts from the prophecy of

Enoch Enoch ( ; ''Henṓkh'') is a biblical figure and Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch prior to Noah's flood, and the son of Jared (biblical figure), Jared and father of Methuselah. He was of the Antediluvian period in the Hebrew Bible. The text of t ...

" (Moses chapters 6–7). Portions of the Book of Moses were originally published separately by the LDS Church in 1851, but later combined and published as the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. The same material is published by the

Community of Christ Community of Christ, known legally and from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), is an American-based international church, and is the second-largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement ...

as parts of its

Doctrine and Covenants The Doctrine and Covenants (sometimes abbreviated and cited as D&C or D. and C.) is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Originally published in 1835 as Doctrine and Covenants of the Chur ...

and Inspired Version of the Bible.

Book of Abraham

The Book of Abraham is an 1835 work produced by

who said it was based on Egyptian

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can ...

purchased from a traveling

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...

exhibition. According to Smith, the book was "a translation of some ancient records... purporting to be the writings of

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus". The text that Smith produced describes a story of Abraham's early life, including a vision of the

cosmos The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...

. The Book of Abraham was

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of sa ...

in 1880 by the LDS Church as part of the Pearl of Great Price. Thus, it forms a doctrinal foundation for the LDS Church and

Mormon fundamentalist Mormon fundamentalism (also called fundamentalist Mormonism) is a belief in the validity of selected fundamental aspects of Mormonism as taught and practiced in the nineteenth century, particularly during the administrations of Joseph Smith, Br ...

denominations of the

Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by ...

. It is not considered to be a

religious text Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

by the

. Other sects in the

have various opinions regarding the Book of Abraham, with some rejecting and some accepting the text as inspired scripture. The book contains several doctrines that are distinct to

Mormonism Mormonism is the theology and religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationism, Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to va ...

, such as the concept of God organizing eternal, pre-existing elements to create the universe instead of creating it ''

ex nihilo (Latin, 'creation out of nothing') is the doctrine that matter is not eternal but had to be created by some divine creative act. It is a theistic answer to the question of how the universe came to exist. It is in contrast to ''creatio ex mate ...

''. The Book of Abraham papyri were thought lost in the 1871

Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago, Illinois during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left mor ...

. However, in 1966, several fragments of the papyri were found in the archives of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in New York, and in the LDS Church archives. They are now referred to as the

Joseph Smith Papyri The Joseph Smith Papyri (JSP) are Ancient Egypt, Egyptian funerary papyrus fragments from ancient Thebes, Egypt, Thebes dated between 300 and 100 BC which, along with four mummies, were once owned by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day ...

. Upon examination by professional Mormon and non-Mormon Egyptologists, these fragments were found to bear no resemblance to Smith's interpretation, and were identified as common

Egyptian funerary texts The literature that makes up the ancient Egyptian funerary texts is a collection of religious documents that were used in ancient Egypt, usually to help the spirit of the concerned person to be preserved in the afterlife. They evolved over time, ...

, dating to about the first century BC. As a result, the Book of Abraham has been the source of significant controversy, with criticism from Egyptologists and

Mormon apologists Apologetics (from Greek ) is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and recommended their faith ...

defending its authenticity.

Joseph Smith–Matthew

Joseph Smith–Matthew (abbreviated JS–M) is an excerpt from Joseph Smith's "retranslation" of portions of the

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah (Christ (title), Christ), Jesus, resurrection of Jesus, his res ...

. It was originally published in 1831 in

Kirtland, Ohio Kirtland is a city in Lake County, Ohio, United States. The population was 6,937 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Kirtland is known for being the early headquarters of the Latter Day Saint movement from 1831 to 1837 and the site of ...

, in an undated

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of in height. Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper ...

as "Extract from the New Translation of the Bible". Joseph Smith–Matthew includes Smith's retranslation of Matthew 23:39 and all of Matthew chapter 24. The text deals mainly with

Jesus' Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religi ...

prophecy of the coming destruction of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and of similar calamities that will precede his

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christianity, Christian and Islam, Islamic belief that Jesus, Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his Ascension of Jesus, ascension to Heaven (Christianity), Heav ...

. Joseph Smith–Matthew contains significant changes and additions to the original biblical text.

