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Circa November 2, 1831

At the beginning of November 1831, Joseph Smith and other Church leaders met in Hiram, Ohio, to discuss the publication of the Prophet’s revelations. The minutes of the meeting reveal that the first item of business was to decide the number of copies of what was called the Book of Commandments that were to be published. The leaders in attendance at the conference decided that ten thousand copies should be printed—an ambitious goal considering the Book of Mormon’s initial print run was half that size. After this decision was voted upon, the meeting adjourned. Following the meeting, the minutes record that the Prophet received the preface to this collection “by inspiration,” referring to what is now canonized as the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants. This section, according to the minutes taken at this important meeting, was apparently meant to act as a sort of prologue for the revelations contained in the Book of Commandments.[1]

The 1831 testimony of the witnesses of the revelations in the Book of Commandments that appeared in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. Joseph Smith Papers Project, © by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.josephsmithpapers.org

William McLellin, one of the attendants at the conference, later recalled his experience witnessing Joseph dictate the prefatory revelation. As retold by an elder of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints travelling with him, McLellin, along with Oliver Cowdery and Sydney Rigdon, made a serious but ultimately futile attempt to draft his own preface. When that effort failed, those present requested that the Prophet “enquire of the Lord” for a revelation. After asking the brethren present to bow in prayer, he dictated the revelation “by the Spirit.”[2] Following the dictation of the revelation, the day’s conference ended.

The next day, the Prophet expressed gratitude at the revelatory outpouring that the Lord had given and inquired “what testimony [the brethren] were willing to attach to these commandments which should shortly be sent to the world.” At Joseph’s invitation, a number of brethren stepped forward, willing to testify that the revelations he had received were “of the Lord.” At that point, the minutes report that “revelation [was] received relative to the same.” It is possible that this referred to another revelation given on the same day; however, contextually it appears likely that the revelation in question was the text of the testimony of the witnesses. Consequently, the text of the testimony of the witnesses is included in this volume as an uncanonized revelation received by the Prophet.[3] The history that Joseph Smith began in 1838 gives even more details concerning this revelation and makes it explicitly clear that the text of the testimony of witnesses was revealed through him.[4]

The testimony of the witnesses was originally signed by five brethren present in the meeting and later signed by thirteen more. David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, and Peter Whitmer Jr. refrained from signing the document. We cannot say for sure why, but it may have been because they had already signed their names as witnesses of the Book of Mormon. The testimony of these witnesses never made it into the Book of Commandments due to the destruction of the printing press by a mob in 1833. However, the text of the testimony (with a few minor changes) was included in the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, published in 1835, as the “written testimony of the Twelve [Apostles]”[5] but was dropped from all subsequent editions of the Doctrine and Covenants beginning with the 1844 Nauvoo edition.

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The testimony of the witnesses to the book of the Lord’s commandments, which he gave to his church through Joseph Smith Jr., who was appointed by the voice of the church for this purpose.

We the undersigners feel willing to bear testimony to all the world of mankind, to every creature upon all the face of all the earth and upon the islands of the sea, that God hath born record to our souls through the Holy Ghost shed forth upon us, that these commandments are given by inspiration of God, and are profitable for all men, and are verily true. We give this testimony unto the world—the Lord being our helper. And it is through the grace of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ that we are permitted to have this privilege of bearing this testimony unto the world, in the which we rejoice exceedingly by praying to the Lord always that the children of men may be profited thereby. Amen.

Sidney Rigdon, Joshua Fairchild, Orson Hyde, Peter Dustin, William E. McLellin, Newel Knight. Luke Johnson, Levi Hancock, Lyman Johnson, Thomas B. Marsh, Reynolds Cahoon, John Corrill. Parley P. Pratt, Harvey Whitlock, Lyman Wight, John Murdock, Calvin Beebe, Zebedee Coltrin.

Notes

[1] JSP, D2:97.

[2] “Letter from Elder W. H. Kelley,” Saints’ Herald 29, no. 5 (March 1, 1882): 67.

[3] This testimony also appeared in Revelation Book 1 (JSP, RMB:215), further indicating that Joseph Smith and his clerks who assisted him in compiling his revelations considered this text a revelation.

[4] History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834], 162, The Joseph Smith Papers, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august

-1834/168.

[5] Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God (Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams & Co., 1835), 256 (JSP, R2:566); see additionally Richard Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 172–75.