Table of Contents
This lesson covers the part of church history where the Aaronic priesthood is restored and Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were baptized. If I were teaching this lesson, I’d choose to have an open-ended discussion about baptism at the end of class. I’d prime the class for this discussion by saying something like:
“At the end of class, I’d like to discuss baptism and what it has meant for you. During class, be thinking about any experiences you might like to share about a baptism that you’ve attended, something you’ve learned about baptism, or how this ordinance has brought you closer to God.”
Historical Overview
It would be helpful to display or have people find the New York/Pennsylvania map in the scriptures under Study Helps → Church History Maps → Northeastern United States.
The revelations in this lesson were given to Joseph Knight Sr., Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and the Whitmer brothers: David, John, Peter Jr. Who were these people? Where were they from?
Revelations in Context presents historical information from the Joseph Smith Papers (among other sources) in brief chapters. The chapters that are relevant for this lesson are:
The Contributions of Martin Harris
The Knight and Whitmer Families
The Experience of the Three Witnesses
Here’s a summary of these chapters:
Martin Harris was a prosperous middle aged farmer living in Palmyra, NY. He helped with the translation of the Book of Mormon in the spring of 1828. His wife, Lucy, was suspicious of Joseph Smith because he would not show her the plates. Martin convinced Joseph to let him bring part of the manuscript home so she could read them. This is when the 116 pages were lost. Ultimately, despite his wife’s concerns, Martin parted with “essentially all the property to which he had a legal right” in order to print the Book of Mormon. He was one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon.
Oliver Cowdery was a young school teacher boarding in Palmyra with Joseph Smith’s parents in the fall of 1828. The next spring, Oliver traveled to Harmony, PA where Joseph was living with Emma. The following day, Joseph recommenced translating the Book of Mormon (he had stopped after Martin lost the manuscript.) Oliver was one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon.
The Knight family lived 30 miles north of Harmony, in Coleville, NY. Joseph Smith had worked as a laborer on the farm of Joseph Knight Sr. He was one of the first people Joseph Smith told about the gold plates.
The Whitmer family was from Fayette, NY. David Whitmer heard about the gold plates when became friends with Oliver Cowdery in 1828. Oliver stopped to see the Whitmers when he was traveling to Harmony, PA be a scribe for the translation work, and he wrote letters to the family when he was with Joseph in Pennsylvania. In May 1829, David Whitmer arrived in Harmony to move Joseph and Oliver to the Whitmer’s home (back in New York), where they could translate and have their board free of charge. Emma later came to live at the Whitmer’s as well, and she also acted as a scribe. The translation was finished about a month later, in the summer of 1829.
Peter and Mary Whitmer had eight children together: Christian, Jacob, John, David, Catherine, Peter Jr., Nancy, and Elizabeth Ann. This week’s reading contains sections of the Doctrine and Covenants revealed for John, David, and Peter Jr. One of those sons, David, was one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Mary Whitmer was also a witness of the Book of Mormon:
“A grandson of Mary Musselman Whitmer (wife of Peter Whitmer Sr.) reported that Mary had “so many extra persons to care for” that she “was often overloaded with work.” One evening, after a long day’s work, she went to the barn to milk the cows and met a stranger who “showed her a bundle of plates” and “turned the leaves of the book of plates over, leaf after leaf,” promising Mary that “she should be blessed” if she were “patient and faithful in bearing her burden a little longer.”9 She thus became another witness of the Book of Mormon.”
Structure of the Assigned Doctrine and Covenants Sections
If you feel like you were re-reading the same thing over and over, you were!
Sections 15 (to John Whitmer) and 16 (to Peter Whitmer Jr.) are identical except for the names in verse 1.
Sections 12 (to Joseph Knight Sr.) and 14 (to David Whitmer) are very similar. For these sections:
Verses 1-5 are identical.
Verses 6 say similar things.
The main difference is in verses 7-8.
Verses 9 are similar. Section 14 has a few more verses at the end.
Section 13 is the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood. It was conferred by John the Baptist to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. This section is only a single verse long and is the same as JS—history 1:69.
Section 17 promises Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris a view of the plates.
Joseph Smith—History 1:66-75 is Joseph’s account of the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood and his and Oliver’s baptism in April of 1829. The asterisk in verse 71 leads to Oliver Cowdery’s memories of the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood, which was published in 1834, about five years afterwards.
