Translation

The revelation to Joseph Smith that Mormons now refer to as "D&C 3," that is, the third revelation in the current edition of the LDS Church's canonized Doctrine and Covenants, provides our first direct window into the emergence of early Mormonism. Although there is evidence to suggest that Joseph Smith received what he and others viewed as revelations prior to this one, this is the first revelation that was written down at about the time it was received (JSP, D1:6). This and subsequent revelations were recorded on loose pages, which John Whitmer began transcribing into a manuscript book titled the "Book of Commandments and Revelations" in 1831. In the absence of the originals, which weren't kept, we don't know exactly when or how the earliest revelations were recorded, but John Whitmer supplied headings that indicated, in most cases, when, where, why, and to whom the revelation was given. From Whitmer's heading, we learn that Smith received the first recorded revelation in July 1828 in Harmony, Pennsylvania, "after he had lost certain writings which he had Translated by the gift & Power of God" (Revelation, July 1828, JSP, D1:6–8 [D&C 3]). This chapter centers on that revelation, using it to reconstruct, as carefully as we can, not only the event itself but the events that led up to and followed from it, as they likely appeared to those who were involved at the time.

The Context

Based on the real-time sources already cited and an array of later sources from those directly involved in the events, including Joseph's mother Lucy Smith, Emma's father Isaac Hale, and Martin and Lucy Harris, we can confirm and flesh out many of the basic historical facts that Smith recounted in his 1839 history related to the first real-time revelation, bracketing or noting interpretations that were contested. Geographically, it is important to note that the revelation was given to Smith in Harmony, Pennsylvania, where he and his wife Emma were living near her extended family, and not at the Smith family farm in Manchester Township in Upstate New York, although events unfolded between these two locations. As Smith indicated in his 1839 history, he boarded with the Hales in Harmony when he, in company with Josiah Stowell, his father, and a number of others, were searching for a mine they believed had been opened and abandoned by Spaniards in the late eighteenth century (EMD 4:407–13). According to the 1826 trial transcript in which Stowell's nephew brought charges against Smith for "imposture," Smith testified that, while living at Josiah Stowell's for five months, he had spent some time "employed in looking for mines," but most of the time, he said, he had worked on Stowell's farm and attended school (EMD 4:249). He acknowledged that "he had a certain stone, which he had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth were, that he professed to tell in this manner where gold mines were a distance underground, and had looked for Mr. Stowel [sic] several times." Stowell corroborated Smith's testimony, indicating that "he positively knew that the Prisoner [Smith] ... possessed the art of seeing those valuable treasures through the medium of said stone" (EMD 4:251). In a statement given in 1834, Isaac Hale confirmed that he met Smith in 1825, when he was "in the employ of a set of men who were called 'money-diggers'; and his occupation was that of seeing, or pretending to see [minerals and hidden treasure] by means of a stone placed in his hat, and his hat closed over his face" (EMD4:284). While Isaac Hale confirmed that he refused to consent to Joseph and Emma's marriage, he did so, he said, because he disapproved of Smith's money-digging (EMD 4:285), not because Smith claimed to have seen a vision in 1820 or 1823, as Smith implied in his 1839 history.

After they were married in January 1827, Joseph and Emma Smith moved to Manchester to live with Joseph's parents, and, in September 1827, they ostensibly recovered ancient golden plates from a hillside near the Smith family farm. The alleged recovery of the plates did arouse considerable interest, especially in treasure-seeking circles, and others did attempt to gain access to the plates (EMD 4:15–16). Joseph and Emma moved to Harmony in December 1827, where Emma's father had offered to help them get established in farming if Joseph would give up "money-digging" (EMD4:285). Martin Harris, a substantial, well-respected farmer from Palmyra, New York, contacted the Smith family in October 1827 after hearing about the recovered plates and gave Joseph and Emma fifty dollars in November to help with their move to Harmony (EMD 2:307–10). In Harmony, sometime between December 1827 and February 1828, Joseph Smith produced one or more documents containing "characters" that he said he copied from the plates, perhaps with the help of Emma and Emma's brother Reuben (MacKay 2013; JSP, D1:354–55). Harris visited Harmony in February 1828 and, with Smith's permission, took a "characters" document to show several scholars, among them the linguist Charles Anthon at Columbia University (EMD 2:253–54). Harris's wife Lucy apparently wanted to accompany him but did not (EMD 1:351).

Sometime in this period, Joseph, Emma, and perhaps also Reuben Hale began translating the plates. Martin and Lucy Harris visited Harmony together, most likely in late February or early March, and, in early April 1828, Martin returned to help full-time with the translation (EMD 1:353). As Smith recounts in his 1839 history, he and Harris worked for about two months, with Smith dictating and Harris transcribing. In mid-June, Harris took the first 116 manuscript pages home to Palmyra to show them to Lucy and others, leaving Harmony just before Emma delivered the Smith's first child, who died the same day, on 15 June 1828. Joseph stayed with his wife for about two weeks before leaving for Manchester to see why Harris had not yet returned. Over breakfast at the Smith family home, he learned from Harris that the manuscript was lost (see JSP, D1:443, EMD 1:363–64, and sources cited in EMD 4:275–76). Smith received the first recorded revelation after he returned to Harmony in the wake of learning of this loss.

A Turning Point

If we now turn to the content of the revelation itself, we find real-time...