Pearl of Great Price

If the prophets write the scriptures while receiving inspiration from the Lord, and yet there are inconsistencies and faults in the scriptures, then couldn’t the Lord just inspire them to write something a little more perfect? The obvious answer is of course he could, but the more interesting answer is why He doesn’t. First, our agency and that of the prophets who wrote the scriptures is something that God will not rob from us. If God wanted for Moses or Alma or Joseph Smith to write something that was more perfect than they had the capacity to write, then it would really be the Lord writing that thing, and using the prophet as some lifeless puppet, which is not how God operates. The scriptures aren’t perfect because the men and women who wrote them weren’t perfect. And also because the men and women who read the scriptures aren’t perfect. Would we at this stage in our eternal progression even be able to comprehend a perfect scripture? But I believe another reason that the scriptures aren’t perfect is that the scriptures aren’t the endpoint of revelation. They are the beginning. Like a grain of sand inside an oyster acquires layer after layer of iridescent calcium carbonate, so too can the scriptures acquire layer upon layer of truth and revelation and light. Every time we read a passage of scripture with a sincere heart and a faith in Christ, the Spirit adds another layer of revelation on that Pearl of Great Price. The more often we read the scriptures, the weightier and more lustrous and more beautiful they become. The Pearl’s price becomes greater and greater the more time we spend adding to the basic truth, line upon line, here a little and there a little.