Gifts of the Spirit

The corpus states the same list three times, in three books, and the differences between the three are small enough to set out in full — and interesting enough to be worth setting out.

What this page maps. Modern revelation, reported as the text gives it. The list is quoted item by item so a reader can compare the three carriers directly. Dates, places, and occasions are not in this wiki’s source text and are not stated.

Account

Why the list is given

The revelation states a purpose before it states the list, and the purpose is protective: “Wherefore, beware lest ye are deceived; and that ye may not be deceived seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for what they are given” (D&C 46:8); “For verily I say unto you, they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do; that all may be benefited that seek or that ask of me, that ask and not for a sign that they may consume it upon their lusts” (D&C 46:9); “And again, verily I say unto you, I would that ye should always remember, and always retain in your minds what those gifts are, that are given unto the church” (D&C 46:10).

The distribution principle comes next: “For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God” (D&C 46:11); “To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby” (D&C 46:12).

The list

The first two items are gifts of testimony rather than of power: “To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he was crucified for the sins of the world” (D&C 46:13); “To others it is given to believe on their words, that they also might have eternal life if they continue faithful” (D&C 46:14). Then administration and operations (D&C 46:15–16), wisdom and knowledge (D&C 46:17–18), and a pair the other carriers do not split: “And again, to some it is given to have faith to be healed” (D&C 46:19); “And to others it is given to have faith to heal” (D&C 46:20). The remainder run one to a verse: miracles (D&C 46:21), prophecy (D&C 46:22), “the discerning of spirits” (D&C 46:23), tongues (D&C 46:24), and interpretation (D&C 46:25).

The split at healing is the list’s most distinctive move: where the epistle gives “the gifts of healing by the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:9) and Moroni gives “the gifts of healing by the same Spirit” (Moroni 10:11) as single items, the revelation states two gifts facing each other — faith to be healed and faith to heal.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () The purpose clause attached to the gifts: - D&C 46:16: “And again, it is given by the Holy Ghost to some to know the diversities of operations, whether they be of God, that the manifestations of the Spirit may be given to every man to profit withal.” - 1 Corinthians 12:7: “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.”

The seven-word run “given to every man to profit withal” stands at exactly these two distinct frozen verses in the corpus. Divergences reported: plural “the manifestations” (D&C 46:16) for the epistle’s singular “the manifestation” (1 Corinthians 12:7); and the revelation attaches the clause to the gift of knowing “the diversities of operations” (D&C 46:16) — itself the epistle’s phrase at 1 Corinthians 12:6, where it stands at exactly two frozen verses — while the epistle states it as a general principle standing on its own.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 46:17: “And again, verily I say unto you, to some is given, by the Spirit of God, the word of wisdom.” - 1 Corinthians 12:8: “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;”

Divergences: “to some” for “to one”; the revelation says “by the Spirit of God” (D&C 46:17) where the epistle says “by the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:8); and the revelation gives knowledge its own verse — “To another is given the word of knowledge, that all may be taught to be wise and to have knowledge” (D&C 46:18) — with a purpose clause the epistle lacks. “the word of wisdom” stands at four distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two, Moroni 10:9, and D&C 89:2, where the phrase names a revelation rather than a gift — disclosed, and not to be confused with the gift.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () The same item in the Book of Mormon carrier: - D&C 46:17: “And again, verily I say unto you, to some is given, by the Spirit of God, the word of wisdom.” - Moroni 10:9: “For behold, to one is given by the Spirit of God, that he may teach the word of wisdom;”

Here the agent phrase matches exactly — “by the Spirit of God” in both — where the epistle reads only “by the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:8). Divergence: Moroni’s items are cast as teaching (“that he may teach the word of wisdom”, Moroni 10:9) where the revelation names the gift as a possession.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 46:25: “And to another is given the interpretation of tongues.” - 1 Corinthians 12:10: “To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:”

The epistle packs five items into the verse the revelation spreads across five (D&C 46:21–25); their order is the same in both — miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation. Moroni’s counterpart widens the last item: “And again, to another, the interpretation of languages and of divers kinds of tongues” (Moroni 10:16), where “divers kinds of tongues” is the epistle’s phrase. “the interpretation of tongues” stands at three distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two and Mormon 9:7.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () The closing sentence of the list: - D&C 46:26: “And all these gifts come from God, for the benefit of the children of God.” - Moroni 10:17: “And all these gifts come by the Spirit of Christ; and they come unto every man severally, according as he will.”

The five-word opening run stands at exactly these two distinct frozen verses in the corpus. Divergences reported: the revelation names the source as God and the beneficiaries as “the children of God” (D&C 46:26); Moroni names the source as “the Spirit of Christ” and adds a distribution clause, “they come unto every man severally, according as he will” (Moroni 10:17) — which stands close to the epistle’s “dividing to every man severally as he will” (1 Corinthians 12:11), a clause the revelation does not carry.

Who watches the gifts

The revelation gives the gifts a supervisor, which neither of the other carriers does: “And unto the bishop of the church, and unto such as God shall appoint and ordain to watch over the church and to be elders unto the church, are to have it given unto them to discern all those gifts lest there shall be any among you professing and yet be not of God” (D&C 46:27); “That unto some it may be given to have all those gifts, that there may be a head, in order that every member may be profited thereby” (D&C 46:29). And it closes on manner rather than content: “And again, I say unto you, all things must be done in the name of Christ, whatsoever you do in the Spirit” (D&C 46:31); “And ye must practice virtue and holiness before me continually. Even so. Amen.” (D&C 46:33).

Significance

Set beside its two counterparts, this list is the most administrative of the three. It is introduced as protection against deception (D&C 46:8), it assigns oversight of the gifts to named officers (D&C 46:27), and it is embedded in a section whose first verses are about who may and may not be cast out of a meeting (D&C 46:3–6). The epistle’s list argues for unity in a body; Moroni’s is an exhortation not to deny the gifts. The revelation’s is part of a chapter on running meetings.

The overlaps are reported above item by item. What no page here asserts is dependence — which list stands behind which, and how, is a question about how the texts came to be, and is outside this wiki’s scope.

Key references

D&C 46:8–12 — seek the best gifts; why they are given; not every gift to every man
D&C 46:13–25 — the list, one item to a verse, including the healing pair
D&C 46:26–29 — the source of the gifts; the officers who discern them
1 Corinthians 12:4–11 and Moroni 10:8–17 — the corpus’s other two carriers of the list

Discerning the Spirits · The Order of the Church · Faith, Hope and Charity · Index · Connections

Sources

Doctrine and Covenants section 46 (verse text only; headnotes excluded). Cross-references quoted from 1 Corinthians 12 and Moroni 10; Mormon 9 and D&C 89 are cited, not quoted, inside disclosures.

Every quote is verbatim from the frozen source text, cited to its exact reference and checked character-for-character; no quote crosses a verse boundary. Five connection records are registered on this page, all [textual] and all asserted_by: wiki — the revelation names no source for any item in the list. Phrase distributions are counts of distinct frozen verses in the corpus, derived by search at the time of writing.