Oliver Cowdery’s Copy of the Book of Commandments
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Source Note
A Book of Commandments, for the Government of the Church of Christ, Organized according to Law, on the 6th of April, 1830; Zion [Independence], MO: W. W. Phelps & Co., 1833; incomplete (printing interrupted); [1]–160 pp.; includes typeset signature marks and copyright notice. The copy excerpted herein is held at CHL; includes early marginalia and editorial marks.This volume, which was owned by , measures 4¼ × 3 inches (11 × 8 cm) and is bound in vertically striated, salmon-colored calfskin. The text block edges are stained yellow. The recto of the front flyleaf has “Joseph Smith Jr” written in JS’s handwriting upside down along the bottom of the page. On the verso of the front flyleaf is inscribed “Joseph Smith J[r] | & Oliver Cowdery | Book for the | printing office”. The recto of the back flyleaf bears a similar inscription: “Joseph Smith J[r] | Oliver Cowdery | for the off[ic]e”. In both cases, JS’s name is in JS’s handwriting and the remainder of the notation is in Cowdery’s handwriting.This copy was acquired by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a grandson of , the brother of . The church acquired from the same man a copy of the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants (1835) that belonged to Warren Cowdery. It is possible that Warren Cowdery obtained this copy of the Book of Commandments when he began editing the , Ohio, newspaper Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate in February 1837. It is clear from the notations on the flyleaves and numerous marks throughout the volume that this copy of the Book of Commandments was used in the Kirtland printing office.
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Historical Introduction
’s copy of the Book of Commandments was used, along with several other source texts, by the editors of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants as they were preparing JS’s revelations for publication in that volume. Cowdery and made editorial marks throughout this copy of the Book of Commandments, and it is possible that other unknown individuals also made marks. The editors marked and edited within this copy some of the revelations that were to be included in the new publication and then used this copy to set type for some portions of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.Readers should consult the featured version of the Book of Commandments for an analysis of the printing of the Book of Commandments.Explanation of Editing MarksA brief explanation of each type of editing mark is provided here.wrote “Covenants” in graphite at the head of sixteen revelations in his copy of the Book of Commandments, all of which appear in the first 21 sections of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. Various pages throughout the book are marked with a capital “S” in red grease pencil. All texts published in both the Book of Commandments and the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants bear this “S” mark in Cowdery’s Book of Commandments except chapter 28 and those chapters that correspond to sections 68 through 72 of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants (chapters 57, 58, 61, 62, and 63). Though the precise meaning of the letter is unknown, this notation suggests a systematic survey of the contents of the volume to ensure that all the revelations in the Book of Commandments were included in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.Several other editing marks were inscribed in ’s copy of the Book of Commandments. Editors added paragraph marks and numerals on many pages to denote versification for the 1835 publication. A bracket or parenthesis in Cowdery’s Book of Commandments at times corresponds to a line ending in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. To denote deletions, editors usually struck through words and phrases or marked them with an “X.” To denote additions, editors usually inserted individual words or phrases. When revisions were too lengthy or