Monday, July 13, 2020

Nicholas J. Frederick on the Debate as to the "John" Who Authored the "Record of John" in D&C 93

 

For Latter-day Saints who view Joseph Smith as a prophet and his revelations as divine, there is little doubt that the Record of John is authentic and that the translation provided by Smith divinely revealed. There is, however, a fair amount of disagreement over whether the John mentioned in the 6 May 1833 revelation was intended to be John the Evangelist or John the Baptist. In the revelation’s excerpt from the Record of John, the narrator claims, “I John bear record and lo the heavens were opened and the holy ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove and set upon him and there came a voice out of heaven saying this is my beloved son.” This event, which matches the gospel accounts of the divine approval manifested at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, seems to identify the author of the Record of John as John the Baptist—although the revelation may be implying that John the Evangelist had been present at the baptism of Jesus and witnessed the manifestations of divine approval (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-34). The author was identified as John the Baptist by prominent church authorities Orson Pratt, John Taylor, and Bruce R. McConkie (Orson Pratt, Discourse, 18 May 1873, in Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [Liverpool: Joseph F. Smit; London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1854-1886], 16:58; John Taylor, The Mediation and Atonement [Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1882], 55; Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966], 1:70-71). However, as historian Steven C. Harper has noted, “all editions of the Doctrine and Covenants since 1921 imply that these were the writings of John the Apostle.” Steven C. Harper, Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2008), 560; compare Lydon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981), 194-95. Others who argue for John the Evangelist as author of the Record of John include Charles W. Penrose of the First Presidency. See “Prest. Charles W. Penrose,” Eighty-Sixth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Held in the Tabernacle and Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City , Utah, April 6, 7, and 9, 1916, with a Full Report of the Discourses (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1916, 19-20. Another possibility is that, given the parallel language from John 1 in the Record of John, the revelation implied that John the Baptist was John the Evangelist though the Baptist was soon murdered). (Nicholas J. Frederick, “Translation, Revelation, and the Hermeneutics of Theological Innovation: Joseph Smith and the Record of John,” in Michael Hubbard MacKay, Mark Ashurst-McGee and Brian Hauglid, eds., Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity [Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2020], 304-27, here, p. 313 n. 30)