Joseph Smith—History 1:27–65

Joseph Smith—History 1:27–65

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

27 I continued to pursue my common vocations in life until the twenty-first of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, all the time suffering severe persecution at the hands of all classes of men, both religious and irreligious, because I continued to affirm that I had seen a vision.

28 During the space of time which intervened between the time I had the vision and the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three—having been forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought to have been my friends and to have treated me kindly, and if they supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me—I was left to all kinds of temptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God. In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature. But I was guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of God as I had been. But this will not seem very strange to any one who recollects my youth, and is acquainted with my native cheery temperament.

Recording the aftermath of the First Vision, the Prophet wrote in his 1832 history that “after many days I fell into transgression and sinned in many things which brought a wound upon my soul and there were many things which transpired which cannot be written,” adding, “My father’s family have suffered many persecutions and afflictions.”1 With regard to the persecution Joseph suffered as a result of his vision, in her memoir Lucy Mack Smith wrote about an attempt on the life of the young prophet. “At the age of fourteen an incident occurred which alarmed us much, as we knew no cause for the same; besides, as Joseph was a remarkably quiet, well-disposed child, we did not suspect that anyone had aught against him,” Lucy recorded in 1845. She went on to describe the attempt, of which the assailant and the motive were never determined:

He [Joseph] was out one evening on an errand; and, as he was crossing the door-yard on his return, a gun was fired across his path​, with the evident intention of shooting him. Joseph sprang to the door, much frightened. Upon ascertaining that he had received no injury, we went immediately in search of the assassin; but could find no trace of him that evening; but the next morning we found his tracks under a wagon, where he lay when he fired; furthermore that the balls which were discharged from his gun were lodged in the head and neck of a cow that was standing opposite the wagon in a dark corner.2

Another credible report of persecution during this time comes from Thomas H. Taylor, a resident of nearby Manchester, New York. In an 1881 interview Taylor recalled that “rascals at one time took Joseph Smith and ducked him in the pond that you see over there, just because he preached what he believed, and for nothing else.” Taylor added, “And if Jesus Christ had been there, they would have done the same to Him.”3 These two accounts attest to the truth of Joseph’s statements regarding the persecution he suffered because of the First Vision.

As for Joseph’s admission that he sometimes “associated with jovial company, etc. not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of God as I had been,” it is possibly a reference to his affiliation with treasure seeking during his teenage years. The use of “folk magic” was a common cultural practice of the early American republic, accepted by the Smith family and their contemporaries. These beliefs sprang from the prominence of the Bible in the local culture, as well from cultural traditions among the European settlers. In biblical times, physical objects such as Aaron’s rod, the brazen serpent, and the ark of the covenant were often used to mediate divine power. Likewise, the people of Joseph Smith’s era often used “seer stones” for tasks such as locating water sources or seeking treasure. During his teenage years, Joseph occasionally used a stone he had found to assist local families with finding lost objects or searching for buried treasure.4

The use of seer stones may seem strange to readers today, but such instruments existed as a familiar part of the culture Joseph Smith grew up in. Both Joseph Smith and his father attested to the use of a seer stone in private ventures before Joseph received the plates.5 In a review of contemporary records, scholars identified that several residents from the Palmyra/Manchester region in which Joseph grew up possessed seer stones that were used in a number of different endeavors.6

According to some accounts, Joseph may have found the brown stone while digging a well on the property of Willard Chase, another Palmyra resident who used seer stones. Wilford Woodruff was recorded stating that Joseph Smith obtained the stone “by digging under the pretense of excavating for a well.”7 The Lord’s gentle guidance of Joseph from his cultural context of folk magic to the scriptural practice of divine instruments of revelation is yet another example of the Savior speaking unto His servants “in their weakness, after the manner of their language that they might come to understanding” (D&C 1:24). 

29 In consequence of these things, I often felt condemned for my weakness and imperfections; when, on the evening of the above-mentioned twenty-first of September, after I had retired to my bed for the night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and follies, and also for a manifestation to me, that I might know of my state and standing before him; for I had full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I previously had one.

30 While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor.

31 He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked, and his arms also, a little above the wrist; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I could see into his bosom.

32 Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me.

In Joseph’s 1832 history he describes the appearance of the personage by writing, “When I was seventeen years of age I called again upon the Lord and he shewed unto me a heavenly vision for behold an angel of the Lord came and stood before me and it was by night and he called me by name and he said that the Lord had forgiven me my sins.”8

A series of letters written by Oliver Cowdery to W. W. Phelps and published in the Latter-day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate in 1835 provides further insight into Joseph’s mindset before the visitation of Moroni. Oliver writes, “Our brother’s mind was unusually wrought up on the subject which had for so long agitated his mind—his heart was drawn out in fervent prayer, and his whole soul was so lost to every thing of a temporal nature, that earth, to him had lost it claims and all he desired was to be prepared in heart to commune with some kind of messenger who could communicate to him the desired information of his acceptance with God.” Oliver adds, “The stature of this personage was a little above the common size of men in this age; his garment was perfectly white, and had the appearance of being without seam.”9

