The Lord encouraged Oliver Cowdery to use his spiritual gifts to participate with Joseph Smith in translating the Book of Mormon. His experience as scribe cemented Cowdery's faith in the restoration.
Oliver Cowdery
Oliver Cowdery lay awake wondering. Could the stories he was hearing be true? The 22-year-old schoolteacher was boarding at the Palmyra, New York, home of Joseph Smith Sr. in the fall of 1828. Soon after he arrived in the area, he started hearing stories of the Smiths’ son Joseph Jr., his encounters with angels, and his discovery of gold plates.
His curiosity piqued, he had plied his landlord with questions, eager to learn more. At first Joseph Sr. was reluctant to share, but he eventually gave way to his boarder's pleading and told him about Joseph Jr.’s experiences. If such wonderful things were true, Oliver needed to know. He prayed. A peace came to him, convincing him God had spoken and confirmed the stories he had heard.1
He told no one of this experience, though he often spoke of the gold plates and gradually came to believe God was calling him to be a scribe for Joseph Smith as he translated.2 When the school term ended in the spring of 1829, Oliver traveled to Harmony, Pennsylvania, where Joseph was living with his wife, Emma, farming land owned by Emma’s father, Isaac Hale.
Translation of the plates had stopped for a time after Joseph’s scribe Martin Harris lost the manuscript the previous summer. Despite this setback, Joseph had reassured his mother, telling her an angel told him “the Lord would send me a scribe, and I trust his promise will be verified.”3 Indeed, the Lord would send a scribe and, to his mother and father’s surprise, it was Cowdery, the very man they had helped prepare. Oliver Cowdery arrived at Joseph and Emma Smith’s home on April 5, 1829.
Joseph and Oliver wasted little time. After spending April 6 attending to some business, they began their work of translation together the following day.
Translation continued for several days, then Joseph received a revelation for his scribe. Oliver's lingering doubts about Joseph Smith’s prophetic gift were addressed as the words of the revelation related experiences Oliver had not shared with anyone. “[C]ast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things,” the Lord reminded him, “[D]id I not speak peace to your mind concer[n]ing the matter?— What greater witness can you have than from God?... [D]oubt not, fear not”4 (see D&C 6:22-23).
Oliver came to Harmony believing he had been called to write for Joseph; now he was there and wanted to know what else the Lord had in store for him. “Behold thou hast a gift,” the revelation stated, “and blessed art thou because of thy gift. Remember it is sacred and cometh from above.” His gift was the gift of revelation, and by it he could “find out mysteries, that thou mayest bring many to the knowledge of the truth; yea, convince them of the error of their ways”5 (see D&C 6:10-11). The Lord also offered Oliver another gift, "if you desire of me, to translate even as my servant Joseph" (see D&C 6:25).
In the meantime, Oliver continued to witness Joseph Smith employ his gift to translate. Sometime that same month, the two men were discussing the fate of the apostle John—a topic of interest at the time. Joseph’s history records they differed in their opinions and “mutually agreed to settle [it] by the Urim and Thummim.”6 The answer came in a vision of a parchment that Joseph translated, which is now Doctrine and Covenants 7.
Oliver Desires to Translate
As Joseph and Oliver continued their work, Oliver grew anxious to play a greater part in the translation. The Lord had promised him the opportunity to translate and he wanted to claim it. Joseph dictated another revelation. The word of the Lord assured Oliver he could have the gift he desired. The requirements: faith and an honest heart (see D&C 8:1).
The revelation continued, informing the would-be translator how the process was to work. The Lord would “tell you in your mind & in your heart by the Holy Ghost which Shall come upon you & which shall dwell in your heart.” Revelation had always come in this manner. The revelation declared this was the means, or “spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the red Sea on dry ground”7 (see D&C 8:2-3).
Oliver Cowdery lived in a culture steeped in biblical ideas, language and practices. The revelation’s reference to Moses likely resonated with him. The Old Testament account of Moses and his brother Aaron recounted several instances of using rods to manifest God’s will (see Ex. 7:9-12; Num. 17:8). Many Christians in Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery's day similarly believed in divining rods as instruments for revelation. Cowdery was among those who believed in and used a divining rod.8
The Lord recognized Oliver’s ability to use a rod: “thou hast another gift which is the gift of working with the rod.”9 Confirming the divinity of this gift, the revelation stated: “Behold there is no other power save God that can cause this thing of Nature to work in your hands for it is the work of God.” If Oliver desired, the revelation went on to say, the Lord would add the gift of translation to the revelatory gifts Oliver already possessed (D&C 8:8-11).
