The Gospel Library app now features a valuable resource called Scripture Helps. Carmen Cole.

ABSTRACT: Scripture Helps is a powerful new resource found in the Gospel Library that offers contextual, historical, cultural, linguistic, and literary insights for readers seeking to better understand the world and interests of scripture writers and their ancient audiences. It assists readers in connecting scripture texts to the truths and doctrines of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Gospel teachers should become familiar with Scripture Helps so they can better guide their students to truly “feast on the words of Christ” (2 Nephi 32:3).

KEYWORDS: teaching the gospel, scriptures, conversion,

Introducing Scripture Helps

Scripture Helps is a resource designed to help learners better understand the scriptures. It will replace the previously existing institute student manuals used in institute scripture courses. Although an institute product, Scripture Helps is available to all members of the Church. Aligned with Come Follow Me—For Home and Church, Scripture Helps is for anyone interested in more fully understanding the standard works. Scripture Helps is found in Gospel Library under the Scriptures tab, and individual entries are also connected to the digital scriptures.[1]

Our hope is that this new resource will help religious educators enhance the learning experience in the classroom. By becoming familiar with this resource, teachers may see the value in also pointing students to Scripture Helps for their personal gospel study.

Where Did Scripture Helps Come From?

At the beginning of 2022, the institute curriculum team had recently completed several projects[2] and were assessing the needs of existing institute courses. The team found that the greatest needs surrounded the scripture courses, which were getting more attention due to the introduction of Come, Follow Me in 2019. Significant numbers of students were enrolling in institute scripture courses that aligned with the Come Follow Me study each year. In fact, more students were enrolled in these courses than in the cornerstone courses required for institute graduation.

Realizing this growing interest among institute students, Seminaries and Institutes (S&I) administration reviewed the status of the scripture course materials. There was concern about the age of some of the manuals, as well as the limited number of languages in which each manual was available.[3] Additionally, the institute curriculum team found that the institute student manual usage on Gospel Library was the highest of any S&I–produced resource by a wide margin. Yet it was not institute teachers or their students who were the main users but rather missionaries, Sunday School teachers, adult members, and others. As a result of these findings, the continued S&I production of student manuals was deprioritized, meaning there was no longer budget allocated to the production of future student manuals. Yet the need for providing updated context and commentary on the scriptures remained.

First attempts to meet this need came in the form of the “Additional Resources” section added into the new materials for scripture course teachers. This section was designed to provide brief background and commentary about the scriptures in each lesson. While testing these new lessons in institute classrooms worldwide, teachers overwhelmingly asked for more help with context than what was provided in the new manuals or in the Come, Follow Me resources.[4]

Around this time, it was discovered by members of the institute curriculum team that the priesthood and Church history departments were working with BYU professors on providing something like Revelations in Context[5] for the Old Testament. The product never materialized, but for the institute curriculum team it sparked an idea of a possible institute product. Remembering the value of the institute student manuals to a wider Church audience, the institute team’s idea was to produce a correlated scripture commentary for the entire Church. They first called it the Scripture Resource Library.

Working with the Come, Follow Me team, the institute curriculum team identified needs within family study and Sunday School. They also met with the Missionary Department to consider missionary needs in understanding scripture. They contacted the Church History Department to learn how Revelations in Context was designed and built. They connected with the Gospel Library and Scripture Committees to see if such a product might be connected to the scriptures in some form on the app. Crucially, the team collaborated with the Correlation Department on the use of scholarly sources.[6]

This discovery phase led to a lot of initial excitement about what the product could be. A prototype was created, and the Gospel Library division agreed to place it in the app to test in certain English-speaking units alongside Come, Follow Me. However, for multiple reasons, the cross-departmental collaboration didn’t work out.[7] It was decided by S&I administration that the project would move forward as a companion to the newly revised institute scripture courses. Yet the vision remained to produce a resource whose value would be attractive for multiple uses within the Church.[8] For simplicity, the product name was eventually changed to Scripture Helps.[9]

