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September 22, 1835

On September 22, 1835, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery “labored . . . in obtaining and writing” blessings for men including David and John Whitmer, John Corrill, and William W. Phelps.[1] A month previous, Phelps had received a similar blessing from Church patriarch Joseph Smith Sr.[2] “These blessings had enormous impact upon Phelps,” observes biographer Bruce A. Van Orden, “and he would refer back to them often in future years.”[3] Indeed, on June 29, 1857, Phelps wrote a letter to Brigham Young that included a copy of the blessing pronounced upon him in 1835 (complete with self-provided verse numbers). Calling it “a revelation,” Phelps was impressed with its promise that he would “understand all sciences and languages,” and mentioned how the blessing gave him “great joy.”[4] Phelps did indeed fancy himself an adept at languages and assisted the Prophet as a scribe, publisher, and even ghostwriter,[5] so it is understandable why he would find so much satisfaction in the words of this blessing.

This blessing to Phelps deserves place in this volume—as opposed to those given to the Whitmer brothers or John Corrill on the same day—due to the fact that when he copied the text in his letter to President Young, Phelps deemed it one of “Joseph’s Revelations.”[6] It thus qualifies for inclusion in the appendix as an example of a revelation later ascribed to the Prophet. In this specific instance, we can be sure the text is from Joseph, but what is unclear is precisely how revelatory it actually was as opposed to how much Phelps thought it was.

For this presentation of the text, we have made a sort of textual hybrid or chimera. Our base text is the version of this blessing recorded by Oliver Cowdery and found in The Joseph Smith Papers.[7] However, we have included the verse numbers that Phelps made in his copy of this same blessing for Brigham Young. In most material aspects the two versions are the same. However, it is worth noting just a few of the textual differences. The Phelps version reads “the greatness of his soul” in verse 13 as opposed to Oliver’s “his liberal soul.” Oliver’s copy likewise reads “treachers of gold” in verse 13, whereas Phelps’s reads “treasures.” The former makes no sense, because “treacher” is an obsolete English word for a deceiver.[8] Oliver perhaps either misheard or miscopied “treacher” for “treasure” since the two words sound and look similar. The Phelps version “treasures of gold” probably preserves the correct reading (and in any case is the reading that makes the most sense). In verse 16, Phelps omitted the phrase “with his brother Oliver Cowdery” that appears in Oliver’s copy (and here), and in verse 17 swapped the pronouns “their” and “them” to “his” and “him,” perhaps to personalize the blessing more. In all other textual regards, the two copies are the same.

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¹Blessed of the Lord is Brother Phelps—William W. Phelps—for he shall have the desires of his heart in the gift that pertaineth to writing the law of God, ²and in being an instrument in assisting to lift up an ensign to the nations. ³And according to the greatness of the desires of his soul for blessings upon his friends, so shall the blessings of the Lord come upon him to the uttermost. ⁴The Lord will chasten him because he taketh honor to himself; ⁵and when his soul is greatly humbled, he will forsake the evil. ⁶Then shall the light of the Lord break upon him as at noonday, ⁷and in him shall be no darkness, so great is the glory that shall come upon him. ⁸And blessed is his name among all nations. ⁹He shall have part in that that coucheth beneath, and it shall be revealed unto him things by the hand of the Lord’s anointed that have been kept secret from the foundation of the world concerning the last days.

¹⁰And he shall be a blessing unto his posterity from generation to generation ¹¹and shall be satisfied in beholding his enemies cut off out of the earth. ¹²He shall be filled with a fulness of the good things of the earth: with houses and with lands, with the fruit of the vine and with the fat of the olive; and he shall feed on the finest of the wheat. ¹³And because of his liberal soul the Lord will make him rich; even with treasures of gold, silver, precious stones, and with all precious metals. ¹⁴He shall be a wise lawyer in Israel, for he shall understand the law of the Lord perfectly. ¹⁵And the renowned among men shall acknowledge his superior wisdom pertaining to the laws of nations and of kingdoms.

¹⁶Behold, he shall have understanding in all sciences and languages, and with his brother Oliver Cowdery shall write and arrange many books for the good of the church, that the young may grow up in wisdom. ¹⁷These shall remain for a memorial unto their names, and the generations to come shall call them blessed. ¹⁸His days shall be prolonged upon the land of Zion, and when he is old and bowed down with many years, behold, he shall lift up his eyes and the heavens shall be opened upon him. ¹⁹He shall be lifted up at the last day, and his rest shall be glorious. Amen.

Notes

[1] JSP, J1:61–62; JSP, D4:428–41.

[2] H. Michael Marquardt, comp., Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2007), 43.

[3] Bruce A. Van Orden, We’ll Sing and We’ll Shout: The Life and Times of W. W. Phelps (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2018), 164.

[4] William W. Phelps to Brigham Young, June 29, 1857, CR 1234 1, Brigham Young office files, 1832–1878 (bulk 1844–1877), general correspondence, incoming, 1840–1877, letters from church leaders and others, 1840–1877, W. W. Phelps, 1854–1859, CHL.

[5] Van Orden, We’ll Sing and We’ll Shout, 51–62, 171–86, 313–44, 400, 476–78; see also Samuel M. Brown, “The Translator and the Ghostwriter: Joseph Smith and William Phelps,” Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 1 (Winter 2008): 26–62.

[6] Phelps, Letter to Brigham Young, June 29, 1857, [4].

[7] JSP, D4:435–36.

[8] J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 18:454.