Restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood

In a series of letters published in 1834, Oliver Cowdery recorded the earliest detailed account of the appearance of John the Baptist to Cowdery and Joseph Smith in 1829 in Harmony, Pennsylvania. According to Cowdery, John the Baptist’s visit was spurred by the translation of a passage in 3 Nephi that described Jesus Christ conferring authority to baptize on his ancient disciples. The two men wondered whether baptisms over the centuries had been performed by proper authority. Seeking answers to these questions, they withdrew to a secluded place near Joseph’s home to ask God. “The voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us,” Cowdery remembered, and an angel “came down clothed with glory, and delivered the anxiously looked for message.”¹

John the Baptist confers the Aaronic priesthood on Joseph Smith.

The two men testified that they knelt before the angel who then “laid his hands upon us” and said, “Upon you my fellow servants in the name of Messiah I confer the priesthood of Aaron.” Though they now had authority to baptize each other by water, the angel declared that this priesthood did not authorize them to give the gift of the Holy Ghost. The angel assured them the “power of laying on of hands, for the gift of the Holy Ghost” would come “in due time.” He identified himself as John, “the same that is called John the Baptist in the new Testament,” and said he acted “under the direction of Peter, James, and John, who held the keys of the priesthood of Melchisedeck.” Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery stated that this experience occurred on May 15, 1829.² When the vision closed, they went to the nearby Susquehanna River and baptized each other.

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery’s detailed firsthand accounts were written several years after the appearance of John the Baptist, but both published and unpublished sources written closer to the event itself corroborate their memory. For example, a newspaper not affiliated with the Church reported Cowdery’s claim of receiving a commission from angelic visitors just months after the publication of the Book of Mormon.³ Joseph Smith later explained that at first, he and Cowdery were reticent to share details of their experience “owing to a spirit of persecution” in the area.⁴

Cowdery’s 1834 account came about as part of Joseph’s early efforts to record and publish a complete history of the Church. In his first written history, produced in Ohio in 1832, Joseph promised to narrate significant early events including the reception of “the holy Priesthood” by the ministering of angels.⁵ The publication effort was delayed initially when a mob destroyed the Church press in Independence, Missouri, in 1833, and the history itself underwent several revisions and compilations during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. Under Joseph’s direction, clerks later merged Cowdery’s account with additional information provided by Joseph in what today appears in section 13 of the Doctrine and Covenants and in the Pearl of Great Price (Joseph Smith—History 1:68–72).⁶

Though the phrase Aaronic Priesthood did not appear in Joseph Smith’s revelations until 1834, the concept of a lesser priesthood relative to a greater, or high, priesthood was referenced in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon.⁷ Joseph Smith’s revision of Exodus (part of his inspired translation of the Bible) in the summer of 1832 noted a division between greater and lesser priesthoods.⁸ A revelation received by Joseph the following September clarified that the lesser priesthood, which was given to “Aaron and his seed,” pertained to “the preparatory gospel, which gospel is the gospel of repentance and of Baptism, and the remission of sins, and the Law of carnal commandments.”⁹

When Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery first organized the Church in early 1830, they divided responsibilities among several offices, patterned after references in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. These offices were similar to those in other churches of the time, which also commonly structured their congregations after New Testament patterns and featured officers such as deacons, teachers, priests, elders, and bishops.¹⁰ At first, these offices in the newly organized Church were not associated with the Aaronic or Melchizedek Priesthoods. Over time, additional revelations instructed Joseph Smith on how to align Church organization with priesthood authority, and by 1835, offices and duties were more thoroughly organized under the purview of the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods.¹¹

Church Resources

Gordon B. Hinckley, “Priesthood Restoration,” Ensign, Oct. 1988, 69–72.

“Aaronic Priesthood,” josephsmithpapers.org.

Mark L. Staker and Curtis Ashton, “Where Was the Priesthood Restored?” history.lds.org.

Bibliography

The following publications provide further information about this topic. By referring or linking you to these resources, we do not endorse or guarantee the content or the views of the authors.

Brian Q. Cannon and BYU Studies Staff, “Seventy Contemporaneous Priesthood Restoration Documents,” in John W. Welch, ed., Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2005), 215–63.

Mark L. Staker, “‘Commissioned of Jesus Christ’: Oliver Cowdery and D&C 13,” in Scott C. Esplin, Richard O. Cowan, and Rachel Cope, eds., You Shall Have My Word: Exploring the Text of the Doctrine and Covenants (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University), 50–63.

Related Topics: Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood, Book of Mormon Translation

Notes

1. Oliver Cowdery letter to William W. Phelps, Sept. 7, 1834, in Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 1834), 15.

2. Joseph Smith, “History, 1838–1856, Volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” 17–18, josephsmithpapers.org.

3. See “The Golden Bible,” Painesville [Ohio] Telegraph, Nov. 16, 1830, 3, and Painesville Telegraph, Dec. 7, 1830, in Brian Q. Cannon and BYU Studies Staff, “Seventy Contemporaneous Priesthood Restoration Documents,” in John W. Welch, ed., Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2005), 241–42; Historical Introduction, “History, circa Summer 1832,” josephsmithpapers.org.

4. Joseph Smith, “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” 18, josephsmithpapers.org.

5. Joseph Smith, “History, circa Summer 1832,” 1, josephsmithpapers.org.

6. Cowdery’s narrative began where Joseph’s 1832 account ended. Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and John Whitmer may have assumed responsibility for the different episodes outlined in Joseph’s prospectus, with Joseph taking the first two (to which only he was a witness), Cowdery the third (at which he was also present), and John Whitmer (a later Church historian) the fourth (see Historical Introduction, “History, circa Summer 1832”).

7. See Hebrews 7:1–17 and Alma 4–5, 13. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery had translated these Book of Mormon passages before May 15, 1829.

8. “Old Testament Revision 2,” 70, josephsmithpapers.org; “Revelation, 22–23 September 1832 [D&C 84],” josephsmithpapers.org.

9. “Revelation, 22–23 September 1832 [D&C 84],” 1, spelling standardized; Doctrine and Covenants 84:18, 26–27.

10. The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 22nd ed. (New York: N. Bangs and J. Emory, 1824), 24–30, 80–82; The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, in the United States of America: Containing the Confession of Faith, the Catechisms, and the Directory for the Worship of God (Philadelphia: Towar and Hogan, 1827), 357–61, 380–81; Ratio Disciplinae, or the Constitution of the Congregational Churches (Portland, Maine: Shirley and Hyde, 1829), 72–79; “Formula for the Government and Discipline of the Evangelical Lutheran Church,” appendix 2 in S. S. Schmucker, Elements of Popular Theology, with Special Reference to the Doctrines of the Reformation, as Avowed before the Diet at Augsburg, in MDXXX (Andover: Gould and Newman, 1834), 372–74.

11. “Instruction on Priesthood, between circa 1 March and circa 4 May 1835 [D&C 107],” in Doctrine and Covenants, 1835, 82–85, josephsmithpapers.org.