Minutes, 22–23 January 1833
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Source Note
Minutes, , OH, 22–23 Jan. 1833. Featured version copied [ca. 23 Jan. 1833] in Minute Book 1, pp. 6–8; handwriting of and ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Minute Book 1.
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Historical Introduction
According to the index of Minute Book 1, a of met in , Ohio, on 22–23 January 1833 “to organize the .” A 27–28 December 1832 revelation had commanded the “first labourers” of the church to “assembl yourselves together, and organize yourselves, and prepare yourselves, and sanc[t]ify yourselves.” The revelation commanded these “labourers” to “clean your hands, and your feet, before me” so that they could be “clean, from the blood of this, wicked generation” and then to establish a school where they could be instructed in both secular and spiritual matters—a school that JS called a “school for the Prophets.” Schools of the prophets, which trained ministerial candidates prior to the assumption of their duties as clergymen, had been part of the colonial and early American religious landscape since the arrival of the Puritans in the 1630s. Institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth were generally understood to be “schools of the prophets” in that one of their primary functions was to train a qualified clergy. Private schools of the prophets emerged in the 1740s as part of the reform spirit associated with the First Great Awakening and continued into the early nineteenth century.According to the 27–28 December 1832 revelation, the School of the Prophets was necessary for the men of the school to “be prepared, in all things when I shall send you again, to magnify the calling, whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which, I have commissioned you.” It was also essential so that the men could be better qualified “to go forth among the , for the last time.” In accordance with these instructions, twelve high priests, two , and other members of the church, including women, gathered on 22 January 1833 in an upstairs room of ’s , where JS was living. The conference continued the next day, though it is likely, given the “washing hands faces & feet” that took place on the second day, that only the men listed at the beginning of the minutes were present on that day.Although the index to Minute Book 1 states that the purpose of the conference was to organize the school, the minutes do not provide details about any kind of formal establishment. Instead, the minutes indicate that the conference was mainly concerned with the sanctification required by the 27–28 December 1832 revelation—perhaps as a necessary precursor to any actual teaching or learning. The participants present on the first day experienced the gifts of speaking in and interpreting tongues. Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon refer to speaking in tongues as one of the manifestations of God’s Spirit. A March 1831 revelation also states that “it is given to some to speak with tongues & to another it is given the interpretation of tongues.” The practice, however, was not common in other religious denominations in the at the time, although it was sometimes exhibited at slave revivals in the early nineteenth century and was occasionally manifested in the Shaker community. Although church members had experienced this gift in 1830 and 1831 before JS’s arrival, it largely disappeared in after a June 1831 conference at which JS “identified some of the ecstatic manifestations” of church members as “ungodly.” However, at a meeting in November 1832, as a later history of JS explains, “Brother , and spoke in Tongues, which was the first time I had heard this Gift among the brethren, others also spoke, and I received the Gift myself.” Just two months later, the gift resurfaced in this 22–23 January 1833 meeting. According to the later history, JS “rejoiced . . . at the return of these long absent blessings to the assembly of the Saints.”On the second day of the conference, after another episode of speaking in tongues, JS washed the hands, faces, and feet of those present, following the biblical precedent found in John 13:4–17. Such a ceremony was not unknown at the time. The practice came to colonial America with radical Reformation groups, such as Mennonites and the Church of the Brethren, in the 1600s and 1700s. Once in America, other groups, including some Baptists, adopted the practice, viewing the ritual as an act of humility. Reformed Baptists following also may have instituted something similar in meetings held in the vicinity of in the late 1820s. In 1832, as part of his Bible revision, JS revised the John 13 account of Jesus washing the apostles’ feet to state that the ceremony “was the costom of the Jews under their law: wherefore, Jesus done this that the law might be fulfilled.” , who was present at the January 1833 conference, explained that the ceremony served as “a testimony” that the “garments” of those so washed “were clean from the blood of this generation.” According to , another conference participant, the washing of the feet was the defining ceremony in the establishment of the School of the Prophets. “The school was organized,” he recorded in his journal, “by assembling together and the washing of the deciples feet.”acted as clerk of the conference and recorded minutes of the meeting. He and later copied the minutes into Minute Book 1.
Footnotes
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1
Minute Book 1, Index, [1].
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2
Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 [D&C 88:74–75]; Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 Jan. 1833.
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3
Darowski, “Schools of the Prophets,” 1–13.
Darowski, Joseph F. “Schools of the Prophets: An Early American Tradition.” Mormon Historical Studies 9 (Spring 2008): 1–13.