Joseph’s lengthy description of the angel’s appearance contributes to our understanding of the nature of resurrected beings. As the most prominent of the angelic messengers sent to carry out the work of the Restoration in the latter days, Moroni is an attestation to the hopeful doctrine of not just a resurrected Savior but a resurrection for all of the sons and daughters of God. The physicality of Moroni and the other angels of the Resurrection demonstrates the ongoing miracle of the Resurrection. Not only does Jesus Christ live, but thousands—perhaps millions—have been given a renewed life in a physical body because of the Savior and His Atonement. A later revelation to Joseph will teach that the righteous of former days “were with Christ in his resurrection” (D&C 133:54). Moroni is the vanguard of an army of physical, resurrected beings who will assist in the work of preparing the earth for the millennial reign of Christ, when all will be resurrected.

33 He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.

34 He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;

Moroni’s prophecy that Joseph’s name “should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues” is remarkable for its accuracy and fulfillment. A person may doubt the prophetic claims of Joseph Smith, but there is no denying that Moroni’s prophecy has come to pass. A simple internet search shows the vast number of people who speak evil of the Prophet’s words and deeds as well as the millions who sustain him as a Prophet of God and the instrument used by Jesus Christ to restore the true Church to the earth.

Harold Bloom, a noted literary critic and professor of humanities at Yale University, wrote extensively on Joseph Smith’s life and teachings. Though he never joined the Church, Bloom wrote, “I also do not find it possible to doubt that Joseph Smith was an authentic prophet. Where in all of American history can we find his match? The Prophet Joseph has proved again that economic and social forces do not determine destiny. . . . In proportion to his importance and his complexity, he remains the least-studied personage, of an undiminished vitality, in our entire national saga.”10

35 Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.

Joseph also provides here the most extensive description of the Nephite interpreters found with the plates. Joseph Smith’s family members also gave descriptions of the interpreters. Lucy Mack Smith, who handled the interpreters while they were wrapped in a silk handkerchief, described them as consisting of “2 smooth 3 cornered diamonds set in glass” and in silver bows.11 William Smith in an 1890 interview said that a “silver bow ran over one stone, under the other, around over that one and under the first in the shape of a horizontal figure 8 much like a pair of spectacles.”12

Lucy Mack Smith further described the breastplate: “It was concave on one side and convex on the other; and extended from the neck downwards as far as the centre of the stomach of a man of extraordinary size. It had four straps of the same material for the purpose of fastening it to the breast: two of which ran back to go over the shoulders, and the other two were designed to fasten to the hips.”13 William Smith added that the interpreters attached to the breastplate by a rod connected to the outer edge of the right shoulder of the breastplate.14

Joseph’s description of the interpreters and his explanation that their possession made a person a “seer” in ancient times also aligns with the description and purpose of the interpreters given in the Book of Mormon (see Mosiah 8:13; 28:16). The Nephite definition of a seer as a person who “can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light” (Mosiah 8:17). Joseph Smith is described as “a choice seer” from the fruit of the loins of the ancient patriarch Joseph (2 Nephi 3:6-7).

36 After telling me these things, he commenced quoting the prophecies of the Old Testament. He first quoted part of the third chapter of Malachi; and he quoted also the fourth or last chapter of the same prophecy, though with a little variation from the way it reads in our Bibles. Instead of quoting the first verse as it reads in our books, he quoted it thus:

37 For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

38 And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus: Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

39 He also quoted the next verse differently: And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.

The third and fourth chapters of Malachi are of such importance that Jesus Christ personally commanded the Nephite record keepers to include them in their writings, which Joseph Smith translated without variation from the way the text reads in the King James translation of the Bible (3 Nephi 24:1). We currently have no biographical information about the writer of the book of Malachi. The meaning of the name Malachi is “Messenger of God,” which suggests that Malachi may simply be a noun instead of the writer’s actual name. Even though this messenger’s identity is unknown, his words are of utmost importance to those who live in the latter days.

The “messenger of the covenant” foretold in Malachi 3 is identified in a March 1831 revelation as the covenant itself. The revelation declares, “I have sent mine everlasting covenant into the world, to be a light of the world, and to be a standard for my people, and for the Gentiles to seek to it, and to be a messenger before my face to prepare the way before me” (D&C 45:9). It is possible the prophecy in Malachi 3 may have multiple meanings and refer to Joseph Smith or another messenger, but it is fitting that the messenger of the covenant is the covenant—an envoy that transcends any mortal messenger and crosses the boundaries of time and culture.

Malachi presents the stark contrast between the good and evil found in the last days. The Lord promises a swift judgment for the wicked, whom the prophecy specifies as sorcerers, adulterers, false swearers, and those who “oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger” (Malachi 3:5). At the same time these passages are diffused with the Lord’s attempts to reconcile with his estranged people. He pleads, “Return unto me, and I will return unto you” (Malachi 3:7).

