Where are the natural stopping points in your reading of the D&C?

This reading chart not only helps you track your progress as you read the Doctrine and Covenants; it also helps you learn its basic storyline and context, which can be helpful, since this standard work is a bit unique in that it lacks an overarching narrative. The sections are listed in numerical order (just like in the book), but they are grouped according to common themes or events. For example, sections 2–19 were all received during the time that Joseph Smith was engaged in obtaining and translating the Book of Mormon. And within that group, sections 3–5 were received roughly during the time that Martin Harris was scribing for Joseph Smith.

The subdivisions I chose are based on the Structured Edition of the standard works—a customized version of the standard works that lays out the (unchanged) authorized text in paragraphs and with headings, so it looks more like a modern novel or textbook. If you’re interested in reading an edition of the scriptures that uses headings to depict this chart’s subdivisions in the actual text as you read, follow the link above. You can download it for free.

There are two versions of this D&C chart: one in numerical order (i.e., the same order the sections are printed in your bound copy of the scriptures) and the other in chronological order. The dates are based on the new 2013 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, with a few possible exceptions based on the Church’s Joseph Smith Papers project, including research by Robert Woodford and Steven Harper. If you want to read the D&C in chronological order in conjunction with Joseph Smith—History, then use the more complex D&C chronological reading checklist. I couldn’t include JS-H on this chapter chart without making it look cluttered and ugly.

This document has two pages—color and greyscale. (Greyscale was necessary because when you print the color version with just black ink, the yellow-shaded boxes come out looking indiscriminable from the white boxes around them.)

Series: Structural Chapter Reading Charts

• Old Testament
  (or just the Seminary Selected Readings)
• New Testament
• Book of Mormon
• Doctrine and Covenants