Revelation, , Seneca Co., NY, to and , Oct. 1830. Featured version, titled “35 & 36th Commandment AD Oct. 1830,” copied [ca. Mar. 1831] in Revelation Book 1, pp. 44–45; handwriting of ; CHL. Includes redactions. For more complete source information, see the source note for Revelation Book 1.
Historical Introduction
JS dictated this revelation for and in early October 1830, within a month of their in the . The revelation appointed them to the ministry and provided instruction regarding their preaching. Later in his life, Thayer wrote that he was prepared for the revelation by a vision in which “a man came and brought me a roll of paper and presented it to me, and also a trumpet and told me to blow it. I told him that I never blowed any in my life. He said you can blow it, try it. I put it in my mouth and blowed on it, and it made the most beautiful sound that I ever heard. The roll of paper was the revelation on me and Northrop Sweet. was the man that brought the roll and trumpet. When he brought the revelation on me and Northrop Sweet, he said, here is a revelation from God for you.”
also recalled that, following this revelation, “soon left the church.” , JS’s cousin and later a church , explained that Sweet and five others left the church and “organized the ‘Pure Church of Christ,’ as they called it, composed of six members, and commenced having meetings, and preaching, but that was the extent of the growth of this early schism.” Thayer, on the other hand, gathered “a large congregation” to hear JS preach. According to his own account, Thayer filled his barn—“and some could not get in”—where JS, , , , , , , and preached “with great power.”
“Testimony of Brother E. Thayre,” True Latter Day Saints’ Herald, Oct. 1862, 83. Thayer apparently organized another meeting in December at the Canandaigua courthouse, where JS or Sidney Rigdon likely preached. (“Credulity,” Pennsylvania Inquirer and Morning Journal [Philadelphia], 29 Dec. 1830, [2].)
Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.
Pennsylvania Inquirer and Morning Journal. Philadelphia. 1830–1834.
A Commandment to & th[e]ir call to the ministery &c given at Seneca County State of New York
Saying I say unto you & open ye your ears & hearken to the voice of the Lord your God whose word is quick & powerfull sharper than a twoedged sword to the dividing asunder of the Joints & marrow Soul & spirit & is a decerner of the thoughts & intents of the heart for Verily Verily I say unto you that ye are called to lift up voices as with the sound of a Trump to declare my Gospel unto a Crooked & a perverse generation for Behold the field is white already to harvest & it is the Elvenenth hour & for the last time that I shall call labouerers into my vineyard & my vineyard has become corrupted evry whit & there is none that doeth good save it is a few only <& they do err in many instances because of > all having corrupt minds & Verily Verily I say unto you that this have I established & called forth out of the Wilderness & even so will I gether mine elect elect from the four quarters of the Earth even as many as will believe in <on> my name & hearken unto my voice yea Verily Verily I say unto you that the field is white already to harvest Wherefore thrust in thy sickles & reap with all thy mights mind & strength open thy mouth & it shall be filled & thou shalt become even as Nephi of old who Journ[ey]ed from Jerusalem in the wilderness yea open thy mouth & spare not & thou shalt be laden with Sheaves upon thy Back for lo I am with thee you yea [p. 44]
John Whitmer supplied consecutive numbering to the majority of the revelations in the first part of Revelation Book 1. This is the only case in which a single revelation has two numbers; earlier revelations given to two or more individuals did not receive two numbers. There is no other evidence that this revelation was originally two different texts.
In the Book of Mormon, Nephi, the son of Lehi, journeys with his father’s family from Jerusalem through the wilderness and ultimately sails to the New World. (Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 5–9, 38–50 [1 Nephi chaps. 1–2, 16–18].)