The Pearl of Great Price: A Selection From the Revelations, Translations, and Narrations of Joseph Smith

by Joseph Smith Jr.

"The Pearl of Great Price" is a selection from the revelations, translations, and narrations of Joseph Smith. It is a collection of writings that is representative of many of the aspects of the Mormon faith and is considered an important volume in the Mormon scripture. "The Pearl of Great" Price takes its title from the parable told by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, an analogy of the value of a place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Genres: Religion, Lds, Nonfiction, Church, Spirituality, Scripture, Christian

65 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Joseph Smith, Jr. was the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, also known as Mormonism, and an important religious and political figure during the 1830s and 1840s. In 1827, Smith began to gather a religious following after announcing that an angel had shown him a set of golden plates describing a visit of Jesus to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. In 1830, Smith published what he said was a translation of these plates as the Book of Mormon, and the same year he organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

For most of the 1830s, Smith lived in Kirtland, Ohio, which remained the headquarters of the church until Smith began encouraging members to gather the church to a Latter Day Saint settlement in Missouri. There, tensions between Mormons and non-Mormons resulted in the expelling of the Mormons. Smith and his people then settled in Nauvoo, Illinois where they began building a new temple aided by new converts from Europe. He was assassinated by a mob of non-Mormons at the age of 38.

Smith's followers consider him a prophet and have canonized some of his revelations as sacred texts on par with the Bible. His legacy as a leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been recognized by millions of adherents.

Reviews

[Jams · Rating 5 out of 5]

September 2015---I reread this as part of a Seminary assignment my boys had. It was an amazing experience to hear my teen boys express thoughts and feelings about a book I love so much.


September 2012---Of course I have read bits and pieces of "The Pearl of Great Price" before. But I have never taken the time to read it cover to cover. I am enjoying the process more than I can say. This book is full of beautiful history and instruction.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

A pack of lies written by a frontier charlatan named Peepstone Joe. But fascinating because it's a chance to actually study a religious fiction from recent history.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you view this as revelation from God, Inspired fiction, or flat out fantesy, it is undoubtedly an amazing collections of writings with various styles, approaches, and doctrines. Viewed for what it is, it's great.

[Lars · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is short. Laying aside its controversial origin, it contains some simple and profound ideas.

[Larry Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

cultic crap

[Courtney]

The Pearl of Great Price is, I think the most interesting and enlightening piece of Mormon Literature that is included in the "Mormon Scriptures". Forget the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine & Covenance. The Pearl of Great Price is where it's at. My favorite part is the Book of Abraham.

This zany book was dictated by Joseph Smith (in the usual fashion -- ie. by nearly esphixiating himself in a top hat full of "seer stones" and thus inducing hallucinations). He wrote this piece when someone came to him with a set of scrolls containing the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Supposedly, the Pearl of Great Price was a translation of these scrolls.
Regardless of how the book came about, this is definitely one of the most interesting religious texts written in the modern age, and contains much of the stranger parts of Mormon Doctrine that modern Mormon's would like to deny. It also includes and explanation of the seriously underplayed Mormon belief in the Plurality of Gods. If you asked most Mormons whether there was 1 god, they would of course say "yes". However, this text explains that All mankind has the potential to become a god of his own world one day, and that our God went through a similar life on a planet named "Kolob". He lived a good life and was thus granted the opportunity to become God of his own world. This is the real reason Mormon's are supposed to be good, have their temple ceremonies, and get into the Celestial Kingdom (the 3rd and highest level of heaven reserved for only those who'd had the mormon temple ceremonies). If you make it to the Celestial Kingdom, you'll be allowed to procreate ad infinatum like our God and be God to your own little world. By this understanding, you can see that while Mormons believe there is only 1 God, that Mormon doctrine in fact says there is the potential for an infinite number of gods. Really fascinating stuff.

[Amy Sanders · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Pearl of Great Price?
Please...
The original document was an Egyptian papyri on how they buried their dead. It had nothing to do with the Book of Abraham. A complete embarrassment to the Mormon Church that had believed black people were cursed. Retracted after they found the original Papyri. The fact that they keep the book…well that speaks volumes.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I no longer believe this book to be what it claims to be.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another family read. The history behind this book is great. The stories inside are great. Moving on to the Old Testament. Gabe LOVES reading long geneaologies of practically unreadable names aloud, so fun times in family scripture reading are ahead!

[Chris Webber · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book of Abraham is one of the primary reasons I cannot believe in truth claims of the LDS church. Even Nibley could not resurrect my faith after I studied the historical components of this book. Joseph Smith was simply making it up, it is not founded on fact at all.

So disappointing.

[Bri Malan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good history of Joseph Smith. I love learning about someone's path to God. This is a great book.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that it ends with The Articles of Faith. It ties all 3 books and the beliefs of our church together so well.

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This latest read was with my husband as part of our Branch reading challenge.

[Randon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should really give this book Five Stars as it was amazing in that it proved without a doubt that Joseph Smith was not a real prophet and simply a product of his time. Comparing the Facsimiles in The Book of Abraham to undamaged Egyptian Books of Breathing prove that Smith simply created a story to fit the pictures he saw. No matter how hard Mormon apologists try to explain it as simply symbolic- it clearly is a fraud. The papyrus the Facsimiles were taken from date to A.D. 60 so it is highly spurious that they contained any story of Abraham to begin with, let alone one where he got to sit on the throne of Pharaoh. Smith simply drew in the gaps in the pictures by hand and his brain drew in the gaps of the story. Other story material shows the inherent racism of the early 19th century with content obsessing with black skin of humans as simply a product of God's curse on Cain and his descendants. This belief led Mormons to withhold priesthood and certain membership privileges to black people who joined. Things changed in 1978 when they faced external societal pressure in the U.S. on their tax exemption status and the desire to baptize many African-descended Brazilians to grow their ranks (and revenue).

