Introduction to Revelations and Translations: Volume 2
Joseph Smith–Era Publications of
Revelations
“The
commandments of the Lord are sacred, and above the inventions of men,” declared
in a February 1833 editorial in the Mormon newspaper
The Evening and the Morning Star.
Phelps’s pronouncement referred to more than just the commandments found in the
Bible: only a few months earlier, he and others had begun setting type for the
Book of
Commandments, a compilation of sacred texts dictated by
Joseph
Smith and believed by Smith’s followers to be communications from God.
“When we remember,” Phelps continued, “that the commandments of God, came by
the gift and power of God: or, in other words, holy men spoke moved by the Holy
Ghost, we ought to rejoice with great joy: for in this manner spake the
prophets for the saint’s good, even in these last days.”
Phelps and other Latter-day Saints found great comfort—even great joy—in the
continuation of God’s interaction with man. These commandments, or revelations,
as they were also called, imparted theological guidance,
spiritual comfort, and practical direction to the Saints.
This second
volume of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith
Papers presents
Joseph
Smith’s revelations in the format that early Latter-day Saints most often
experienced them. Reproduced herein are the most significant printed versions
of the revelations that were published or in the process of being published
during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. The publications containing these revelations
are the Book of
Commandments (1833); the church newspaper The Evening and
the Morning Star (1832–1833) and its
later, reprinted version, Evening and
Morning Star (1835–1836); and the first
and second editions of the Doctrine and Covenants (1835,
1844),
the latter of which was begun in 1841 but not
completed until late summer 1844—shortly after
Joseph Smith’s death on 27 June.
This volume is a companion to the first volume in this series, which presents
the contents of two large manuscript books into which revelation texts were
hand copied. Together, these volumes provide the most important primary sources
needed to study the revelation texts and their development during Joseph
Smith’s lifetime.
The Book of
Commandments and the first edition
of the Doctrine and Covenants are represented herein by photographs of the
printed pages of a surviving copy of each original volume. The second edition
of the Doctrine and Covenants is also represented by photographs of an original
copy, but because the second edition was essentially a reprint of the first,
only seven sections added to the later compilation (sections 101–107) are
included here. The items that appeared in The Evening and
the Morning Star (,
Missouri; and
,
Ohio) and its reprint, Evening and
Morning Star (Kirtland, Ohio), are
printed in a
two-column
format to facilitate comparison of the texts with one another. Two
appendixes provide related materials: The first is a proposed sixth gathering
of the Book of Commandments, which is a
transcript of the thirteen additional items that would likely have been
included in that volume had vigilantes not halted publication by destroying the
print shop. The second appendix presents photographs of selected pages from Oliver Cowdery’s copy of
the Book of Commandments. These photographs show
marks editors made in that volume while compiling and editing revelations for
the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants.
Both Joseph
Smith–era editions of the Doctrine and Covenants were formally divided into two
parts. The first part, “on the doctrine of the church,” comprised seven
lectures or essays on the subject of faith that were delivered to the
in Kirtland, Ohio, in the winter of
1834–1835.
The lectures, though categorically different from revelations and probably
authored by persons other than
Joseph
Smith, are included in their entirety herein to provide a complete
presentation of the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants.
Regardless of authorship, the lectures can be considered Joseph Smith documents
in the sense that he and other members of the church presidency introduced them
in a signed preface
as being among “the leading items of the religion which we have professed to
believe.”
The second, or “covenants and commandments,” part made up the bulk of the
volume and included the revelations, a few other similar items, and several
statements respecting church polity and practice.
As in the first
volume of this series, the document introductions and annotation in this volume
focus on textual matters, though the introductions also provide historical
context for the documents. A central objective of the footnotes is to identify,
wherever possible, the immediate source text or texts for the printed
revelations included in this volume. In this regard, the
chart on the next
page may provide a convenient overview.
