Joseph Smith Documents Dating through June 1831
This volume contains
the earliest surviving documents written, dictated, authorized, owned, or received
by Joseph
Smith. They originated from July
1828 to June 1831.
Almost no original records remain of Smith’s life from 1805 to 1827. What is known of that earlier
period is derived from reminiscent accounts, augmented by a few details from
contemporaneous government documents. Two of the most important reminiscent accounts
are Joseph Smith’s
1832 and
1838 histories, both of which provide detailed descriptions of the angelic
visits and manifestations he experienced in the 1820s.
Although recorded later, these histories provide important context for the documents
herein.
As recorded in his
1832
history, Joseph
Smith obtained a set of gold plates on 22
September 1827, written in an ancient language.
As he translated this record “by the gift and power of God” between 1827 and 1829, he also dictated several
revelations that provided instructions relative to the translation and publication
of the book and submitted a
copyright application for the Book of Mormon. These are among the documents that open this
volume.
Of all the earliest
texts that Joseph Smith authored or dictated, including the manuscripts of the Book of
Mormon, only a few letters and the
preface of the Book of Mormon are in his own first-person
voice. The Book of Mormon translation and early revelations, though dictated by
Smith, are in different voices, including the first-person voice of angels, ancient
prophets, and Jesus Christ. The first extant document written entirely in his own
voice is a
letter
written to in late
October 1829, as the Book of Mormon was being printed. The first
revelation received
after the Church of Christ was organized on 6 April
1830 concerned record keeping. It declared in the voice of God, “Behold
there Shall a Record be kept among you.” After the church was
established, practical needs influenced the kinds of records created, such as
minutes of conferences and ecclesiastical licenses.
Most of the documents
in this volume are copies of original manuscripts that have not survived. Of the
more than ninety texts featured in this volume, all but about a dozen are later
copies of nonextant originals. Most of the revelations featured here were copied
from earlier manuscripts into the first compilation of revelations,
Revelation Book 1, as
early as spring 1831. Because the
original loose sheets are not extant, there is no way to know how well these copies
represent the original dictations. Moreover, the lack of the originals at times
deprives modern readers of important information related to the initial intent and
reception of the original documents, as well as revisions made to them. For example,
the copy of Smith’s 28 December 1829
letter from lacks a postmark and gives no indication whether the letter was
mailed or hand delivered, information that would help historians understand the
context of the letter.
The pace at which
documents were created accelerated after April 1829
when became Joseph Smith’s scribe. Although revelations
constitute over half the documents in this volume, there are also letters, minutes,
licenses, and legal documents. While several of the revelations were related to the
translation process, Smith dictated many others in response to questions that arose
among believers. His followers regarded such communication as divine commandments.
The subsequent publication of these revelations as a book encouraged later readers
to view them as a collection, but they were not originally seen as a monolithic set
of records. The revelations were created under various circumstances, responded to
diverse questions, and addressed distinct audiences. The ways in which revelations
were recorded and circulated varied according to the purpose of production. For
instance, an 1829
revelation meant
for was written and handed to him personally, while an 1831
revelation termed
“the Law” was recorded as a commandment for the Church of Christ and was apparently
distributed widely among its members.
Some of Joseph
Smith’s revelations, especially the earliest, may not have been written at
the time he received them; others may not have been recorded at all and are lost to
history. The recorded revelations often circulated as individual handwritten copies.
They were also copied into private notebooks and personal journals or passed along
in letters. As with any copied texts, there were often small variations between the
versions, but only occasionally were those differences substantive. Although
multiple manuscript versions exist for some revelations, for others no manuscript
survives, and the published version is the earliest available.
Revelations provided
authoritative direction to individuals for both personal and ecclesiastical
concerns. For example, one
revelation commissioned to compile a church hymn
book, while
another instructed how
the debt on ’s farm should be
serviced and how the land should be administered in his absence. Revelations often came because individuals approached Joseph
Smith seeking specific guidance. described the circumstances of
his call as church historian: “I was appointed by the voice of the Elders to keep
the Church record. Joseph Smith Jr. said unto me you must also keep the Church
history. I would rather not do it but observed that the will of the Lord be done,
and if he desires it, I desire that he would manifest it through Joseph the
Seer.”
Thereafter a
revelation declared, “Behold it is expedient that my servent John should
write & keep a regulal [regular] history & assist my servent Joseph in
Transcribing.” Following the receipt of this
revelation, Whitmer accepted and served in his new appointment.
