Doctrine and Covenants 49

Revelation, 7 May 1831

Source Note

Revelation, Kirtland Township, OH, to Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, and Leman Copley, 7 May 1831. Featured version, titled “51^st. Commandment May 7^th. 1831,” copied [between ca. May and June 1831] in Revelation Book 1, pp. 80–82; handwriting of John Whitmer; CHL. Includes redactions. For more information, see the source note for Revelation Book 1 on the Joseph Smith Papers website.

Historical Introduction

This revelation directed Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, and Leman Copley to visit a community of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (popularly called Shakers) in North Union, Ohio. Copley, a recent convert to the Church of Christ and a former Shaker himself,¹ “was anxious that some of the elders should go to his former brethren and preach the gospel.”² JS’s history characterized Copley as one who was “apparently honest hearted, but still retained ideas that the Shakers were right in some particulars of their faith.” Copley’s retention of some Shaker beliefs was apparently the catalyst for discussions that prompted this revelation. JS’s history explained, “In order to have more perfect understanding on the subject, I [JS] inquired of the Lord and received the following revelation.”³

The visit mandated by this revelation was not the first contact between the two religious societies. The previous fall, Oliver Cowdery and his missionary companions made initial contact with the community of Shakers living in North Union.⁴ That interaction had unsettled the Shaker presiding elder, Ashbel Kitchell, who was uncertain what to make of the new faith. Despite his uneasiness, Kitchell reported that the Shakers “continued on friendly terms” with the Saints “in the way of trade and other acts of good neighborship untill the spring of 1831.”⁵

Sidney Rigdon and Leman Copley apparently responded to the revelation by immediately departing for the Shaker settlement at North Union, approximately eighteen miles from Kirtland, Ohio. It appears Parley P. Pratt departed Kirtland the next day. The revelation is dated 7 May, a Saturday, and Kitchell recorded that the company arrived “on saturday evening.”⁶ Latter-day Saint sources report only briefly the Shakers’ reaction to this revelation and other teachings by the missionaries. John Whitmer, for instance, later wrote that the assigned elders “went and proclaimed according to the rev[e]lation given to them, but the shakers hearkened not to their words, and receivd not the gospel at that time.”⁷ Kitchell, by contrast, recorded a detailed account of the visit. He reported that the group “tarried all night, and in the course of the evening, the doctrines of the cross and the Mormon faith were both investigated.” The next day, 8 May, Pratt arrived from Kirtland, and the delegation spoke to congregated Shakers after their morning Sabbath meeting. Rigdon reportedly declared to the congregation that “he had a message from the Lord Jesus Christ to this people” and explained to his hearers that it was a written message. When he obtained leave of the Shakers, he commenced to read aloud, apparently verbatim, this revelation. According to Kitchell, the preachers—Rigdon, Pratt, and Copley—asked permission to hear how the congregated Shakers felt about their message. Kitchell wrote that his people indicated “they were fully satisfied with what they had, and wished to have nothing to do with either them or their Christ.— On hearing this Rigdon professed to be satisfied, and put his paper by; but Parley Pratt arose and commenced shakeing his coattail; he said he shook the dust from his garments as a testimony against us, that we had rejected the word of the Lord Jesus.”⁸ After this contentious exchange, Pratt departed immediately for Kirtland, while Rigdon stayed for supper before departing and Copley spent the night in North Union.⁹ This encounter apparently fulfilled Pratt’s commission to preach to the Shakers because a revelation dated the following Monday assigned Pratt a different missionary companion and directed him to “go forth among the Churches & strengthen them by the word of exhortation.”¹⁰

Copley returned shortly thereafter to North Union and asked to be readmitted into the Shaker society. Kitchell and Copley then went to Copley’s farm in Thompson and confronted the Saints who had recently settled there from Colesville, New York, at Copley’s invitation. Copley reportedly ordered the Saints off of his land.¹¹ Following the failed attempt to convert the Shakers at North Union, Latter-day Saint missionary interactions with Shakers were apparently rare.

