Documents, Volume 1, Part 1 Introduction: July 1828–March 1829
Part 1: July 1828–March 1829
No JS
documents created before the fall of
1827 have survived. JS’s earlier
visionary experiences and many events related to his obtaining the gold plates are
recorded only in later documents. In his 1832
history, JS wrote
his earliest known account of his first encounter with heavenly beings, an event
later known as the “First Vision.” The history then described the visit of an angel
in September 1823: “When I was seventeen years of
age I called again upon the Lord and he shewed unto me a heavenly vision for behold
an angel of the Lord came and stood before me and it was by night and he called me
by name and he said the Lord had forgiven me my sins and he revealed unto me that in
the Town of Ontario County
N.Y. there was plates of gold upon which there was engravings which was engraven by
Maroni & his fathers the servants of the living God in ancient days and
deposited by th[e] commandments of God and kept by
the power thereof and that I should go and get them.” JS further declared that the
angel “appeared unto me three times in one night and once on the next day and then I
immediately went to the place and found where the plates was deposited as the angel
of the Lord had commanded me.”
The 1832
history recorded
that JS was initially unable to retrieve the gold plates from their hiding
place. The angel again appeared, this time chastising him because he “had been
tempted of the advisary and saught the Plates to obtain riches and kept not the
commandme[n]t that [he] should have an eye single to the Glory of God.” Not until 1827 was he able to take possession of the plates. In the
interim, JS married on 18 January
1827. Then, he explained, “on the 22d day of
Sept of this same year I obtained the plat[e]s.”
Some of the earliest
known surviving JS documents are related to his efforts to translate
the plates. In late 1827 he and
moved from , New York, to
, Pennsylvania, in part to avoid harassment stemming from his claim
to possess the plates. There they lived in a house owned by Emma’s parents; they
later bought the residence and the surrounding thirteen and a half acres. That
winter JS copied some of the characters inscribed on the plates, and in February 1828
, an early supporter of JS, took the copied characters to at least
three men in who had backgrounds in ancient languages. Harris reported that one of the scholars, of Columbia College in ,
provided a certificate verifying “to the people of
that they were true characters and that the translation of such of them as had been
translated was also correct.”
During the winter of 1827–1828, JS
translated the plates as and her brother Reuben Hale
served as scribes. Later that spring
became JS’s principal scribe.
After Harris returned to about 12 April 1828 to serve as
JS’s scribe, the pace of translation improved considerably, and by 14 June JS and Harris had completed what JS described
in the Book of Mormon
preface as the “Book of Lehi.”
JS and
then stopped their translation, probably because was due to give birth. About this
same time, Harris pleaded with JS to allow him to take the manuscript back to , New York,
that “he might convince them [his family and friends]
of the truth.” In response, JS twice gave the “word of the Lord” to Harris that “he
must not take them.” Nevertheless, as JS explained in 1832, “the third time . . . the Lord said unto me let him
go with them only he shall covenant with me that he will not shew them to only but
four persons.”
Tragedy struck the
Smith household soon afterward. On 15 June
gave birth to an infant who was either stillborn or died shortly after birth. By
early July 1828, when had
not yet returned with the pages of the Book of Mormon translation, JS
traveled to and found that
Harris had shown the manuscript to more than the promised few and that the
manuscript had been lost or stolen. Devastated
by this news, JS returned to , where he soon obtained a revelation.
This, the earliest written JS revelation that has survived, called Harris “a wicked
man” and condemned JS for having insistently importuned regarding the
manuscript.
In consequence, the
plates and the interpreters were temporarily taken from JS,
although as his later history explained, “in a few days they were returned to me.”
The history continued, “I did not however go immediately to translating, but went to
laboring with my hands upon a small farm which I had purchased of my ’s
, in
order to provide for my family.”
recalled that in September 1828, she
and traveled to . Soon after their return to ,
a young schoolteacher named , who later became JS’s primary scribe,
began boarding at their house.
Meanwhile, in Harmony, JS and were struggling financially. JS traveled to nearby
, New York, to
visit , a family friend. After JS discussed his situation and
his lack of progress with the translation and requested financial help, Knight
provided both money and provisions. Soon after, in January
1829, Joseph Smith Sr. and his son stopped at Knight’s house
on their way to visit JS and Emma. Knight carried the two by sleigh the rest of the
way to Harmony. He wrote, “We conversed about many things. in the morning I gave the
old man a half a Dollar and Joseph a little money to Buoy paper to
translate[,] I having But little with me.” During the
visit, JS dictated a revelation for his father declaring that “if ye have desires to serve God
ye are called to the work.”
Around late February 1829, after the
departure of his , JS resumed translation of the plates,
with and his brother acting as scribes. It is unknown how many pages they completed. About this time,
journeyed to to request a view of the gold plates, and JS dictated a revelation promising
Harris that if he repented he would be allowed to view the plates and would be
charged to testify of them. The revelation
also instructed JS that “when thou hast translated a few more pages . . . then shalt
thou stop for a season” until God provided means for the translation to move
forward.