Although the earliest
revelations were addressed to individuals, by early 1831, as the church expanded and ecclesiastical
needs developed, revelations began addressing the general membership of the church.
For example, in February 1831, a group of elders met
with Joseph
Smith about an issue affecting all members: the imminent influx of members
into . During
their meeting, the elders asked five questions, to which Smith dictated revelations
in response. The revelations were recorded together as one document, called “
the Law,” and were
used to guide the church. Other revelations unfolded
theological concepts or gave apocalyptic warnings about what was to come. Whether
theological or practical, addressed to a general audience or particular associates
of Smith, the revelations generally called the recipients to action.
Joseph
Smith typically dictated the revelations in the first-person voice of Jesus
Christ, speaking the words of the Lord directly to the recipient. The revelations
often incorporated phrases, ideas, and terms found in the King James Version of the
Bible and in the
Book of
Mormon. They were also expressed, according to historian Richard Bushman, in
the “diction of a nineteenth-century American common man.” In Bushman’s opinion,
“The revelations from heaven shone through the mind of Joseph Smith and employed his
language to express the messages.” Smith told a reporter in
that “he never gave anything to his people as revelation, unless it was a
revelation, and the Lord did reveal himself to him.”
Although he declared they were inspired of God, Smith did not feel that the
revelatory texts he produced were beyond refinement; he made revisions to many of
the revelations and authorized others to edit them for publication. In an 1831
conference, remarked “on the errors or mistakes which are in commandments
and revelations, made either by the translation in consequence of the slow way of
the scribe at the time of receiving or by the scribes themselves.” The conference
resolved “that Br Joseph Smith Jr correct those errors or mistakes which he
m[a]y discover by the holy Spirit while reviewing
the revelations & commandments & also the fulness of the scriptures.” Aside from making editorial changes, Joseph Smith at
times greatly expanded the revelations themselves. For instance, a revelation
originally dictated in July 1830 was later published
in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants with
more than sixty additional words in the first verse that had not been included in
any of the early manuscripts.
The most prominent
among Joseph Smith’s revelatory dictations is the
Book of Mormon, which
he described as a translation of an ancient American record written on gold plates.
The
title page of
the completed book stated that it was a record of “a remnant of the house of
Israel.” According to Smith’s
1838
history, his
involvement with the Book of Mormon started in 1823,
several years before he began the translation, when he was visited by an angel who
told him “there was a book deposited written upon gold plates, giving an account of
the former inhabitants of this continent and the source from whence they sprang.”
The angel further declared “that the fullness of the everlasting Gospel was
contained in it as delivered by the Saviour to the ancient inhabitants.”
The Book of Mormon includes a sweeping historical and religious narrative that
declares itself to be a record of God’s interactions with ancient peoples and
prophets. While only a brief
excerpt of the Book of Mormon is featured in this volume,
Smith’s earliest documents were all created amidst his efforts to translate and
publish the book. Examining the process by which Smith translated the Book of Mormon
is essential to understand not only the book itself, but also Smith’s earliest
revelations, many of which were apparently received through a similar process.
In surviving records,
Joseph
Smith provided very little specific information about the translation
process. He did not claim to translate the Book of Mormon through his own knowledge
of ancient languages. In the Book of Mormon’s
preface, he simply
stated, “I would inform you that I translated, by the gift and power of God.”
Smith may have deliberately refrained from giving a detailed public account of the
mechanics of translation. In an 1831 church conference,
his brother stated that “he thought best that the information of the coming forth
of the book of Mormon be related by Joseph himself to the Elders present that all
might know for themselves.” Rather than complying with this request, Joseph Smith
responded that “it was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the
coming forth of the book of Mormon, & also said that it was not expedient for
him to relate these things &c.”
Notwithstanding their
lack of detail, records from Joseph Smith and his scribes demonstrate that he used
two separate instruments to translate the Book of Mormon. Smith stated that the
first was found with the plates and delivered to him by an angel, who explained it
consisted of “two stones in silver bows . . . and that was what constituted seers in
ancient or former times and that God had prepared them for the purpose of
translating the book.”
The text of the Book of Mormon spoke of the same instrument as “interpreters” and
foretold that it was to be preserved with the gold plates. By August 1829, Smith apparently
referred to this device as “spectacles,” a term he used again in his 1832
history.