Joseph Smith–History

Joseph Smith–History (abbreviated JS–H) is a set of excerpts from the autobiographical record of some of the early events in Joseph Smith's life. Like many of Smith's publications, it was dictated to a scribe. The incidents described in Joseph Smith–History include the

First Vision The First Vision (also called the grove experience by members of the Community of Christ) refers to a theophany which Latter Day Saints believe Joseph Smith experienced in the early 1820s, in a wooded area in Manchester (town), New York, Manchest ...

and the visitation of the

angel Moroni The angel Moroni () is an angel whom Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, reported as having visited him on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21, 1823. According to Smith, the angel Moroni was the guardian of the gold ...

. In its current form, the narrative ends with Smith translating the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi''. The book is one of ...

, shortly before the foundation of Smith's

Church of Christ Church of Christ may refer to: Church groups * Christianity, the Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ * Christian Church, an ecclesiological term used by denominations to describe the true body of Christia ...

. The original serial publication of the history in the ''

Times and Seasons ''Times and Seasons'' was a 19th-century Latter Day Saint newspaper published at Nauvoo, Illinois. It was printed monthly or twice-monthly from November 1839 to February 1846. The motto of the paper was "Truth will prevail," which was printed ...

'', ''

Millennial Star ''The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star'' (usually shortened to ''Millennial Star'') was the longest continuously published periodical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and was printed in England from 1840 unti ...

'', and ''

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is a multi-platform newspaper based in Salt Lake City, published by Deseret News Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS ...

'' (later published as the six-volume ''

History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has three main periods, described generally as: # the early history during the lifetime of Joseph Smith, which is in common with most Latter Day Saint movement churches; ...

'') was much more extensive, including events in 1828 and 1830–1844 that were not included in the Pearl of Great Price JS—H.

Articles of Faith

The Articles of Faith are a

creed A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) which summarizes its core tenets. Many Christian denominations use three creeds ...

composed by Joseph Smith as part of an 1842 letter sent to "Long" John Wentworth, editor of the '' Chicago Democrat'', and first published in the Latter Day Saint newspaper ''

''. It is a concise listing of the thirteen fundamental doctrines of Mormonism. Most

denominations view the articles as an authoritative statement of basic theology. For some sects, such as the

Restoration Branches Restoration Branches movement is a Christian/ Latter Day Saint religious sect that was formed in the 1980s by members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ( RLDS, now the Community of Christ) in a reaction against the ev ...

, they are known collectively as "An Epitome of Faith and Doctrine".

Major editions and changes

1851 edition (Liverpool Edition)

The Pearl of Great Price was first compiled by Franklin D. Richards in

, England. Some items duplicated text that was already available in the Doctrine and Covenants. It contained the following entries (the placement of the text in today's LDS Church publications is noted in parentheses): *Extracts from the Prophecy of

Moses 6:43–7:69
*A message from God, given to

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

Moses 1:1–42
*Untitled
Moses 2:1–58:13–30
*The Book of Abraham includin
Facsimile Nos. 12
an
3
from the Book of Abraham
Book of Abraham
*An extract from a

Translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...

of the Bible
Joseph Smith–Matthew
*A Key to the Revelations of St. John
Doctrine and Covenants 77
*A Revelation and Prophecy
Doctrine and Covenants 87
*Extracts from the History of Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith–History
*From the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church Commandment to the Church concerning baptism
Doctrine and Covenants 20:37, 71–75
*The duties of members after they are received by baptism
Doctrine and Covenants 20:68–69
*Method of administering the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper
Doctrine and Covenants 20:75–79
*The Duties of the Elders,

Priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, ...

Teachers A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

Deacons A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

, and Members of the Church of Christ
Doctrine and Covenants 20:38–44107:1120:45–59, 70, 80
*On Priesthood
Doctrine and Covenants 107:1–10, 12–20
*The Calling and Duties of the

Twelve Apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...

Doctrine and Covenants 107:23, 33
*The Calling and Duties of the Seventy
Doctrine and Covenants 107:34, 93–100
*Extract from a revelation given July, 1830
Doctrine and Covenants 27:5–18
*Rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Doctrine and Covenants 20:1–36
*''

'', vol. III, p. 709
Articles of Faith
*"Truth" (a poem by John Jaques)
"O Say, What is Truth?"
#272 in LDS Church hymnal) (not a canonized work)

1878 edition (Utah Edition)

The second edition of the Pearl of Great Price was prepared by

Orson Pratt Orson Pratt Sr. (September 19, 1811 – October 3, 1881) was an American religious leader and mathematician who was an original member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints). After the succession cri ...

, with a committee finalizing preparations for publication consisting of Franklin D. Richards,

Albert Carrington Albert Carrington (January 8, 1813 – September 19, 1889) was an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Early life Carrington was born i ...

