“The book of Moses… contains Joseph Smith’s inspired translation of the first seven chapters of Genesis. Chapter 1 records a vision in which Moses saw God, who revealed to him the whole plan of salvation. Chapters 2-5 are an account of the creation and the fall of man. Chapters 6-7 contain a vision about Enoch and his ministry on earth. Chapter 8 contains a vision about Noah and the great flood.” (The Guide to the Scriptures. Salt Lake City: Intellectual Reserve, 2001, Moses. The book of Moses).

“Moses and Joseph Smith-Matthew are extracts from the Joseph Smith Translation [JST] that were revealed to the Prophet during the period from June 1830 through February 1831. (See headnotes to the Pearl of Great Price, Moses and Joseph Smith-Matthew). The new translation was necessary because ‘many plain and precious things’ had been taken away from the Bible through the centuries (B/M, 1 Nephi 13:28).” (The Pearl of Great Price A History and Commentary. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1987 [softbound, 1992], 25).

“Chapter 1 records Abraham’s experiences in Ur of the Chaldees, where wicked priests tried to sacrifice him. Chapter 2 tells of his journey to Canaan. The Lord appeared to him and made covenants with him. Chapter 3 records that Abraham saw the universe and perceived the relationships between heavenly bodies. Chapters 4-5 are another account of the Creation” (The Guide to the Scriptures. Salt Lake City: Intellectual Reserves, 2001, Moses. The book of Abraham).

As previously noted, “Joseph Smith-Matthew, like the book of Moses, are extracts from the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible that were reveled to the Prophet during the period from June 1830 through February 1831. (See headnotes to the Pearl of Great Price, Moses, and Joseph Smith-Matthew).” (The Pearl of Great Price A History and Commentary. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1987 [softbound, 1992], 25).

“The Joseph Smith Translation has restored some of the plain and precious things that have been lost from the Bible (B/M, 1 Nephi 13). Although it is not the official Bible of the Church, this translation does offer many interesting insights and is very valuable in understanding the Bible. It is also a witness for the divine calling and ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith.” (The Guide to the Scriptures. Salt Lake City: Intellectual Reserves, 2001, Joseph Smith Translation (JST)).

“Joseph Smith-History is drawn from the first forty-four pages of volume 1 of History of the Church. It covers such important events as the First Vision, the first nine appearances of Moroni to Joseph Smith, the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood through John the Baptist, the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of the ‘book that is sealed’ (Isaiah 29:11), and the beginning of the translation of the Book of Mormon.” (The Pearl of Great Price A History and Commentary. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1987, [softbound,1992], 56).

“Joseph Smith first wrote [these articles] in a letter to John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, in answer to his request to know what members of the Church believed. The letter became known as the Wentworth Letter and was first published in the Times and Seasons in March 1832. On 10 October 1880, the Articles of Faith were formally accepted as scripture by the [sustaining] vote of the members of the Church and were included as part of the Pearl of Great Price.” (The Guide to the Scriptures. Salt Lake City: Intellectual Reserve, 2001, Articles of Faith).

“I shall comment on the very first Hebrew word in the Bible; I will make a comment on the very first sentence of the history of creation in the Bible–Berosheit. I want to analyze the word. Baith–in, by, through, and everything else. Rosh–the head. Sheit–grammatical termination. When the inspired man wrote it, he did not put the bith there. An old Jew without any authority added the word; he thought it too bad to begin to talk about the head! It read first, “The head one of the Gods brought forth the Gods.” That is the true meaning of the words. Baurau signifies to bring forth…Thus the head God brought forth the Gods in the grand council.

“I will transpose and simplify it in the English language… The head God called together the Gods and sat in the grand council to bring forth the world. The grand counselors sat at the head in yonder heavens and contemplated the creation of the world which were created at the time.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976, 348-349).

“God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with himself, so that they might have one glory upon another, and all that knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence, which is requisite in order to save them in the world of spirits.” (Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976, 354).

“It is the direct statement in the Book of Abraham–accepted by the Church as Scripture–that there are differences in the intelligences that exist, that some are more intelligent than others; and that God is ‘more intelligent than all of the other intelligences’ (Book of Abraham, Chapt. 3). …It means that he is more intelligent than all of the other intelligences combined. His intelligence is greater than that of the mass, and that has led me to say in the Second Year Book of the Seventies:–‘It is this fact doubtless which makes this One ‘more intelligent than they all,” God. He is the All-Wise One! The All-Powerful One! What he tells other Intelligences to do must be precisely the wisest, fittest thing that they could anywhere or anyhow learn–the thing which it will always behoove them, with right loyal thankfulness and nothing doubting to do. There goes with this, too, the thought that this All-Wise One will be the Unselfish One, the All-Loving One, the One who desires that which is highest, and best; not for himself alone, but for all; and that will be best for him too. His glory, his power, his joy will be enhanced by the uplifting of all, by enlarging them; by increasing their joy, power, and glory” [“For behold, this is my work and my glory–to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39)]. And because this All Intelligent One is all this, and does all this, the other Intelligences worship him, submit their judgments and their will to his judgment and his will. He knows and can do that which is best; and this submission of the mind to the Most Intelligent, Wisest–wiser than all–is worship. This is the whole meaning of the doctrine and the life of Christ expressed in–”Father, not my will but Thy will, be done.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976, Note by Elder B.H. Roberts, 353).

