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Discourse, 16 June 1844–A, as Reported by Thomas Bullock

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Discourse, 16 June 1844–A, as Reported by Thomas Bullock

Source Note

JS, Discourse, [, Hancock Co., IL], 16 June 1844. Featured version inscribed [16 June 1844]; handwriting of ; five pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket.
Bifolium measuring 9¾ × 7⅞ inches (25 × 20 cm). The first three pages were ruled with printed blue lines (now faded). The first page was ruled with approximately twenty-seven lines; the second and third pages were ruled with approximately twenty-nine lines. The bifolium was turned 90 degrees and folded in half once vertically to create eight sections. After folding, the first two new leaves were separated along the fold at the top edge so that the pages could be turned, creating six usable sections. The third and fourth leaves remain connected at the top, and the two sections on the inside of those leaves (between pages [5] and [6]) remained blank, as they do not function as part of the text block of the makeshift booklet. The booklet was later folded in half horizontally and in half vertically for filing and storage.
The document was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. and Jonathan Grimshaw, who served as clerks in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department), presumably used this document sometime between 1854 and 1856 to draft the version of the sermon that was copied into volume F-1 of JS’s manuscript history. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket, its use in preparing JS’s history, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection suggest continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. “Obituary of Leo Hawkins,” Millennial Star, 30 July 1859, 21:496–497; Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 30 Aug. 1856, in Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 364; JS, Discourse, 16 June 1844–A, as reported by Thomas Bullock, draft, JS Collection, CHL; JS History, vol. F-1, 101–105; see also Source Note for and Historical Introduction to History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1. This draft version was also edited by Thomas Bullock.

    Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

    Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

    Historian’s Office. Letterpress Copybooks, 1854–1879, 1885–1886. CHL. CR 100 38.

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

  3. See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On the morning of 16 June 1844 in , Illinois, JS delivered a discourse responding to criticism about his teaching on Deity. As part of an address delivered at the ’s April 1844 , JS had taught about the nature of God—including that God had the form of a man and that God had once been a man and had incrementally advanced to godhood. JS also stated that men and women must similarly learn to become gods. Likely reacting to this conference address, on 7 June 1844 the publishers of the Nauvoo Expositor decried JS’s teaching on God and labeled it “plurality of Gods.” They called it “false and damnable,” denounced JS as an apostate for teaching it, and identified passages of scripture that they believed refuted JS’s beliefs about Deity.
JS responded to this criticism in his 16 June discourse to the Saints. Speaking from the in the east of the construction site while it rained, JS defended what he had earlier preached. JS appealed to scripture, possibly in response to those passages that were used against him in the Expositor. He also declared that he had received his ideas about God through a witness from the Holy Ghost and independent revelation.
At the conclusion of his sermon, JS said that he could have spoken to the Saints for another three or four hours had it not been for the rain. JS’s discourse was apparently well received by those in the congregation. noted that “a very large congregation” was present and that despite the rain, all “would stay and listen as long as he would stay and preach.”
recorded JS’s discourse, taking notes as he spoke. At an unknown date, two other versions of the sermon were inscribed by and . It is unknown if McIntire attended this sermon. He was assigned in April 1844 to proselytize and campaign in for JS’s presidential run. If McIntire was present, he could have created this account from notes taken during the sermon or, because his version is brief, inscribed it shortly thereafter from memory. McIntire wrote his account on a leaf that was presumably at one time bound in another notebook. At some point, this loose leaf was sewn onto the left side of the recto of one of the leaves of McIntire’s notebook that contains accounts of other discourses JS delivered in . McIntire prefaced his account of the discourse by indicating that it was JS’s “Last public Discorce on Doctrine.” At the bottom of the same page, McIntire wrote an inscription dated 27 June 1844 announcing the murders of JS and . Given this preface and the likelihood that McIntire penned the death announcement on or shortly after 27 June 1844, the sermon was also likely written down sometime on or very shortly after 27 June.
It is also unknown whether was present for this discourse. His undated account is part of a broader collection of JS’s teachings that Laub recorded sometime after 1 January 1845. In his notebook, Laub recalled that JS spoke to the Saints every Sunday and that the teachings were “nurishing to my soul as the food was and is to the hungary man,” which suggests that Laub could have been present for the 16 June sermon. If he was present, then his notebook account could have been created from notes taken during the sermon.
’s and ’s accounts are featured alongside ’s account because most of the information in their versions can be corroborated with Bullock’s eyewitness account. McIntire’s and Laub’s accounts also contain details that do not appear in Bullock’s report: a reference to Psalm 82 and instruction about the Holy Ghost. These either represent details that Bullock did not capture or are teachings from other JS sermons that McIntire and Laub erroneously incorporated into their accounts of the 16 June sermon.