In January 1833, an article in the church newspaper
The Evening and the Morning Star declared that he had translated
the Book of Mormon “by the gift and power of God . . . through the aid of a pair of
Interpreters, or spectacles— (known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim
and Thummim).” Soon thereafter Smith
apparently began applying the biblical term Urim and Thummim to the interpreters or
spectacles.
In addition to the
device found with the plates, Joseph Smith also translated using other individual
seer stones, which he would place in a hat to limit outside light. He and others
apparently later referred to these seer stones as Urim and Thummim, thus making it
difficult to determine in later accounts whether they were referring to the device
found with the plates or a separate stone that performed the same function.
, Smith’s principal scribe for most of the translation, explained,
“Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he
translated, with the Urim and Thummim,
or, as the Nephites whould have said, ‘Interpreters.’” Joseph Smith’s wife , who also served as a scribe for
the translation, described his use of two distinct instruments: “Now the first that
my husband translated, was translated by the use of the Urim, and Thummim, and that
was the part that lost, after that he used a small stone, not
exactly, black, but was rather a dark color.”
Later accounts by Joseph
Smith’s close associates—either scribes or other early believers who likely
learned of the process from Smith or his scribes—provide some idea of what appeared
on the Urim and Thummim or seer stone during the translation process. , a family friend, recalled that after Smith “put the urim and thummim
into his hat and Darkned his Eyes,” a sentence “would apper in Brite Roman Letters
then he would tell the writer and he would write it then that would go away the next
sentance would Come and so on But if it was not spelt rite it would not go away till
it was rite so we see it was marvelous.”
reportedly told an interviewer that her husband spelled out difficult
or unfamiliar words, including “proper names he could not pronounce.” She further
stated, “While I was writing them, if I made any mistake in spelling, he would stop
me and correct my spelling, although it was impossible for him to see how I was
writing them down at the time. . . . When he stopped for any purpose at any time he
would, when he commenced again, begin where he left off without any
hesitation.” Decades after the translation work, , one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, wrote that on the
“spiritual light” of the seer stone, “a piece of something resembling parchment
would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would
appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read
off the English to , who was his principal scribe, and when
it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it
would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus
the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power
of man.”
Early accounts
indicate that Joseph Smith and his scribes described the process,
including the use of both the Urim and Thummim and seer stones, to others outside of
the circle of believers soon after the translation was complete. In the summer of 1829, before publication of
the Book of Mormon had begun, a newspaper
printed the book’s title page with an explanation of how the plates were translated,
an account likely obtained from Smith himself or one of his associates. The editor
explained with considerable incredulity that “by placing the Spectacles in a hat,
and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these
characters.” In late
1830, while traveling through the Shaker community of Union
Village, Ohio, explained the process of translation, as
recorded by one of the Shakers: “The engraving being unintelligible to learned &
unlearned. there is said to have been in the box with the plates two transparent
stones in the form of spectacles thro which the translator looked on the engraving
& afterwards put his face into a hat & the interpretation then flowed into
his mind. which he uttered to the amanuensis who wrote it down.”
Regardless of how the
translation actually occurred, it is difficult to overemphasize the importance of
the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith and his early followers. “They had in
their possession,” wrote scholar Terryl Givens, “a recovered record whose very
existence was seen as prophetic proof that the final dispensation was truly
arrived.” Its existence made the movement that Joseph Smith led unique.
He considered it “the key stone of our religion.” In a time of intense conflict over biblical interpretation,
historian Gordon Wood noted, the Book of Mormon “cut through these controversies and
brought the Bible up-to-date. It was written in plain biblical style for plain
people. It answered perplexing questions of theology, clarified obscure passages of
the Bible, and carried its story into the New World. And it did all this with the
assurance of divine authority.”
Only about a quarter
of the originally dictated manuscript of the Book of Mormon survives, and the
excerpt featured in
this volume is taken from the largest extant section.
Because of their length, importance, and complexity, the Book of Mormon manuscripts
will be presented in separate volumes in the Revelations and Translations series of
The Joseph Smith Papers.
This volume also
contains a lesser-known revelation that was later associated with a subsequent work
of “translation.” Just months after the
Book of Mormon came off the press, Joseph
Smith dictated a revelatory text that took the form of a
revelation to Moses
introducing the account of the creation found in Genesis. Following this revelation Smith
began a three-year project of “translating” the Bible. This was not a translation in
the usual sense; he did not render the earliest Hebrew or Greek texts into English.
Instead, he revised and amplified the King James Version where he felt so inspired,
with the lengthiest additions coming in Genesis.