, Brigham Young Jr., and George Q. Cannon. This edition added portions of the Joseph Smith Translation to the Book of Moses that Richards did not have access to in 1851, drawing on the

Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Community of Christ, known legally and from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), is an American-based international church, and is the second-largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement ...

publication of the Inspired Version of the Holy Scriptures. The "Revelation on the Eternity of the Marriage Covenant, Including Plurality of Wives" (now Doctrine and Covenants section 132) was also added. This was the version of the Pearl of Great Price that was canonized by vote in 1880.

1902 edition

The 1902 edition of the Pearl of Great Price was prepared by James E. Talmage. This edition removed several revelations that were duplicated in the Doctrine and Covenants. It is also the edition where the current versification and titles were introduced. These changes were accepted by vote in general conference in October 1902.

1921 edition (Apostles Revision)

James E. Talmage continued to work on making improvements to the Pearl of Great Price, adding an index and putting the text in the double-column format in a 1921 edition. In addition, some revisions of the text were made, such as the expansion of Joseph Smith—History 1:20 to include an addendum from the original manuscript that had been incorporated into the text in the 1902 ''

''. New editions of the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants were also prepared at that time and began to be printed together as the "triple combination." In 1976, two other documents, ''Vision of the Celestial Kingdom'' and ''Vision of the Redemption of the Dead'', were added to the Pearl of Great Price at the suggestion of

Bruce R. McConkie Bruce Redd McConkie (July 29, 1915 – April 19, 1985) was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1972 until his death. McConkie was a member of the First Council o ...

, and moved to the LDS Church edition of the Doctrine and Covenants (sections 137 and 138) in 1979.

1981 edition (Triple Combination, Scriptures Publication Committee)

This edition of the Pearl of Great Price was published as part of the Triple Combination and received new or expanded chapter summaries, expanded footnotes cross-referencing all the Church’s standard works, and additional study aids at the end of the scripture text.

2013 edition (2013 • Standard Works, Scriptures Committee)

Minor changes to introductions were made in the 2013 edition.

Miscellaneous

A copy of the Pearl of Great Price owned by NASA photographer M. Edward Thomas's wife Ruth C. Thomas traveled to the Moon and back in 1972 with astronaut John Young aboard

Apollo 16 Apollo 16 (April 1627, 1972) was the tenth human spaceflight, crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, Apollo space program, administered by NASA, and the fifth and penultimate to Moon landing, land on the Moon. It was the second o ...

. When working on the 1981 edition,

suggested adding several documents to the Pearl of Great Price: *The Wentworth Letter *Two new Articles of Faith *The

Lectures on Faith "Lectures on Faith" is a set of seven lectures on the doctrine and theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, first published as the doctrine portion of the 1835 edition of the canonical Doctrine and Covenants (D&C), but later ...

*More excerpts from the

Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible The Joseph Smith Translation (JST), also called the Inspired Version of the Holy Scriptures (IV), is a revision of the Bible by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, who said that the JST/IV was intended to restore what h ...

**JST Genesis 8:23 **JST Genesis 9:15–25 **JST Genesis 14:26–40 **JST Genesis 15:5, 7b, 8–12; 17:1–14 **JST Genesis 48:3–11 **JST Genesis 50:24–38 **JST Psalm 11 **JST Psalm 12 **JST Psalm 14 **JST Psalm 24 **JST Matthew 3:19–28 **JST Matthew 5:1–50 **JST Matthew 6:1–39 **JST Matthew 7:1–37 **JST Matthew 21:34b–56 **JST Luke 3:1–20 **JST Luke 12:40–58 **JST Luke 17:34–40 **JST John 1:1–34 Ultimately, these suggestions were not accepted.

Notes

References

*. *.

External links

*The at

Wikisource Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...

The Pearl of Great Price
full HTML text, official LDS Church edition, churchofjesuschrist.org
The Pearl of Great Price
official LDS Church edition (pdf) *Digitized copy o
The Pearl of Great Price
(1851) in th
Rare Book and Special Collections Division
in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Introductory note to The Pearl of Great Price
churchofjesuschrist.org
"historical notes on The Pearl of Great Price"
boap.org

- Contents listed by edition * The 1851 Pearl of Great Price (first edition) at

* (1920 edition) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearl Of Great Price (Mormonism) 1851 non-fiction books 1851 in Christianity Works in the style of the King James Version Standard works

Contents