The Lord also warns that those who do not repent and return will be consumed in the coming destructions “that shall burn as an oven,” a fire which will “leave them neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1). An effect of the trials of the last days will be to leave the wicked with no connections to their ancestral heritage (the root) and without hope for their descendants (the branch). In contrast, the Book of Mormon’s stated purpose is to “show unto the remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they might know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever” (Book of Mormon, title page). Connecting the children of Israel with their roots and showing the promises made to their fathers anciently, them as they receive the gospel fulness now, and their posterity in the future becomes a major focus of the Restoration.

See also Commentary for Doctrine and Covenants 2.

40 In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled. He quoted also the third chapter of Acts, twenty-second and twenty-third verses, precisely as they stand in our New Testament. He said that that prophet was Christ; but the day had not yet come when “they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people,” but soon would come.

41 He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to the last. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was soon to be. And he further stated that the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in. He quoted many other passages of scripture, and offered many explanations which cannot be mentioned here.

Isaiah 11 speaks of a “stem of Jesse” as a leader whom “the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon” and who will also possess “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2). A revelation given to Joseph Smith in March 1838 identifies the stem of Jesse as Jesus Christ (D&C 113:1–2). In the same revelation, the “rod” that comes out of the stem of Jesse is identified as “a servant in the hands of Christ, who is partly a descendant of Jesse as well as of Ephraim, or of the house of Joseph, on whom there is laid much power” (D&C 113:4). Though Joseph Smith did not receive these revelatory insights until fifteen years after Moroni’s visit, the prophecy ties the Prophet to the lineage of the patriarch Joseph and the royal family of Israel. Joseph was also told he possessed a right to the priesthood through the “lineage of your fathers” with the Lord explaining to the Prophet that “your life and the priesthood have remained, and must needs remain through you and your lineage until the restoration of all things spoken by the mouths of all the holy prophets since the world began (D&C 86:8).

Joel 2:28–32 speaks of the wonders and promise of the last days, with the Lord promising, “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.” Elder Orson Pratt cited this prophecy as proof that the canon of scripture was still open in the latter days, declaring, “Tell about the canon of scripture being complete, what nonsense! What absurdity! Where is there any proof of such a thing? God has yet to give revelation enough to fill the earth with his knowledge as the waters to cover the great deep. . . . God is a consistent being, and he reveals himself according to his own mind and will, and in the last dispensation he will continue to reveal line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.”15

As Joseph states in his narrative, what he has written is only a sample of the visitation, which “occupied the whole of that night” (Joseph Smith—History 1:47). In his 1835 account of Moroni’s visitation to Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery quoted from a number of other biblical passages, including Deuteronomy 32:23–24, 43; Psalms 100:1–2; 107:1–7; 144:11–12; 144:13; 146:10; Isaiah 1:23–26; 2:1–4; 4:5–6; 11:15–16; 29:11, 13–14; 43:16; Jeremiah 16:16; 30:18–21; 31:1, 8–9, 27–28, 32–33; 50:4–5; and 1 Corinthians 1:27–29. Because of his close association with Joseph Smith, it is likely that Oliver knew more about the visitation of Moroni than anyone except the Prophet. However, in the account that Oliver wrote in the Messenger and Advocate it is difficult to tell when he is quoting the angel and when he is explaining the themes emphasized by Moroni in this visitation.16

The majority of the passages emphasized in both Joseph’s and Oliver’s recounting of Moroni’s visit reference the gathering of Israel in the last days. For instance, the passage quoted most liberally in Oliver’s account is Jeremiah 31, in which the Lord promises the following:

Behold, the days come, said the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenants that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in the inward parts, and write it in the their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:31–33)

42 Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he had spoken—for the time that they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled—I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed. While he was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to my mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when I visited it.

43 After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin to gather immediately around the person of him who had been speaking to me, and it continued to do so until the room was again left dark, except just around him; when, instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up into heaven, and he ascended till he entirely disappeared, and the room was left as it had been before this heavenly light had made its appearance.

44 I lay musing on the singularity of the scene, and marveling greatly at what had been told to me by this extraordinary messenger; when, in the midst of my meditation, I suddenly discovered that my room was again beginning to get lighted, and in an instant, as it were, the same heavenly messenger was again by my bedside.

45 He commenced, and again related the very same things which he had done at his first visit, without the least variation; which having done, he informed me of great judgments which were coming upon the earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence; and that these grievous judgments would come on the earth in this generation. Having related these things, he again ascended as he had done before.

In his 1840 account of Moroni’s visit to Joseph Smith, Orson Pratt describes Joseph, in the moments after Moroni departed, with “his mind in perfect peace, while a calmness and serenity indescribable pervaded the soul.”17 When Moroni appeared again he recited the same message, but this time he emphasized the judgments about to come upon the people of the earth. The voice of warning about coming calamities became a theme in the revelations of the Restoration. In the preface to the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord declares, “I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments” (D&C 1:17). The judgments of the last days are further detailed in numerous revelations, but most prominently in Doctrine and Covenants 29, 38, 45, 101, and 133.

