What is Scripture?

Although many scholars believe the definitive compilation wasn't made until the time of the Babylonian exile (around 600 BC), Jewish tradition has kept a more or less standard list of "books" as canonical from as early as we have record of a Hebrew alphabet, and have added to it what histories, poetry, prophecies and divine directives have been deemed authoritative and noteworthy ever since. There are a few books which remain debatable for their inclusion (the Protestant King James Bible, for example, discards 7 books from the Catholic canon), and there is some evidence that some books have been lost to time for various reasons, but the agreed upon grouping has been stable for centuries. Christians broadly agree, even with Jews, and largely with Muslims on the sacredness and divine provenance of at least 39 Old Testament books, all written in Hebrew.

The New Testament, on the other hand, was written at a time and in a geographic area where Greek was the predominant lingua franca. Its books, which are entirely comprised of letters meant for public consumption, are more standardized across Catholic and Protestant compilations, but there are still a few "apocryphal" books that are excluded sometimes for questions of authenticity, sometimes for doctrinal content. What they share, aside from Greek, is 1st century authors with a maximum single degree of separation from personally witnessing the Savior's mortal ministry.

In both cases, some process of vetting extant copies (which contained variations) and weighting (personal letters for private edification versus letters worthy of parallel inclusion with writings of world-wide importance) had to be made and carried out by accepted authorities, whether subject experts or civil or spiritual authorities. And in both cases, Christians of the LDS variety accept the King James canonical 66 books of the Bible as the word of God as far as they are translated correctly.

The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, was transmitted basically from prophet to prophet (with minor departures from that pattern still remaining in-family), and kept under guard and/or secret during the entire span of its compilation. Because its transmission was centralized and secure, the only errors come from the human flaws of its sources, and from its translation (either from inspired ideas to linguistic forms, or between linguistic forms). Since the Christians who are LDS believe that the Book of Mormon was translated by divine gift, the translation pathway for error introduction is also eliminated and we often assert that it is therefore the most correct book--not the most important, or the most influential, just the most correct.

Finally, translations of certain discovered papyrii, inspired additions to biblical books, and a few testimony accounts and a credo comprise the fourth and least consulted tome of LDS scripture.

But to Christians who believe that the canon is open and that all words inspired by the Spirit are "scripture" even if not officially canonized, the term scripture itself has a broadness problem. Prophets and apostles speak truth to the public regularly, and General Conference compilations are published every six months to log the most official and broadest audience versions of these. But in order to avoid drowning in inspired text, the LDS often distinguish between "the scriptures" (the 4 canonized "standard works") and other inspired writings like conference talks, official declarations, and proclamations. All of them are revealed and useful for instruction--all of them lead powerfully to Christ as all scripture must--and some of them have the force of official doctrine immediately upon publication (the Proclamations, for example), but most are merely useful reflections on, commentary about, and illustrations of doctrine and scripture, not new scripture per se.

Not everything a prophet or apostle says is scripture just because they said it, or even just because it's true. We generally expect that men upheld as revelators will carefully distinguish between their own thoughts or thinking about revealed truths and thoughts they were commanded to transmit to the public as revelations. Only this latter category would be proposed as canonical by its leaders to the church collectively.

I hope that provides a little clarity on what scripture is and is not, and how and why some writings get canonized as we begin a study of the only LDS book of canonized scripture with an open end: the Doctrine and Covenants. We will assume no errors of translation or transmission (although refinement of a minor editorial nature has occurred), divine provenance, and all of it directly into English (although mostly an 1830s American version of it). And we will approach it as we do all scripture: God is its author, men are merely the conduits, and we have to change for the truth--work to discover and apply its truth for ourselves--because the truth isn't affected by our denial of it or disinterest in it.