complex to indicate on the small pages of the Book of Commandments, editors sometimes referred the copyist or typesetter to some other source by marking passages with a caret or similar mark, which was sometimes accompanied by a notation such as “see” in the margin. In other cases where revisions were complex, editors circled passages that were to be ignored in the Book of Commandments in favor of some other source text. Thus, typesetters or copyists worked directly from the Book of Commandments until they reached a caret or a passage that had been circled, at which point they presumably turned to an additional source now no longer extant. Where a passage in the Book of Commandments referred to a person by first name or first name and initial, surnames were sometimes written in by hand and other times a caret was inscribed after the name, indicating that the copyist or typesetter should add the surname. The Cowdery copy of the Book of Commandments also contains three additional editing marks whose purpose is unknown.The following table provides a comprehensive list of the editing marks found in the volume. The first column of the table lists the number of each chapter of the Book of Commandments. The second column provides the standard date for the item included in each chapter and a bracketed “D&C” reference to the section number in which the item appears in the 1981 (and 2013) Latter-day Saint edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. The third column identifies the editing marks found in each chapter of the Cowdery Book of Commandments. In this column, “Covenants” and “‘S’ mark” refer to the commonly appearing marks described above (in cases when “S” marks are found on pages other than the first page of a chapter, the numbers of those pages are identified in parentheses). The term “editing marks” as used in this column refers to all other types of editing marks made by editors, as described in the immediately preceding paragraph. The fourth column lists the number of the section in which each item was published in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.Key to column titles
1833: Book of Commandments Date: Date of item, followed by section number in Doctrine and Covenants, 1981 (and 2013) edition, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Editing Marks: Editing marks in the Oliver Cowdery copy of the Book of Commandments 1835: Doctrine and Covenants, 1835 edition, part 2 1833 Date Editing Marks 1835 1 1 Nov. 1831–B [D&C 1] “Covenants 1”; “S” mark; editing marks 1 2 July 1828 [D&C 3] “S” mark; editing marks 30 3 Feb. 1829 [D&C 4] “S” mark; editing marks 31 4 Mar. 1829 [D&C 5] “S” mark; editing marks 32 5 Apr. 1829–A [D&C 6] “S” mark 8 6 Apr. 1829–C [D&C 7] “S” mark; editing marks 33 7 Apr. 1829–B [D&C 8] “S” mark; editing marks 34 8 Apr. 1829–D [D&C 9] “S” mark; editing marks 35 9 ca. Apr. 1829 [D&C 10] “S” mark; editing marks 36 10 May 1829–A [D&C 11] “S” mark 37 11 May 1829–B [D&C 12] “S” mark 38 12 June 1829–A [D&C 14] “S” mark 39 13 June 1829–C [D&C 15] “S” mark 40 14 June 1829–D [D&C 16] “S” mark 41 15 June 1829–B [D&C 18] “S” marks (pp. 34, 35) 43 16 Mar. 1830 [D&C 19] “S” mark 44 17 Apr. 1830–A [D&C 23:1–2] “S” mark 45:1 18 Apr. 1830–B [D&C 23:3] “S” mark 45:2 19 Apr. 1830–C [D&C 23:4] “S” mark 45:3 20 Apr. 1830–D [D&C 23:5] “S” mark 45:4 21 Apr. 1830–E [D&C 23:6–7] “S” mark 45:5 22 6 Apr. 1830 [D&C 21] “S” mark; editing marks 46 23 16 Apr. 1830 [D&C 22] “S” mark 47 24 10 Apr. 1830 [D&C 20] “Covenants”; “S” mark 2 25 July 1830–A [D&C 24] “Covenants”; “S” mark 9 26 July 1830–C [D&C 25] “S” mark 48 27 July 1830–B [D&C 26] “S” mark 49 28 ca. Aug. 1830 [D&C 27] 50 29 Sept. 1830–A [D&C 29] “Covenants”; “S” mark 10 30 Sept. 1830–B [D&C 28] “S” mark; editing marks 51 31 Sept. 1830–C [D&C 30:1–4] “S” mark 52:1 32 Sept. 1830–D [D&C 30:5–8] “S” marks (pp. 69, 70); editing marks 52:2 33 Sept. 1830–E [D&C 30:9–11] “S” mark 52:3 34 Sept. 1830–F [D&C 31] “S” mark 53 35 Oct. 1830–B [D&C 33] “S” marks (pp. 72, 73) 55 36 4 Nov. 1830 [D&C 34] “S” mark 56 37 7 Dec. 1830 [D&C 35] “Covenants”; “S” mark; editing marks 