Review
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Title: The Revised and Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Compared with the Earliest Known Manuscripts
Editors: Alonzo L. Gaskill and Richard G. Moore
Publisher: Kofford Books
Genre: Documentary History/Doctrine
Year Published: 2025
Number of Pages: 610
Binding: Paper
ISBN: 978-1-58958-815-8
Price: 39.95
Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton for the Association for Mormon Letters
When I was an LDS missionary in the early ’90s, there were two books missionaries loved to collect, even if we weren’t actually supposed to have them – Mormon Doctrine and Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. A favorite pastime among missionaries who had acquired these volumes was to sit up late discussing the “deep doctrines” in TPJS, especially in talks like the infamous “King Follett Sermon.” We were hardly the first missionaries to have such discussions. While I was on my mission in 1993, TPJS turned 55 and had been a favorite on Mormon bookshelves for several generations. Since its release in 1938, TPJS had been very popular. It was frequently cited in books and talks and inspired an unknown number of such “deep doctrinal discussions” that we young elders enjoyed.
As TPJS approaches its 90th birthday, it is easy to ask if it still has a place in LDS libraries and hearts. While it was an invaluable tool for getting the sermons and writings of Joseph Smith into the hands of church members for a very long time, it was rendered outdated by the completion of the Joseph Smith Papers Project and the thousands of pages of primary documents that were made available in print and digital form through their efforts. But editors Alonzo Gaskill and Richard Moore and the folks at Kofford Books have come up with a new edition of the classic work that will make it very interesting and useful for some time to come. The Revised and Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Compared with the Earliest Known Manuscripts is an oversized work that presents its text in a two-column format. The text of the original TPJS, as edited by Joseph Fielding Smith, appears in the left column and in the right column are the versions of the text as found in the Joseph Smith Papers Projects documents. Accompanying footnotes point the reader to the original documents and, in some cases, provide historical information or other context.
Included in the book is an introduction that adds history and background information, a list of abbreviations that include details on all the sources that are cited, and four appendices. Appendix A provides all the documentation for the sermon Joseph Smith delivered on 8 April 1843, Appendix B does the same for the sermon given on 11 June 1843, and Appendix C is all the King Follett Discourse sources side by side. Appendix D is a brief scholarly essay that discusses “Joseph Smith’s Potential Ghostwriters.” This appendix was especially fascinating to me. I enjoyed the details it included on the potential ghostwriters for Joseph Smith, especially the details about WW Phelps.
I’ll give an example of the information found in the Revised and Expanded Teachings. One well-known statement attributed to Joseph Smith is the “Prophecy That the Saints Would Be Driven to Rocky Mountains.” On the left column of page 329 is the text as presented in TPJS and the DHC. The right-hand column shows that the wording of the “prophecy” that the saints would be driven to the Rocky Mountains was a later insertion into the text. Footnote 32 at the bottom of the page states that as early as 1841, Joseph Smith did talk about going to the Rockies, but it was unclear how specific he was and the “recollection” here with all of its details was added later after his death. The footnote encourages people to avoid two errors – dismissing the prophecy outright as a later invention in Utah and assuming that Joseph Smith knew all of the exact details of what would happen to the Saints.
The original TPJS was a much loved and very useful tool for the Saints for three-quarters of a century. Few books in the church outside of the scriptures have been as loved or had its lasting impact. While modern Joseph Smith scholarship has rendered the original out of date, Gaskill, Moore, and Kofford books have given this classic book a new life. This makes the heart of nineteen-year-old Elder Hamilton very glad. The thought that future young missionaries might begin their Mormon Book collecting with this Revised and Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and steal furtive glances at it while discussing the “deeper things of the kingdom” with their companions means that the “peculiar” teachings contained within it will continue to inspire the imaginations of Mormons for some time to come. I find that to be a delight.