Users of the
present volume should also consult the Documents series of The Joseph
Smith Papers,
which will publish the earliest and best extant version of each revelation,
arranged in chronological order with other Joseph Smith documents of various
genres. Volumes in the Documents series will include a historical introduction
for each revelation, as well as rich contextual annotation and supplementary
resources.
Oral and Print Cultures of Early Mormonism
On
1 November 1831, a conference at
, Ohio, of leading
elders of the Church of Christ voted to publish ten thousand copies of a
compilation of Joseph
Smith’s revelations. The preceding year,
Joseph Smith had published the Book of Mormon,
which his followers viewed as an inspired translation of an ancient narrative.
But church leaders at the 1831 conference were
authorizing, for the first time, publication of Smith’s revelations—messages
expressed in the first-person voice of Deity that Smith dictated to his
scribes.
Publishing the revelations would
not only expand their availability but also represent a change in practice
because access to the revelations had, to that point, been limited. Early
revelations cautioned leaders against sharing the texts widely. A circa
Summer
1829 revelation, for example,
gave the explicit command to “shew not these things neither speak these things
unto the World.” A
3 November 1831 revelation,
dictated immediately following the aforementioned conference, reminded
listeners that Smith’s revelations had been “commanded to be kept from the
world in the day that they were given.” With the newly authorized publication,
however, the revelations were now “to go forth unto all flesh & this
according to the mind & the will of the Lord.”
Practical and
cultural considerations also played important roles in limiting access to the
revelations.
Joseph
Smith’s earliest visions and other communications with the divine, which
began in 1820, were likely not recorded when they
occurred. In part, Smith was personally reluctant to publicize his sacred
experiences. He was also reared in a family and a society that were emerging
from a predominantly oral culture to one increasingly reliant on written
texts.
Initially, the young Joseph Smith seemed to view the divine communications he
received as oral and private texts, to be shared with others only by word of
mouth, if at all. Though many of Smith’s earliest spiritual experiences would
eventually be seen by followers as the genesis of a new religion and as worthy
of recording and retelling widely, they were at first largely personal
experiences that answered private questions.
By the late 1820s, after attracting a few followers,
Joseph
Smith began recording revelation texts in writing, both to preserve them
and to transmit them more widely.
As he recorded more revelations, interest in them grew, and early converts made
copies by hand either for personal reference or for use in proselytizing. The
limitations of hand copying ensured that, even without an official policy, only
Smith’s closest associates had regular and unrestricted access to the
revelations.
As the early recorded
revelations were disseminated, written texts were
accompanied by oral contexts. When possible, traveling
missionaries made handwritten copies of revelations for themselves and then
showed or read these texts to others while verbally conveying information about
the origins or meaning of the texts. Early church leader
referenced the interplay between oral and written texts in his
journal. Shortly after ordaining Simeon Waymouth an elder,
Hyde wrote, “[I] instructed him[,] wrote the articles Laws and commands for him
and gave him all the information [I] could.”
, another early convert, described the same interplay in a
reminiscent account: “We often had access to the manuscripts [of the
revelations] when boarding with the Prophet; and it was our delight to read
them over and over again, before they were printed . . . and a few we copied
for the purpose of reference in our absence on missions; and also to read them
to the saints for their edification.”
Many revelation
texts were recorded in such a way that their message could not have been fully
understood without additional information. For example, the earliest extant
text of an October 1830 revelation
commands
to “go with my servant
and
into the wilderness among the Lamanites and
also shall go with them.”
Including surnames was unnecessary because those within the small community of
believers were personally acquainted with the individuals being referenced.
Members of that community would also have understood what was meant by
“wilderness” and “Lamanites.” Later, if Pratt and others shared the written
text outside the community, they would have verbally communicated the missing
or implied information. Before print
publication and while the Mormon community remained intimate, oral subtext or
context conveyed more information than was actually written on paper.
