scripture-study

Verify scripture and talk quotes against actual source files. Enforces read-before-quoting, the cite count rule, and the pre-publish checklist. Load when writing ANY document that cites scriptures, conference talks, transcripts, or other verifiable sources — studies, evaluations, lessons, guides, docs, everything.

Look up which General Conference talks, Journal of Discourses entries, and other sources cite a particular scripture verse using the BYU Scripture Citation Index (scriptures.byu.edu). Use when you want to know who has taught about a verse, how frequently a verse appears in conference, or to discover that a verse has surprisingly little modern commentary.

Stress-test the study's arguments, assumptions, and gaps before finalizing. Asks 'what are we missing?', 'where are we overreaching?', and 'does the text actually say what we think it says?' Use between gap analysis and first draft to sharpen the study.

Telescope into a specific scripture passage or narrow topic. Follow every footnote, trace every cross-reference, read full chapters for context. Produces intermediate findings in a working document. Use for focused, depth-first study on a single text or concept.

Six text-checkable properties for evaluating non-canonical sources (books, articles, transcripts, web content) before citing or recommending them. Loaded passively whenever the agent is asked to assess, summarize, recommend, or quote from a source outside the LDS canon. Names what the agent CAN check (correspondence, coherence, canonical fit, pillars-rhetoric, mark-keeping, steelman) and what only the user with the Spirit can check (witness, soul-fruit, animating spirit, personal stewardship-fit, override). Grounded in study/discernment-and-the-comprehending-eye.md.

Run the publish script to convert study documents to public HTML, then git add, commit, and push. Use when the user says publish, commit, push, or asks to share their work.

Externalize verified quotes and observations to a scratch file as you read, so they survive context compaction. Use during any study session to build a durable working document alongside source reading. This skill exists because files are durable — context is not.

Format scripture and conference talk links using workspace-relative paths. Covers path conventions, link examples, and file verification. Load when creating or editing study documents, lessons, talks, evaluations, or any markdown that references scriptures.

Trace a King James Bible word back to its Hebrew/Greek lemma and sense using Strong's Concordance. Use for KJV word-work — when the English word may flatten the original (one English 'love' over four Greek words; 'soul' over nephesh; 'lovingkindness' over chesed), or when the user asks what an OT/NT word means underneath. The Hebrew/Greek companion to webster-analysis.

The phased scripture-study workflow — binding question first, scratch file always, discovery search before drafting, gap and critical analysis as a hard gate, voice audit before shipping. Load when beginning any scripture study, or when a session realizes mid-stream that it is doing scripture study.

Look up words in Webster 1828 dictionary and analyze how historical meanings illuminate scripture. Use when studying Restoration-era vocabulary, when a word's historical meaning may differ from modern usage, or when the user asks about word origins.

Cast a broad net across the entire library — semantic search, conference talks, cross-volume connections. Surfaces patterns and relationships that deep reading misses. Use after deep-reading to widen the study, or independently for exploratory research.