Writers of scripture often present their texts without revealing the processes behind their creation. In the case of the gospel authors or figures such as Joseph Smith, readers encounter only the finished work, not drafts, notes, or transparent accounts of sources in the modern academic sense. The absence of visible scaffolding means that scripture comes to us as a completed whole, not as a work in progress. What survives is not the workshop of the writer, but the voice of the author as it stands in its final form.
This feature gives scripture a distinctive authority. Because we do not see revisions, false starts, or competing influences, the text appears unified and intentional. The words seem to arrive fully formed, inviting readers to focus on meaning rather than method. The author’s voice becomes the primary, and often the only, point of contact between the reader and the divine message the text claims to convey. Questions of composition recede into the background, while the power of proclamation moves to the foreground.
The lack of disclosed sources also contributes to a sense of mystery. Unlike modern works that cite influences and document development, scripture resists being reduced to a paper trail. This resistance reinforces the idea of revelation: the text feels given rather than constructed. The reader is positioned not as an editor or critic peering behind the curtain, but as a hearer encountering something complete and authoritative.
As a result, scripture reads as final and closed, even when interpreted and reinterpreted across generations. Its authority rests less on demonstrable process and more on the force of the voice that speaks from the page. That voice, unaccompanied by drafts or explanatory apparatus, carries an aura of inevitability and sacredness. The finished product stands alone, inviting trust, reflection, and belief precisely because it withholds the ordinary signs of human making.
FINALLY
This leads to a fake appearance of mystery and finality in itself.
The content predictably will help that along. All holy books have oblique hard to understand ideas - that gives them a cloak of intriguing mystery and importance.
It pressures the reader to put the author above evidence. The author is consistent with somebody who thinks they have divine inspiration or some other gift of hidden knowledge.
Even if one has the interpretation intended by the author, it is not the same as being the author. The author is still standing up as if he were an esoteric source of truth. He or she is elitist. The sheep who gives the shepherd a reason to be elitist is equally a problem. The sheep is elitist by proxy.
Why hide? God writing alleged scripture through human agents does not mean it should come as if it were sent from heaven in the post.
The scriptures all came from an era where writing and materials were expensive to come by. The authors had to earn something. They had to feed themselves - everybody had to work. Even Paul said the labourer deserves his wages.