Revelation, 8 July 1838–C [D&C 119]
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Source Note
Revelation, , Caldwell Co., MO, 8 July 1838. Featured version copied [ca. 8 July 1838]; handwriting of ; one page; Revelations Collection, CHL. Includes docket.One leaf measuring 10⅛ × 7¾ inches (26 × 20 cm). The top and left edges have the square cut of manufactured paper, while the bottom and right edges are unevenly cut. The document was folded for filing, and it was docketed with “tithing”, apparently by . The document was later docketed with “July 1838” in graphite in unidentified handwriting. Separations at folds have been repaired.The Historical Department of the LDS church cataloged this version of the revelation in the Revelations Collection in 1983.
Footnotes
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1
Best, “Register of the Revelations Collection,” 19.
Best, Christy. “Register of the Revelations Collection in the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” July 1983. CHL.
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Historical Introduction
On Sunday, 8 July 1838, JS dictated five revelations, each of which concerned church leadership or finances; one of these revelations outlined a plan for raising church revenue. The subject of church finances was not new to the Saints. From the time the church was established, JS dictated revelations and instituted programs related to economic and social concerns. An 1831 revelation on “the Laws of the Church of Christ” directed the to their property to the church and then manage stewardships of property or other responsibilities assigned to them. Church members attempted to follow this program of consecration and in , Missouri, but their attempts ended when they were driven out of the county in 1833. In the early and mid-1830s, JS and other church leaders in engaged in a number of business and banking ventures, most of which ultimately failed. The troubled situation of church finances was compounded by the nationwide panic of 1837 and the ensuing economic recession. During this period, JS and incurred several thousand dollars of debt.In the latter half of 1837, the in and , Ohio, took new steps to address the church’s financial problems. In September, the church published an appeal from Bishop and his counselors in Kirtland, calling on church members everywhere to “bring their tithes into the ” to relieve church debts and to help establish the community of Saints in Missouri. While this general request did not include recommended donation amounts, in December 1837 a committee composed of , the bishop of ; , the first counselor in the ; and , the appointed “keeper of the Lord’s Storehouse,” proposed that every head of household be asked to annually donate a certain percentage of net worth, with the percentage based on church needs for the year. To cover anticipated church expenses for 1838, the committee proposed a “tithing” of 2 percent. The committee believed that such a program would “be in some degree fullfilling the law of consecration.” In February 1838, when , the pro tempore of Zion, wrote to JS about coming to Missouri, Marsh reported that the Saints there “seem to wish to have the whole law of God lived up to; and we think that the church will rejoice to come up to the law of consecration, as soon as their leaders shall say the word, or show them how to do it.” In April a revelation called for , Missouri, to be built up as a city of Zion with a but directed the presidency not to go into debt to build the Far West temple as they had when building the Kirtland . The issue of JS’s and ’s debts was raised again in May when the two petitioned the to obtain compensation for their services in the church. Debts continued to loom over JS and Rigdon, and on 8 July 1838 the first payment on a debt totaling over $4,000 was due to JS’s attorneys.That day, JS dictated this revelation on tithing—apparently in a church leadership meeting held in . This revelation was the third dictated that day that copied into JS’s journal. A copy of the revelation states that JS dictated it in direct response to the petition, “Lord, show unto thy servents how much thou requirest of the properties of thy people for a Tithing?” The resulting revelation called for the Latter-day Saints to consecrate all of their surplus property and thereafter to pay “one tenth of all their interest annually.” Robinson, who was present at the leadership meeting, may have transcribed the revelation as JS dictated it.The revelation was read later that day to a congregation of Latter-day Saints. Over the next few weeks, church members responded to the revelation by consecrating surplus property. According to the 27 July entry in JS’s journal, “Some time past the bretheren or saints have come up day after day to consecrate, and to bring their offerings into the store house of the lord, . . . They have come up hither Thus far, according to the ord[e]r of the Dan-Ites.” Officers in the Danite society had attended the leadership meeting in which JS apparently dictated this revelation, and members of the society were now helping gather the consecrated goods. The success in collecting surplus property apparently did not last long. , the keeper of the storehouse, recounted in 1839 that the Danites “set out to enforce the law of consecration; but this did not amount to much.” , who was serving in the pro tempore church in , recollected several years later that church members were sparing in what they considered surplus property.made a copy of the revelation in JS’s journal, apparently sometime in mid- or late July 1838. The revelation was also copied by other church leaders: made one copy, and made at least two copies. A comparison of the copies by Robinson, Whitney, and Partridge suggests that one of Partridge’s copies most closely represents the wording of the original revelation. This version is featured here. Partridge was present when the revelation was dictated and probably made the featured copy shortly thereafter; the latest possible copying date is 27 May 1840, the day he died.
