The legacy left by President Boyd K. Packer that may endure longest and have the broadest impact is what author Lawrence Flake called "the monumental publication of the LDS editions of the scriptures," which added 1,268 pages of study helps to the faith's four standard works.
The scriptures themselves grew, too, with the addition to the Doctrine and Covenants of two revelations — Joseph Smith’s vision of the celestial kingdom and Joseph F. Smith’s vision of the redemption of the dead, both canonized by the church in 1976. President Packer said that decision was "a very direct outgrowth of the scripture project."
"That had not occurred in over a hundred years," he added.
The announcement on the revelation on the priesthood also was included as an official declaration.
Still a new apostle in 1972, then-Elder Boyd K. Packer was assigned to a scripture committee with then-Elder Thomas S. Monson and Elder Bruce R. McConkie to bring together what he described as "the library of the Lord."
"As the generations roll on," he said in a 1982 conference talk about the project, "this will be regarded, in the perspective of history, as the crowning achievement in the administration of President Spencer W. Kimball."
The committee worked for nine years with a cast of hundreds. The church published the LDS edition of the King James Bible in 1979. That was followed in 1981 by publication of new editions of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price.
He believed the Lord's library also increased the scriptural literacy of the church. Millions of copies have been sold, and today millions access these scriptures and study helps on the church's Gospel Library app or online at LDS.org.
"There are church watchers, in and out of the church, who show great interest in what we do," he said. "They watch what they define as the power structure, the resources of the church, the changes in organization, the political and social issues; and they draw conclusions from their watching. They write their observations and print them in publications and represent them to be accurate and objective reports of what is going on in the church. In all of their watching and claiming, they have missed the most important of all the things that we have done in recent generations."
Lucile C. Tate, his biographer said President Packer regarded the scripture project with "deep reverence."
His son, Elder Allan F. Packer, a member of the church's Quorum of the Seventy, said one reason his father felt so strongly about the project was that "it was tucked into his focus as a teacher," said
At the time the new editions were published, President Packer looked ahead to how it would help students of the gospel.
"With the passing of years, these scriptures will produce successive generations of faithful Christians who know the Lord Jesus Christ and are disposed to obey his will," he said. "They will develop a gospel scholarship beyond that which their forebears could achieve. They will have the testimony that Jesus is the Christ and be competent to proclaim him and to defend him."
One of the parts of the scripture project dearest to President Packer's heart was the additional study helps, which were revolutionary. State-of-the art computer programs aided the compilation and printing of detailed cross references, indexes and a Bible Dictionary.
There also was a Topical Guide that thrilled President Packer and was a major reason he believed the scripture project represented a sea change in the study of the gospel within the church.
The Topical Guide included thousands of scriptural references to Jesus Christ in 58 categories. Proofreading the Topical Guide, he said, "was like proofing the dictionary."
"These references from the four volumes of scripture constitute the most comprehensive compilation of scriptural information on the mission and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ that has ever been assembled in the history of the world," he said.
The project was important enough to him that he referred to it again in his October 2014 general conference. He told a story about presenting a copy of the scriptures to the head of Christ's College at Oxford, who had helped him find records about a Packer ancestor. He showed the chaplain the references to Christ in the Topical Guide, "18 pages, very fine print, single-spaced."
"However you follow these references,” President Packer said he told the chaplain, "side to side, up and down, book to book, subject after subject — you will find that they are a consistent, harmonious witness to the divinity of the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ — his birth, his life, his teachings, his Crucifixion, his Resurrection, and his Atonement."
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