Also included in this volume is his
revelatory translation of an otherwise unknown Johannine
parchment. In this instance, Joseph Smith dictated the translation of it to apparently with the use of a seer stone.
Joseph
Smith apparently received many of his early revelations through the
spectacles or a separate seer stone in a manner similar to the way he translated the
Book of Mormon. For example, while they were translating in 1829, Smith and sought an answer to a biblical question and
“mutually agreed to settle it by the Urim and Thummin,” a reference to either the
spectacles or a separate seer stone.
, who sought instruction from Joseph Smith in November 1830, later told an interviewer that Smith used a seer stone to
receive the requested revelation. explained that “on arriving there Joseph produced a
small stone called a seer stone, and putting it into a Hat soon commenced
speaking.”
After 1830, however, Joseph
Smith apparently dictated revelations without the use of an external
instrument. Although he spoke the words as if God were speaking to him,
the divine voice was apparently not audible to others present when Smith received
them. Even so, in one revelation Jesus Christ declared, “It is my voice which
speaketh them unto you: For they are given by my Spirit unto you.” Joseph Smith once told his associates, “By it [the Spirit] these things were put into my hart.” Such statements lend credence to a later, more elaborate
description by , who served as a scribe for a
revelation: “The scribe seats himself at a desk or table, with pen, ink and paper.
The subject of enquiry being understood, the Prophet and Revelator enquires of God.
He spiritually sees, hears and feels, and then speaks as he is moved upon by the
Holy Ghost, the ‘thus saith the Lord,’ sentence after sentence.”
Many of the
revelations and other documents in this volume include eschatological statements, or
references to the end-time or the last days. In his 1832
history, Joseph
Smith said that during his first vision, the Lord told him that the second
coming of Jesus Christ was imminent.
That sense of an impending millennial advent pervades the documents in this volume.
The type of eschatology taught by Joseph Smith can be described as apocalyptic
premillennialism. It assumes that only Jesus Christ’s return to cleanse the corrupt
earth, dramatically and destructively, can introduce the Millennium. “The judgements
of the Lord are already abroad in the earth,” wrote Smith in 1830 to some of his followers in ,
New York, “and the cold hand of death, will soon pass through your neighborhood, and
sweep away some of your most bitter enemies, for . . . the earth will soon be
reaped.— that is, the wicked must soon be destroyed from off the face of the earth,
for the Lord hath spoken it. . . . Then shall come to pass that the lion shall lie
down with the lamb &c.” In
another letter several months later, he added, “Lift up your heads and rejoice for
your redemption draweth nigh,” for Christ was to come “in a cloud with the host of
Heaven, to dwell with man on the earth a thousand years,” and “the sword, famines
and destruction will soon overtake them [the wicked] in their wild career, for God
will avenge, and pour out his phials of wrath, and save his elect.” He counseled the
church to “be faithful in witnessing unto a crooked and a perverse generation, that
the day of the coming of our Lord and Savior is at hand.”
Expectation of an
impending apocalyptic judgment provided a major rationale for Mormon missionary
efforts. Many revelations put the command to proselytize in an eschatological
context, just as Joseph Smith did in his letters to the believers. ,
for instance, was told, “Lift up your voice as with the sound of a Trump both long
& loud & cry repentance to a crooked & perverse generation prepareing
the way of the Lord for his second Coming for Behold Verily Verily I say unto you
the time is soon at hand that I will come in a cloud with power & great glory
& . . . all nations shall tremble. . . . Wherefore lift up thy voice & spare
not for the Lord God hath spoken.”
One distinctive
element of early Mormon millenarianism was the belief that the righteous must be
physically gathered in preparation for the advent of Christ. This gathering provided
“a means of escape from much of the anticipated tribulation of the last days.” Passages in the Book of Mormon declared
that the righteous would “build a city, which shall be called the New Jerusalem; and
then shall they assist my people that they may be gathered in, which are scattered
upon all the face of the land, in unto the New Jerusalem.” Although early revelations and the Book of
Mormon prophesied that the righteous were to be gathered before the impending
destruction, an understanding about the place and manner of gathering only developed
over time. A fall 1830
revelation
explained that the faithful were to be “gethered in unto one place upon the face of
this land . . . against the day of tribulation & desolation is sent forth upon
the wicked for the hour is nigh & the day soon at hand.” A late 1830
letter
Joseph
Smith wrote from , New York, to
believers in warned, “The
time is soon at hand that we shall have to flee whithersoever the Lord will, for
safety.”
