Consider what the church was like in June 1830. What were the ofces, the doctrines, and the practices of the
church in that day? It would be easier to identify features the church lacked. In June 1830 the church had no
wards, no stakes, no First Presidency, no Council of the Twelve, no patriarchs, no seventies, no bishops, no “word
of wisdom,” no revelation on degrees of glory, no tithing, no welfare program, no law of consecration or united
order, no priesthood quorums of any kind, no temples, no endowments, no sealings, no marriages for eternity, no
real understanding of the New Jerusalem, no baptisms for the dead, no Doctrine and Covenants, no Pearl of Great
Price, and no JST. How did each of these features, which today we recognize as vital to our spiritual life and basic
to the church, come into being?
The publication of the Book of Mormon was completed during the week of 18–25 March 1830. A few days later,
on 6 April, the church was organized. A few weeks later, in June 1830, we have the earliest revelation associated
with the JST. We are familiar with it as the “Visions of Moses” in the Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1. We do not know
the exact day in June on which the material was written, but it was recorded in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Comparing
the chronology of the JST with the Doctrine and Covenants reveals the striking pattern that many of the concepts
contained in the Doctrine and Covenants were rst presented to the mind of the Prophet during his translation of
the Bible and were actually rst recorded for that purpose. Many of these subjects were later expanded by
subsequent revelation and appear as parts of various sections of the Doctrine and Covenants.
The Prophet’s Credentials as a Translator
The greatest credential of the Prophet Joseph Smith to translate the Bible was the command and authorization
from the Lord to do so. His situation seems similar to that of Nephi, who was commanded to build a ship. Nephi felt
condent that “If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them” (1 Nephi 17:50). By 1830, when the
Prophet Joseph began the translation of the Bible, he was already an experienced translator because of his work
on the translation of the Book of Mormon. He said that he and Oliver Cowdery had specic help from the Holy
Ghost so that the scriptures were “laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of their
more mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously, nor ever before
had thought of” (JS—H 1:74). Such aid would surpass even the help of a biblical language and a lexicon.
Enoch and the Consecration of Property
An extensive revelation about Enoch and his people was received by Joseph Smith in December 1830 while he
and Sidney Rigdon were translating from the fth chapter of the King James Version of Genesis. Chronologically
this came after Doctrine and Covenants section 35 and before section 37. This revelation, called in early Latter-
day Saint literature the “Prophecy of Enoch,” deals with the ministry of Enoch, his faith in Jesus Christ, his
preaching of the gospel, his city called Zion, the righteousness of his people, the fact that no poor existed among
them, the taking of the people into heaven, and a declaration that they would return to the earth in the last days
and be joined with the New Jerusalem, which would be built upon the earth (see Moses 6–7). This information
about Enoch contains many items of history and doctrine of particular interest to Latter-day Saints because it
deals with the work of the Lord on the earth in our day—the establishment of latter-day Zion.
Consider the situation of the church in December 1830. What did anyone in the church know about Enoch, the
New Jerusalem, the city of Zion, or any of these things at that time? We certainly cannot learn much from the King
James Version about Enoch, his city of Zion, or the laws that governed the people of Zion. None of the Bibles
available today say Enoch had a city, his people were called “Zion,” or his people were translated. The entire
offering in the Bible about Enoch can be read in less than two minutes and consists of only nine verses totaling