Joseph Smith Biography

Without Disclosing My True Identity

thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may

have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall

come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people.^86

No man knew the true feelings in Joseph’s heart. He meant it when he told the
people that they would rise up and kill him if he told them the truth.^87 He spoke with
strong conviction when he said, “You don’t know me; you never knew my heart. No man
knows my history.”^88

The Holy Order of God

The subject of the “holy order of God” first came up in April 1829, after Joseph
translated the following passage:

Behold, my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, having been called of God, and

ordained after the manner of his holy order, and having been consecrated by

my brother Nephi, unto whom ye look as a king or a protector, and on whom

ye depend for safety, behold ye know that I have spoken unto you

exceedingly many things.^89

Once this passage came through the Urim and Thummim, Oliver asked Joseph what
“the manner of his holy order” meant, wondering if it was some kind of priesthood
authority. Not knowing exactly why these particular words were used, owing to the fact
that he still had most of the plates left to translate, Joseph told Oliver that he was confident
that in due time all these things would be made known.
When confronted by Oliver with the question, Joseph did not know the answer.
During the translation of the Book of Lehi^90 —the 116-page manuscript lost by Martin Harris
in June 1828—Joseph only came across the term “order of Aaron,”^91 which referred to the
priesthood that Moses incorporated into his law. If neither Lehi nor Nephi mentioned the
“holy order of God” in their writings, Joseph assumed that there wasn’t much significance
to it, so the translation went on without further inquiry into the matter.
With Oliver as his scribe, the translation went quickly. The men often stayed up
working late into the night. At times, they were so physically tired that, as Joseph would say
the words as they came through the Urim and Thummim and Oliver would write them
down, neither of them fully comprehended what was given.
On April 19, 1829, Joseph and Oliver attended a local Methodist church and stayed
after the church meeting well into the evening, conversing with the local minister and
other men of that religion. They arrived home around 9 P.M. and began the translation
again. They were both already exhausted when they began to work, so neither paid much
attention to what they were doing. The translation at this point was methodical and
perfunctory from experience. The words would appear to Joseph, he would read them to
Oliver, Oliver would write them down and read them back to Joseph. The words would
disappear on the Urim and Thummim when what Oliver read back was satisfying to
Joseph’s mind. Being mechanical in nature, when their minds were tired, reading and
writing did not always mean comprehension. That night, they translated what would
become Alma, chapters four through seven.