Though we know very few details about Oliver Cowdery’s attempt to translate, it apparently did not go well. His efforts quickly came to naught. In the wake of Oliver’s failure, Joseph Smith received another revelation, counseling Oliver, “Be patient my son, for it is wisdom in me, and it is not expedient that you should translate at this present time.” Oliver was further told he had not understood the process. He was first to “study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right, I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you”10 (see D&C 9:7-8).
Authority Restored
While discouraged by his failed attempt to translate, Oliver dutifully resumed his role as scribe as Joseph dictated the translation from the plates. “These were days never to be forgotten,” Cowdery later wrote. “To sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom!” When they came to the account of Jesus’ personal ministry to the Nephites, they began to wonder if anyone in their day had authority to administer the true church of Christ. They were especially concerned about baptism. On May 15, 1829, they left the Smith home where they were working to find a secluded spot to pray in a wooded area nearby.
Whatever doubts Oliver Cowdery may still have entertained certainly vanished when the resurrected John the Baptist "descended in a cloud of light, and having laid his hands upon us"11 said, "Upon you my fellow servants in the name of Messiah I confer the priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministring of angels and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins" (see D&C 13). The experience cemented Oliver's faith. “Where was room for doubt?” Oliver later wrote of the incident. “No where; uncertainty had fled, doubt had sunk.”12
Ezra Thayer at first rejected the Book of Mormon, but his heart changed when he heard Hyrum Smith preach. His conversion led to a revelation calling him to the ministry.
Smith home in Manchester where Ezra Thayer heard Hyrum Smith preach
In the fall of 1830, Ezra Thayer was living in the township of Farmington, New York, with his wife, Elizabeth,1 and their children.2 He was in his late thirties and had spent several years in the area building bridges, dams, and mills.3
The Skeptic
Earlier that year, some of the workmen he employed told him of rumors circulating about Joseph Smith and his translation of the Book of Mormon. Thayer rejected the story as blasphemy and “was filled with wrath about it.”
His brusque reaction was due in part to the fact that he knew the Smiths, having previously employed Joseph, his father, and his brothers to work on projects near Palmyra. The idea of Joseph translating and publishing a book of scripture was totally incongruous with what Thayer knew of the uneducated young man.
Thayer was perturbed to discover that several members of his family began to take an interest in the Book of Mormon. While he was away for a few days, his half brother and nephew took his horses to hear Hyrum Smith preach. When Thayer returned, he chastised them, demanding that they “not take my horses again to hear those blasphemous wretches preach.” They maintained “that there was something in it, and that I had better go and hear him.”4
Thayer remained unconvinced, but his brother soon came to visit from Auburn, New York, about forty miles to the east. He, too, desired to learn more about the Book of Mormon and demanded that Thayer go with him to hear the Smiths preach. “I will not be found going after such a delusion,” Thayer retorted. His brother insisted there could be no harm in going to listen—after all, Ezra did know the Smith family. Thayer reluctantly agreed to go.
The Believer
On a Sunday in early October,5 the two brothers traveled roughly twelve miles to the Smith farm in Manchester, just south of Palmyra. When they arrived, they encountered “a large concourse of people” filling the lot around Joseph Smith Sr.’s log home and spilling out into the road.
Intent on hearing what was said, Thayer jostled through the crowd to get a place near the stand at the front. As Hyrum Smith began to preach, Thayer’s resistance melted away. He later wrote about his experience that day: “Every word touched me to the inmost soul. I thought every word was pointed to me. ... The tears rolled down my cheeks, I was very proud and stubborn. There were many there who knew me. ... I sat until I recovered myself before I dare look up.”6
After the sermon, Hyrum showed Thayer a copy of the Book of Mormon. As he took and opened it, he was instantly filled with “exquisite joy.” Closing the cover, he asked, “What is the price of it?” He paid the fourteen shillings and took the book. When Martin Harris, who was standing by, affirmed that the book was true, Thayer replied “that he need not tell me that, for I knew that it is true as well as he.”7
Upon arriving home, Thayer realized that although he was thoroughly convinced, it would be another matter to help his family, friends, and neighbors understand, let alone believe as he did. Word spread among his neighbors that Ezra Thayer, respectable businessman, was now Ezra Thayer, believer in Joseph Smith and his “Gold Bible.”
