This revelation was dictated for soon after he arrived in , Pennsylvania, and began serving as JS’s scribe for the of the . JS’s history stated, “Two days after the arrival of Mr Cowdery (being the seventh of April) I commenced to translate the book of Mormon and he commenced to write for me, which having continued for some time I enquired of the Lord through the and obtained the following revelation.” The exact date this text was dictated is unknown. The revelation apparently answered questions Cowdery had contemplated but not expressed to JS. According to Cowdery’s friend , “Soon after Oliver’s arrival in Harmony, he wrote to me and said that Joseph had envuired [inquired] of the Lord concerning him, and had told him secrets of his life that he knew could not be known to any person but himself, in any other way than by revelation from the Almighty.”

JS’s history recounted, “After we had received this revelation he () stated to me that after he had gone to my ’s to board, and after the family communicated to him concerning my having got the plates, that one night after he had retired to bed, he called upon the Lord to know if these things were so, and that the Lord had manifested to him that they were true.” JS also explained that Cowdery had seen the Lord and the plates in a vision and “was desiorous to come and write” for JS in . The revelation featured below built on that experience by announcing that if Cowdery desired, the Lord would grant him a gift “to translate even as my servant Joseph.”