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4
Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 [D&C 88:80, 84].
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5
Revelation, ca. 8 Mar. 1831–A [D&C 46:24–25].
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6
Stein, Shaker Experience in America, 105, 167, 171–172; see also Staker, Hearken, O Ye People, 20–23.
Stein, Stephen J. The Shaker Experience in America: A History of the United Society of Believers. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.
Staker, Mark L. Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2009.
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7
Staker, Hearken, O Ye People, 175.
Staker, Mark L. Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2009.
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8
JS History, vol. A-1, addenda, 2nA; see also Historian’s Office, Brigham Young History Drafts, 4; and Esplin, “Emergence of Brigham Young,” 92–94.
Historian’s Office. Brigham Young History Drafts, 1856–1858. CHL. CR 100 475, box 1, fd. 5.
Esplin, Ronald K. “The Emergence of Brigham Young and the Twelve to Mormon Leadership, 1830–1841.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1981. Also available as The Emergence of Brigham Young and the Twelve to Mormon Leadership, 1830–1841, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2006).
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9
JS History, vol. A-1, 270.
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10
“Footwashing,” in Mennonite Encyclopedia, 347; Grow, “‘Clean from the Blood of This Generation,’” 132.
The Mennonite Encyclopedia. Vol. 2, D–H. Scottsdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House, 1956.
Grow, Matthew J. “‘Clean from the Blood of This Generation’: The Washing of Feet and the Latter-day Saints.” In Archive of Restoration Culture Summer Fellows’ Papers, 2000– 2002, edited by Richard Lyman Bushman, 131–138. Provo, UT : Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, 2005.
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11
Reuben Harmon, a longtime resident of Kirtland, stated in 1884 that he had witnessed “the washing of feet” when “Mr. [Sidney] Rigdon was preaching in Mentor.” It is unclear from the statement whether the ceremony occurred in Rigdon’s Mentor church, or whether it happened in a reformed Baptist congregation on Isaac Morley’s farm in Kirtland. (Kelley and Braden, Public Discussion of the Issues, 393.)
Kelley, E. L., and Clark Braden. Public Discussion of the Issues between the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Church of Christ (Disciples), Held in Kirtland, Ohio. . . . St. Louis: Clark Braden, 1884.
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12
New Testament Revision 2, p. 117 (second numbering) [Joseph Smith Translation, John 13:10]; see also Faulring et al., Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible, 69.
Faulring, Scott H., Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds. Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
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13
Samuel Smith, Diary, 10 Dec. 1832.
Smith, Samuel. Diary, Feb. 1832–May 1833. CHL. MS 4213.
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14
Coltrin, Diary and Notebook, 24 Jan. 1833.
Coltrin, Zebedee. Diary and Notebook, 1832–1833. Zebedee Coltrin, Diaries, 1832–1834. CHL. MS 1443, fd. 2.
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1
Cite this page
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Document Information
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Footnotes
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Frederick G. Williams handwriting begins.
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Frederick G. Williams handwriting ends; Sidney Rigdon begins.
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1
Brigham Young, who did not attend this conference, later explained that the room where the school of the prophets met was “a small room over Joseph Smith’s kitchen” in Newel K. Whitney’s white store. The room was approximately eleven feet by fourteen feet. In this room, Young declared, “the prophet received revelations” and “instructed his brethren.” (Brigham Young, Discourse, 8 Feb. 1868, in George D. Watt, Discourse Shorthand Notes, 8 Feb. 1868, George D. Watt, Papers, as transcribed by LaJean Purcell Carruth, copy in editors’ possession; Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 8 Feb. 1868, 12:158.)
Pitman Shorthand Transcriptions, 1998–2013. CHL.
Journal of Discourses. 26 vols. Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855–1886.
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2
This designation of Rigdon as “cheif scribe and high counceler” and Williams as “assistant scribe and counceler” may have reflected a hierarchy in their counselorship and scribal positions. When JS called Rigdon and Jesse Gause (whom Williams replaced) as counselors, he referred to them only as “my councillers” without any hierarchical designation. JS may have instituted a graduated structure after calling Williams to replace Gause as counselor. Williams apparently accepted this designation, because he referred to himself as “assistent scribe and counceller” in revelations he copied into Revelation Book 2 around this same time. (Note, 8 Mar. 1832; Revelation, 6 Dec. 1832 [D&C 86]; Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 [D&C 88:1–126].)
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