Similar to last week, this week’s selection of D&C sections covers a whole year, 1835. Outside of the D&C, 1835 experienced some significant developments. JS organized new councils of the priesthood—the Seventies and the Twelve—and set them on the task of regulating the branches outside of the stakes. This maintained and further strengthened the bifurcated scheme for the gathering effort: there existed the domain of the gathered and the domain of the ungathered. Different councils oversaw each domain.

This meant that in the domain of the gathered (i.e., the stakes), there was a bishop, a high council, a presidency of the high council (later identified as the stake presidency); in the center stake, there was a standing high council and its presidency—the first among the presidencies of the various councils of the church, or, First Presidency. In the domain of the ungathered (i.e., the branches), there were elders, Seventies, and apostles who convened councils ad hoc because it was presupposed that branches were by definition transient—staging grounds for Saints to prepare to relocate to the established stakes. The elders, Seventies, and apostles also held conferences as the primary mode of conducting business and regulating branches. Their loose arrangement of branches into conference circuits brought a new meaning to the term “conference.” Missionaries and their leaders spoke of “conferences” as geographically defined assemblages of branches. Not until 1927 did church leaders redesignate missions’ “conferences” as “districts.” Such additional meaning did not exist in the stakes; a conference there always meant a meeting, not a collection of subunits.

JS was so satisfied with the organizational streamlining from the newly instituted conciliar model that he began to speak of his prophetic work as complete. (His creative mind will keep him tweaking and adding things well into the Nauvoo period, but for a moment in 1835, he seemed content with the overall scheme.)

Now, significantly for the D&C, the year 1835 brought two major developments—the compilation of revelations was finally officially published as the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. I’d say the birth of the Doctrine and Covenants was a significant milestone for the Doctrine and Covenants… JS’s editorial work on revising some revelations for publication (notably D&C 27) shows up in this first edition and exposes something of his theological development that year. Ideas about priesthood especially shifted, and JS had no problem retrojecting new concepts back onto his earlier revelatory material. This introduces something of a conundrum for church members adhering to a smooth sequential narrative of various priesthood-specific events: to what extent did JS alter the history or merely expand his descriptions of the history? The 1835 emendations complicate things. I’m satisfied JS encountered new theological ideas in the Egyptian papyri and language materials he purchased that year; and those ideas inspired him to revisit his own history and his teachings about the Bible and priesthood. He saw emendations as worthy expansions, esoteric unpacking of mysteries that were there all along but only now visible because of fresh scripture and new revelation. Whereas I would insist on the historical events having already occurred, it’s as if JS conceives of his own experiences as a kind of wormhole, plastic time, that can be revisited, reoccured, and reshaped. So that means I can argue for a different sequence of priesthood-related events in 1829 and 1830, and they were true in 1829 and 1830, and JS can refactor them to suit a new narrative he begins to craft in 1835.

Also significantly for 1835 and the Doctrine and Covenants, the School of the Elders convened for a series of theological lectures that possibly began in late 1834 and concluded in January 1835. These lectures bear the vocal and literary stylings of Sidney Rigdon and JS, leaving scholars to debate who composed them. For decades, historians justified taking the lectures as JS’s concept and production because he was present for the preparation, delivery, editing, and publishing of the lectures. But I’m not entirely convinced JS endorsed everything said in these lectures. Regardless, the seven lectures were included in the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, ostensibly the “doctrine” portion to which the title refers (with the “covenants” referring to the revelations). They remained a part of the book until they were removed in the 1921 edition. The lectures constitute an instance of something being both canonized and decanonized as scripture, a curious aspect of the Latter-day Saint concept of canon.

The “Lectures on Theology” (misattributed in the 20th century as the “Lectures on Faith”) moderately treat the subject of faith and rather quickly dive into esoteric themes of patriarchal lineages, the character of God, the perfect attributes of God, the Godhead, the assurance of salvation, and works of salvation (i.e., theology of merit). They engage in a catechistic format, a genre of instruction that moves a Q&A series from basic-order questions into technical and advanced questions. I find the lectures unmistakably ambitious in deriving a new theology within a distinctly Mormon idiom from the biblical standard of the time. Their catechistic sequence manifests how thinkers like Rigdon and JS attempted to fashion a robust philosophy from the common notions of their Protestant-convert audience.

Our D&C-specific sections for 1835 include the following:

  • D&C 107(b): Instructions, ca. 1–4 May 1835, on orders of the priesthood
  • D&C 134: Manifesto, ca. 1–17 August 1835, on government
  • D&C 108: Revelation, 26 December 1835, for Lyman Sherman

Seems scant for such a banner year, especially with the Lectures on Theology removed from the collection. JS produced other documents and revelations that at various times have appeared in the D&C or went unpublished that are worth our attention (and should be included in a study of the D&C, in my view):

  • Manifesto, ca. 1–17 August 1835, articles on marriage (still published in the Community of Christ edition of the D&C as §111)
  • Minutes, 17 August 1835, general assembly of the church
  • Prophecy, 18 October 1835, to mitigate distress in Zion
  • Revelation, 27 October 1835, for Mary Bailey Smith
  • Revelation, 1 November 1835, for Reynolds Cahoon
  • Revelation, 2 November 1835, for Frederick G. Williams
  • Revelation, 3 November 1835, the Twelve under condemnation
  • Revelation, 7 November 1835, for Edward Partridge and Isaac Morley
  • Revelation, 8 November 1835, for William W. Phelps and John Whitmer
  • Revelation, 14 November 1835, for Warren Parrish
  • Revelation, 16 November 1835, for Harvey Whitlock
  • Revelation, 16 November 1835, for Erastus Holmes

You’ll notice nine revelations here addressed personally, ten if we include the 26 December revelation directed to Lyman Sherman. Why was the Sherman revelation published in the D&C and the others not? Consider how much more of the D&C we’d be studying had these revelations and the Lectures on Theology remained. Certainly more than just one week in today’s curriculum!

Next time: I’ll follow up soon with more on D&C 107 and 134. See you soon.