We have a seperate menu item which deals with these 'other' books.
The four 'Standard Works' are as follows:
Doctrine and Covenants (of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
The Pearl of Great Price
The Holy Bible, solely in the 1611 Authorised Version (known as the 'King James' translation - but qualified as 'so far as it is translated correctly' The Book of Mormon does NOT, in fact, teach any doctrine that is not taught by the bible, except for historical / anthropological claims that the 'New World' (American continent) was (according to its author/authors) populated by three 'waves' of people from Mesepotamia and/or the Palestine area of the Middle East.
There have been three different covers to the Book of Mormon over the last thirty years. In 1963, a 'paper-back' look was given to it as can be seen here, replacing a black leatherette look for the 50-cent copy. The thought was expressed to me in about 1967 when this blue edition was becoming available in Australia, that it was to make it look more physcially attractive to potential converts. In similar vein, the 'Good News' edition of the Bible has been sold with a look of a novel rather than scripture. I am unsure in my mind whether that is such a good thing.
A short-lived try-out around the same time, which I never saw, nor indeed heard of, was one with gold covers and inscribed with heiroglyphics. Apart from the cover, it was identical in all respects with the old 'bluey'.
The Doctrine and Covenants (together with its predecessor, the 'Book of Commandments') and the Pearl of Great Price comprise the sources of most of Mormon theology. For this reason, it is interesting to read the extent of the changes made to both, and the content of those changes. In this writer's opinion, the Book of Mormon's changes are irrelevant to this discussion, but some will be shown.
The Bible should need no introduction to readers of this page. However it should be pointed out, because many are unaware of facts about the bible, that it was NOT written in English. Of the sixty-six books comprising the canon accepted by most churches - including the LDS church - the bulk (the Old Testament) were written in Hebrew, a language which has not changed very much over the centuries, mainly because it was used purely in the Temple worship of the Jews, and held by them to be a sacred language.
This, incidentally, was one of the reasons many people of Jewish origin objected to the Zionists' insistance of Hebrew becoming the state language when the Jewish state of Israel was established in part of Palestine under a United Nations decree (not God's) in 1948.
The New Testament was written in Greek. Not classical Greek, but common, or Koine Greek.
Regarding translations into English, the 'King James' - correctly called the 'Authorised Version' (AV), was the tenth or eleventh according to which you take as being the first recognisable as 'olde Englische'. Some 80% of it is word-for-word the same as the 1535 Myles Coverdale translation. If you read the preface to the AV, it says that other translations were 'diligently compared'.
With discoveries of more recent original material (in the form of 'earlier copies' since Joseph Smith lived), the number of potential errors - 'question-marks' if you will - have been reduced. Not only were the Dead Sea Scrolls a great help here, but a number of other sources too.
And no, my Mormon friend, the Catholic church did not impound and hide the Dead Sea Scrolls, as I was taught by the LDS church between 1966 and 1977. Anybody who has been to Jerusalem has probably visited the 'Shrine of the Book' where one may discover much about the scrolls. There are many an interesting story that can be unweaved from the Q'mran saga.
One is that my uncle who died in 1989, Brigadier-General James Orme Mornini Ashton, known to his associates as 'Teal', was deeply involved in the ensuring of the Dead Sea Scrolls being made available to the public (and not just sold to the highest bidder by the finder) through his being the military administrator of the area. He commanded 3rd Brigade of the Arab Legion (based at Ramullah, just north of Jerusalem) from approximately 1945 until 1954. There are many references to him by historians who have described the Palestinian history before, through, and after the creation of the nation Isra'el. I have personally interviewed several among the East Jerusalem population who knew him.
You may well ask why I did not know about my uncle's involvement with the Dead Sea Scrolls while I was LDS. There is a simple answer. Because of a family feud, I did not even know of my uncle's existence until I was traced by an attorney as his heir in 1989. Uncle had not featured on my family genealogical records while LDS for that reason.
Please look at information I have on this site about each of the standard works and other reference books. The material contained in the other books, used by LDS for teaching doctrine (but branded as the thoughts of the authors) is covered elsewhere on this site.
The 'Standard Works' are the specifically identified scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. All other books are by definition excluded by them from the status of 'scripture', being purely the personal opinions of the their respective authors.
Book of Mormon