Footnotes
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1
Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:30–36]; see also Revelation, 20 May 1831 [D&C 51:4–6]; and Questions and Answers, 8 May 1838. The Book of Mormon, which was translated a year before the church was organized, recounts that after the resurrected Christ visited people in the Americas, they “had all things common among them,” as did some members of Christ’s church in Jerusalem during New Testament times. (See Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 507, 514 [3 Nephi 26:19; 4 Nephi 1:3]; and Acts 2:44; 4:32.)
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2
See Cook, Joseph Smith and the Law of Consecration, 5–28.
Cook, Lyndon W. Joseph Smith and the Law of Consecration. Provo, UT: Grandin Book, 1985.
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3
See Parkin, “Joseph Smith and the United Firm,” 4–66; “Joseph Smith Documents from April 1834 through September 1835”; Introduction to Part 5: 5 Oct. 1836–10 Apr. 1837; Introduction to Part 6: 20 Apr.–14 Sept. 1837; and Historical Introduction to Notes Receivable from Rigdon, Smith & Co., 22 May 1837.
Parkin, Max H. “Joseph Smith and the United Firm: The Growth and Decline of the Church’s First Master Plan of Business and Finance, Ohio and Missouri, 1832–1834.” BYU Studies 46, no. 3 (2007): 5–66.
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4
“Editorial,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, June 1837, 3:522; see also Lepler, Many Panics of 1837, 1–7.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
Lepler, Jessica M. The Many Panics of 1837: People, Politics and the Creation of a Transatlantic Financial Crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
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5
See Statement of Account from John Howden, 29 Mar. 1838; Statement of Account from Perkins & Osborn, ca. 29 Oct. 1838; and Statement of Account from Hitchcock & Wilder, between 9 July and 6 Nov. 1838.
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6
Newel K. Whitney et al., To the Saints Scattered Abroad, the Bishop and His Counselors of Kirtland Send Greeting [Kirtland, OH: ca. Sept. 1837], copy at CHL; see also Newel K. Whitney et al., Kirtland, OH, to “the Saints scattered abroad,” 18 Sept. 1837, in LDS Messenger and Advocate, Sept. 1837, 3:561–564.
To the Saints Scattered Abroad, the Bishop and His Counselors of Kirtland Send Greeting. [Kirtland, OH: 18 Sept. 1837]. CHL.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
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10
Revelation, 26 Apr. 1838 [D&C 115:8, 13]; see also Discourse, 6 Apr. 1837.
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11
JS, Journal, 12 May 1838; see also Minute Book 2, 12 May 1838. Ebenezer Robinson, the clerk for the high council, recounted decades later when he was antagonistic toward JS that the high council approved an annual stipend of $1,100 for each member of the presidency, that when church members heard of the decision they “lifted their voices against it,” that the high council therefore revoked the decision, and that JS dictated the revelation on consecration and tithing “a few days after.” As these decisions were not documented in extant high council minutes, Robinson’s veracity regarding this episode is questionable. (Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, Sept. 1889, 136–137; see also Minute Book 2, 24 May–6 July 1838.)
The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.
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12
See Statement of Account from Hitchcock & Wilder, between 9 July and 6 Nov. 1838.
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13
See Revelation, 8 July 1838–A [D&C 118].
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16
See Historical Introduction to Revelation, 8 July 1838–A [D&C 118].
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17
Corrill, Brief History, 46. Reed Peck wrote that “the business of consecration was immediately followed by the formation of four large firms,” implying the strategy for church finances shifted from private donations to cooperative labor. According to JS’s journal, agricultural firms were established in late August. JS, his counselors in the First Presidency, and the presidency’s scribe, George W. Robinson, reportedly visited Adam-ondi-Ahman about two days after the 8 July 1838 leadership meeting and probably shared the new revelations with church leaders there. Lyman Wight, a counselor in the stake presidency at Adam-ondi-Ahman, preached on the principle of consecration on 22 July. (Reed Peck, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839, pp. 51–52, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA; JS, Journal, 20–21 Aug. 1838; JS History, vol. B-1, 804; Swartzell, Mormonism Exposed, 23–24.)
Peck, Reed. Letter, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
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.
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18
Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 3 June 1855, 2:306–307.
Journal of Discourses. 26 vols. Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855–1886.
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19
Robinson copied the 8 July revelations into JS’s journal as part of the entry for that day. This entry, which consists almost entirely of revelation transcripts, appears in a gap in regular journal keeping. Robinson apparently did not resume making regular journal entries until late July, indicating that he may not have copied the revelations into the journal before then.
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20
Revelation, 8 July 1838–C, copies, Revelations Collection, CHL [D&C 119].
Revelations Collection, 1831–ca. 1844, 1847, 1861, ca. 1876. CHL. MS 4583.
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21
Partridge’s two versions have a few variants. The variants in Partridge’s version featured here match the wording in the version Robinson copied into JS’s journal, which suggests that this wording represents the original transcript, whereas the wording in Partridge’s other version deviates somewhat from the original. This other version appears to be the source from which Whitney’s version was derived.
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