Thayer's house was soon thronged with neighbors anxious to dissuade him. He recalled, “They filled my house all day, and men made my wife believe that I was crazy and would lose my friends and all my property.” When Thayer endeavored to reason with a Methodist couple regarding his new faith, they curtly dismissed his argument, leaving Thayer’s wife, Elizabeth, to despair. “My wife began to cry,” he wrote, “and said that I was crazy, and it would ruin me, and she would leave me.”8 He succeeded in calming her fears, but his newfound faith would soon undergo further attacks.
He took his Book of Mormon to the nearby town of Canandaigua where his friends, unimpressed by it, took turns giving him their opinions. When they asked if he still believed it, he countered, “I could not say that I believed it, I knew it.” A local newspaper editor “said that he could tell me that I knew nothing concerning God if I had not a liberal education.”9 Thayer demonstrated his simple faith and testified of God and of the Book of Mormon.
The Revelation
In the wake of these encounters, he experienced a vision or dream in which “a man came and brought me a roll of paper and presented it to me, and also a trumpet and told me to blow it. I told him that I never blowed any in my life. He said you can blow it, try it. I put it in my mouth and blowed on it, and it made the most beautiful sound that I ever heard.”10 The meaning of the dream for Thayer would soon become apparent.
The following Sunday, Thayer returned to Manchester to meet with other believers. This time, he met Joseph Smith and related to him his experience with the Book of Mormon. He accepted Joseph’s invitation to be baptized and traveled a few miles to a millpond, where Parley P. Pratt baptized him and others, including a man named Northrop Sweet. Joseph Smith confirmed them.
Shortly after their baptism, Thayer and Sweet were called to the ministry in a revelation (now Doctrine and Covenants 33) dictated by Joseph Smith in nearby Fayette, New York. In it, the voice of God commanded them, “lift up [your] voices as with the sound of a Trump to declare my Gospel unto a Crooked & a perverse generation.”11 This passage reminded Thayer of his dream. He concluded, “The roll of paper was the revelation on me and Northrop Sweet. Oliver [Cowdery] was the man that brought the roll and trumpet.”12
The Missionary
“Open your mouth,” the revelation intoned, admonishing the newly called missionaries to "spare not." But Ezra Thayer and Northrop Sweet responded in markedly different ways to this injunction. Sweet soon parted ways with Joseph Smith to form what he called “the Pure Church of Christ.” He and five others began to hold meetings, but this early schism grew no further.13
Thayer, on the other hand, immediately began to assist in the spread of his new faith. He arranged to have Joseph Smith come preach at his barn and encouraged his family, friends, and neighbors to attend. On the appointed day, his fifty-by-eighteen-foot barn was filled to overflowing, and the onlookers heard sermons from Joseph and Hyrum Smith as well as four other recently called missionaries: Cowdery, Pratt, Peter Whitmer Jr., and Ziba Peterson.
In December,14 Thayer arranged another meeting, this time in Canandaigua. At first he attempted to secure a Methodist meetinghouse as the venue but was rebuffed, so he reserved the courthouse. That evening, Sidney Rigdon and others met Thayer at his home, and Thayer accompanied them to Canandaigua and “attended the door” while Rigdon preached.
Because of the deeply spiritual experiences that led to his conversion, Thayer acted on the revelation’s call to share his belief in spite of risks to his reputation and livelihood. He later wrote, “When God shows a man such a thing by the power of the Holy Ghost he knows it is true. He cannot doubt it.”15
John Whitmer was a reluctant servant when he received the call of historian early in Church history, but he was directed in his office by revelation.