46 By this time, so deep were the impressions made on my mind, that sleep had fled from my eyes, and I lay overwhelmed in astonishment at what I had both seen and heard. But what was my surprise when again I beheld the same messenger at my bedside, and heard him rehearse or repeat over again to me the same things as before; and added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to tempt me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of my father’s family), to get the plates for the purpose of getting rich. This he forbade me, saying that I must have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be influenced by any other motive than that of building his kingdom; otherwise I could not get them.

47 After this third visit, he again ascended into heaven as before, and I was again left to ponder on the strangeness of what I had just experienced; when almost immediately after the heavenly messenger had ascended from me for the third time, the cock crowed, and I found that day was approaching, so that our interviews must have occupied the whole of that night.

Several accounts of Moroni’s visit detail this warning to Joseph not to seek the sacred record for his own gain, or the gain of his family. Oliver Cowdery recorded that the angel departed “with a promise that he [Joseph] should obtain [the plates] if he followed the directions and went with an eye single to the glory of God.”18

Likewise, Lucy Mack Smith recorded Moroni’s warning “that he [Joseph] must beware of covetousness, and he must not suppose the record was to be brought forth with the view of getting gain, for this was not the case, but that it was to bring forth light and intelligence, which had for a long time been lost to the world; and that when he went to get the plates, he must be on his guard, or his mind would be filled with darkness.”19

48 I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the necessary labors of the day; but, in attempting to work as at other times, I found my strength so exhausted as to render me entirely unable. My father, who was laboring along with me, discovered something to be wrong with me, and told me to go home. I started with the intention of going to the house; but, in attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my strength entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was quite unconscious of anything.

49 The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking unto me, calling me by name. I looked up, and beheld the same messenger standing over my head, surrounded by light as before. He then again related unto me all that he had related to me the previous night, and commanded me to go to my father and tell him of the vision and commandments which I had received.

50 I obeyed; I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed the whole matter to him. He replied to me that it was of God, and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger. I left the field, and went to the place where the messenger had told me the plates were deposited; and owing to the distinctness of the vision which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I arrived there.

This passage of the Prophet’s history illustrates the crucial role his family played in encouraging and supporting him in his prophetic calling. According to Lucy Mack Smith, Alvin, the eldest Smith brother, was also working the field that day, and when he saw Joseph in a distracted state told him, “We must not slacken our hands, or we will not be able to complete our task.”20 However, when Joseph’s father noticed his weakened condition, he sent him home, resulting in the fourth visitation of the angel.

Joseph Smith, Sr., though unaffiliated with any religion, was a deeply spiritual man. In her history, Lucy Mack Smith recorded several different dreams and visions her husband shared before Joseph Jr. experienced the First Vision.21 When Joseph, following the angel’s instructions, told his father of the visitations, his father immediately believed him. In 1835, Joseph described his father’s reaction, remembering, “He wept and told me it was a vision from God [and] to attend to it.”22

51 Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth.

52 Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them.

53 I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time; but he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates.

In his 1832 History, the Prophet records, “I immediately went to the place and found where the plates [were] deposited as the angel of the Lord had commanded me and straightway made three attempts to get them.” Joseph briefly wondered if he was in a dream or seeing a vision when he sought the Lord again. He writes, “I cried unto the Lord in the agony of my soul why can I not obtain them,” continuing, “the angel appeared unto me again and said unto me you have not kept the commandments of the Lord which I gave unto you therefore you cannot now obtain them for the time is not yet fulfilled therefore thou wast left unto temptation that thou mightest be made acquainted with the power of the adversary therefore repent and call on the Lord thou shalt be forgiven and in his own due time thou shalt obtain them.”23 In his 1835 retelling Joseph adds, “the powers of darkness strove hard against me, I called on God, the Angel told me that the reason why I could not obtain the plates at this time was because I was under transgression.”24

Lucy Mack Smith’s recollection of this event was that, rather than rebuking Joseph, Moroni used the young prophet’s overzealousness to obtain the record as a teaching opportunity. She writes, “The angel showed him by contrast, the difference between good and evil; and the consequences which would​ follow both obedience and disobedience to the commandments of God.” The lesson, she explains, came “in such a striking and forcible manner, that the impression was always bright in his recollection, until the very end of his days.” The experience indeed remained vivid in Joseph’s mind until the end of his days, for as Lucy recalls, “In giving a relation of this circumstance, not long prior to his death, he remarked: that ever afterwards he was willing to keep the commandments of God.”25

54 Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of each year, and at each time I found the same messenger there, and received instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews, respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner his kingdom was to be conducted in the last days.

