Can the canon be revised?

[_Runtu]

Obviously, the LDS church teaches that the canon is open to new revelation, but what about currently canonized scripture? Can it be revised, rewritten, or emended?

Joseph Smith seems to have had a more fluid intepretation of the written canon than most believers in the Bible, for example. Far from being an inerrantist, Joseph seems to have believed that the text could and should be revised to meet changing needs.

Joseph revised revelation and even ancient scripture as needed. For example, he made significant revisions to the revelations originally printed in the 1833 Book of Commandments for what would become the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants (see Melvin J. Peterson, "Preparing Early Revelations for Publication," Ensign, Feb. 1985, 14). Similarly, in the process of reviewing and correcting the 1837 edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith made intentional changes to the text as "clarifications or amplifications of the meaning of the text. The Prophet Joseph Smith, of course had a perfect right to clarify to anything that he felt needed improvement" (see Stan Larson, "Changes to the Book of Mormon"). This notion of "improving" scripture helps explain the project of revising the Bible for a latter-day church.

These examples suggest that Joseph Smith viewed canonized scripture less rigidly than perhaps modern church members do. Robert Matthews argues that "too often we make the faulty assumption that the established scriptures are the ultimate source of doctrine, rather than revelation. This was the basic argument Jesus had with the Jews in John 5:39, wherein Jesus told the Jewish rulers that they had placed their confidence in the written scriptures instead of listening to him. For both Jesus and Joseph Smith, the Bible was a teaching tool rather than the basic source of their information" (Ensign, September 1981).

Given this idea that revelation, not scripture, is the "ultimate source of source of doctrine," is it possible that future prophets could by revelation revise the current canon in response to changing needs in the church?

[_KimberlyAnn]

Mormon canon could certainly be revised. With the revisions will come the assurance that nothing doctrinal was changed. Just like how the temple ceremony changed dramatically, but didn't really change.

Kimberly

[_Ray A]

Given this idea that revelation, not scripture, is the "ultimate source of source of doctrine," is it possible that future prophets could by revelation revise the current canon in response to changing needs in the church?

Where would they start? in my opinion they could start by dumping D&C 132, and get the current prophet to receive a revelation on "Eternal marriage". I think that section is the one most in need of revision.

[_truth dancer]

Yes, it can change and has repeatedly.

Whole sections have been removed without so much as a hiccup.

Does this look familiar? Of course not, it was eliminated and replaced with sec 132.

“Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.”

(D&C 104, until 1876 edition, when it was removed)

How about the "Lectures on Faith"?

Gone in a blink.

LDS doctrine/scripture can change, alter, be revised, eliminated, ignored, and reinterpreted as easily as a remote changes channels.

[_JohnStuartMill]

Given this idea that revelation, not scripture, is the "ultimate source of source of doctrine," is it possible that future prophets could by revelation revise the current canon in response to changing needs in the church?

This has already happened. Before the D&C revelation regarding plural marriage, prohibitions against polygamy were canonical.

[_Runtu]

Given this idea that revelation, not scripture, is the "ultimate source of source of doctrine," is it possible that future prophets could by revelation revise the current canon in response to changing needs in the church?

This has already happened. Before the D&C revelation regarding plural marriage, prohibitions against polygamy were canonical.

Yeah, I recognize that. I was just thinking that, absent anything having been removed or substantially revised in the last 100 years or so, do church members think that such a think could happen again. Or is the current canon untouchable, at least in terms of removing or substantially altering anything?