A Closer Look at Scripture Helps

As was mentioned previously, past institute curricula consisted of two types of products: a teacher-facing lesson manual and a learner-facing student manual. The student manuals were written to provide helpful commentary and prophetic teachings on topics related to the scriptures. Scripture Helps replaces the institute student manuals and is designed to provide more help with the scripture text itself. It provides contextual, historical, cultural, linguistic, and literary explanations for readers seeking to better understand the world and interests of scripture writers and their ancient audience. Scripture Helps also provides help in connecting scripture texts to the truths and doctrines of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Each Scripture Helps article provides an introductory summary to the block of scripture being covered. Following the introduction, there are three resource sections: “Background and Context,” “Learn More,” and “Media.” The bulk of material in Scripture Helps is found in the “Background and Context,” discussed in more depth below. The “Learn More” section provides talks and other resources found in the Church’s magazines or elsewhere on Gospel Library for anyone wishing to study a topic further. The “Media” section provides additional images, videos, or hymns related to topics covered in the Scripture Helps entries.

“Background and Context” is arranged into smaller entries written to answer bolded header questions. These header questions are designed to be relevant to what a student may want to understand better as they read the scripture block for Come, Follow Me. Due to word count limitations, there is not an entry for every possible question a reader may have. Entry selection is decided by a combination of considerations. These include current prophetic priorities and teachings, centrality of doctrinal themes, relevance to Latter-day Saint audiences, and words or phrases in the scriptures that might be confusing to readers.

The entries themselves are written at an eighth- to tenth-grade reading level to make them more accessible to a worldwide audience. Each entry includes endnotes to provide sources for the material in the body of the entry, or any additional information that may be useful to a reader. The following is a list of the types of entries that are found in Scripture Helps, with accompanying examples from the Old Testament Scripture Helps that were released in the fall of 2025:

• Entries that provide context
• Entries that define a word or phrase
• Entries that explain doctrinal concepts
• Entries that clarify something potentially confusing or misunderstood
• Entries that address troubling passages
• Entries that connect older scripture to revelations from the Restoration
• Entries that examine helpful context provided by a Church leader
• Entries that point readers to Jesus Christ

Entries that provide context

The world in which scripture writers lived is very different from our modern world. Sometimes these differences are obvious and well understood. Other times these differences are not readily apparent and may be completely missed by the modern reader. Entries that provide context are intended to help readers see the ancient world more clearly and avoid faulty assumptions that could lead to a misreading of the scripture text. The following is a simple example:

Exodus 1:8
What might it mean that the new king of Egypt “knew not Joseph”?

Many scholars believe that during the time of Joseph, northern Egypt was ruled by the non-Egyptian Hyksos people.^a Eventually a new dynasty overthrew these foreign rulers,^b which may explain the statement that “there arose up a new king over Egypt.”^c The new Pharaoh became wary of the Israelites for a variety of reasons, including their increasing population,^d the potential for them to ally with Egypt’s enemies,^e and possibly their connection to the former Hyksos rulers.^f

^a The Hyksos ruled in Egypt from around 1750 to 1550 BC. They were likely of Semitic origin, as were Joseph and his family. This shared background may have made the Hyksos sympathetic toward the Hebrews and caused them to treat Joseph and his descendants positively (see Bible Dictionary, under “Egypt”).

^b “The new Theban dynasty, which founded what is known as the ‘New Kingdom’ in Egyptian history, despised any groups related to the Hyksos, especially if there were some notion that they had aided these rulers. Thus the Exodus reference to a pharaoh arising who ‘knew not Joseph’ (Exodus 1:9) most likely does not mean that he had never heard of Joseph, but instead means that this pharaoh had no respect for Joseph or anything he did” (Kerry Muhlestein, “Israel, Egypt, and Canaan,” in From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament Through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade [Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2021], 211).

^c Exodus 1:8.

^d See Exodus 1:9.

^e See Exodus 1:10.

^f See Muhlestein, “Israel, Egypt, and Canaan,” 211.