In this verse, Joseph casually covers several years of critical importance in his prophetic development. In his 1842 history, Joseph remarks on this period of training, writing of “many visits from the angels of God unfolding the majesty, and glory of the events that should transpire in the last days.”26 We know of Moroni, but who were the other angels involved in the tutelage of the young prophet? President John Taylor stated:

Joseph Smith in the first place was set apart by the Almighty according to the counsels of the gods in the eternal worlds, to introduce the principles of life. . . . The principles which he had, placed him in communication with the Lord, and . . . with the ancient apostles and prophets; such men, for instance, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Adam, Seth, Enoch, and Jesus and the Father, and the apostles that lived on this continent as well as those who lived on the Asiatic continent. He seemed to be as familiar with these people as we are with one another. Why? Because he had to introduce a dispensation which was called the dispensation of the fulness of times, and it was known as such by the ancient servants of God.27

During this time, Joseph eagerly shared his education with his family members. His mother recalled, “Joseph continued to receive instructions from the Lord; and we, to get the children together every evening for the purpose of listening while he imparted the same to the family. I presume we presented an aspect as singular, as any family that ever lived upon the face of the Earth: all seated in a circle, father, mother, sons, and daughters, and giving the most profound attention to a boy, eighteen​ years of age, who had never read the Bible through in his life.”28

The family’s participation together in these early sessions helps explain the unity of the Smith family throughout the Prophet’s ministry. Lucy Mack Smith later wrote, “We were now confirmed in the opinion, that God was about to bring to light something upon which we could stay our minds; or, that would give us a more perfect knowledge of the plan of salvation. This caused us greatly to rejoice, the sweetest union and happiness pervaded our family, and peace and tranquility reigned in our midst.” She also remembered, “During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined: he would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent; their dress, mode of travelling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, and their buildings, with every particular; he would describe their mode of​ warfare, as also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life with them.”29

55 As my father’s worldly circumstances were very limited, we were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out by day’s work and otherwise, as we could get opportunity. Sometimes we were at home, and sometimes abroad, and by continuous labor were enabled to get a comfortable maintenance.

56 In the year 1823 my father’s family met with a great affliction by the death of my eldest brother, Alvin. In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old gentleman by the name of Josiah Stoal, who lived in Chenango county, State of New York. He had heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna county, State of Pennsylvania; and had, previous to my hiring to him, been digging, in order, if possible, to discover the mine. After I went to live with him, he took me, with the rest of his hands, to dig for the silver mine, at which I continued to work for nearly a month, without success in our undertaking, and finally I prevailed with the old gentleman to cease digging after it. Hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a money-digger.

The death of Alvin Smith, which came only a few months after Joseph’s visitation from Moroni, was a critical event in the life of the young prophet. According to Lucy Mack Smith, Alvin became ill after a physician administered a dose of Calomel, which lodged in Alvin’s stomach. Calomel was a popular medicine in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and was recommended by such prominent American physicians as Benjamin Rush.

When Alvin realized his condition would take his life, he called together each of the boys and the girls in the family for a final exhortation. When he spoke to Joseph, he told him, “I want you to be a good boy, and do everything that lays in your power to obtain the record—Be faithful in receiving instruction, and in keeping every commandment that is given you—your brother Alvin must leave you; but remember the example which he has set for you, and set the same example for the children that are younger than yourself—and always be kind to father and mother.”30

While Alvin’s death was a tragedy to the Smith family, it served as a catalyst leading Joseph to ponder the fate of those who died without baptism. In January 1836, while performing some of the ordinances of washing and anointing carried out in the Kirtland Temple, Joseph saw a vision of Alvin in the Celestial Kingdom. While Joseph wondered how his brother had achieved exaltation without having received baptism, the voice of the Lord told Joseph that “all who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it, if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God—also all that shall die henceforth, with​out​ a knowledge of it, who would have received it, with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom, for I the Lord ​will​ judge all men according to their works according to the desires of their hearts.”31 Later the means to accomplish the salvation of the dead were given to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery with the further priesthood keys from Moses, Elias, and Elijah and the introduction of proxy ordinances for the deceased.

The other story detailed in these verses is Joseph’s work with Josiah Stowell (his named is misspelled in the 1838 history) and the resulting accusations of “money-digging.” Lucy Mack Smith said that Stowell approached Joseph to assist him in locating a silver mine, noting, “He came for Joseph on account of having heard that he possessed certain keys, by which he could discern things invisible to the natural eye.”32

Lucy explains that “Joseph endeavored to divert him from his vain project; but he was inflexible, and offered high wages to such as would dig for him; and was still very anxious to have Joseph work for him; consequently, he returned with the old gentleman; besides several others who were picked up in the neighborhood, and commenced digging.” Lucy writes that the venture ended without much accomplished: “After laboring about a month without success, Joseph prevailed on his employer to cease his operations. It was from this circumstance, namely, working by the month at digging for a silver mine, that the very prevalent story arose, of his having been a money digger.”33