The 1833 Book of Commandments and the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants both erroneously date this revelation to March 1831. When John Whitmer copied it into Revelation Book 1, likely in May or June 1831, he dated it to 7 May 1831. Ashbel Kitchell copied the revelation into his pocket journal and also listed its date as 7 May 1831, so his copy likely originated from the same text that was copied into Revelation Book 1. Kitchell probably either asked to copy the revelation after Rigdon recited it to the congregation or obtained a copy prepared for and left with the Shakers by the missionaries. The first published version of the revelation, in The Evening and the Morning Star, listed only May 1831 as the date.¹²

Sketch of North Union. Circa 1834. A 7 May 1831 revelation commanded Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, and Leman Copley to preach to a community of Shakers (of which Copley was a former member) in North Union, Ohio. They responded immediately, arriving at the Shaker settlement that same evening, but met with no success. (Courtesy Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC.)

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51^st. Commandment May 7^th. 1831

A Revelation given to Sidney [Rigdon] & Parley [P. Pratt] & Leman [Copley] Received at Kirtland Geauga Ohio th[e]ir mission to the Shakers & thus saith the Lord unto them as follows¹³

^[1]Hearken unto my word my Servent Sidney & Parley & Leman for Behold verily I say unto you that I give unto you a commandment that you shall go & preach my Gospel which ye have received even as ye have received it unto the Shakers. ^[2]Behold I say unto you that they desire to know the truth in Part but not all for they are not right before me¹⁴ & must needs repent ^[3]wherefore I send you my Servents sidney & Parley¹⁵ to preach the Gospel unto them ^[4]& my servent Leman shall be ordained unto this work that he may reason with them not according to that which he hath received of them but according to that which shall be taught them him by you my Servents & by so doing I will bless him otherwise he shall not prosper ^[5]thus saith the Lord for I am God & have sent mine only begotten Son into the world for the redemption of the world¹⁶ & have decreed that he that receiveth him shall be saved & he that receiveth him not shall be damned ^[6]& they have done unto the Son of man even as they listed¹⁷ & he hath taken his power on the right hand of his glory & now reigneth in the Heavens <& will> till he decends on the Earth to put all enemies under his feet¹⁸ which time is nigh at hand ^[7]I the Lord hath spoken it but the hour & the day no man knoweth neither the angels in Heaven nor shall they know untill he come^{19 [8]}wherefore I will that all men <shall> repent for all are under sin except them which I have reserved unto myself Holy men that ye know not of ^[9]wherefore I say unto you that I have sent unto you mine everlasting Covenant even that which was [p. 80] from the begining ^[10]& that which I have promised I have so fulfilled & the Nations of the earth shall bow to it & if not of them selves they shall come down for that which is now exalted of itself shall be laid low of power. ^[11]wherefore I give unto you a commandment that ye go among this People & say unto them like unto mine Apostle of old whose name was Peter ^[12]believe on the name of the Lord Jesus who was on the Earth & is to come the begining & the end. ^[13]Repent & be baptized in the name of Jesus christ according to the holy commandment for the remission of sins ^[14]& whoso doeth this shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost²⁰ by the laying on of the hands of the Elders of this Church. ^[15]& again I say unto you that whoso forbideth to marry is not ordained of God for it is ordained of God unto man^{21 [16]}wherefore it is lawful that he should have one wife & they twain shall be one flesh²² & all this that the Earth might answer the end of its Creation ^[17]& that it might be filled with the measure of man according to his creation before the world was made^{23 [18]}& whoso forbideth to abstain from meats that man should not eat the same is not ordained of God ^[19]for behold the beasts of the field & the fowls of the air & that which cometh of the Earth is ordained for the use of man for food & for raiment & that he might have in abundance^{24 [20]}but it is not given that one man should possess that which is above an other wherefore the world lieth in sin ^[21]& wo be unto man that shedeth blood or that wasteth flesh & hath no need^{25 [22]}& again verily I say unto you that the son of man cometh not in the form of a woman²⁶ neither of <a> man traveling on the Earth ^[23]wherefore be not deceived but continue in steadfastness looking forth for the Heavens to <be> shaken & the Earth to tremble & to reel to & fro as a drunken man & for the vallies to be exhalted²⁷ & for the Mountains to be made low & for the rough places to become smooth²⁸ & all this when the Angel shall sound his trumpet ^[24]but before this great day of the Lord shall come Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness & the Lamanit[e]s shall blossom as the rose ^[25]& Zion shall flourish upon the Hills & rejoice upon the Mountains & shall be assembled together [p. 81] Unto the place which I have appointed ^[26]behold I say unto you go forth as I have commanded you repent of all your sins ask & ye shall receive knock & it shall be opened unto you ^[27]behold I will go before you & be your rearward & I will be in your midst & you shall not be confounded ^[28]behold I am Jesus Christ & I come quickly even so Amen——

