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26091
Revelation, 5 January 1831 [D&C 39]
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Baptizing with water preparing for the time of my coming is at hand the day nor the hour no man knoweth but it shurely shall come & he that Receiveth these things receiveth me & they shall be gethered unto me into <unto> in time & in eternity & again it shall come to pass that on as many as ye shall baptize with water ye shall lay your hands in the name of Christ & they shall receive the Holy ghost & shall be a looking forth for the time of my coming & shall know me Behold I come quickly even so amen [p. 60]
An ordinance in which an individual is immersed in water for the remission of sins. The Book of Mormon explained that those with necessary authority were to baptize individuals who had repented of their sins. Baptized individuals also received the gift of...
View GlossaryAfter baptism, new converts were confirmed members of the church “by the laying on of the hands, & the giving of the Holy Ghost.” According to JS’s history, the first confirmations were given at the organization of the church on 6 April 1830. By March 1831...
View GlossaryJS dictated this revelation in Fayette, New York, for James Covel, a Protestant minister, three days after the Church of Christ’s third conference. When John Whitmer recorded this text in Revelation Book 1 a few months later, he wrote that Covel “covenanted with the Lord that he would obey any commandment that the Lord would give through his servent Joseph.”
Located in northern part of county between Seneca and Cayuga lakes. Area settled, by 1790. Officially organized as Washington Township, 14 Mar. 1800. Name changed to Fayette, 6 Apr. 1808. Population in 1830 about 3,200. Population in 1840 about 3,700. Significant...
More InfoCa. 1770–Feb. 1850. Preacher, doctor. Likely born in Massachusetts. From 1791–ca. 1797, served as Methodist itinerant preacher, first in Litchfield, Litchfield Co., Connecticut, circuit; then in Otsego, Otsego Co., New York, circuit; Pittsfield, Berkshire...
View Full Bio27 Aug. 1802–11 July 1878. Farmer, stock raiser, newspaper editor. Born in Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Member of German Reformed Church, Fayette, Seneca Co., New York. Baptized by Oliver Cowdery, June 1829, most likely in Seneca...
View Full BioThe identity of the revelation’s recipient is not known with certainty. Two individuals living in New York at the time fit the general description, and no source definitively identifies either man as the recipient. The earliest extant manuscript copy of the revelation, featured below, provides only a given name. The first printed version in 1833 expanded “James” to “James (C.,)” with no additional information; in 1835 the name was given as “James Covill” in the Doctrine and Covenants.1
JS’s history also uses this spelling because its editors relied on the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants for the revelation text. The history adds that Covill “had been a baptist minister for about forty years.”2 James Covill, a Baptist minister from Ellery, New York, who in 1831 was over seventy years old, fits this description, but he lived on the far western edge of the state, more than one hundred fifty miles away.3
JS and Sidney Rigdon could have met Covill on their way to Ohio at the end of January, but according to this earliest copy of the revelation, it was “given at Fayette” on 5 January 1831.4
Located in northeast region of U.S. Area settled by Dutch traders, 1620s; later governed by Britain, 1664–1776. Admitted to U.S. as state, 1788. Population in 1810 about 1,000,000; in 1820 about 1,400,000; in 1830 about 1,900,000; and in 1840 about 2,400,...
More InfoCa. 1770–Feb. 1850. Preacher, doctor. Likely born in Massachusetts. From 1791–ca. 1797, served as Methodist itinerant preacher, first in Litchfield, Litchfield Co., Connecticut, circuit; then in Otsego, Otsego Co., New York, circuit; Pittsfield, Berkshire...
View Full BioBook of Commandments 41; Doctrine and Covenants 59, 1835 ed.
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A Book of Commandments, for the Government of the Church of Christ, Organized according to Law, on the 6th of April, 1830. Zion [Independence], MO: W. W. Phelps, 1833.
Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835.
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, 735; 1830 U.S. Census, Ellery, Chautauque Co., NY, 317; see also 1840 U.S. Census, Ripley, Chautauque Co., NY, 271.
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Coburn, A. L. Wing. Encyclopedia of Illinois Including Genealogy, Family Records and Biography of McHenry County Citizen. Vol. 2, McHenry County Citizens. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, edited by Newton Bateman and Paul Selby. Chicago: Munsell, 1903.
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...
View Full BioFrench explored area, 1669. British took possession following French and Indian War, 1763. Ceded to U.S., 1783. First permanent white settlement established, 1788. Partitioned from Northwest Territory and admitted as state, 1803. Bordered by Lake Erie on ...
More InfoLocated in northern part of county between Seneca and Cayuga lakes. Area settled, by 1790. Officially organized as Washington Township, 14 Mar. 1800. Name changed to Fayette, 6 Apr. 1808. Population in 1830 about 3,200. Population in 1840 about 3,700. Significant...
More InfoJohn Whitmer was likely not present when the revelation was dictated, but he did write the informative heading in this copy of the revelation within months of the event.
Much more likely, James Covel, a Methodist elder from Canadice, New York, was the recipient of the revelation. The index to Revelation Book 1 describes the recipient as “a Methodist Priest,” not a Baptist.5 James Covel lived about twenty miles southwest of Canandaigua, New York, and had been associated with the Methodist church for nearly forty years.6
He may have heard JS or Sidney Rigdon preaching in the Canandaigua area. After JS and several others preached “with great power” in Ezra Thayer’s barn near Canandaigua in October 1830, they were invited to preach in Canandaigua. “They had promised that we should meet in the Methodist Meeting house,” Thayer later wrote, “but the Trustees could not agree.”7
As president of the regional Methodist conference, Covel was likely aware of the request.8
In December a Mormon preacher, probably JS or Rigdon, “delivered a discourse in the Town House [in Canandaigua] to an assembly of two or three hundred people.”9
Covel may have attended the December meeting and then traveled to Fayette, where the revelation was dictated.