Throughout his life, Joseph was open about these treasure-seeking endeavors in his past. In 1838, Joseph answered a question, “Was not Joe Smith a money digger?” to which he replied, “Yes, but it was never very profitable job to him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it.”34

Even though Josiah Stowell’s attempts to find the silver mine met with failure, Stowell remained a strong proponent of Joseph’s prophetic gifts. He was present at the Smith home the day that Joseph retrieved the gold plates from the place he had hidden them after receiving them from the angel. Stowell was also “the first person that took the Plates out of [Joseph Smith’s] hands the morning [he] brought them in,” making him the first person other than Joseph Smith to heft and handle the plates. He later testified as a witness on behalf of Joseph at a trial held in the summer of 1830. In his testimony Stowell described the plates’ dimensions but acknowledged that he held the record while it was wrapped in a linen cloth and only saw a corner of the plates. He later offered to purchased five or six hundred dollars worth of copies when the Book of Mormon was printed.35 While the “money-digging” effort ended in failure, Joseph’s sincerity appears to have cemented Stowell’s belief in Joseph’s calling as a prophet.

57 During the time that I was thus employed, I was put to board with a Mr. Isaac Hale, of that place; it was there I first saw my wife (his daughter), Emma Hale. On the 18th of January, 1827, we were married, while I was yet employed in the service of Mr. Stoal.

58 Owing to my continuing to assert that I had seen a vision, persecution still followed me, and my wife’s father’s family were very much opposed to our being married. I was, therefore, under the necessity of taking her elsewhere; so we went and were married at the house of Squire Tarbill, in South Bainbridge, Chenango county, New York. Immediately after my marriage, I left Mr. Stoal’s, and went to my father’s, and farmed with him that season.

Another successful byproduct of Joseph’s venture with Josiah Stowell was his acquaintance with Emma Hale, whose family he boarded with during his time in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Emma was a year older than Joseph, and their courtship caused some consternation in the Hale family. Isaac Hale later described the episode, saying, “[The] young Smith made several visits at my house, and at length asked my consent to marry my daughter Emma. This I refused, and gave my reasons for so doing; some of which were, that he was a stranger, and followed a business that I could not approve; he then left the place. Not long after this, he returned, and while I was absent from home, carried off my daughter, in the state of New York, where they were married without my approbation or consent.”36

In 1838, in a series of questions and answers published in the Elder’s Journal, Joseph Smith commented on the circumstances surrounding his marriage. When asked, “Did not Jo Smith steal his wife[?],” Joseph replied simply, “Ask her; she was of age, she can answer for herself.”37 During an 1879 interview carried out by her son Joseph Smith III, Emma provided her side of the story: “I had no intention of marrying when I left home; but, during my visit at Mr. Stowell’s, your father visited me there. My folks were bitterly opposed to him; and, being importuned by your father, aided by Mr. Stowell, who urged me to marry him, and preferring to marry him to any other man I knew, I consented. We went to Squire [Zachariah] Tarbell’s and were married.”38

59 At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected.

According to Joseph Knight Sr., a close friend of the Smiths, Moroni set the date on which Joseph should receive the plates, telling him that “if he would do right according to the will of God” he could obtain the plates on September 22, 1827. Knight also records a curious detail not included in other histories, writing that the angel also told Joseph that “he might have the book if he brought with him the right person.” When Joseph asked, “Who is the right person?” he was told, “You will know.” Then, according to Knight, Joseph “looked in his glass and found it was Emma Hale, daughter of old Mr. Hale of Pennsylvany.”39

Emma accompanied Joseph on his trip to the hill the night he went to retrieve the plates. Borrowing Joseph Knight’s wagon, the pair slipped out of the Smith home in the middle of the night and traveled there. Emma waited in anticipation while Joseph ascended the hill to meet with the angel and retrieve the plates. Afterward, without a safe place to store the plates in the Smith home, he elected to hide them in the woods.40 When Joseph arrived home, his mother was overwhelmed with anxiety that he did not have the plates with him. To soothe her nerves, Joseph allowed his mother to handle the Nephite interpreters while they were wrapped in a silk handkerchief. He explained to her that he could use the interpreters to know if the plates were safe.41

60 I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I had done what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.

