David Hocking has put together several Annotated Scriptures. We’ll discuss his latest book, which is sort of an Annotated Doctrine & Covenants. It is called “The Revelations of Joseph Smith.” We’ll also discuss his previous books, and dive into revelations on the coming forth of the Book of Mormon & the Church of Christ. Check out our conversation…
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David Hocking, described as a “scripture publisher” and editor, who is known for reformatting traditional scriptural texts to help readers engage with them more smoothly. By taking the existing text and applying specific elements and styles, Hocking aims to guide the reader and provide additional context and research. His books are often described as a “studied” version of the scripture.
Hocking’s process involves doing research on words or phrases that appeal to him, highlighting them in a gold color, and then providing additional information in a golden shaded box at the bottom of the page.
His journey in scripture publishing began in the ’90s when he started reformatting the Book of Mormon for his own use. This eventually led to the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon, which incorporated research, including information from the Heartland perspective. This book has been quite successful, with close to 40,000 copies sold and is available through Deseret Book.
Following the Book of Mormon, Hocking worked on the Book of Jasher. He clarified that “Jasher” is a title, “Sephur Hayasher,” meaning “the book of the upright,” and the proper spelling should be Yashar. Interestingly, he notes that there are excerpts of the Book of Jasher in the Book of Mormon, brought over on the plates of brass. This led to a brief discussion on the language of the Book of Mormon, suggesting that Nephi likely learned Demotic Egyptian, a condensed, script-like form, in addition to Hebrew, and that “reformed Egyptian” might refer to a reformed Demotic Egyptian. He also touched on the difference between the Anthon Transcript (described by Martin Harris) and the Caracters Document in John Whitmer’s handwriting (which the Church has recently acquired). He noted that handwriting analysis, specifically looking at the cursive “D” with a flourish common in German script, can help identify scribes like John Whitmer in early documents, including sections of the Book of Mormon original manuscript and the Revelation books. He also offered a perspective on the two sets of witnesses (three spiritual, eight physical) and the possibility they saw different sets of plates (the plates in the stone box vs. plates in a repository, potentially the small plates used to replace the lost Book of Lehi pages)10.
Other books Hocking has edited include the Book of Isaiah, undertaken as part of the “11th commandment” to diligently search Isaiah. He sent a copy to Dr. Avraham Gileadi, a prominent LDS Isaiah scholar, who liked it. (Incidentally, the host mentioned NT Wright would be speaking on Isaiah in Houston, Texas).
Hocking also worked on the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) of the New Testament. For this, he put Joseph Smith’s contributions in brackets, using the 1867 first edition text. He mentioned that the Church itself is likely to release a fully done version of the JST in the coming years. He has a new version of his JST New Testament coming out soon as a red-letter edition. He noted that while red-letter Bibles (where the words of Christ are in red) are common elsewhere, they are less familiar in Utah.
Another critical project was the Book of Enoch, which he believes explains why Enoch is an important figure and why the Lord referred to him in Moses 6 & 7 and D&C 107. He suggests that Joseph Smith himself became a modern-day Enoch, teaching and building a city of righteousness/Zion.
Hocking’s latest book, and a main focus of the conversation, could be titled “The Chronological Unfolding of the Restoration”. He specifically chose not to call it the Doctrine and Covenants due to the history of that terminology. He recounted how the first printed collection of revelations in 1833 was called the Book of Commandments. The 1835 edition added the Lectures on Faith and adopted the title Doctrine and Covenants. However, the Lectures on Faith were later removed from the standard editions starting around 1920 because Church leadership decided they were not canon or scripture.
His new book is Joseph Smith-centric and presents the revelations in chronological order as found in Joseph Smith’s history (specifically, the History of the Church edited by B.H. Roberts). The layout includes the date, Joseph Smith’s age, and the current section number, providing a progression based on when the revelations were received.
This chronological approach offers significant benefits. It allows readers to see the progression of revelations much better. It helps understand the context. For example, the first 20 revelations deal specifically with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. The next 90 revelations use the published Book of Mormon as a manual for organizing the Church. Presenting revelations chronologically also shows how seemingly disparate texts like the “vision of Moses” (now Moses Chapter 1) or the “prophecy of Enoch” (now Moses 6 & 7) fit into the timeline of revelations Joseph Smith received alongside the sections we now have in the Doctrine and Covenants.. He notes the striking similarity between the prologue of the vision of Moses and the prologue of the book of Jubilees.
Hocking emphasizes that this book highlights Joseph Smith’s revelatory power and how he received revelations that ultimately became scripture.
Looking ahead, in addition to the upcoming red-letter JST16, Hocking is working on a major, sophisticated, and scholarly book about the “plat of Zion” (also called the city of Zion or city of Enoch). This book will explore the concept of the city based on a vision seen by Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams and will use D&C sections that refer to this plat.
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Gospel Tangents
All Rights Reserved
Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission
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