Notes

1. See Revelation, 4 Feb. 1831 [D&C 41], herein. The Copley name was associated with the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing from as early as 1803. (De Pillis, “Development of Mormon Communitarianism,” 124.)

2. Whitmer, History, 26, in JSP, H2:37. Shaker elder Ashbel Kitchell also indicated that Copley had told the Saints living in Thompson, Ohio, that the Shakers would be converted by the missionary effort. (“Mormon Interview,” 15.)

3. JS History, vol. A-1, 112.

4. Shaker leader Richard McNemar left an account of Cowdery’s visit with Shakers living in another Ohio community at Union Village, near present-day Lebanon in Warren County, on his way to preach to American Indian communities west of Missouri. McNemar described Cowdery’s preaching and said that he left a copy of the Book of Mormon with one of their members. (Goodwillie, “Shaker Richard McNemar,” 138–145.)

5. “Mormon Interview,” 4.

6. “Mormon Interview,” 4.

7. Whitmer, History, 26, in JSP, H2:38.

8. Pratt’s actions roused Kitchell, who recorded, “Before the words were out of his mouth, I was to him, and said;— You filthy Beast, dare you presume to come in here, and try to imitate a man of God by shaking your filthy tail; confess your sins and purge your soul from your lusts, and your other abominations before you ever presume to do the like again, &c. … I then turned to Leman who had been crying while the message was reading, and said to him, you hypocrite, you knew better;— you knew where the living work of God was; but for the sake of indulgence, you could consent to deceive yourself & them … This struck him dead also, and dryed up his tears;— I then turned to the Believers and said, now we will go home and started.” (“Mormon Interview,” 13–14.)

9. “Mormon Interview,” 4, 6–7, 12–14.

10. Revelation, 9 May 1831 [D&C 50:37], herein.

11. “Mormon Interview,” 15; Knight, Autobiographical Sketch, 2–3; see also Historical Introduction to Revelation, 10 June 1831 [D&C 54], herein.

12. “Revelation, Given May, 1831,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Nov. 1832, [7].

13. John Whitmer likely created this heading when he copied the text into Revelation Book 1. The heading is not found in the version from Ashbel Kitchell’s account.

14. Instead of “not right before me,” the copy of this revelation that originated with Ashbel Kitchell has only “not right.” (“Mormon Interview,” 7 [D&C 49:2].)

15. Rigdon and Pratt were, aside from Copley, probably the two elders most familiar with the Shakers. Rigdon had long been a proponent of communalism, and the communal “family” set up by some of his followers in Kirtland may have traded with the Shaker “families” in North Union, Ohio. Pratt grew up near the Mount Lebanon Shaker Society in New Lebanon, New York, the largest and most important Shaker community; in addition, Shaker records list several of Pratt’s extended family members among the Harvard, Massachusetts, community. (De Pillis, “Development of Mormon Communitarianism,” 56–62, 65–66.)

16. Early Shakers tended to reject Christ’s vicarious atonement and saw “the role of Christ as an example for Believers.” (Stein, Shaker Experience, 75.)