Joseph’s statements that “the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me” is a severe understatement. In his 1842 history he later added, “As soon as the news of this discovery was made known, false reports, misrepresentation and slander flew as on the wings of the wind in every direction, the house was frequently beset by mobs, and evil designing persons, several times I was shot at, and very narrowly escaped, and every device was made use of to get the plates away from me, but the power and blessing of God attended me, and several began to believe my testimony.”42

Rumors that Joseph was hoarding a buried treasure he had extracted from the hill immediately began to circulate through the region. “It now seemed that Satan had stirred up the hearts of those who had in any way got a hint of the matter,” wrote Lucy Mack Smith. She even received word that Willard Chase, a local Methodist, sent for a “conjuror” to travel sixty miles to “divine the place where the record was deposited by magic art.” Lucy also noted that “Joseph kept the urim and thummim constantly about his person and he could by this means ascertain at any moment if the plates were in danger.”43

Perhaps the most dramatic incident came when Joseph traveled to retrieve the plates from their hiding place in the woods. Once the plates were in his possession, he wrapped them in a linen cloth and then elected to leave the main road and cut through the woods to return home. On his way, he was confronted by a man who struck him with the stock of a rifle. Joseph managed to knock the man down and run away at top speed. About a half mile later he was accosted by a second man, and again Joseph managed to knock down the assailant and escape. But before he arrived at the Smith home, he was confronted by a third attacker. In the struggle to get away, Joseph dislocated his thumb. According to Lucy Mack Smith, when he finally arrived at the house he was “altogether speechless from fright and exhaustion.”44

61 The excitement, however, still continued, and rumor with her thousand tongues was all the time employed in circulating falsehoods about my father’s family, and about myself. If I were to relate a thousandth part of them, it would fill up volumes. The persecution, however, became so intolerable that I was under the necessity of leaving Manchester, and going with my wife to Susquehanna county, in the State of Pennsylvania. While preparing to start—being very poor, and the persecution so heavy upon us that there was no probability that we would ever be otherwise—in the midst of our afflictions we found a friend in a gentleman by the name of Martin Harris, who came to us and gave me fifty dollars to assist us on our journey. Mr. Harris was a resident of Palmyra township, Wayne county, in the State of New York, and a farmer of respectability.

62 By this timely aid was I enabled to reach the place of my destination in Pennsylvania; and immediately after my arrival there I commenced copying the characters off the plates. I copied a considerable number of them, and by means of the Urim and Thummim I translated some of them, which I did between the time I arrived at the house of my wife’s father, in the month of December, and the February following.

After enduring several months of persecution, Joseph and Emma chose to leave the Palmyra area and travel to Emma’s home in Harmony, Pennsylvania. During the journey, Joseph concealed the plates in a barrel of beans. In his 1840 history, Orson Pratt wrote about the travails witnessed during their trip to Harmony: “He had not gone far, before he was overtaken by an officer with a search-warrant, who flattered himself with the idea, that he should surely obtain the plates; after searching very diligently, he was sadly disappointed at not finding them.” Near the end of Joseph’s journey, “he was again overtaken by an officer on the same business, and after ransacking the wagon very carefully, he went his way, as much chagrined as the first, at not being able to discover the object of his research. Without any further molestation, he pursued his journey until he came into the northern part of Pennsylvania, near the Susquehanna river, in which part his father-in-law resided.”45

When Joseph and Emma arrived in Harmony, their relationship with Emma’s family was still strained. Nevertheless, the couple worked to reconcile Emma’s family to their marriage and Joseph’s prophetic work. After they arrived, they even went so far as to allow Emma’s father, Isaac, to see the box the plates were kept in. Isaac Hale later reported, “I was informed they had brought a wonderful book of Plates down with them. I was shown a box in which it is said they were contained, which had to all appearances been used as a glass box of common window glass. I was allowed to feel the weight of the box, and they gave me to understand, that the plates was then in the box—into which, however, I was not allowed to look.”46

63 Sometime in this month of February, the aforementioned Mr. Martin Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates, and started with them to the city of New York. For what took place relative to him and the characters, I refer to his own account of the circumstances, as he related them to me after his return, which was as follows:

64 “I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated, and he said that they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters. He gave me a certificate, certifying to the people of Palmyra that they were true characters, and that the translation of such of them as had been translated was also correct. I took the certificate and put it into my pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr. Anthon called me back, and asked me how the young man found out that there were gold plates in the place where he found them. I answered that an angel of God had revealed it unto him.

65 “He then said to me, ‘Let me see that certificate.’ I accordingly took it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and tore it to pieces, saying that there was no such thing now as ministering of angels, and that if I would bring the plates to him he would translate them. I informed him that part of the plates were sealed, and that I was forbidden to bring them. He replied, ‘I cannot read a sealed book.’ I left him and went to Dr. Mitchell, who sanctioned what Professor Anthon had said respecting both the characters and the translation.”

