Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
The teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr. [1805-1844] are usually considered to be fundamental to understanding the doctrines of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Joseph Smith lived most of his life without the benefit of clerks who could use an effective stenographic system. Pitman first published his “Shorthand” method in 1837, and Joseph Smith died in 1844. Stenographic techniques came into use in recording LDS sermons after Joseph Smith’s death.
Consequently, with few exceptions, the material found in collections of Joseph Smith’s sermons are paraphrases or glosses of his own words. In some cases multiple accounts were made and are still extant. For these sermons it is possible give an approximate reconstruction of the original. It is possible to get a better idea than ever before about Joseph Smith’s teachings with the publication of collections of various accounts of his public and private addresses together with his personal and dictated writings. As a step in this direction we offer the new collection The Parallel Joseph. See the link below.
One of the classic collections of Joseph Smith’s teachings is “Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith” compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith and the staff of the old “Church Historian’s Office” in 1938.
“Teachings”, as the Joseph Fielding Smith compilation is commonly known, like many other classical collections of Joseph Smith materials, contains materials that were not actually authored by him. This is not to say such materials are not valuable or that they are incorrect.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
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Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6