Ca. 1770–Feb. 1850. Preacher, doctor. Likely born in Massachusetts. From 1791–ca. 1797, served as Methodist itinerant preacher, first in Litchfield, Litchfield Co., Connecticut, circuit; then in Otsego, Otsego Co., New York, circuit; Pittsfield, Berkshire...
View Full BioLocated in central part of county in west-central part of state. Area settled, by 1790. Population in 1830 about 5,200. Joseph Smith Sr. imprisoned for debt for thirty days at county seat of Canandaigua village, Oct.–Nov. 1830. W. W. Phelps and Brigham Young...
More Info1830 U.S. Census, Canadice, Ontario Co., NY, 263; Stevens, Memorials of the Introduction of Methodism into the Eastern States, 119; Doughty, Life of Samuel Stilwell, 44; Seaman, Annals of New York Methodism, 227, 229.
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Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
Stevens, Abel. Memorials of the Introduction of Methodism into the Eastern States: Comprising Biographical Notices of Its Early Preachers, Sketches of Its First Churches, and Reminiscences of Its Early Struggles and Successes. Boston: Charles H. Peirce, 1848.
Doughty, Samuel Stilwell. The Life of Samuel Stilwell, with Notices of Some of His Contemporaries. New York: Brown and Wilson, 1877.
Seaman, Samuel A. Annals of New York Methodism: Being a History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the City of New York from A.D. 1766 to A.D. 1890. New York: Hunt and Eaton, 1892.
19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...
View Full BioCa. 1792–6 Sept. 1862. Farmer, gardener, builder. Born in New York. Married Elizabeth Frank. Lived at Bloomfield, Ontario Co., New York, 1820. Lived at Farmington, Ontario Co., 1830. Baptized into LDS church by Parley P. Pratt and confirmed by JS, fall 1830...
View Full Bio“Testimony of Brother E. Thayre,” True Latter Day Saints’ Herald, Oct. 1862, 83. In addition to JS, Hyrum Smith, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr., Parley P. Pratt, and Ziba Peterson preached at the October meeting in Thayer’s barn.
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Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.
On 13 February 1830, Covel was elected president of the Methodist regional conference that included the districts of Rochester, Conhocton, Genesee, and Oneida. (Drinkhouse, History of Methodist Reform, 243–244.)
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Drinkhouse, Edward J. History of Methodist Reform Synoptical of General Methodism 1703–1898 with Special and Comprehensive Reference to Its Most Salient Exhibition in the History of the Methodist Protestant Church. Vol. 2. Board of Publication of the Methodist Protestant Church, 1899.
“Credulity,” Pennsylvania Inquirer and Morning Journal (Philadelphia), 29 Dec. 1830, [2]; see also “Testimony of Brother E. Thayre,” True Latter Day Saints’ Herald, Oct. 1862, 83.
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Pennsylvania Inquirer and Morning Journal. Philadelphia. 1830–1834.
Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.
Located in northern part of county between Seneca and Cayuga lakes. Area settled, by 1790. Officially organized as Washington Township, 14 Mar. 1800. Name changed to Fayette, 6 Apr. 1808. Population in 1830 about 3,200. Population in 1840 about 3,700. Significant...
More InfoWithin a day after JS dictated this revelation, Covel departed from Fayette without explanation, leaving JS and Rigdon to wonder why he did not follow the commandment. A revelation on 6 January explained “why he obeyed not the word.”10
Ca. 1770–Feb. 1850. Preacher, doctor. Likely born in Massachusetts. From 1791–ca. 1797, served as Methodist itinerant preacher, first in Litchfield, Litchfield Co., Connecticut, circuit; then in Otsego, Otsego Co., New York, circuit; Pittsfield, Berkshire...
View Full BioLocated in northern part of county between Seneca and Cayuga lakes. Area settled, by 1790. Officially organized as Washington Township, 14 Mar. 1800. Name changed to Fayette, 6 Apr. 1808. Population in 1830 about 3,200. Population in 1840 about 3,700. Significant...
More Info19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...
View Full BioRevelation, Fayette Township, Seneca Co., NY, to James Covel, 5 Jan. 1831. Featured version, titled “42nd Commandment Recd Jan. 5th. 1831,” copied [ca. Mar.–June 1831] in Revelation Book 1, pp. 58–60; handwriting of John Whitmer; CHL. Includes redactions.
Located in northern part of county between Seneca and Cayuga lakes. Area settled, by 1790. Officially organized as Washington Township, 14 Mar. 1800. Name changed to Fayette, 6 Apr. 1808. Population in 1830 about 3,200. Population in 1840 about 3,700. Significant...
More InfoCa. 1770–Feb. 1850. Preacher, doctor. Likely born in Massachusetts. From 1791–ca. 1797, served as Methodist itinerant preacher, first in Litchfield, Litchfield Co., Connecticut, circuit; then in Otsego, Otsego Co., New York, circuit; Pittsfield, Berkshire...
View Full Bio27 Aug. 1802–11 July 1878. Farmer, stock raiser, newspaper editor. Born in Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Member of German Reformed Church, Fayette, Seneca Co., New York. Baptized by Oliver Cowdery, June 1829, most likely in Seneca...
View Full Bio