“Upon You My Fellow Servants” – restoration of Aaronic priesthood
After reviewing the historical context and the structure of the assigned reading, go through and talk about whichever verses are meaningful to you and your class. Ask your class what insights they had as they studied this week.
A verse I would choose to cover is D&C 13:1/JS-H 1:69 (it’s the same words in both places):
“Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.”
Two phrases stand out to me here. The first is “Upon you my fellow servants” and the second phrase is “keys of the ministering of angels”.
The first phrase “Upon you my fellow servants”, is also the title for this lesson. What do you think it means to be a fellow servant with John the Baptist?
I’ve become very sensitive to gendered language in the scriptures. The word ‘fellow’ is interesting because it has both gendered and gender neutral meanings:
1. a man or boy
2. a person in the same position, involved in the same activity, or otherwise associated with another
3. a member of a learned society
The first definition does not apply here. When used in the first way, the word refers to a male, but the other two definitions are gender neutral. While the third definition could apply, we say we don’t generally refer to members of the Aaronic priesthood as “the priesthood fellows”. We say “the priesthood brethren”. It’s pretty clear that in this verse “my fellow servants” refers to Joseph and Oliver being involved in building up the kingdom of God, just like John the Baptist. Women can be fellows in this work too, although they are currently not in the same position, because they have not been ordained to the Aaronic priesthood.
The second phrase, “keys of the ministering of angels”, reminds me of the favorite Relief Society song As Sisters in Zion. Verse two begins: “The errand of angels is given to women; and this is a gift that, as sisters, we claim”. Because of this familiar song, the phrase “ministering of angels” helps me, as a woman, see myself in these scriptures. The errand of angels in the song is the act of ministering: “To do whatsoever is gentle and human, To cheer and to bless in humanity’s name”. Women are already doing work of the Aaronic Priesthood.
It is not a trivial desire for women to want to know how their purpose fits with the church. The men around Joseph Smith were concerned about this too. Sections 12, 14, 15, and 16 were revealed because men wanted to understand their individual duties to the church.
In the October 2016 conference talk “Rise Up in Strength, Sisters in Zion,” Bonnie L. Oscarson, Young Women General President said:
“All women need to see themselves as essential participants in the work of the priesthood. Women in this Church are presidents, counselors, teachers, members of councils, sisters, and mothers, and the kingdom of God cannot function unless we rise up and fulfill our duties with faith. Sometimes we just need to have a greater vision of what is possible.”
Discussion: Baptism
Recount how Joseph baptized Oliver, and then Oliver baptized Joseph after they received the Aaronic priesthood from John the Baptist (JS-H 1:70-72). Read JS-H 1:73 together:
“Immediately on our coming up out of the water after we had been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from our Heavenly Father. No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery, than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied many things which should shortly come to pass. And again, so soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had the spirit of prophecy, when, standing up, I prophesied concerning the rise of this Church, and many other things connected with the Church, and this generation of the children of men. We were filled with the Holy Ghost, and rejoiced in the God of our salvation.”
Give the class time to share about their own experiences with baptism. Conclude by sharing one of these quotes by female leaders*.
“We are all at different points on our journey back to our Father in Heaven. Did the Jews and Greeks whom Paul addressed in his epistle to the Galatians stop being Jews and Greeks when they were baptized? Did the men stop being men and the women stop being women? No. But they had all ‘been baptized into Christ’ and had ‘put on Christ’ (Gal. 3:27).”
Chieko N. Okazaki, First Counselor, Relief Society General Presidency
“Baskets and Bottles,” April 1996 General Conference
“Baptism is the beginning of a new life for each one of us, a life of purpose. The Lord is very clear as to what it means to keep his commandments, come into his fold, and be called his people. His people are ‘willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort.’ ”
Dwan J. Young, Primary General President
“Keeping the Covenants We Make at Baptism,” October 1984 General Conference
*The Relief Society President in my ward recently gave a talk. In it she quoted some spiritual wisdom from another woman in our ward and attributed the quote just like you would for a general authority. I loved how it acknowledged the worth of insight from those around us. I’m definitely going to challenge myself to do this next time I give a talk or teach a lesson.
