In the Mormon scripture volume titled Doctrine & Covenants there are many short Sections. Section 83 is a mere 6 verses long. It was written by Joseph Smith in  Independence, MO on April, 30 1832… or at least some of it was. Before it was printed in the D&C we have today it was printed in an early Mormon newspaper called The Evening and The Morning Star. About 9 months after Joseph Smith purportedly received the revelation known as D&C Section 83, this newspaper printed the following:

ITEMS IN ADDITION TO THE LAWS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, GIVEN APRIL, 1832.

Verily thus saith the Lord, in addition to the laws of the church, concerning women and children, who belong to the church, who have lost their husbands, or fathers:

Women have claim on their husbands until they are taken, and, if they are not found transgressors, they remain upon their inheritances:

All children have claim upon their parents until they are of age, and after that they have claim upon the church, or in other words, the Lord’s storehouse for inheritances.

Without counting the title, this article is only 81 words long. But why, you may ask, do you find 153 words in the current D&C 83? The answer is that at some point between the early printing of this article and today there have been revisions made. In the case of this Section, 2 words were deleted and 74 words were added in 9 different parts of this “revelation.”

A Color Coordinated Illustration of Changes to D&C 83

These changes are illustrated below according to the following key

Red Words have been added

Blue Words have been changed to (what is inside the parentheses)

Words with a line have been deleted

ITEMS IN ADDITION TO THE LAWS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, GIVEN APRIL, 1832.

Verily thus saith the Lord, in addition to the laws of the church, concerning women and children, those who belong to the church, who have lost their husbands, or fathers:

Women have claim on their husbands for their maintenance until they their husbands are taken, and, if they are not found transgressors, they shall have fellowship in the church, and if they are not faithful they shall not have fellowship in the church. yet they may remain upon their inheritances according to the laws of the land: (.)

All children have claim upon their parents for their maintenance until they are of age, and after that they have claim upon the church, or in other words, upon the Lord’s storehouse for if their parents have not wherewith to give them inheritances. And the storehouse shall be kept by the consecrations of the church; and widows and orphans shall be provided for, as also the poor. Amen.

The Evening and The Morning Star, Vol. 1, No. 8, January, 1833

Below is a photo from The Evening and The Morning Star, Vol. 1, No. 8, printed in January of 1833 (less than 10 months after it was first written by Joseph Smith). The highlighted section corresponds to the Section in question.

The Evening and The Morning Star, Vol. 1, No. 8, January, 1833

Doctrine and Covenants – 1835 edition

By the time the 1835 edition of the D&C had been printed the major changes had already been made. It is certain that Joseph was aware of this (if he wasn’t the one who changed it). The photos below are of pages 222 and 223 of the 1835 ed. Section LXXXVIII is highlighted as it is Section 83 in the current edition of D&C:

Doctrine and Covenants -1835 edition - page 222

Doctrine and Covenants -1835 edition - page 223

A Second Stage of Editing

Did the changes stop after this printing in 1835? No.

A comma was added after “Verily” in verse 1 (of the current D&C), and after “maintenance” in verse 2. The comma after “church” is changed to a period in verse 2. The first “and” is capitalized in the current edition of verse 3. The comma after “faithful” is deleted in verse 3. The semi-colon after “age” in the current verse 4 has been changed to a period. The “and” at the beginning of verse 5 has been changed to “And” with a capital “A.” The semi-colon after “church” in verse 5 has been changed to a comma. The comma after “or” in verse 5 has been deleted altogether. The comma after “church” in verse 6 has been changed to a semi-colon. The “that” after “church” in verse 6 has been changed to “and” in the current edition.

After the addition of 74 words, and the omission of 2 words between the January 1833 publication of The Evening and The Morning Star, there was still (apparently) a need to swap out one more word, to capitalize two more words, and to alter the punctuation in 8 different places!

Observations

If God spoke to Joseph Smith on April 30 of 1832 it is very likely that Smith wrote it down. He was an avid writer as evidenced by the massive amount of written material he produced as an adolescent and an adult. There is no way to know if changes were made between April 30th, 1832 and the January 1833 publication of The Evening and The Morning Star. What is unlikely is that 9 words, phrases, and sentences were omitted from Joseph’s original copy and then added back later on. Especially since these 9 sections (the red parts, above) change the meaning of the shorter, earliest printed version. Since further editing has taken place since the 1835 printing of the Doctrine and Covenants it is likely that the “revelation” Joseph originally wrote down is present in today’s version of the D&C alongside words which were added at a later date. Since Joseph lived at least 8 years after the 1835 printing of the D&C and never mentioned the changes it is reasonable to conclude that he took no issue with adding to the words of scripture.