While early believers
anticipated an eventual gathering to a promised New Jerusalem, the location of this
prophesied city was initially unknown. In September
1830 a
revelation instructing declared, “Now Behold I say unto you that
it is not Revealed & no man knoweth where the City shall be built But it shall
be given hereafter Behold I say unto you that it shall be among the Lamanites.”
Joseph
Smith and his associates understood this to mean among the Indians in the
American West. Cowdery was subsequently dispatched in October 1830 on a mission both to proselytize the Indians and “to rear up
a pillar as a witness where the Temple of God shall be built, in the glorious
New-Jerusalem.” He traveled from to and
beyond, and with his companions he began to preach to Shawnee and Delaware Indians
living in what is now eastern Kansas. Meanwhile, a February 1831
revelation
instructed church members to consecrate their property to the church in preparation
for the “building up of the New Jerusalem.” The revelation further declared, “It
shall be revealed unto you in mine own due time when the New Jerusalem shall be
built.” A March 1831
revelation
confirmed that the precise location of the New Jerusalem was still yet to be
revealed. It commanded the believers to “gether up your riches that you may purchase
an inheritance which shall hereafter be appointed you & it shall be called the
New Jerusalem a land of peace a City of refuge a place of safety for the saints of
The most high God.”
One of the earliest
surviving documents from the period, a letter from to his sister and her in
April 1831, reflected both this belief in the
building of the New Jerusalem and uncertainty about the intended location. Marsh
explained that the Lord wanted all believers to “assemble at speedely &
thare our Hevenly Father will tell us what we shall next do, perhaps it will be to
take our march to the Grand preraras [prairies] in
the
teretori [territory] or to the shining mountains
which is 1500 or 2000 miles west from us how soon this will be we do not know in
fact we know nothing of what we are to do save it be reveild [revealed] to us but this we know a City will be built in the promised
Land.” In a world apparently spiraling downward to its cataclysmic
conclusion, the promised New Jerusalem came to be seen as the one safe haven for
believers. Many of the documents in this volume reflect the importance of this idea
both to Joseph Smith and to those who followed him.
Most of Joseph
Smith’s adherents embraced his millenarian views and accepted the
revelations as expressing the mind of God on the subject. In ’s insistent letter to his sister he averred that
“the time speedely cometh that the Lord decend from Heven & none but the pure
shall be able to abide the day[.] now we know that
many do not believe that He will come & reign on earth a thousand years with the
meek . . . but this we know will be so for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it
tharefore we desire to use all dilagence to make ourselves ready.” Marsh wrote as he
prepared to depart from in April 1831 with
dozens of believers who had embraced Smith’s revelation commanding them to move to
. He implored
his sister and to choose “affliction with
the people of God rather then enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” and invited
them to “take a part with me & the deciples of Christ in the new
Jerusalem!”
Joseph
Smith’s antagonists differed sharply in their assessment of his revelations;
whereas believers embraced them as God’s decrees from heaven, opponents saw them as
nothing more than his own creations, claiming divine sanction as a means of
projecting illusory authority. As historian Daniel Walker Howe observed, “In a
society where religious doctrine aroused so much interest as western in 1830, Smith’s purported revelation was of course subjected
to elaborate examination, refutation, and satire.”
, editor of the Painesville Telegraph and a dedicated
critic, referred to the revelations as “pretended” and labeled Smith a “miserable
imposter.” He maintained that Smith “invent[ed]
another ‘command from God’” whenever it suited his purposes. This prevailing skepticism,
however, did not prevent believers from shaping their lives to conform to what they
believed were God’s commands.
In addition to
revelations, this volume contains a small number of letters as well as minutes from
several important conferences. Three letters written in 1829 focus on efforts to publish the Book of Mormon. Two letters from
1830 address opposition to the church in while
another details the surge of converts in . Correspondence from 1831 pertains primarily to the gathering in Ohio and also reports
missionary labors among the American Indians.
Journals, historical
narratives, and transcripts or notes of Joseph Smith’s sermons and
speeches—records that are abundant for the period toward the end of his life—are
conspicuously unavailable during the period covered in this volume, though
contemporaneous documents include a small number of references to him speaking. In
addition, very few letters written by Joseph Smith or members of his religious
community during this period have survived. The sparse pre-1832 sources that are extant provide little information about the
content of Smith’s teachings—or, indeed, about any of his activities—during this
period.