Printing the
revelations put greater distance between the reader of the text and the persons
who originally dictated and recorded it. Before publication, hearers or readers
likely would have learned about a text’s creation or accepted interpretation
from Joseph Smith or from his close associates. Once
the text was printed, however, it generally had to stand on its own. Those who
prepared the revelations for publication, therefore, sometimes provided
additional contextual information. For example, they often inserted
surnames
and brief introductions. Nevertheless, because no oral and little written
introduction accompanied the individual printed revelation texts, the
revelations became more autonomous, meaning that members could increasingly
interpret the texts outside of their original context and intended meaning.
Though
published texts could potentially lead to misinterpretation or heresy, they
also provided Latter-day Saints and potential converts with a banner to rally
around. Believing they were guided by commandments issued directly from God to
Joseph
Smith endowed early Mormons with a sense of exceptionalism that helped
bind converts to the community of Saints. Early in his ministry, before the
revelations had been published widely, Joseph Smith was fairly accessible to
his followers. As the church grew, however, he necessarily became less so, and
a smaller proportion of the church membership had regular contact with him and
therefore with the community-building, faith-affirming power of his
revelations. Publication allowed more people to access and interpret the
revelations—the element of the new religion that drove every aspect of its
doctrine and practice.
The Book of Commandments
Following the
November 1831 conference, a revelation
established a group of men, later called the Literary Firm, to oversee
publication of the revelations. Members of the Literary
Firm were to benefit from the profits of its printing endeavors, with any
surplus going into church coffers. The
United Firm, an economic arm of the church, was to provide monetary support for
the Literary Firm. While the Literary
Firm originally had plans to publish a number of works, including a hymnal and
an almanac, its primary focus was the Book of
Commandments.
In the winter
of 1831–1832, two Literary Firm members,
and
, carried a manuscript book titled “Book of Commandments and
Revelations” (known in this edition as Revelation Book 1)
to
,
Jackson County, Missouri. Using Revelation Book 1 as their primary source,
Cowdery, Whitmer, and fellow Literary Firm member
, who had been appointed
church printer, began printing what came to be called the Book of
Commandments.
Church leaders expected the Book of Commandments to aid members in living their
religion. “We hope,” began one notice announcing the forthcoming book, “that
while they [the Saints] are thus blessed with the precious word of their Lord
from heaven, in these last days, . . . they will hearken to his counsels and
lend an ear to all his precepts.”
Anticipation for the Book of Commandments spread beyond church headquarters, in
part through the ministry of missionaries, who saw the revelations as central
to the gospel message they were sent to preach. In 1832,
, then preaching in
, took advance orders for copies of the
Book of Commandments.
The members who ordered books from Hyde were recent converts who purchased the
book sight unseen, evidencing both the members’ excitement about the book and
their conviction that the revelations contained therein were crucial to
improving their understanding of the doctrines of their newfound faith.
Printing was
halted in July 1833 when tensions between
Mormons and their neighbors came to a head over religious, economic, cultural,
and political issues. That month Missouri vigilantes destroyed
’s printing office and demanded that the
Mormons leave the . A small
number of sheets from the unfinished printing of the Book of
Commandments were salvaged and later bound, but
few copies of the volume survived the violence. Besides being scarce, the
surviving volumes were also incomplete, since the vigilante activity prevented
the printing of several additional revelations that appear to have been slated
for inclusion.
Nevertheless, some early Latter-day Saints did obtain and use the volume.
, for example, read from it at an 1834
baptism meeting, and in 1835, William W. Phelps
counseled his
based on a revelation found in the Book of Commandments.
The Evening and the Morning Star
Though the Book of
Commandments did not succeed in making the
revelations widely available, printed versions of some revelations had become
publicly available as early as 1832. In
June of that year, before the
printers began editing the revelations for the Book of Commandments, they
launched the first official church newspaper, The Evening and the
Morning Star. The Star’s prospectus announced it would
“be devoted to the revelations of God as made known to his servants by the Holy
Ghost.” The first
three items published in the first issue of the newspaper, under the heading
“Revelations,” were the church’s founding articles, an April 1830 revelation regarding baptism, and a
March 1831 revelation on the Second Coming of
Christ.