You may notice that this entry is only about providing possible context for the single line from Exodus 1:8 mentioned in the header. The footnotes are a combination of additional references within the scripture text that provide context, a helpful Bible Dictionary entry available in Gospel Library, and scholarly sources that back up the historical information provided within the entry. The language in this entry is tentative because the answer to the header question is not perfectly known with the information currently available. Thus, the entry provides likely possibilities but not certain facts.

Entries that define a word or phrase

The meaning of words is another place where the modern scripture reader may face challenges understanding the original intent of the inspired writer. Scripture Helps includes entries that provide linguistic context for words and phrases that may be misunderstood or obscure due to translation or cultural differences. For example:

Psalm 50:5
What does the word “saints” mean?

In the Old Testament, two Hebrew words are translated as “saints.” In Psalm 50:5 the word is hasid, which can also mean “godly” or “faithful.”^a Hasid is closely related to hesed, the Hebrew word used throughout the Old Testament to describe God’s covenantal love.^b The designation of the Lord’s people as hasid points to the responsibility they have to honor their covenant relationship with Him.^c President Russell M. Nelson taught: “Hesed is a special kind of love and mercy that God feels for and extends to those who have made a covenant with Him. And we reciprocate with hesed for Him.”^d

^a See Tremper Longman III and Mark L. Strauss, The Baker Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words (2023), “Faith, Faithful, Faithfulness,” 282. The other word translated as “saints” is qodesh (or kodesh) and is more commonly translated as “holiness” (see Longman and Strauss, The Baker Expository Dictionary, “Holy, Holiness, Make Holy,” 409–10).

^b To learn more about hesed, see Russell M. Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” Liahona, Oct. 2022, 4–11. See also “Psalm 26:1–3. What is the Lord’s loving-kindness?”

^c See Longman and Strauss, The Baker Expository Dictionary, “Faith, Faithful, Faithfulness,” 282.

^d Russell M. Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” 6.

This entry mainly uses two sources to provide linguistic context: a dictionary of biblical words to help understand the original Hebrew, and President Russell M. Nelson’s teachings found in an article from the October 2022 Liahona magazine. Both sources provide an understanding of the title “saint” as used in Psalm 50, which may not be as well understood by Latter-day Saints who also bear this title.

Entries that explain doctrinal concepts

Sometimes a reader may become confused about certain doctrinal concepts when studying a scripture block. Additionally, readers may not be aware of the many helpful resources and official teachings on the Church’s website or Gospel Library. The following entry responds to the header using a selection from Topics and Questions in Gospel Library:

Moses 1:39
What is the difference between immortality and eternal life?

“Eternal life is the phrase used in scripture to define the quality of life that our Eternal Father lives. The Lord declared, ‘This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man’ [Moses 1:39]. Immortality is to live forever as a resurrected being. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, everyone will receive this gift. Eternal life, or exaltation, is to live in God’s presence and to continue as families. Like immortality, this gift is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. However, to inherit eternal life requires our ‘obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel’ [Articles of Faith 1:3].”^a

^a Topics and Questions, “Eternal Life,” Gospel Library.

Entries that clarify something potentially confusing or misunderstood

At times readers may come across something in scripture that does not make sense to them. Scripture Helps entries are written to clarify confusing passages by acknowledging the difficulty, placing the issue within the context of the restored gospel, and when available, connecting readers to explanations by Church authorities. The following is a good example of this type of entry:

Judges 14:6, 19; 15:14
What does it mean that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson?

Today when we speak of a person having the Spirit of the Lord, we are usually referring to someone who is faithful and obedient and therefore worthy of the Holy Ghost’s influence. However, in the account of Samson, this phrase seems to acknowledge only his remarkable physical strength, which came as a gift from God.

Despite Samson’s great strength, which God gave to help him fulfill his mission to deliver Israel, Samson’s focus frequently drifted toward fulfilling immoral and selfish desires. Sister Ann M. Dibb, formerly of the Young Women General Presidency, observed, “Samson was born with great potential. His mother was promised, ‘He shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines’ [Judges 13:5]. But as Samson grew, he looked more to the world’s temptations than to God’s direction. He made choices because they ‘pleaseth [him] well’ [Judges 14:3] rather than because those choices were right.”^a

^a Ann M. Dibb, “Arise and Shine Forth,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2012, 118.