Footnotes

  1. Discourse, 7 Apr. 1844; “Preamble,” and “Resolutions,” Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [2]; see also “Joseph Smith Documents from 16 May through 28 June 1844.”

  2. In this discourse, JS also returned to topics found in discourses he gave on 8 April and 12 May 1844. (Discourse, 8 Apr. 1844; Discourse, 12 May 1844.)

  3. Heward, “Sketch of the Life of Elizabeth Terry Heward,” 15; JS, Journal, 16 June 1844; William Clayton, Daily Account of JS’s Activities, 14–22 June 1844; Berrett, Sacred Places, 3:169–170, 174–175; see also Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in All the World,” Times and Seasons, 15 Jan. 1845, 6:779. The stand was a portable speaker’s platform. JS gave this discourse as part of a Sunday worship meeting. Bullock reported that the meeting opened with Newel K. Whitney praying and the choir singing “Mortals, awake!” (Thomas Bullock, JS Sermon Notes, 16 June 1844, JS Collection, CHL; Hymn 12, Collection of Sacred Hymns, 19–20.)

    Heward, Elizabeth Terry. “A Sketch of the Life of Elizabeth Terry Heward,” 1853–1860. Typescript. CHL.

    Berrett, LaMar C., ed. Sacred Places: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS Historical Sites. 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999–2007.

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

  4. Heward reported that she attended JS’s sermon but recorded neither its content nor her individual reaction to it. (Heward, “Sketch of the Life of Elizabeth Terry Heward,” 15.)

    Heward, Elizabeth Terry. “A Sketch of the Life of Elizabeth Terry Heward,” 1853–1860. Typescript. CHL.

  5. “Special Conference,” Times and Seasons, 15 Apr. 1844, 5:504–506; see also JS, Journal, 9 Apr. 1844.

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

  6. In his autobiography, McIntire mentioned that he attended and took notes on JS’s sermons during winter 1840–1841. Thus, it is possible that, as was his custom for those sermons, McIntire was present for and took notes on JS’s 16 June discourse. (McIntire, Autobiography, [62].)

    McIntire, William Patterson. Autobiography. In William Patterson McIntire, Daybook, 1840–1856, pp. 57–67. BYU.

  7. McIntire originally indicated that the sermon was given on 26 June 1844 but corrected the error by inscribing a “1” over the “2.” (McIntire, Notebook, [21].)

  8. See Laub, Reminiscences and Journal, front cover flyleaf, 1.

    Laub, George. Reminiscences and Journal, 1845–1857. CHL. MS 9628.