Ultimately, twenty-six full or partial revelation texts
appeared in the Star between June
1832 and June 1833, reaching perhaps a
few hundred subscribers. Textual studies and other evidence indicate that the
versions of some revelations published in the Star were used as
source texts when those same revelations were typeset for the Book of
Commandments. The reverse was also true: printers used the typeset versions of
some Book of Commandments texts as sources when typesetting revelations for the
newspaper. In short, each publishing initiative in the small print shop
leveraged the work being done on the other.
The paper was a
crucial resource for Latter-day Saints because it was, at the time, the most
accessible source for the revelations. During his ministry as a missionary,
recorded teaching from the account of
Joseph
Smith and
’s vision
of the degrees of heavenly glory, which was printed in the Star:
“[I] visited a number of the Sisters and strengthened them by the word of
Exhortation[.] [We] came together in the evening and we read and explained the
vision to them, as the Second no. of the Star had come and it strengthened them
verry much.”
That the revelations were a prominent feature of the newspaper is evidenced by
an October 1834 letter to
, editor of the later church newspaper the Latter Day
Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, which published revelations only
infrequently. “Some of our neighbors, who read your paper with us,” wrote a
church member, “ask why so many revelations in the papers of your predecessor,
, and none in yours?” The revelations were so
central to the purpose of the Star that their absence was noted
and their presence missed by readers both within the church and without.
In
September 1833, two months after the
destruction of the
, members of the United Firm met in
,
Ohio, and established a press operated by the firm F. G. Williams &
Co. An
April 1834 revelation
transferred the responsibility of printing the revelations and other sacred
works to this firm, under the direction of
and
. F. G. Williams &
Co. was largely made up of Literary Firm members, but the Literary Firm appears
to have slowly faded out of existence after the expulsion of church members
from
, though
occasional later references to it do exist.
F. G. Williams
& Co. resumed publication of The Evening and the Morning
Star in
.
Although ten new issues of the Star were printed in Kirtland,
editors did not publish any additional revelations in the paper. The
twenty-fourth and final issue of the Star was published in
Kirtland in September 1834. On the final page
of that issue, a prospectus announced a forthcoming edited reprint of the
newspaper, explaining that The Evening and the Morning Star had
been valuable not only in providing access to the revelations but in
documenting the growth of the church and recounting the suffering of the
Mormons in
. A reprint would make all these
materials more widely available. The prospectus for the new publication, which
was given the slightly modified title Evening and Morning Star,
contemplated that editorial work in the reprint would be limited to the
correction of typographical and other errors.
While editor
and others who assisted with printing Evening and Morning
Star did take most of the text from the previously published issues,
they also made substantive changes to the revelation texts.
First Edition of the Doctrine and Covenants
Just as
printers in
had published revelations in the
church newspaper at the same time they were preparing a book-length compilation
of revelations, the
editors who issued reprints of the Star were simultaneously
preparing an updated compilation of revelations to succeed the Book of
Commandments. Church leaders may have begun
planning a successor volume as early as fall
1833, but work on the book, called the Doctrine and
Covenants, did not begin in earnest until a year
later. In September 1834,
Joseph
Smith,
,
, and
were appointed as a committee to select and arrange materials for
a compilation of “items of the doctrine of Jesus Christ for the government of
the church.” These items were “to be taken from the bible, book of mormon, and
the revelations which have been given to the church up to this date or shall
be, until such arrangement is made.”
The committee
eventually modified its approach: though revelations were printed as planned,
doctrinal lectures delivered to the 1834–1835 Elders School were published instead of excerpts
from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. In compiling and preparing the
revelations for the Doctrine and
Covenants, the committee drew primarily on Revelation Books 1
and 2
and on the Book of
Commandments. As had been the case in the
, some cross-pollination also occurred
between the newspaper and the book-length compilation: the first six issues of
the reprinted Star, which were published from
January 1835
to September 1835,
contained the full or partial texts of thirteen
revelations that were revised before or in
connection with the publication of the Doctrine and Covenants. Some revisions,
therefore, appeared in Evening and Morning Star before they
appeared in the Doctrine and Covenants, which was bound and on the market by
September 1835.