“Here, then is eternal life–to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.” (Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976, 346-347).

“When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel–you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976, 348).

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of-throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

“The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we are ‘gods’ and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him-for we can prevent Him, if we choose-He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all though with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said” (Mere Christianity. New York: Macmillan Press, 1943, [Large Print edition, New York: Walker and Company, 1987], 315-317).

“What did Jesus do? Why; I do the things I saw my Father do when worlds came rolling into existence. My Father worked out his kingdom with fear and trembling, and I must do the same; and when I get my kingdom, I shall present it to my Father, so that he may obtain kingdom after kingdom, and it will exalt him in glory. He will then take a higher exaltation, and I will take his place, and thereby become exalted myself. So that Jesus treads in the tracks of his Father, and inherits what God did before; and God is thus glorified and exalted in the salvation and exaltation of all his children.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976, 347-348).

“This marvelous story has often been told poorly in Latter-day Saint circles, with the idea given that the Father, not knowing how to save men and what they must do to become like him, asked for suggestions from the assembled host and that two plans were presented. Such was hardly the case. God, an exalted man himself, hardly needs counsel from his own children on how they are to become like him. His question was not “What shall I do?” but “Whom shall I send?” That is, “Whom shall I send to be your Redeemer in my plan for your salvation?” (“The Grand Council” in Studies in Scripture, Vol. 2. Edited by Kent P. Jackson and Robert L. Millet. Salt Lake City: Randall Book Co., 1985, 69)

“…the nature of the plan of salvation… [is illustrated[in] the Grand Council. (1) it teaches us that there is no salvation in ignorance-all must know the plan and the principles by which salvation comes; (2) it dramatizes the absolute necessity of agency-there can be no force salvation; (3) it affirms that there is but one plan or way by which salvation can come-the plan ordained by the Father; it establishes that in the government of God all service is voluntary, yet it is to him to choose those who will represent him-it is his Church and he runs it; (4) [it]…in turn attests that God is our king and that the government of heaven is not a democracy, but a kingdom[, and] (5)…it emphasizes that God did not attempt to raise his family without a plan for their salvation and he frequently sat in council with them and instructed them.” (“The Grand Council” in Studies in Scripture, Vol. 2. Edited by Kent P. Jackson and Robert L. Millet. Salt Lake City: Randall Book Co., 1985, 74-75, numbers added).

“The information in the early chapters of Genesis actually seem to have been given to Moses in answer to… two specific questions [which he asked the Lord]: (1) Why did you do it? and (2) How did you do it?”

“In answer to Moses’ first question as to the WHY of things, the Lord replied that he had made all these things because “this is my work and my glory-to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). In other words, building worlds and populating them with people is the kind of work that God does. And why does he do it?-for the salvation and exaltation of his children.”

“In answer to the second question as to the HOW of things, Moses was informed that all things were done by the power of the Only Begotten, but that only an account of this world would be given to Moses…These two basic questions are not found today in our current text of Genesis, but fortunately they have been made available to us through the visions of Moses as revealed to Joseph Smith.” (“What is the Book of Moses?” in Studies in Scripture, Vol. 2. Edited by Kent P. Jackson and Robert L. Millet. Salt Lake City: Randall Book Co., 1985, 39).

“Abraham’s account of the creation represents a vision that he was privileged to behold of the Grand Council of the Gods at the time they were making their plans to create the heavens and the earth; therefore, his account represents the Gods’ ‘blue-print or plans regarding the creating of the heavens and the earth.” (Pearl of Great Price Commentary. Salt Lake City: Stevens and Wallis, Inc., 1948, 74).

“The principle portion of Moses’ account, on the other hand, is the story of the actual work of creating the heavens and the earth; in other words, the putting into effect of the plans that the Gods had made, as recorded in the Book of Abraham.” (Pearl of Great Price Commentary. Salt Lake City: Stevens and Wallis, Inc., 1948, 75).

“Our analysis properly begins with the frank recital that our knowledge about the Creation is limited. We do not know the how and why and when of all things. Our finite limitations are such that we could not comprehend them if they were revealed to us in all their glory, fullness, and perfection. What has been reveled is that portion of the Lord’s eternal word which we must believe and understand if we are to envision the truth about the Fall and the Atonement and thus become heirs of salvation. This is all we are obligated to know in our day.” (“Christ and the Creation” in Studies in Scripture, Vol. 2. Edited by Kent P. Jackson and Robert L. Millet. Salt Lake City: Randall Book Co., 1985, 79; see also Ensign, June, 1982, 8-15).

“This doctrine [of the Creation] is: (1) that the Lord Jesus Christ is both the Creator and Redeemer of this earth and all that on it is, save only man; (2) It is that the Lord God himself, the Father of us all, came down and created man, male and female, in his own image and likeness; (3) It is that the earth and all else were created in a paradisiacal [heavenly] state so there could be a fall; (4) It is that the Great Creator became the Redeemer so that he could ransom men from the effects of the Fall, thereby bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man; (5) It is that the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement are the three pillars of eternity, [and] (6) It is that all who accept him as both the Creator and the Redeemer have power to become joint-heirs with him and thereby inherit all that his Father hath” (“Christ and the Creation” in Studies in Scripture, Vol. 2. Edited by Kent P. Jackson and Robert L. Millet. Salt Lake City: Randall Book Co., 1985, 89, numbers added; see also Ensign, June, 1982, 8-15).