  9. Laub, Reminiscences and Journal, 12–13.

    Laub, George. Reminiscences and Journal, 1845–1857. CHL. MS 9628.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Discourse, 16 June 1844–A, as Reported by Thomas Bullock *Discourse, 16 June 1844–A, as Reported by William P. McIntire *Discourse, 16 June 1844–A, as Reported by George Laub History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”
some say I do not interpret same as you— they say it means the heathen God— Paul says there are Gods many &c it makes a plurality of Gods any how— with[ou]t. a rev[elatio]n. I am not going to give the God of Heaven to them any how— you know & I testify that Paul had no allusions to it— I have it from God & get over it if you can— I have a witness of the H. G— & a test[imony] that Paul had no allusion to the Heathen G. in the text—— I will shew from the Heb. Bible & the 1st. word shews a plurality of Gods— & I want the apostate & learned men to come here— & prove to the contrary an unlearned boy must give you a little Hebrew— Berosheit &c In the begin[ning]: rosheit— the head— it sho[ul]d. read the heads of— to organize the Gods— Eloi, heam Eloi. God is sing[ular] heam, renders Gods I want a little learning as well as other fools
Popes [Alexander Pope’s] quot: Drink deep
all the confusion is for want of drinking ano[the]r. draught the head God— organized the heavens & the Earth— I defy all the learning in the world to refute me—
In the begin the heads of the Gods organized the heavens & the Earth— now the learned Priest— the people rage— & the heathen imagine a vain thing— if we pursue the Heb further— it reads
The Head one of the Gods said let us make man in our image I once asked a learned Jew once— if the Heb. language compels us to render all words ending in heam in the plural— why not render the first plural— he replied it would ruin the Bible— he acknowledged I was right, I came here to investigate these things precisely as I believe it— hear & judge for yourself— & if you go away satisfied— well & good— in the very beginning there is a plurality of Gods— beyond the power of refutation— it is a great subject I am dwelling— on— the word Eloiheam ought to be in the plural all the way thro— Gods— the heads of the Gods appointed one God for us— & when you take a view of the subject it sets one free to see all the beauty holiness & perfection of the God— all I want is to get the simple truth— naked & the whole truth— men say there is one God— the Far. Son & the H. G are only 1 God— it is a strange God any how 3 in 1. & 1 in 3. it is a curious thing any how— Far. I pray not for the world but I pray for those that thou givest me &c &c [p. [2]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, 16 June 1844–A, as Reported by Thomas Bullock
ID #
1400
Total Pages
6
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Handwriting on This Page
  • Thomas Bullock

Footnotes

  1. Adam Clarke’s Bible commentary, for example, interpreted the phrase “gods many, and lords many” as a reference to idols: “There are many images that are supposed to be representations of divinities; but these divinities are nothing: the figments of mere fancy; and these images have no corresponding realities.” Clarke continued, “As the sun, moon, planets, stars; the ocean, rivers, trees, &c. And thus there are, nominally, gods many and lords many.” (Clarke, New Testament, 122, italics in original.)

    Clarke, Adam. The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Text Carefully Printed from the Most Correct Copies of the Present Authorised Version, Including the Marginal Readings and Parallel Texts. . . . Vol. 1. New York: J. Emory and B. Waugh, 1831.

  2. JS’s translation of Hebrew that follows in the transcript is a reworking of Genesis 1:1, which traditionally reads: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” His conclusions about this passage could have been influenced by a study of materials that Oliver Cowdery purchased for the Kirtland, Ohio, Hebrew school in 1835: the Biblia Hebraica (1833), Josiah W. Gibbs’s A Manual Hebrew and English Lexicon (1832), and Moses Stuart’s A Grammar of the Hebrew Language (1835). They were also likely shaped by his lessons with Hebrew scholar Joshua Seixas in Kirtland. (JS, Journal, 20 Nov. 1835; Grey, “Joseph Smith’s Study of Hebrew in Kirtland,” 249–275; see also Grey, “Joseph Smith’s Use of Hebrew in His Translation of the Book of Abraham,” 390–451; Brown, In Heaven as It Is on Earth, 271–272; and Barney, “Joseph Smith’s Emendation of Hebrew Genesis 1:1,” 103–135.)

    Grey, Matthew J. “‘The Word of the Lord in the Original’: Joseph Smith’s Study of Hebrew in Kirtland.” In Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, edited by Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey, and Andrew H. Hedges, 249–302. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015.

    Grey, Matthew J. “Approaching Egyptian Papyri through Biblical Language: Joseph Smith's Use of Hebrew in His Translation of the Book of Abraham.” In Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity, edited by Michael Hubbard MacKay, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Brian M. Hauglid, 390–451. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2020.

