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For those of you unacquainted with LDS scriptures, the Standard Works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are:
- The Holy Bible, including both The Old and The New Testaments.
- The Book of Mormon (BoM), including the books of 1st Nephi, 2nd Nephi, Jacob,
Enos, Jarom, Omni, Words of Mormon, Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, 3rd Nephi,
4th Nephi, Mormon, Ether, and Moroni;
- The Doctrine & Covenants (D&C), including Sections 1-138, and Official Declarations 1 and 2; and
- The Pearl of Great Price (PoGP), including the books of Moses, Abraham, Joseph Smith - Matthew, Joseph Smith - History, and the Articles of Faith.
There are many books considered scriptural by many different cultures and people. As a scientist looking at the matrix, it makes sense to pull from all of these traditions and to search for common themes. It is also worthwhile to note that scriptures are one of entries on both axes of the science-religion matrix. The following list is a brief introduction to various scriptures referenced in this book:
- The Bible:1.11 Jews (The Old Testament) and Christians (The New Testament) believe this scripture to primarily be a history of God's dealings with the House of Israel and their ancestors. The first five books of the Old Testament are called the Pentateuch, and the Hebrew name is the Torah.
- The Book of Mormon:1.12 Latter-day Saints believe this scripture records God's dealings with Israelites brought to the Americas in three migrations and covers a time period from 600 BC to 420 AD. Because of the extensive reference to Jesus Christ visiting ancient America, we refer to this as book as Another Testament.
- The Doctrine & Covenants:1.13 Latter-day Saints believe this scripture was revelation to Joseph Smith and Associates on the1800's western frontier.
- The Pearl of Great Price:1.14 Latter-day Saints believe this scripture was translated or given to Joseph Smith by revelation to clarify the creation, the restoration, and the second coming of Jesus Christ.
- Apocrypha: books from the Greek version of the Old Testament which are not contained in the Hebrew version, generally accepted by Catholics and denied scriptural status by Protestants. 1.15
- Pseudepigrapha: writings ascribed to some famous figure or to writings with a false title, considered sacred to certain groups of Jews or Christians and rejected during biblical canonization, or discovered during the last two centuries.1.16
- The Koran (Qur'an): Moslem's believe this scripture was revelations to the Prophet Mohammed (or more scholarly Muhammad) as an expression of God's eternal truth as recorded between 593 and 632 AD. 1.17
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paradoxes