[Julie Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I've read many times and love learning more from every time. This was a family read. I loved reading it together and being able to talk about and discuss it. So many great truths contained within. From the creation of the world to modern revelation. So many great gospel truths. I love the scriptures and reading about God's word.

Next we are reading the Old Testament as a family.

Happy Reading!!!

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many great things found here: Extended knowledge of heroes such as Abraham, Moses, Enoch, and Joseph Smith! Revelations about the Creation, Premortal Existence, the Apostasy and Restoration of Christ's church on the earth, the basic tenets of that church, found in The Articles of Faith. I love this book.

[Mistyblue · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spiritual up-lifter. I enjoy revisiting the truths contained herein.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

These two books are clearly fraudulent. The Book of Abraham, supposedly translated from an Egyptian papyrus, contains nothing related to the papyrus, which is still extant and has been translated, correctly, a number of times. The Book of Moses is Joseph Smiths attempt to improve upon the first books of the Old Testament, which he claimed he was correcting by direct revelation from God.

[Brandon Osborn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The PoGP has been documented as an utter fraud - originalso of the scroll pieces were found in Chicago and have been reviewed by Egyptologists from Harvard and other places - the Papyri which the "Book of Abraham" was translated from is actually a permit to breathe for Horace - which is a very common death scroll. Joseph Smith had no idea what he was doing, and faked every bit of it.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book with an interesting history. I've found several of the stories very helpful. Not sure if I'll read it every year for the rest of my life, but since it is scriptural canon I'll give it 5 starts just to prevent a Hans-esque controversy. Hahahaha

[Karey White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. So excited to have read the entire Standard Works in 13 months. And I absolutely loved the last part of Joseph Smith History, where Oliver Cowdery writes. His writing is so beautiful.

[Architeacher · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fraud, pure and simple.

[Little Timmy]

I won't rate this book. I read it to learn about a new area in religion and it did fulfill that purpose.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great addition to the Book of Mormon, love all of the scriptures and how grateful I have them in my life. Especially love JST of Matthew & JS History!

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pearl of Great Price is precisely what its name suggests. It is some of the most amazing doctrines revealed to the Prophet Joseph smith. This book has changed my life. I'm sad for people who become so fixated on the provenance of the document they fail to focus on the doctrines it teaches. Truly this book is transcendent!

[Elizabeth Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen, this one was a tough one to read for a long time. There’s a lot of confusing and complicated stuff, but this time around (reading it alongside Genesis of the Bible) I understood it a lot more and it was a really uplifting read. I love the word of God and love that God always has more to give.
(G rating)

[Von Sowards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember going through the Pear of Great Price in seminary and thinking it was full of those amazing deep doctrines you don't usually talk about. Then I got on my mission and met many people (missionary, Latter-day Saint, and other Christians alike) who got WAY too caught up with the deep doctrines. It would make me frustrated that people were so focused on the deep doctrines the would forget the basic, beautiful principals of the gospel: faith in The Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism and making other covenants, and receiving and following the Holy Ghost.

So I held the Pear of Great Price in, yes with respect, but but a little dislike on the same leaves with those same silly people who forget the basic principals.

Then I had the prompting to read the little book, and guess what, it was full of teaches about faith, repentance, baptism, covenants, and listening to promptings from God.

This is a beautiful book. It is full of the Love of God. I have felt its power in my life, and I know it is true! I love this book!

[Tym · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was raised in a very strongly "faithful" Mormon family and was taught that this was divine scripture all of my life. I eventually figured out I had to find out what I myself believe in and Mormonism isn't for me. So I might have some bias when re-reading this book. There are some pretty awesome sc-fi/fantasy concepts in this particular book that I would love to see used in a novel(s).

The styles are different enough for each section that what Joseph Smith claims about the book (him translating it from papyri) could seem plausible to the uneducated mind. You have to give the guy props for that and some of the crazy cool concepts. However considering that the entire purpose of this document is to convince you Mr. Smith is a prophet I have to say it sincerely fails in that.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone other than sci-fi/fantasy authors floundering for some ideas and actual Mormons.

[Lisa Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pearl of Great Price is a book of scripture used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Containing revelations, translations, and a brief history of Joseph Smith, the first prophet of the church (The Book of Moses, the Book of Abraham, a translation of the book of Matthew, and Joseph Smith History). It also includes the Thirteen Articles of Faith, written by Joseph Smith to explain the basic beliefs of the LDS church.

For such a short book of scripture, it is extremely profound. The truths that it contains are beautiful and important, and as I reread it for the first time in a few years, I loved being reminded of how wonderful this book of scripture really is.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I like this book in its entirety and enjoy its somewhat unusual content, I'd have to say the Joseph Smith: History portion to be of greatest significance and effect upon me. Touching scene when the prophet Enoch perceives the poetic analogy of tears falling from "heaven" as rain when God considers the wickedness upon the Earth.