Doctrine and Covenants 12
Historical Context
Joseph Knight Sr. was an instrumental figure in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Father Knight first met Joseph Smith in 1826 when he hired him as a day laborer. The Knights lived in Colesville, New York, near the place where Joseph was working for Josiah Stoal. Around this time Joseph began his courtship of Emma Hale. Father Knight later recalled, “I furnished him with a horse and Cutter [sleigh] to go and see his girl down to Mr. [Hales].” Joseph Knight Jr. recorded that “My father . . . hired many hands. In [1826] he hired Joseph Smith. Joseph and I worked together and slept together. My father said that Joseph was the best hand he ever hired. We found him a boy of truth. He was about 21 years of age.” While staying with the Knights, Joseph grew close enough to them to share about his divine calling. “He made known to my father and I that he had seen a vision, that a personage had appeared to him and told him where there was a gold book of ancient date buried, and that if he would follow the direction of the angel, he could get it,” Knight Jr. later wrote. He continued: “We were told in secret. . . . My two older brothers did not believe in such things; my father and I believed what he told us, I think we were the first after his father’s family.”
After the loss of the initial Book of Mormon manuscript, Father Knight was an invaluable source of support and encouragement for Joseph. From January to May 1829, Knight visited Joseph several times, providing financial help to assist in the translation. Joseph Knight Jr. later recalled, “Father and I often went to see him [Joseph] and carry him something to live upon.” In May 1829 when Joseph and Oliver Cowdery were running low on supplies they temporarily halted translation and traveled to see Father Knight. Although he was not at home when they arrived, Knight heard they were in need of assistance and soon traveled to Harmony with paper and provisions to assist in the translation. It is likely during this visit that Joseph received the revelation in section 12. This revelation first appeared in the 1833 Book of Commandments.
See Historical Introduction, “Revelation, May 1829–B [D&C 12],” p. 31, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 6, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-may-1829-b-dc-12/1.
Verse-by-Verse Commentary
Doctrine and Covenants 12:1–6
1 A great and marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
2 Behold, I am God; give heed to my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore, give heed unto my word.
3 Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.
4 Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is called of God.
5 Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will knock it shall be opened unto you.
6 Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion.
This inspired introduction closely mirrored the words earlier given to Joseph Smith Sr., Oliver Cowdery, and Hyrum Smith (see D&C 4:1–4; 6:1–5; 11:1–9). The words take on particular significance when applied to the travails faced by the family of Joseph Knight Sr. during the early years of the Restoration. Though Father Knight does not appear to have been present at the organization of the Church in April 1830, a few months later, in June, the Knight family and several of their neighbors were baptized. This small group “became the nucleus of the first branches organized in the Church.” The neighbors who joined the Church included the “Pecks, DeMilles, Stringhams, Culvers, Slades, Badgers, Hineses, and Carters.”
The saga of the members of this branch, with the Knight family at the center, is a window into the trials and miracles witnessed by the early members of the Church. The Saints of the Colesville Branch witnessed the first miracle in the Church, when Joseph Smith cast out an evil spirit influencing Newell Knight. Later, almost all of the Colesville Saints sold their property in Colesville to obey the Lord’s command to “gather to the Ohio” (D&C 37:1–4). When they arrived in Kirtland, Ohio, they agreed to live the newly revealed law of consecration but were forced to relocate when Leman Copley withdrew his resources from the Church (D&C 54). Journeying to Missouri, the Knight family and the Colesville Saints were present when Joseph received the revelation identifying the location of the city of Zion to be built in the latter days (D&C 57–59). They suffered trials and travails in Missouri and Nauvoo, and they eventually crossed the plains to settle in Utah. Historian Larry Porter wrote, “From the very inception of ‘Mormonism’ the Saints comprising the Colesville Branch linked their lives inexorably with the Restored Gospel. . . . They relinquished family, friends, homes and material comforts in pursuit of their testimonies.”
Doctrine and Covenants 12:7–9
7 Behold, I speak unto you, and also to all those who have desires to bring forth and establish this work;
8 And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care.
9 Behold, I am the light and the life of the world, that speak these words, therefore give heed with your might, and then you are called. Amen.
Until the end of his life, Joseph Knight Sr. remained a faithful supporter of Joseph Smith. In 1842 the Prophet, reminiscing about his friends and family, recorded a reflection on Father Knight. The memory was written thirteen years after Joseph received Doctrine and Covenants 12 and is the fulfillment of the charge given by the Lord in this revelation. Joseph Smith wrote,
While I contemplate the virtues and the good qualifications and characteristics of the faithful few, which I am now recording in the Book of the Law of the Lord, of such as have stood by me in every hour of peril, for these fifteen long years past; say for instance; my aged and beloved brother Joseph Knight Sen, who was among the number of the first to administer to my necessities, while I was laboring, in the commencement of the bringing forth of the work of the Lord, and of laying the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: for fifteen years has he been faithful and true, and even handed, and exemplary and virtuous, and kind; never deviating to the right hand nor to the left. Behold he is a righteous man. May God Almighty lengthen out the old man’s days; and may his trembling, tortured and broken body be renewed, and the vigor of health turn upon him; if it can be thy will, consistently, O God; and it shall be said of him by the sons of Zion, while there is one of them remaining; that this man, was a faithful man in Israel; therefore his name shall never be forgotten.
Footnotes
