Keywords
Ten Commandments, Joseph Smith, Mormon studies, Doctrine and Covenants, temple covenants
Abstract
New faith traditions often modify existing religious tenets to accommodate the particulars of their membership’s needs. A specific example is how different faith communities have modified the Ten Commandments both inside and outside the historic Jewish community. This paper argues that Joseph Smith received a Latter-day Decalogue that was canonized in the Doctrine and Covenants but went unrecognized as such by either Smith or the early Saints. While some of the commands in this new set of commandments are familiar (thou shalt not kill, steal, nor commit adultery), others are specific to the conditions of the latter days. This paper also argues that this revelation (Doctrine and Covenants 59) warrants elevated consideration whenever Latter-day Saints discuss soteriology. When a Latter-day Saint asks the age-old question, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?,” section 59 should reside in the proverbial quiver of response arrows alongside the Deuteronomist, the Pauline epistles, Nephi’s appendix, the words of Alma, the sayings of Jesus from the Gospels and the New World, and the temple covenants.
Recommended Citation
Newton, Dennis
(2024)
"Are There Ten Commandments for Latter-day Zion?,"
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Vol. 61, Article 20.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/interpreter/vol61/iss1/20
