Documents, Volume 1, Part 2 Introduction: April 1829–March 1830
Part 2: April 1829–March 1830
The translation and printing
of the Book of Mormon played a predominant role in JS’s life in the period from April 1829 to March 1830. From early April to the end of June 1829, JS
dictated the translation of the plates to , who thereafter created a copy for the printer,
of , New York. Printing of
the book began in early September,
and the first copies of the 588-page Book of Mormon were available by the end of March 1830. This productive period began when Cowdery,
who had been staying with and in , moved to , Pennsylvania, to serve as JS’s scribe.
Before meeting JS, reportedly
had a divine manifestation concerning the gold plates after learning about them in the fall of 1828. JS’s history recounts that “one
night after he [Cowdery] had retired to bed, he called upon
the Lord to know if these things were so,” and “the Lord . . . manifested to him that they
were true.”
In JS’s earliest account, the manifestation included a vision of the Lord and of the
plates.
Following this experience, Cowdery told that he “had been in a deep study all day and it
had been put into his heart that he would have the priviledge of writing for Joseph.” Cowdery then traveled to around the end of March
1829 to work with JS on the translation. On his way, he stopped in , Seneca Co., New York, to meet with , with whom he had spoken about JS and
the gold plates in 1828. After arriving in Harmony on 5 April 1829, Cowdery corresponded with Whitmer to inform him
about the translation process. On 6
April, Cowdery helped JS conclude an agreement to purchase a home and property from JS’s father-in-law, ; the next
day, he began recording JS’s dictation from the plates.
From that time to June 1829, JS and
spent most of their time on the translation, and Cowdery also
recorded eleven of JS’s revelations and, if its dating is correct, likely recorded
Revelation, Spring
1829 [D&C 10]. Three of the four April
revelations were directed to Cowdery and concerned translation, the two in May were for
and , and the five in June were addressed to members of the Whitmer family and to the three
witnesses of the plates. One of the
revelations called and Cowdery to the “same calling” as “Paul
mine apostle.” In May 1829, apparently in response to a commandment
conveyed to him by letter, David Whitmer moved JS and Cowdery from to . After the move, the pair stayed at the home of Whitmer’s
father, , where they completed the translation by the end of June. JS’s history stated, “From this time forth many
became believers, and were baptized, whilst we continued to instruct and persuade as
many as applied for information.”
Several JS
revelations and events during this period anticipated the formation of a church. A
March 1829
revelation
declared, “I will establish my Church yea even the church which was taught by my
Desiples,” and a revelation the next
month commanded to “seek to bring forth and establish the cause
of Zion.” The translation also
prompted JS and Oliver Cowdery to inquire about key foundational matters described
in the Book of Mormon, such as obtaining the authority to baptize. According to JS’s
history, in May 1829 John the Baptist appeared in
response to prayer and gave them that authority and promised them further authority
to bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost.
JS and Cowdery later reported being “confirmed . . . apostles” and given “the keys
of my kingdom” by Peter, James, and John, though the date of this event is not
known. In June 1829, according to
JS’s history, “the word of the Lord” came in the “chamber” of ’s home, authorizing JS and Cowdery to bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost
and directing them to ordain each other elders at some future date, after they
gathered believers to form an organization. That same month a
revelation commanded Cowdery and others to “build up my church,” and about the same
time, Cowdery produced a document called “Articles of the Church of
Christ,” written as “a commandment from God unto Oliver how he should build
up his Church & the manner thereof.” “Articles of the Church
of Christ” may have served as an early governing document before the church was
formally established; it described some of the duties of priests and teachers and
included instructions and prayers for the administration of the sacrament by the
priests. The number of believers in JS’s message continued to grow during this
period. “Almost daily,” explained JS in his history, “we administered the ordinance
of Baptism for the remission of sins, so [to] such as
believed.”