John Whitmer, ca. 1870
John Whitmer was born in Pennsylvania in 1802. His family later moved to New York, eventually settling “with other German families near Fayette,” a sparsely populated township about 30 miles southeast of Palmyra.1 Through his family’s friendship with Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer learned about Joseph Smith and his in-progress translation of an ancient scriptural record, the Book of Mormon.2
The Whitmers became so interested in Joseph’s work that John’s brother, David, visited the young prophet in Harmony, Pennsylvania, in June 1829 and offered him “board free of charge” at the Whitmer home. David also proffered “the assistence of one of his brothers,” John, as a scribe. Joseph accepted and resided with the Whitmers “until the translation was finished.” As promised, John assisted “very much in writing during the remainder of the work.”3
Soon after Joseph arrived in Fayette, 26-year-old John Whitmer was baptized in Seneca Lake. He became one of the Eight Witnesses who saw the Book of Mormon plates and later declared, “I handled those plates; there were fine engravings on both sides.”4
When the Church was organized at the Whitmer home on April 6, 1830, the Lord instructed Joseph Smith, “there Shall a Record be kept among you”5 (see D&C 21:1). To comply with this commandment, Oliver Cowdery was appointed the first Church historian.6
Joseph’s revelations formed a significant part of the historical record. John Whitmer wrote that, during the early days of the Church, “the Lord blessed his disciples greatly, and he gave Revelation after Revelation, which contained doctrine, instructions, and prophecies.”7 In July 1830, the prophet “began to arrange and copy the revelations that he had received thus far,” with Whitmer acting as scribe.8
Whitmer as Historian and Recorder
In the fall of 1830, Oliver Cowdery embarked on a mission to the Lamanites. In his stead, John Whitmer was appointed “by the voice of the Elders to keep the Church record,” Whitmer wrote. “Joseph Smith Jr. said unto me you must also keep the Church history.”9
Whitmer was comfortable transcribing Joseph Smith’s revelations, but hesitant to embrace the unfamiliar role of historian. He told Joseph, “I would rather not do it,” but agreed to accept the assignment if the Lord willed it, in which case “I desire that he would manifest it through Joseph the Seer.”10
In the resulting revelation, dated March 8, 1831, and contained today in Doctrine and Covenants 47, the Lord affirmed Whitmer’s twofold assignment to “write & keep a regulal [regular] history & assist my servent Joseph in Transcribing all things which shall be given him”11 (see D&C 47:1). Responding to Whitmer’s insecurity about his writing skills, the Lord promised, “it shall be given thee by th[e] comforter to write these things”12 (see D&C 47:4). Three months later, Whitmer began his history, “The Book of John Whitmer.”13
A few months after that, Church leaders took steps to publish Joseph Smith’s revelations, a hymnal, a Church newspaper, and other works.14 A November 1831 revelation (Doctrine and Covenants 69) directed Oliver Cowdery and John Whitmer to carry the manuscript revelations to Independence, Missouri, where William W. Phelps had set up a printing press, to have them published.15 The revelation further instructed that missionaries who were “abroad in the Earth should send forth their accounts to the Land of Zion” and enlarged Whitmer’s duties as Church historian, telling him to “travel many times from place to place & from Church to Church that he may the more easily obtain knowledge Preaching & expounding writing cop[y]ing & selecting & obtain[in]g all things which shall be for the good of the Church & for the rising generations which shall grow up on the Land of Zion”16 (see D&C 69:5–8).
In July 1832, Joseph Smith encouraged Whitmer to “remember the commandment to keep a history of the church & the gathering.”17 Later that year, the prophet received another revelation that expanded John Whitmer’s historical charge: “[I]t is the duty of the lord[’s] clerk whom he has appointed to keep a hystory and a general church reccord of all things that transpire in Zion ... and also there manner of life and the faith and works and also of all the apostates”18 (see D&C 85:1–2).
Whitmer thus kept his record of the young Church for the duration of his membership, which ended in 1838. According to one group of historians, the history John Whitmer created “illuminates many important concerns of the early church, including property issues, church discipline,” the New Jerusalem, “the treatment of dissidents, and the establishment of a priesthood leadership hierarchy. ... Whitmer’s work is particularly significant for the revelations, petitions, and letters that form a large part of his history.”19
What Became of John Whitmer and His History?
In 1834, Joseph Smith appointed a presidency for the Church in Missouri, with John Whitmer and William W. Phelps serving as counselors to David Whitmer. John Whitmer and Phelps were later accused of financial wrongdoing in connection with their positions there and were subsequently excommunicated from the Church in March 1838.
Whitmer wrote in his history:
[S]ome temperal movements, have not proved satisfactory to all parties has also terminated in the expulsion of many members, among whom is W.W. Phelps and myself.
Therefore I close the history of the church of Latter Day Saints, Hoping that I may be forgiven of my faults, and my sins be bloted out and in the last day be saved in the kingdom of God notwithstanding my presnt situation.20
Joseph Smith arrived in Far West just days after the excommunications. A newly appointed clerk called on Whitmer to obtain his history, but Whitmer refused to surrender the document.21 He temporarily left Far West during the Mormon difficulties of 1838–1839, but returned a short time later and resided there for the rest of his life.22
After John Whitmer’s death in 1878, his history passed to his brother David,23 and in 1903 the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints obtained the history from a David Whitmer descendant. Eventually, in 1974, the LDS Church obtained the manuscript in an exchange of historical materials with the RLDS Church.24 In 2012, John Whitmer’s history was published as part of the LDS Church’s Joseph Smith Papers project.25
For more on the sections mentioned in this article, see the forthcoming volumes of the Documentsseries in The Joseph Smith Papers.
