On the morning of Sunday, 27 August 1843, JS delivered a discourse in the near the site for the in , Illinois, on the different orders of the . He began the meeting by discussing a controversy surrounding ’s purported role in a conspiracy to deliver JS to authorities in . He then read chapter seven of the epistle to the Hebrews from the New Testament, which he had referenced in a discourse given a month earlier, before beginning his formal address.

Four accounts of the discourse are extant and are featured here. recorded an account of the discourse in a 27 August entry in JS’s journal. and each transcribed distinct versions of the discourse, Clayton into his journal under the date of 27 August and Richards into a notebook he titled “Scriptural Items.” also inscribed the discourse into a collection of sermons that he kept in the back of his journal.

According to ’s account, JS retranslated the word salem from Hebrews chapter 7 as “shalom,” meaning peace, and explicated the term before explaining the different orders or forms of the priesthood and connecting the highest form to his retranslation of the word. JS taught that there were three orders of priesthood in a hierarchy of power: the Levitical, or ; the Abrahamic, or patriarchal; and the , which culminated in a “fullness” of the priesthood. This teaching expanded the ’ understanding of priesthood authority from the simpler dichotomy of Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood he had taught previously. In 1840, for example, JS taught, “There are two priesthoods spoken of in the scriptures, viz, the Melchisadeck and the Aaronic or Levitical Altho there are two priesthoods, yet the Melchisadeck priesthood comprehends the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood and is the Grand head and holds the hig[h]est Authority which pertains to the priesthood.”

The four different versions accentuate different aspects of JS’s discourse. ’s account reports that JS connected the Aaronic order of priesthood to the Law of Moses and the Abrahamic order of priesthood to and families. Clayton and both recorded that he taught that the highest order of priesthood—that of Melchizedek, the king of Salem—was not given by man and held the key to “endless lives.” According to Willard Richards’s and Franklin D. Richards’s accounts, JS insisted that sacrifice, such as Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, was necessary to attain this highest order of priesthood and “the of the kingdom of an endless life.” states that JS also argued that sectarians did not lay claim to the highest priesthood, the same held by the king of Salem, and were therefore unable to save anyone.

Annotation that appears in ’s version of the discourse is not repeated in corresponding locations in the versions by Clayton, Franklin D. Richards, or Burgess.