Similarly, the eleven full or partial revelation texts
that appeared in Evening and Morning Star after
September 1835 corresponded with the versions
previously published in the Doctrine and Covenants.
What might be
seen as a purpose statement for the Doctrine and Covenants comes from the
minutes of a general assembly of the church that met on
17 August 1835 to examine an advance copy of
the Doctrine and
Covenants. The minutes read, “It was deemed
necessary to call the general assembly of the Church to see whether the book be
approved or not by the authoroties of the church, that it may, if approved,
become a law unto the church, and a rule of faith and practice unto the
same.”
As evidenced by the full title of the earlier compilation, A Book of Commandments,
for the Government of the Church of Christ,
the printed revelations were expected to inform church government. The
destruction of the
had left that need largely unfulfilled,
necessitating another volume that could serve as “a law unto the church” and “a
rule of faith and practice.” As the church grew numerically and geographically,
as the ranks of leadership expanded, and as previously created leadership
bodies began to assume more formal roles, expanding the revelations’
availability became indispensable.
Because the 1835 volume
was meant in part as a current guide to how Latter-day Saints should live their
religion, some earlier revelations needed updating to reflect the latest
developments in organization, doctrine, and practice. These were not the first
changes to the revelations; manuscript versions of the revelations had been
edited in preparation for publication in The Evening and
the Morning Star and the Book of
Commandments in 1832 and 1833. The majority
of the earlier changes were intended to polish the texts for publication:
versification was inserted, punctuation was added or modified,
grammar was corrected, and some language was standardized. More significant
alterations were also made to the revelations in 1832 and 1833, though most
were limited to the addition of an occasional phrase or substitution of a word
or two and largely had the effect
of clarifying the language.
The same
patterns held true for modifications made in preparation for the 1835 volume,
with most of the corrections being in the nature of copyediting. A minor subset
of corrections made for the Doctrine and Covenants was more substantive in
nature and often reflected changes in church government, structure, and
doctrine that had occurred since the time the revelations were first dictated.
For instance, the church’s founding articles,
first recorded in April 1830, describe the
roles of certain church officers.
New to the 1835 printing of the articles were instructions for ordaining men to
the office of “president of the high priesthood, (or presiding elder,) bishop,
high counsellor, and high priest.” When this
document was voted upon by the church in June
1830, none of these offices had yet been established. As a second
example, a revelation
recorded circa August 1830 was greatly expanded
when it was printed in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. The material added to
the 1835 version included updated and expanded doctrine on priesthood keys that
was not known at the time the revelation was originally dictated. If the printed revelations were
truly to be “a law unto the church, and a rule of faith and practice unto the
same,” only a book with the latest instruction on church government and
practice would be useful. The Doctrine and
Covenants was intended as a living handbook, containing up-to-date
instruction.
Some members of the Latter-day
Saint community resisted the publication of the Doctrine and
Covenants on the grounds that such a
codification of belief too closely resembled a formal creed. These members
believed they should rely only on inspiration and existing scripture, or as
asserted, that “we have no
articles of faith except the Bible.” The church presidency
gave a firm response to these concerns in the preface
to the 1835 edition: “There may be an aversion in the minds of some,” they
acknowledged, “against receiving any thing purporting to be articles of
religious faith, in consequence of there being so many now extant.” But, they
wrote, “if men believe a system, and profess that it was given by inspiration,
certainly the more intelligibly they can present it, the better. It does not
make a principle untrue to print it.”