Entries that address troubling passages

There are some passages of scripture that are not just confusing but may even be troubling. We do not always know a suitable answer to upsetting ideas included in the scriptures. This is often due to incomplete information in the scriptural text. Some Scripture Helps entries are written to acknowledge and contextualize these passages as far as it is possible, like in the following example:

Deuteronomy 15:12–18
What do we know about slavery in Old Testament times?

During ancient times, slavery was an accepted part of society for many cultures. People became slaves for a variety of reasons, and some even voluntarily sold themselves into slavery to get out of debt or to find security.^a Slaves led difficult lives, but certain types of slavery were more difficult than others. Some slaves were afforded educational opportunities and held positions of responsibility.^b

The law of Moses did not prohibit slavery, but it did set up important protections for the treatment of Israelite slaves. As part of the Sabbatical year, Israelite slaves were to be released with generous provisions, likely to help prevent them from returning to slavery.^c Israelite servants could also choose to remain with their master and household rather than being set free.^d

The scriptures do not provide a clear explanation for why the Lord did not prohibit slavery among ancient Israelites. However, in modern revelation, He has made it clear that “it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.”^e

^a See Leviticus 25:39; Deuteronomy 15:16–17.

^b See Holzapfel and others, Jehovah and the World of the Old Testament, 66. See also Longman and Strauss, The Baker Expository Dictionary, “Slave,” 752–53.

^c See Deuteronomy 15:12–15.

^d See Deuteronomy 15:16–17; see also Exodus 21:6.

^e Doctrine and Covenants 101:79. See also “Philemon 1:10–17. What do we know about slavery in New Testament times?,” in Scripture Helps: New Testament (2027).

Entries that connect older scripture to revelations from the Restoration

Every book of scripture benefits from insights gained through the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout the Bible, additional knowledge may come as we learn about the revelations and scripture revealed to Joseph Smith. Entries of this kind connect those revelations to the Bible, enhancing our study:

Genesis 5:19–24; Moses 6:26
What do we learn about Enoch’s ministry from Joseph Smith?

The ministry of Enoch was much more significant than what is described in the Bible. In Genesis 5, we learn that “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”^a The book of Hebrews clarifies that Enoch was translated.^b And Jude records a brief prophecy that Enoch made.^c

As the Prophet Joseph Smith worked on his inspired translation of the Bible, the Lord revealed to him many significant details about Enoch. These details, recorded in Moses 6–7, include Enoch’s call to be a prophet, his preaching, the city of Zion he established, and his visions, prophecies, and inspired teachings.

^a Genesis 5:24.
^b See Hebrews 11:5.
^c See Jude 1:14–15.

Entries that examine helpful context provided by a Church leader

Sometimes a Church leader teaches something about a scripture passage that provides important clarification or context, such as the following entry:

Job 1:13–19
What did Job learn about the purpose of suffering? 

Elder Dale G. Renlund observed that while the book of Job acknowledges that bad things happen to good people, it “never answers the why. Job learns that trusting God and not relying on his own understanding is the way to approach difficulties in life. These teachings encourage us to let God prevail so that we remain optimistic and hopeful despite challenges. . . .

“God in His wisdom knows that a vital part of our mortal experience is to not know everything. There is something about trusting Him that allows us to progress to become like Him.”^a

^a Dale G. Renlund, “Trust God and Let Him Prevail,” Liahona, Aug. 2022, 4, 5.

Entries that point readers to Jesus Christ

Everything written by the institute curriculum team, including in Scripture Helps, has the overall objective to lead students of scripture to Jesus Christ. Sometimes this is done indirectly by providing context that helps readers understand the scriptures better or by removing barriers to understanding the Savior by helping readers with potentially upsetting passages. Often, there are entries that directly point readers to the Savior, as in the following:

Leviticus 16
What was the Day of Atonement?