Given this general
lack of early records, it is not surprising that no contemporary document recorded
visionary experiences that Joseph Smith later described as having taken place
during this time. No surviving documents from 1829
describe the visitations from angelic messengers, hearing the voice of God, or other
aspects of the restoration of divine authority. Information on these significant
events, particularly the priesthood restoration, instead comes from later accounts.
In his
later
history Joseph Smith explained that in May
1829, he and inquired “of the Lord respecting baptism
for the remission of sins as we found mentioned in the translation” of the Book of
Mormon. He then described an angelic visitation in response to their prayer for
divine guidance on the subject. He indicated that their visitor conferred upon them
“the priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministring of angels and of
the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.”
Joseph Smith further recorded: “The messenger who visited us on this occasion and
conferred this priesthood upon us said that his name was John, the same that is
called John the Baptist in the new Testament, and that he acted under the direction
of Peter, James, and John, who held the keys of the priesthood of Melchisedeck,
whi[c]h priesthood he said should in due time be
conferred on us.”
According to Joseph
Smith’s account, while he and were at the home of , they “became anxious to have that promise realized to us, which the
Angel that conferred upon us the Aaronick Priesthood had given us, viz: that
provided we continued faithful; we should also have the Melchesidec Priesthood,
which holds the authority of the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Smith’s account continues:
We had for some
time made this matter a subject of humble prayer, and at length we got together
in the Chamber of Mr Whitmer’s house in order more
particularly to seek of the Lord what we now so earnestly desired: and here to
our unspeakable satisfaction did we realize the truth of the Saviour’s promise;
“Ask, and you shall recieve, seek, and you shall find, knock and it shall be
opened unto you.”
Smith’s history
explained that in response to their prayerful inquiries, “the word of the Lord, came
unto us in the Chamber,” commanding him and Cowdery to ordain one another. They were
further instructed to “defer this our ordination” until they could be accepted as
spiritual teachers in a future meeting of baptized believers.
Additionally, Joseph
Smith and at some point experienced another angelic
visitation, this time from Peter, James, and John, three of Jesus’s apostles, to
whom John the Baptist had previously referred. A revelation in the voice of Jesus
Christ first published in the 1835 edition of the
Doctrine and Covenants
referred to that visitation: “Peter, and James, and John, whom I have sent unto you,
by whom I have ordained you and confirmed you to be apostles and especial witnesses
of my name, and bear the keys of your ministry.”
Just as there is no
contemporaneous narrative account of the restoration of priesthood authority, there
are no minutes of the meeting at which the Church of Christ was organized. However,
the later account in Joseph Smith’s history described what occurred at
that 6 April 1830 meeting, including an effort to
comply with the instructions given earlier in ’s chamber:
Having opened
the meeting by solemn prayer to our Heavenly Father we proceeded, (according to
previous commandment) to call on our brethren to know whether they accepted us
as their teachers in the things of the Kingdom of God, and whether they were
satisfied that we should proceed and be organized as a Church according to said
commandment which we had received. To these they consented by an unanimous vote.
I then laid my hands upon and ordained him an Elder of the
“Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” after which he ordained me also
to the office of an Elder of said Church.
Even though the
accounts explicitly detailing how Joseph Smith received priesthood authority are
found in later sources, several of the documents in this volume refer to his use of
that authority.
The documents that are
presented in this volume provide the reader with the earliest textual insights into
Joseph
Smith and the founding of what was then called the Church of Christ. Though
disparate in nature and sometimes separated from one another by months for which no
documents are extant, these texts offer glimpses into the thoughts, concerns, and
initiatives of Joseph Smith in the period during which he translated and published
the
Book of Mormon
and established a new church. These documents not only allow the reader to study
Joseph Smith but also to gain a greater understanding of his followers, who were
involved in one of the millenarian movements that arose during the Second Great
Awakening. Mundane concerns are found alongside those believed to be of eminent
spiritual import. Practical matters of farming and land transactions are found
alongside calls to repentance and missionary evangelism. The documents focus on both
the temporal and the spiritual concerns of Smith and his followers, reflecting their
beliefs, anxieties, and biases as well as their reactions to local, national, and
international events. The earliest of Smith’s documents may be the most difficult to
contextualize because of the lack of contemporary sources, but that very deficiency
adds to the importance of the documents that do survive, as scholars attempt to
reconstruct and understand the process by which Joseph Smith left an indelible
imprint on history.