Second Edition of the Doctrine and Covenants
A few months
after Joseph Smith and many church members migrated to
northern
in the first half of
1838, hostilities erupted between Mormons and
Missouri vigilante and militia forces. The
conflict led to the expulsion of virtually all practicing Mormons from
Missouri. Many church members took refuge in
,
eventually founding a city they named
along the banks of
the . These hardships led some to abandon the
faith, even as hundreds and then thousands continued to convert in the
British Isles and elsewhere. By mid-1844,
there were roughly twelve thousand Mormons in Nauvoo and many others elsewhere,
including nearly eight thousand in the British Isles.
These converts too needed access to the revelations.
In the late
1830s and early
1840s, published versions of revelations
continued to appear in Latter-day Saint newspapers, pamphlets, and broadsides,
though not at the same rate as in The Evening and the Morning
Star. By early
1841, -based
printer
began stereotyping a second
edition of the Doctrine and
Covenants in the same office where the church
newspaper Times and Seasons was published. The
decision to stereotype the second edition, especially in light of the struggle
to sell the complete run of the first edition, speaks to leaders’ conviction of
the importance of the revelations.
In the mid-nineteenth century, books were not normally stereotyped unless they
were expected to sell more than a few thousand copies or require multiple
reprints. Such
optimism regarding the potential sales of the second edition recalls the
earliest days of publishing the revelations, when the conference of
1 November 1831 determined to print ten
thousand copies of the Book of
Commandments. Sources indicate that one thousand
copies of the 1844 edition were eventually printed, and the stereotyped plates
were used again in 1845 and 1846 to print subsequent runs.
Editors of the first edition
of the Doctrine and Covenants were influenced by multiple source texts and in
some cases made significant changes to the revelations. The second edition,
in contrast, was largely a reprint of the first, with very few changes.
and successors to his role drew on the
1835 edition as their only source text for most of the 1844 edition, except in
the case of eight items they added, six of which were not recorded until after
1835. In 1842
Robinson sold the printing concern to
Joseph
Smith, who placed all aspects of the operation under the direction of the
Quorum of the Twelve.
Work on the second edition of the Doctrine and Covenants was delayed such that
the book was not published and available for purchase until late
July or early
August 1844, several weeks after Joseph Smith
was killed.
Epilogue
A brief review
of the question of prophetic succession that arose after
Joseph
Smith’s death highlights two significant consequences of publishing the
revelations. First, publication of the revelations led to their being
increasingly subject to a wide variety of interpretations, outside of the
guidance of central authorities. Second, upon Smith’s death the Doctrine and
Covenants increasingly emerged as a symbol of Smith’s spiritual legacy and of
the foundation he had laid for the church.
Several
individuals or groups eventually claimed authority to succeed
Joseph
Smith as head of the church he founded. The primary contenders for that
position in the immediate aftermath of Smith’s death were
, who had been Smith’s first counselor in the First Presidency, and
the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, led by quorum president
. The formal resolution of the dispute came at an
8 August 1844 conference in
at which the vast
majority of those in attendance voted to accept the Twelve as leaders of the
church. Rigdon nevertheless continued to assert his leadership claims, which
led to a public excommunication proceeding held before Bishop
and the high council of on
8 September. The primary charges were that
Rigdon had claimed to receive revelation for the church and had secretly
performed ordinations.
Opening the
arguments,
explained that the trial was authorized by texts in the Doctrine
and Covenants.
Throughout the proceedings against
, accusers grounded their remarks in
Joseph
Smith’s revelations. They consistently argued that a protocol established
during Smith’s lifetime required new revelation to be presented to the quorums
and approved by the leadership of the church. Rigdon, they argued, had refused
to submit his revelations to this process. Apostle
described the protocol succinctly: “There is a way by which all
revelations purporting to be from God through any man can be tested. Brother
Joseph gave us the plan . . . when all the quorums are assembled and organized
in order, let the revelation be presented to the quorums . . . and if it pass
the whole without running against a snag, you may know it is of God.”
Another member of the Twelve,
, asserted that any new
revelation or church action should be tested against the revelations given
through Joseph Smith: “the old revelations require us to build this .