The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur in Hebrew) was the most significant holy day of the year for ancient Israel. It was a day of fasting and renewal, when the high priest symbolically made “an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins.”^a

This day was unique because it was the only occasion when the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, the most sacred area of the tabernacle. Before doing so, he dressed in white linen and performed various animal sacrifices on behalf of the people. He then entered the Holy of Holies and sprinkled blood from the sacrifices onto the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. Afterward, the high priest would place his hands on the head of a male goat, known as the scapegoat, and confess the sins of the children of Israel.^b This act symbolically transferred the sins of the people onto the goat, which was then sent into the wilderness.^c

The rituals of the Day of Atonement had important symbolic meaning. For example, the high priest who took the sacrificial blood through the veil foreshadowed Jesus Christ, the “great high priest”^d who passed through the veil to make intercession for us through His Atonement.^e The blood of the slain animals that was sprinkled on the mercy seat can also represent the blood of Jesus Christ, whose blood “was shed for the remission of [our] sins.”^f And the scapegoat that would “bear upon him all [Israel’s] iniquities”^g can symbolize Jesus Christ, who has “borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,” even “the iniquity of us all.”^h

^a Leviticus 16:34.

^b See Bible Dictionary, “Fasts.”

^c See Bible Dictionary, “Scapegoat.”

^d Hebrews 4:14.

^e See Hebrews 8–10. See also Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, 121.

^f Doctrine and Covenants 27:2.

^g Leviticus 16:22.

^h Isaiah 53:4, 6. See also Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, 121.

Lessons Learned While Writing Scripture Helps

The following are some key lessons learned by the institute curriculum team through the creation of Scripture Helps.

Context matters

Under the gospel teaching and learning model, establishing context with content was presented as the first step. But deciding on the right amount of context a teacher should provide might feel a little tricky. At times, too little context is given in a rush to get to the doctrines and principles for students to apply. Without adequate context, it is easy to completely miss what the inspired author intended. At other times, a teacher could get so bogged down in interesting context that students might not see the relevance of scripture in their own lives.

The effort to write Scripture Helps for a global audience refined our ability to give enough relevant context for a question or scripture passage so that students could be successful in understanding both the author’s intent and how a teaching might be relevant to them. Simplifying the language also required us to be very clear about what context mattered in each entry.

Describe the dots; don’t connect them

As we wrote Scripture Helps entries, we tried to stay away from providing our own commentary. This can be difficult to avoid, because making connections is just something humans do. We even sometimes prefer inaccurate connections over no connections at all. This has happened in our past teachings, and bad connections do not age well.[10]

A phrase became common among our team as we counseled together and reviewed each other’s entries: “Describe the dots; don’t connect them.” This meant that as we worked on a question, we sought to describe what details we could find about language, culture, geography, political situations, family dynamics, or anything else available about a passage. Then if there was a connection to be made, we let ancient prophets and modern Church leaders make those connections. Sometimes, other scriptures commented on the passage we were working on. We described the dots, but we let prophets connect them. If they did not connect the dots, we left them described but unconnected. This was the safest route. This prevented us from writing something that wouldn’t age well.

When things are unsettled, say less

Prophetic commentary is not always available for contextual questions regarding the scriptures. At these times we turned to scholars. Often, we could find numerous scholarly sources that agreed on important contextual information. However, sometimes scholarly sources offered differing or conflicting information. When this happened, there was a temptation to provide all the possibilities. We found it was best to say less about unsettled matters. An explanation that a certain concept or detail was unsettled among scholars would age better in our material than providing a list of educated guesses.

Writing in the name of the Church

Perhaps the lesson that sums up all others for me was the realization that writing in the name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is different than writing in my own name. Scholars have the flexibility to be on the cutting edge of research because they can ask questions, provide hypotheses, and then disprove them in the effort to gain more knowledge. But the material produced by the Church of Jesus Christ represents Church teachings to the world. When I write something in my name, I am responsible for the content. But when I write something for the Lord’s church, it’s no longer mine. It must go through a process of refinement. It must represent the teachings of those whom the Lord has called to be the authorities of Church teachings. This process has made me more careful about what I teach and how I teach it. Like Moses, I desire “that all the Lord’s people [could experience being a curriculum writer for the Church]” (compare Numbers 11:29).

