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Revelation, 7 December 1830 [D&C 35]

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Revelation, 7 December 1830 [D&C 35]

Source Note

Revelation, [, Seneca Co., NY], to , 7 Dec. 1830. Featured version, titled “38th Commandment AD 1830. Dec.m. 7th,” copied [ca. Mar. 1831] in Revelation Book 1, pp. 46–48; handwriting of ; CHL. Includes redactions. For more complete source information, see the source note for Revelation Book 1.
A portion of another early copy of this revelation in the handwriting of survived through the family, coming into the Church Historian’s Office in the 1960s. Symonds Rider supplied the text to the editor of the Ohio Star (Ravenna), which published it in the 5 January 1832 issue. Rider claimed that he received his version from David Whitmer. The text featured here, the Star version, and the existing portion of the Whitmer version from the Rider family are all similar, with no significant variants.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Revelation, 7 Dec. 1830, in Revelations Collection, CHL [D&C 35:13–18]. The opposite side of this revelation fragment contains a few verses of Revelation, 9 Dec. 1830 [D&C 36].

    Revelations Collection, 1831–ca. 1844, 1847, 1861, ca. 1876. CHL. MS 4583.

  2. [2]

    “Mormonism,” Ohio Star (Ravenna), 5 Jan. 1832, [3]; Symonds Rider, Letter to the Editor, Ohio Star (Ravenna), 29 Dec. 1831, [3].

    Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.

Historical Introduction

The conversion of and others in northeastern in fall 1830 transformed the new geographically and demographically. Within a few weeks after missionaries arrived in Ohio, more than one hundred individuals were , and by the end of December church members in were commanded to move to Ohio. , where the first baptisms in Ohio took place, became an important gathering place for church members for the next seven years. The visit of Sidney Rigdon and to only a few weeks after Rigdon’s baptism helped bring about this transition. According to ’s history, Rigdon made the trip because he had “much anxiety to see Joseph Smith Jr. the Seer whom the Lord had raised up in these last days.” Rigdon and Partridge arrived in early December 1830, and shortly thereafter JS dictated a revelation for each of them. This revelation, for Rigdon, praised his previous ministerial labors and positioned him as JS’s scribe for JS’s inspired of the Bible. Rigdon remained in New York with JS for the next two months until they both moved to Ohio.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Pratt, Autobiography, 50; Anderson, “Impact of the First Preaching in Ohio,” 478.

    Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.

    Anderson, Richard Lloyd. “The Impact of the First Preaching in Ohio.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 474–496.

  2. [2]

    See Revelation, 30 Dec. 1830 [D&C 37:2–3]; and Revelation, 2 Jan. 1831 [D&C 38:32].

  3. [3]

    See [Matthew S. Clapp], “Mormonism,” Painesville (OH) Telegraph, 15 Feb. 1831, [1] –[2]; Knight, Reminiscences, 8; and Walter Scott, “Mormon Bible.—No. V,” Evangelist, 1 June 1841, 132–136.

    Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.

    Knight, Joseph, Sr. Reminiscences, no date. CHL. MS 3470.

    Evangelist. Carthage, OH. 1832–1844.

  4. [4]

    Whitmer, History, 1.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Revelation, 7 December 1830 [D&C 35]
Revelation Book 1 Revelation, 7 December 1830, Extract, in handwriting of David Whitmer [D&C 35:13–18] Revelation, 7 December 1830, as Published in Ohio Star [D&C 35] Book of Commandments, 1833 Revelation, 7 December 1830, as Published in Howe, Mormonism Unvailed [D&C 35] Doctrine and Covenants, 1835 John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847 History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834] “History of Joseph Smith” Doctrine and Covenants, 1844

Page 46

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38th AD 1830. Dec.m. 7th
A Commandment to Joseph & . s call to writing for Joseph &c
Saying Listen to the voice of the Lord your God even Alpha & Omega the begining & the end whose course is one eternal round the same to day as yesterday & for ever I am Jesus Christ the son of God who was crusified for the sins of the World even as will believe on my name that they may become the sons of God even one in me as I am in the Father as the Father is one in me that we may be one Behold Verily Verily I say unto my Servent I have looked upon thee & thy works I have heard thy prayers & prepared thee for a greater work thou art blessed for thou shalt do great things Behold thou wast sent forth even as John to prepare the way before me & Elijah which should come & thou knew it not thou didst by water unto Repentance but they received not the Holy Ghost but now I give unto you a commandment that thou shalt Baptize by water & give <​& they shall receive​> the Holy Ghost by <​the​> laying on of hands even as the Apostles of old & it shall come to pass that there shall be a great work in the land even among the for their folly their abominations shall be made manifest in the eyes of all People for I am God & mine arm is <​not​> shortened & I will shew miricles signs & wonders unto all those who believe [p. 46]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Revelation, 7 December 1830 [D&C 35]
ID #
6494
Total Pages
3
Print Volume Location
JSP, D1:219–223
Handwriting on This Page
  • John Whitmer

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    John Whitmer likely created this heading when he copied the text into Revelation Book 1.

  2. [2]

    The version published in the Ohio Star in January 1832 has “an.” (“Mormonism,” Ohio Star [Ravenna], 5 Jan. 1832, [3].)

    Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.

  3. [3]

    See John 1:12; 17:21.

  4. [4]

    During Rigdon’s nearly decade-long ministry in association with Alexander Campbell, he gained a reputation as a powerful preacher. One early follower recalled, “His action was graceful, his language copious, fluent in utterance, with articulation clear and musical.” (Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, 192; see also Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, 47; and Chase, “Sidney Rigdon—Early Mormon,” 24–32.)

    Hayden, Amos Sutton. Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio; with Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement. Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875.

    Richardson, Robert. Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Embracing a View of the Origin, Progress and Principles of the Religious Reformation Which He Advocated. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1870.

    Chase, Daryl. “Sidney Rigdon—Early Mormon.” Master’s thesis, University of Chicago, 1931.

  5. [5]

    An early follower of Alexander Campbell wrote that prior to the arrival of Mormon missionaries, Rigdon “was travailing with expectancy of some great event soon to be revealed to the surprise and astonishment of mankind” and “preparing others for the voice of some mysterious event soon to come.” Painesville, Ohio, Telegraph editor Eber D. Howe wrote in 1834 that Rigdon had so thoroughly “prepared the minds in a great measure, of nearly a hundred of those who had attended his ministration to be in readiness to embrace the first mysterious ism that should be presented” that surreptitiously he must have been “the original ‘author and proprietor’ of the whole Mormon conspiracy.” (Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, 209; Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 290, italics in original.)

    Hayden, Amos Sutton. Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio; with Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement. Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875.

    Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.

  6. [6]

    See Acts 8:18–19.

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