Memorial to Nauvoo High Council, 18 June 1840

This paragraph in the other Thompson copy reads: “That your Memorialist feels it a duty which he owes to God as well as to the Church to exert his Energies in those things which relate to the spiritual welfare of the people of God which have now become ‘A great people’ such as Translating the antient records— retranslating the Bible receiving revealtions &c &c which would undoubtedly be of great value to the Church of God.” (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL.)  

Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

This office had been under construction since at least October 1839, but its location is unclear. At a 28 October 1839 meeting, the Nauvoo high council directed Alanson Ripley to occupy the office “for the present.” (Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 28 Oct. 1839, 28–29.)  

Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.

In summer 1835, JS acquired four mummies and some rolls of papyrus found with the mummies. According to William W. Phelps, JS believed the papyri contained “a sacred record kept by Joseph in Pharoah’s court in Egypt and the teachings of Father Abraham.” Thereafter, according to a later JS history, JS began “the translation of some of the characters or hieroglyphics” on the papyri. Over the course of the next several months, JS—aided by his scribes Phelps, Oliver Cowdery, Frederick G. Williams, and Warren Parrish—produced portions of what would later be referred to as the Book of Abraham. After 1835 JS and his associates discussed publishing the translation and JS recommencing his translation of the papyri. JS may have devoted some time to translating in summer or early fall 1839; in her October 1839 letter reporting on that month’s general conference of the church, Elizabeth Haven stated that JS “related some very interesting facts which he has lately translated from the reccords which came with the Mummies.” (William W. Phelps, Kirtland, OH, to Sally Waterman Phelps, Liberty, MO, 20 July 1835, in Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 20 July 1835; JS History, vol. B-1, 595–596; Record of Seventies, 27 Sept. 1837, 35; Minute Book 1, 5 Nov. 1837; Swartzell, Mormonism Exposed, 25; Elizabeth Haven, Quincy, IL, to Elizabeth Howe Bullard, Holliston, MA, 21, 28, and 30 Sept. 1839; 6–9 Oct. 1839, Barlow Family Collection, 1816–1969, CHL; see also Historical Introduction to Book of Abraham Manuscript, ca. Early July–ca. Nov. 1835–A [Abraham 1:4–2:6].)  

Historical Department. Journal History of the Church, 1896–. CHL. CR 100 137.

Record of Seventies / First Council of the Seventy. “Book of Records,” 1837–1843. Bk. A. In First Council of the Seventy, Records, 1837–1885. CHL. CR 3 51, box 1, fd. 1.

Swartzell, William. Mormonism Exposed, Being a Journal of a Residence in Missouri from the 28th of May to the 20th of August, 1838, Together with an Appendix, Containing the Revelation concerning the Golden Bible, with Numerous Extracts from the ‘Book of Covenants,’ &c., &c. Pekin, OH: By the author, 1840.

Barlow Family Collection, 1816–1969. CHL.

From 1830 to 1833, JS worked on a project that involved revising, clarifying, and augmenting the text of the King James Version of the Bible, an undertaking that was sometimes termed the “New Translation.” Since 1833 church leaders had discussed publishing the translation, but it remained unpublished. According to the July 1840 issue of the Times and Seasons, Samuel Bent and George W. Harris had been appointed to collect money to print, among other things, “the new translation of the scriptures.” (Faulring et al., Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible, 3–6; Letter to Church Brethren, 15 June 1835; “Books!!!,” Times and Seasons, July 1840, 1:140.)  

Faulring, Scott H., Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds. Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

This paragraph in the other Thompson copy reads: “That as the Church has erected an office where he can attend to such things without distraction he thinks and verily believes that the time has come when he should devote his time exclusively to these subjects and be free from the Anxiety and trouble necessarily belonging to business transactions and desires that your honorable body will so far relieve him in that respect as to appoint some one to take charge of the City plot and attend to the temporalities of the Church.” (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL.)  

Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

Some of the proceeds from city lot sales apparently were used to support JS, perhaps in connection with his appointment as treasurer. Relieving JS of the treasurer responsibility may have meant he no longer could claim such funds. (See, for example, Letter from Hyrum Smith, 2 Jan. 1840.)  

This paragraph in the other Thompson copy reads: “That should your honorable body deem it propper to do so your memorialist would respectfully suggest that he would have no means whatever of support, and therefore would request that some one whom your honors might mention or select might be instructed to see that all his necessary wants be provided for as well as sufficient means or appropriations for a Clerk or Clerks which he might want to aid him in his undertakings.” At this time, Robert B. Thompson, Howard Coray, and George W. Robinson were providing JS with at least some clerical assistance. (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL; “Death of Col. Robert B. Thompson,” Times and Seasons, 1 Sept. 1841, 2:519; Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17, 19; License for George Snyder, 25 May 1840, in Far West and Nauvoo Elders’ Certificates, 40.)  

Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.