Martin Harris was among the most important of Joseph Smith’s early supporters. He helped Joseph and Emma pay for their move to Harmony and visited them in person, laboring as one of the early scribes of the Book of Mormon. According to Joseph’s 1832 history, because of Martin’s assistance with the move “the Lord appeared unto [Martin] in vision and showed him the his marvelous work which he was about to do.” Martin arrived in Harmony in February 1828 and told Joseph that “the Lord had shown him that he must go to New York City with some of the characters” on the plates. Joseph obliged by copying some of the characters onto a piece of paper that he gave to Martin before he set out on his journey east.47

While Charles Anthon is the only scholar mentioned in the 1838 history, contemporary sources indicate that Martin visited several other men of scholarly reputation during his journey. Pomeroy Tucker, a prominent Palmyra citizen, recalled that Martin sought out “the interpretation and bibliographical scrutiny of such scholars as Hon. Luther Bradish, Dr. [Samuel] Mitchell, Prof. Anthon and others.”48

Luther Bradish was a former resident of Palmyra, so it was likely that he and Martin knew each other well. Bradish had become a successful Wall Street lawyer and a New York State assemblyman. He had also lived in Egypt as a special agent for the American government, which made him a possible source of expertise or at least someone who could point Martin toward a scholar with knowledge of Egyptian hieroglyphics. We know nothing about their conversation, though they probably met in Albany, New York, because Bradish would have been there serving in the legislature in February 1828. It is likely that Bradish referred Martin to another scholar in New York City, Professor Samuel L. Mitchill, one of the leading naturalists in the country.49

After his arrival in New York City, Martin met with Samuel Mitchill, a man known among his colleagues as the “nestor of American science,” a “stalking library,” and “the Delphic oracle of New York.” It was Mitchill who subsequently referred Martin to an upcoming young scholar of linguistics, Charles Anthon. While Anthon was a superb scholar of Greek, Latin, German, and French, there is little indication that he knew much about Egyptian, Hebrew, or any other Middle Eastern language. Though the encounter convinced Martin that the characters were genuine, in letters written in 1834 and 1841 Anthon disputed Martin’s account of their meeting, though he contradicted himself in the way he told the story in each letter. In the 1834 letter, Anthon said that Martin “intended selling his farm and giving the amount to those who wished to publish the plates,” while in the 1841 letter Anthon stated that Martin left his office determined not to sell his farm “or embark in the speculation of printing the golden book.”50

Charles Anthon likely became the most prominent of the three scholars because of his mention in the 1838 history, and because we know the most about the conversation he had with Martin Harris. When Joseph Smith translated Isaiah’s prophecy in 2 Nephi 27:15–18, he became convinced that it referred to Charles Anthon.51 Regardless of the disputes over what was said between the two men, one fact is indisputable—Martin returned from his trip to the East convinced that the characters were genuine and could be translated only through divine revelation from God.

Footnotes

• 1. History, circa Summer 1832.
• 2. Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 72.
• 3. Mark L. McConkie, Remembering Joseph, 306
• 4. see Church History Topics, “Seer Stones.”
• 5. Joseph Smith—History, vol. A-1, 7–8, draft 2.
• 6. Michael Hubbard MacKay and Nicholas J. Frederick, Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones, 7–8.
• 7. MacKay and Frederick, Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones, 38.
• 8. History, circa summer 1832, 4.
• 9. “Letter IV,” February 1835, 78–80.
• 10. The American Religion, 1992, 95.
• 11. Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, bk. 5, 7.
• 12. John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 184.
• 13. Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 114.
• 14. Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, From Darkness unto Light, 2015, 89.
• 15. Journal of Discourses, 15:99.
• 16. see Kent P. Jackson, “Moroni’s Message to Joseph Smith,” Ensign, August 1990.
• 17. An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, 7.
• 18. “Letter VII,” Latter-day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, July 1835, 1:156–58.
• 19. History, 1845, 82.
• 20. History, 1845, 83.
• 21. History 1845, 53–58.
• 22. Journal, 1835–36, 25.
• 23. History, circa Summer 1832, 4.
• 24. Journal 1835–1836, 25.
• 25. History, 1845, 85.
• 26. “Church History,” March 1, 1842, 707.
• 27. Journal of Discourses, 21:94.
• 28. Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 86.
• 29. History, 1845, 87.
• 30. Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 91.
• 31. D&C 137:7–9; Journal, 1835–36, 137.
• 32. History, 1845, 95.
• 33. History, 1845, 95.
• 34. Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 43.
• 35. Mackay and Dirkmaat, From Darkness Unto Light, 6, 15, 200.
• 36. Larry E. Morris, A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon, 2019, 82.
• 37. “Questions and Answers,” May 8, 1838, 43.
• 38. Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald, Oct. 1, 1879, 289.
• 39. Joseph Knight’s Recollection of Early Mormon History,” BYU Studies, 17:1 (1977), 30–36.
• 40. Mackay and Dirkmaat, From Darkness Unto Light, 6.
• 41. Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 107.
• 42. “Church History,” March 1, 1842.
• 43. History, 1844–1845, bk. 5, 8-10.
• 44. History, 1844–45, bk. 5, 11.
• 45. An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, 13–14.
• 46. Morris, A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon, 82.
• 47. History, circa Summer 1832, 5.
• 48. Morris, A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon, 246.
• 49. Richard E. Bennett, “Read This, I Pray Thee: Martin Harris and the Three Wise Men of the East,” Journal of Mormon History, 36:1, 2010, 184–89.
• 50. Bennett, “Read This, I Pray Thee,” 190–93.
• 51. MacKay and Dirkmaat, From Darkness Into Light, 52.