Conclusion

As Scripture Helps becomes available, our hope is that all students of the scriptures will find it useful in their personal and family study. We invite all gospel teachers to be familiar with the entries so they can use them to help students more fully understand the scripture texts you study together. Share this resource with your students, your family, and your friends. It is our hope that this resource will assist all of us in our efforts to “feast upon the words of Christ” (2 Nephi 32:3).

Notes

[1] The Book of Mormon Scripture Helps will be added around the end of 2026, and the Doctrine and Covenants Scripture Helps by the end of 2027.

[2] This included the revisions of the cornerstone courses, the Divine Gift of Forgiveness and Answering My Gospel Questions, as well as experimental workshops on emotional resilience.

[3] At the time of review in 2022, the Doctrine and Covenants scripture course (which had been completed in English in 2017) had only half of the manual translated into the standard institute language set (around 14 languages); the second half of translation was halted. Non-English speaking institute classes used the 1981 manual for the second half of the Doctrine and Covenants. The New Testament scripture course (completed in English in 2014) never had non-English versions of the course published due to budget restrictions. Non-English speaking institute classes used the 1979 manual The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles. The Book of Mormon scripture course was completed for all language sets in 2009. A refresh of the course was halted in 2019. The Pearl of Great Price scripture course was completed for all language sets in 2000. The Old Testament scripture course was the oldest resource, completed for all language sets in 1980.

[4] In parallel, the seminary curriculum team was also working on scripture lessons and including commentary and background. In many cases, the seminary and institute curriculum teams were duplicating efforts.

[5] See Matthew McBride and James Goldberg, eds., Revelations in Context: The Stories Behind the Sections of the Doctrine and Covenants (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2016).

[6] One previous constraint that limited providing some updated context for the scriptures was a concern over using scholarly sources. The long-standing standards were that only prophetic commentary was allowed, with occasional exceptions made for well-known Latter-day Saint scholars of the past. Because prophetic teachings typically emphasize personal application, this constraint made it difficult to provide broader context for the scriptures. Although earlier scholarship provided an excellent foundation, advances in modern scholarship have added much to our understanding of the ancient past; without new scholarship, institute resources would always be a few decades behind current understanding of scripture contexts. The institute curriculum team had a vision to provide updated prophetic commentary alongside scholarly contexts for the scriptures. The correlation department worked with the institute curriculum team to revise source standards in order to continue prioritizing the scriptures and teachings of living prophets while also including current, competent Latter-day Saint and secular scholarship.

[7] The cross-departmental work did ultimately prove fruitful in the creation of a separate product a few years later. Relationships formed across departments, earlier course-usage analysis conducted for the resource library, and the timing of revisions to Preach My Gospel together contributed to the development of a revised version of the Missionary Preparation manual. This was the first time such a curriculum product was created through the collaboration of so many departments within the Church.

[8] One innovation in the revised scripture course objectives included adding Scripture Study Skills, which were informed in part by findings of a pilot eighth-grade seminary. The materials for the scripture course teacher drew on both these study skills and the resource library. Scripture Study Skills would be a separate product as well so that it could be used by other entities like seminary, Sunday School, missionary training, and home study.

[9] Jared Moon, former manager of institute curriculum, provided this background information in an email to the author dated July 3, 2025.

[10] One example is the explanation many early members had for why there was a race restriction on priesthood ordination and temple ordinances. President Dallin H. Oaks explained:

“I studied the reasons then being given and could not feel confirmation about the truth of any of them. . . . I determined to be loyal to our prophetic leaders and to pray—as promised from the beginning of these restrictions—that the day would come when all would enjoy the blessings of priesthood and temple. . . .

“To concern ourselves with what has not been revealed or with past explanations by those who were operating with limited understanding can only result in speculation and frustration.” Dallin H. Oaks, “A Cause for Celebration,” New Era, August 2018.