17. See Mark 9:13.

18. See 1 Corinthians 15:25.

19. See Mark 13:32; and Matthew 24:36.

20. See Acts 2:38.

21. Shaker doctrine opposed marriage in favor of a life of total celibacy. For Mother Ann Lee, celibacy was “the key to sinless perfection and salvation.” A late eighteenth-century convert to Shakerism named Reuben Rathbun wrote, “The natural seed of copulation was looked upon as the most unclean and hateful of any thing in the natural creation,” and celibacy was required as the necessary “cross against the flesh.” The Shaker doctrine of celibacy led to an explicit segregation of the sexes and, as one historian has explained, became the “basis of its theology and its communal structuring.” (Garrett, Origins of the Shakers, 152–153, 223, 233–234.)

22. See Mark 10:7–9.

23. JS’s revision of the Bible earlier declared that God created all things, including human beings, “spiritually before they were naturally upon the face of the Earth.” (Old Testament Revision 1, p. 5 [Moses 3:5].)

24. Unlike the proscription against marriage and sexual relations, the principle of vegetarianism was not in general practice among the Shakers. Still, as early as 1820 there was an attempt on the part of the Ministry, located in New Lebanon, New York, to persuade Shaker communities to adopt vegetarianism, and leaders spoke against the use of meat, particularly pork. This revelation’s statement that it was “not ordained of God” to teach that believers should “abstain from meats that man should not eat the same” is evidence of the principle of vegetarianism being a belief held among the North Union Shakers in 1831. Teachings against the consumption of pork, apparently connected to the biblical prohibition observed by the Israelites, were reportedly not uncommon among Saints living in the Kirtland area. Levi Hancock recorded that around May 1831, “the Preaching in Kirtland once was against the use of Pork— Once Joseph asked me to help him feed his hogs. I did so I osserved [observed] that the Jews never ate Pork He answered If I eat pork I will know what my hogs eat! And I left to this conclusion there are sometimes extremes in Preaching.” Hancock went on to explain that JS described the Israelite law against pork as a proscription God established for a specific time and place but that “Israel was so bound up with law that they still kept up the old established practice of not eating hog meat Finaly they got so much law they could not keep it themselves.” (Stein, Shaker Experience, 156–158; Puskar-Pasewicz, “Debates over Meatless Diets in Nineteenth-Century Shaker Communities,” 109–120; Hancock, Autobiography, ca. 1896, 22.)

25. Earlier, in his revision of the Bible, JS modified part of Genesis 9:5 to read “surely blood shall not be shed only for meat to save your lives and the blood of every beast will I require at your hands.” (Old Testament Revision 1, p. 24 [Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 9:11].)

26. In 1806, more than twenty years after Ann Lee’s death, Ohio Shakers wrote to the Lead Ministry in New Lebanon, New York, to “request the privilege of opening to the world the first Foundation & Pillar” of their faith—that “Christ’s Second Appearance” had been in the person of Ann Lee. Permission was granted, and the 1808 publication of The Testimony of Christ’s Second Appearing became “the first General Statement of the present faith & principles” of the Believers. No contemporary evidence exists that Lee herself ever unambiguously taught such a doctrine. As their Christology developed, Shakers proclaimed that the “Christ spirit,” the divine anointing, filled Ann Lee in this last dispensation just as it filled Jesus in an earlier dispensation. This was necessary because a dual creation—man and woman—demanded a dual redemption in the form of Jesus and Ann Lee. The second appearing of the Christ spirit in Mother Ann restored “that which was lost by the transgression of the first woman” and “finish[ed] the work of man’s final redemption.” This belief was also rooted in the Shaker view of an androgynous God, with “Christ & Mother as representatives of the Dual principle in Deity.” (Stein, Shaker Experience, 68–72, 260, 326.)

27. The copy of this revelation that originated with Ashbel Kitchell has “to rise & be exalted.” (“Mormon Interview,” 11 [D&C 49:23].)

28. Shakers rejected the premillennialist idea that great cataclysms would accompany a second advent of Christ and that “the world is to be destroyed by fire.” Instead, Shakers argued that a spiritual fire would purge the wicked, and that they felt “its operation upon our own souls, and have found it to be, in very deed, a consuming fire to lust and pride, and every other corruption of man’s fallen nature.” (Summary View of the Millennial Church, or United Society of Believers, 148–149.)