    Brown, Samuel M. In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

    Barney, Ronald O. “‘A Man That You Could Not Help Likeing’: Joseph Smith and Nauvoo Portrayed in a Letter by Susannah and George W. Taggart.” BYU Studies 40, no. 2 (2001): 165–179.

  3. JS’s logic for this rendering is found in his 7 April 1844 discourse. Berasheeth/Bereshit is a construct clause traditionally translated in Genesis 1:1 as the prepositional phrase “in the beginning.” However, JS removed the first letter of Berasheeth, the letter baith/bet, which was a preposition meaning “in” or “by,” claiming that it had been added by an unauthorized scribe. JS also removed the final two letters, -eeth/-it, leaving the word rash/rosh, which means “head,” as the new subject of the sentence. Then JS retranslated the verb in the sentence, baurau/bara, from the traditional “to create” to the less conventional “to bring forth” and shifted the plural noun Elōheem/Elohim from being the sentence’s original subject to its direct object, thus rendering the passage as “the head (rash/rosh) brought forth (baurau/bara) the gods (Elōheem/Elohim).” English transliterations of Hebrew words in this document first contain the spelling that Seixas used in the 1834 revised edition of his grammar book to reflect the usage with which JS would have been familiar and then provide their standardized modern rendering. (Discourse, 7 Apr. 1844; Seixas, Manual Hebrew Grammar, 6, 12, 15, 19–21, 55, 77, 85; Gibbs, Manual Hebrew and English Lexicon, 36.)

    Seixas, Joshua. Manual Hebrew Grammar for the Use of Beginners. 2nd ed., enl. and impr. Andover, MA: Gould and Newman, 1834.

    Gibbs, Josiah W. A Manual Hebrew and English Lexicon Including Biblical Chaldee. Designed Particularly for Beginners. 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Hezekiah Howe, 1832.

  4. Pope wrote in his Essay on Criticism, “A little learning is a dangerous thing; / Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. / There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, / And drinking largely sobers us again.” (Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism, ll. 215–218, in Greenblatt, Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. C, 2496–2497, 2501.)

    Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. C, The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Edited by Lawrence Lipking and James Noggle. 8th ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006.

  5. See Book of Abraham and Facsimiles, 1 Mar.–16 May 1842 [Abraham 3:24–5:21].

  6. See Psalm 2:1.

  7. See Genesis 1:26.

  8. This event most likely occurred with Joshua Seixas. (See Historical Introduction to Letter to Henrietta Raphael Seixas, between 6 and 13 Feb. 1836; and Grey, “Joseph Smith’s Use of Hebrew in His Translation of the Book of Abraham,” 437–438.)

    Grey, Matthew J. “Approaching Egyptian Papyri through Biblical Language: Joseph Smith's Use of Hebrew in His Translation of the Book of Abraham.” In Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity, edited by Michael Hubbard MacKay, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Brian M. Hauglid, 390–451. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2020.

  9. See Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 Mar. 1839 [D&C 121:26–32]; and Old Testament Revision 1, p. 6 [Moses 4:1–3].

  10. The doctrine of the Trinity—“one God in three Persons”—explains the relationships among God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Trinitarianism was codified at the councils of Nicaea, in 325, and Constantinople, in 381. Later councils further refined this doctrine, which delineated the nature of Deity for most Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Protestants. (Riley, New History of Christian Origins, chap. 3; Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, chaps. 10–11; Pelikan, Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100–600), chaps. 4–5; see also Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, chaps. 9–12; “Trinity, Holy,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia, 14:189–197; and Givens, Wrestling the Angel, chap. 8.)

    Riley, Gregory J. The River of God: A New History of Christian Origins. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.

    Shelley, Bruce L. Church History in Plain Language. 2nd ed. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1995.

    Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100–600). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971.

    Kelly, John Norman Davidson. Early Christian Doctrines. 5th ed. London: Continuum, 1977.

    New Catholic Encyclopedia. 15 vols. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.

    Givens, Terryl L. Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

  11. See John 17:9.

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