Footnotes
[1] Scott C. Esplin, “‘A History of All the Important Things’ (D&C 69:3): John Whitmer’s Record of Church History,” in Brigham Young University Church History Symposium (2009), eds. Richard E. Turley Jr. and Steven C. Harper (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2010), 51.
[2] Stanley R. Gunn, Oliver Cowdery, Second Elder and Scribe (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1962), 33.
[3] “History of Joseph Smith,” Times and Seasons 3, no. 20 (Aug. 15, 1842): 884–85.
[4] Richard L. Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981), 131, quoting Theodore Turley, memorandum, Apr. 4, 1839, in History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 7 vols., (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1901–1932), 3:307–8.
[6] Howard C. Searle, “Historians, Church,” in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992), 2:589.
[7] John Whitmer, History, 1831–Circa 1847, in Karen Lynn Davidson, Richard L. Jensen, and David J. Whittaker, eds., Histories, Volume 2: Assigned Histories, 1831–1847, vol. 2 of the Histories series ofThe Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 33.
[8] Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants (1981; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 37–38, 54.
[9] John Whitmer, History, 1831–Circa 1847, in Karen Lynn Davidson, Richard L. Jensen, and David J. Whittaker, eds., Histories, Volume 2: Assigned Histories, 1831–1847, vol. 2 of the Histories series ofThe Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 36.
[10] John Whitmer, History, 1831–Circa 1847, in Karen Lynn Davidson, Richard L. Jensen, and David J. Whittaker, eds., Histories, Volume 2: Assigned Histories, 1831–1847, vol. 2 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 36.
[13] Karen Lynn Davidson, Richard L. Jensen, and David J. Whittaker, eds., Histories, Volume 2: Assigned Histories, 1831–1847, vol. 2 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 8, 12.
[14] Lyndon W. Cook, “Literary Firm,” in Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon, and Richard O. Cowan, eds., Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 670.
[15] Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants (1981; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 113.
[16] Revelation, 11 November 1831–A, JSP. The revelations that Cowdery and Whitmer took to Independence were being typeset by William W. Phelps as The Book of Commandments, when, on July 20, 1833, “a mob destroyed the printing press.” By that time Phelps had printed 160 pages containing sixty-five revelations.
[17] Joseph Smith to Hyrum Smith, July 31, 1832, quoted in Dean C. Jessee, “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” Mormon Miscellaneous Reprint Series, #2 (Sandy, UT: Mormon Miscellaneous, 1984), 5; reprinted from BYU Studies 11, no. 4 (Summer 1971).
[18] Letter to William W. Phelps, 27 November 1832, JSP.
[19] Karen Lynn Davidson, Richard L. Jensen, and David J. Whittaker, eds., Histories, Volume 2: Assigned Histories, 1831–1847, vol. 2 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 12.
[20] John Whitmer, history, 1831–Circa 1847, in Karen Lynn Davidson, Richard L. Jensen, and David J. Whittaker, eds., Histories, Volume 2: Assigned Histories, 1831–1847, vol. 2 of the Histories series ofThe Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 95. Whitmer subsequently lined through much of this text, beginning with “among whom is W.W. Phelps and myself.”
[21]History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 7 vols., (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1901–1932), 3:8–9, 13–15.
[22] Richard L. Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981), 131.
[23] Scott C. Esplin, “‘A History of All the Important Things’ (D&C 69:3): John Whitmer’s Record of Church History,” in Brigham Young University Church History Symposium (2009), eds. Richard E. Turley Jr. and Steven C. Harper (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2010), 57.
[24] Scott C. Esplin, “‘A History of All the Important Things’ (D&C 69:3): John Whitmer’s Record of Church History,” in Brigham Young University Church History Symposium (2009), eds. Richard E. Turley Jr. and Steven C. Harper (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2010), 73.
[25] John Whitmer, history, 1831–Circa 1847, in Karen Lynn Davidson, Richard L. Jensen, and David J. Whittaker, eds., Histories, Volume 2: Assigned Histories, 1831–1847, vol. 2 of the Histories series ofThe Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 2–110. Earlier, in 1995, Bruce N. Westergren published an annotated transcription of John Whitmer’s history: From Historian to Dissident: The Book of John Whitmer, ed. Bruce N. Westergren (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995).