In June 1829, eleven men were chosen to see and bear witness of the gold
plates. A March 1829
revelation,
directed to , prophesied that the testimony of three witnesses of the
reality of the plates and the words found on them would be “[sent] forth” and that they would “work a reformation” among the
people. Sometime in late June, according to their
later published statement, , , and Martin Harris saw an
angel who “brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and
the engravings thereon.” A few days later,
eight other witnesses also saw and handled the plates and were charged to testify of
them.
Likely by early July 1829, began
copying the original text of the translation to create the printer’s manuscript, and by November he had finished about 261 of
464 manuscript pages.
JS wrote the
Book of Mormon preface,
possibly in August, and late that summer, after
mortgaged his farm on 25 August to pay for the
publication of the book, and his team began typesetting. By early October, JS left and returned to his family in , Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, in , Cowdery
continued to copy the Book of Mormon manuscript for the printer and to oversee its
publication.
Reminiscent evidence suggests
that by late summer 1829 believers began
using teachings from the Book of Mormon manuscript in their preaching.
JS and his
followers also shared unbound pages of the Book of Mormon before the printing was finished.
When visited at the printing office, for instance, he was given proof sheets of the
first gathering, or sixteen printed pages, which led to his eventual conversion and baptism
in 1830.
William Hyde, another early investigator of JS’s claims, recalled that
his family was granted early access to proof sheets of the Book of Mormon through ’s
brother . Hyde family members were finally baptized after JS and preached in their neighborhood in March
1834. According to JS’s history,
“Whilst the Book of Mormon was in the hands of the printer, we still continued to bear
testimony, and give information, as far as we had opportunity.”
They also apparently continued to baptize.
Believers likely met together between the time the translation was completed in June 1829 and the formal organization of the Church of Christ in
April 1830, but JS’s history passes silently over the
period. Cowdery’s 1829 “Articles of the Church of
Christ” stated that “the church shall meet together oft for prayer & suplication”
and gave instructions for the administration of the sacrament. ’s
history implies that there were meetings, but the actual worship practices and frequency of
meetings is unknown.
During the winter of 1829–1830, JS returned to
to handle a problem
related to publication of the Book of Mormon. The Reflector, a local
newspaper, was printed in ’s printshop on the weekends, giving editor access to the
uncut sheets of the Book of Mormon. In its 9 December
1829 issue, the Reflector notified readers that it would begin
printing portions of the Book of Mormon. Whether any of JS’s family or associates
were aware of this notice is unknown, but later recalled that and felt
prompted to go to Grandin’s shop one Sunday and discovered Cole printing excerpts of the
Book of Mormon in the Reflector. They confronted Cole, but when their efforts
to dissuade him proved unsuccessful, they sent word to JS in . JS briefly returned to Palmyra and ultimately convinced the newspaper
editor to desist. Cole agreed to what Lucy Smith termed “arbitration” and discontinued his
publication of Book of Mormon passages after the 22 January
1830 issue.
On 16 January 1830, JS signed an agreement permitting ,
financier of the Book of Mormon, to sell enough copies of the book to recoup the costs he
had incurred in paying for its publication. About this time a revelation directed , , , and
to go to Kingston, Upper Canada, to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon for the
provinces. Sometime between late January and
early March 1830 all four likely traveled to Kingston, but they returned without
success.
finished printing the Book of
Mormon by the middle of March
and then employed Luther Howard to bind the volume. By the end of March, when JS returned to
in company with of , New York, copies of the
Book of Mormon were available for purchase and JS was now prepared to formally organize a
church. Knight later wrote that upon their arrival
in Palmyra, JS was confronted by a distraught , who had been busily attempting to
sell the books but claimed no one would buy them. Knight’s account suggests that they had to
wait a day or two in Palmyra for additional books to be bound, but JS soon left for , where the church was organized on 6 April
1830.
The scarcity of
contemporaneous documents and the existence of misdated documents make it difficult to
create a detailed narrative for this period. Although not without dating problems of its
own, JS’s
history offers one of the most detailed records and is JS’s only firsthand account that
attempts to date most of the important events. The portion of JS’s history
covering this time period is transcribed and annotated in Histories, Volume 1
of the Joseph Smith Papers.