Significance of Section 42

The study of the Doctrine and Covenants Section 42 manuscript in the Joseph Smith Papers is very significant in that it gives us many unique insights not gained from the printed text as we have it today in our Doctrine and Covenants.  First, we see that the original manuscript contained a header: The Laws of the Church of Christ.  Sometimes revelations are referred to by their titles, but since our printed version doesn’t have these titles we don’t always know how to identify them.  This gives us an understanding of the general contents of this section as well—it probably contains some of the laws of the church.

The section has a sub-header partway through that reads “The Law”, so this is where the Law actually starts.  This section contains many laws similar to those found in the 10 commandments of Moses.  This then suggests a very interesting parallel.  The children of Israel left Egypt (the world, the land of their enemies and captivity) and were lead by Moses into the wilderness.  Likewise, the Saints fled persecution in the East, especially New York, and gathered in Ohio.  When Moses reached Sinai, the Lord met him on top of the mountain in a tempest of fire, and gave Moses the law.  The Saints in Kirtland built a temple—a mountain of the Lord—and the Lord appeared therein, again with fire and whirlwind.  The Lord then gave the law to his modern servants.

We also see in this section that the revelations were actually in response to questions asked by Joseph.  This gives us insight into how Joseph tended to receive revelation.  The Prophet asked questions of the Lord, and the revelations were in response to those questions.  (Obviously it wasn’t always that way, but it probably was a great deal of the time.)  It also tells us about the revelations were recorded, and then later how they were edited and published.