11 38 9 Dec. 1830 [D&C 36] “S” marks (pp. 78, 79) 57 39 30 Dec. 1830 [D&C 37] “S” mark (p. 80); editing marks 58 40 2 Jan. 1831 [D&C 38] “Covenants”; “S” mark; editing marks 12 41 5 Jan. 1831 [D&C 39] “S” mark (p. 85, 86); editing marks 59 42 6 Jan. 1831 [D&C 40] “S” mark; editing marks 60 43 4 Feb. 1831 [D&C 41] “S” mark 61 44 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:1–72] “Covenants”; “S” mark; editing marks 13:1–19 45 Feb. 1831–A [D&C 43] “Covnants” “S” mark; 14 46 Feb. 1831–B [D&C 44] “S” mark 62 47 23 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:73–93] “Covenants”; “S” mark 13:20–23 48 ca. 7 Mar. 1831 [D&C 45] “Covenants”; “S” mark; editing marks 15 49 ca. 8 Mar. 1831–A [D&C 46] “Covenants”; “S” mark; editing marks 16 50 ca. 8 Mar. 1831–B [D&C 47] “S” mark 63 51 10 Mar. 1831 [D&C 48] “S” mark 64 52 7 May 1831 [D&C 49] “S” marks (pp. 116, 117) 65 53 9 May 1831 [D&C 50] “Covenants”; “S” mark 17 54 6 June 1831 [D&C 52] “S” mark; editing marks 66 55 8 June 1831 [D&C 53] “S” mark; editing marks 66 56 10 June 1831 [D&C 54] “S” mark; editing marks 67 57 14 June 1831 [D&C 55] editing marks 68 58 15 June 1831 [D&C 56] editing marks 69 59 1 Aug. 1831 [D&C 58] “Covenants”; “S” mark; editing marks 18 60 7 Aug. 1831 [D&C 59] “Covenants”; “S” mark 19 61 8 Aug. 1831 [D&C 60] editing marks 70 62 12 Aug. 1831 [D&C 61] editing marks 71 63 13 Aug. 1831 [D&C 62] editing marks 72 64 30 Aug. 1831 [D&C 63] “Covenants”; “S” mark; editing mark 20 65 11 Sept. 1831 [D&C 64] “Covenants”; “S” mark 21 Footnotes
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1
In one case (chapter 1), the penciled notation reads “Covenants 1” rather than “Covenants.” Except section 8, all of the sections from 1 through 21 of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants that were also published in the Book of Commandments are marked with the “Covenants” notation in the Cowdery copy. The sixteen chapters Cowdery marked with the “Covenants” notation correspond to Doctrine and Covenants 1, 2, 9–21, 1835 ed. [D&C 1, 20, 24, 29, 35, 38, 42–43, 45–46, 50, 58–59, 63–64]. Two chapters in the Book of Commandments (44 and 47) were combined into section 13 of the 1835 publication. The texts in Doctrine and Covenants 3–7, 1835 ed. [D&C 107, 84, 102, 86, 88], were not published in the Book of Commandments.
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2
Editors also used red grease pencil to mark up other sources for publication in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. In two cases in the Book of Commandments, the “S” is not in red grease pencil but in graphite: chapter 39 (page 80) and chapter 41 (page 86) [D&C 37 and 39]. (See “Table 3: Relationship between Items in Revelation Books 1 and 2 and the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.”)
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3
Doctrine and Covenants 68–72, 1835 ed. [D&C 55–56, 60–62], are the last sections of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants to have used the Book of Commandments as a source text.
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4
See, for example, page 27.
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5
See, for example, page 8.
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6
See, for example, page 10.
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7
See, for example, page 126.
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8
The marks, which are similar to one another, appear in Book of Commandments 39 (page 79), 41 (page 85), and 42 (page 87), which correspond to Doctrine and Covenants 58, 59, and 60, 1835 ed. [D&C 37, 39, 40].
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9
For more information on these dates, see Corresponding Section Numbers in Editions of the Doctrine and Covenants.
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10
The second of the two sections numbered 66.
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11
Because the printing office was destroyed, this revelation was not printed in full.
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1