. . . The new revelation [from Rigdon] is to draw the people to
,
and scatter them abroad; and do any thing and every thing but that which the
old revelations bid us do.”
The “old revelations,” as Smith’s dictated texts were called at the trial, were
to be a gauge for any newly advanced doctrine, teaching, or revelation, and
their availability in published form created a churchwide standard by which
members could measure their understanding of church doctrine and practice.
In criticizing
’s approach, the Twelve argued that their
present focus was not to obtain new revelations but to implement the
revelations already received by
Joseph
Smith.
stated, “Now the quorum of the Twelve have
not offered a new revelation from the time of the massacre of our beloved
brethren, Joseph and
,
but we have spent all our time, early and late, to do the things the God of
heaven commanded us to do through brother Joseph.”
But while emphasizing Joseph Smith’s initiatives, the Twelve asserted that they
would also be entitled to receive revelation by the means established by the
martyred prophet. “Now we dont expect ever to move without revelation and they
that have the keys of the kingdom can get revelation,”
declared.
The importance
the Twelve placed on
Joseph
Smith’s revelations was reflected throughout the church. Local church
members and congregations who supported the Twelve found justification for
their positions in the revelation texts and emphasized the importance of
adhering to Smith’s revelations. A
conference in
representing fourteen church
branches resolved “that we who compose the north eastern conference of
Michigan, viewing the present situation of the church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, feel to sustain the present authorities of the church, the
quorum of the Twelve, and others in carrying out the commandments of God, that
have been given thorugh Joseph Smith, our martyred prophet.”
It should be
noted, however, that for leaders like
, interpretation of the printed revelations did not give sufficient
authority to lead the church. The revelations, though of undeniable importance,
were secondary in authority to the men who had been ordained to the priesthood
and called to speak in the name of God. The minutes of
’s trial record Young as saying, “As to a person
not knowing more than the written word, let me tell you that there are keys
that the written word never spoke of, nor never will.”
Young later recounted a meeting in which he, at the urging of
Joseph
Smith, stated his views on the relative importance of the printed word of
God, as revealed in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants: “I
would not give the ashes of a rye straw for these 3 books for the salvation of
any man . . . if we hadn’t living oracles in our midst we had nothing [more
than the] sectarian world.”
Nevertheless, the Doctrine and
Covenants served as a proof text for several groups who traced their
faith back to Smith, not just for those who
followed and the Twelve. ’s new newspaper, Messenger and
Advocate of the Church of Christ, opened with a letter
written by a Rigdon supporter that used almost a dozen quotations or
citations from the 1844 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants
to argue for Rigdon’s authority. Citing passages regarding the role
of the Twelve, the letter’s author, , interpreted Smith’s revelations in
Rigdon’s favor. Speaking of followers of the Twelve generally,
Forgeus asserted they were “honest, industrious and good citizens,
but nevertheless, I know they have been duped in regard to following
the counsel of men, instead of following the commandments of God, as
given through Joseph Smith.” Other individuals claiming rightful
succession or authority to lead also relied on revelations in the
Doctrine and Covenants to justify their positions. presented an
“Epistle” to the “Elders of the Church” in which he cited the
Doctrine and Covenants over twenty times and quoted a dozen excerpts
from the revelations. Strang counseled the elders to remember “the
words of the Lord by the mouth of the Prophet Joseph: that you be
not deceived, that you receive not the teachings of any that come
before you as revelations and commandments, except they come in at
the gate and be ordained according to the command of God.” Other groups or individuals also relied on
their interpretations of revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants
to justify following (or not following) various leaders.
Despite the
wide variety of conflicting arguments advanced by or on behalf of would-be
successors to
Joseph
Smith, individuals who wrote or talked about succession matters did agree
that church government and practice should follow the revelations. As Mormons
chose new leaders and continued their practice of the faith Joseph Smith had
founded, they grounded decisions in the revelations he had left behind. In the
absence of the founding revelator, they followed the textual witness of Joseph
Smith’s calling: the published revelations.