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Pearl of Great Price Minor Figures

A combined home for the persons of the Pearl of Great Price who appear too briefly for a page of their own, or who are named only as citation — gathered here rather than given a page each. Each entry reports only what the text says in the verses cited.

Roster: Pearl of Great Price People carries the census-based person index for the whole Pearl of Great Price, completeness per its stated basis; this page remains the narrative home for figures below the own-page bar (Pearl of Great Price Minor Figures).

The first family

Adam

The record names him twice over: once as a title God confers — “the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many” (Moses 1:34) — and once as a name given to the pair together, “called their name Adam, in the day when they were created and became living souls” (Moses 6:9).

What he does, the record gives in order. He “gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air” (Moses 3:20). A deep sleep falls on him and a rib is taken (Moses 3:21); waking to the woman he says “This I know now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Moses 3:23). After the Fall he hides (Moses 4:14), is called to account (Moses 4:15), and names his wife: “Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Moses 4:26).

Driven out, he “began to till the earth” (Moses 5:1) and offers sacrifice; the record’s summary is flat and complete — “Adam was obedient unto the commandments of the Lord” (Moses 5:5). An angel then asks him a question he can answer only by his obedience — “Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord?” — and he answers “I know not, save the Lord commanded me” (Moses 5:6). The Holy Ghost falls on him (Moses 5:9), he blesses God and begins to prophesy (Moses 5:10), and he and Eve “made all things known unto their sons and their daughters” (Moses 5:12).

The genealogy chapter gives him his years — “all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died” (Moses 6:12) — and its most striking single clause: he is “the son of God, with whom God, himself, conversed” (Moses 6:22). God calls him “by his own voice” (Moses 6:51), he asks why men must repent (Moses 6:53), and he is caught away by the Spirit (Moses 6:64) and baptized (Moses 6:65). Enoch, generations later, still calls him “our father Adam” and says he “taught these things” (Moses 7:1).

Eve

Named at the Fall as the one Satan “sought also to beguile” (Moses 4:6), and named as herself in the verse after the judgment: “Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Moses 4:26).

Outside the garden the record gives her work and her words. She “did labor with him” (Moses 5:1); the two together “called upon the name of the Lord” (Moses 5:4); and when the plan is explained she “heard all these things and was glad” (Moses 5:11). She blesses God with Adam (Moses 5:12), teaches with him (Moses 5:12), and with him “ceased not to call upon God” (Moses 5:16).

Cain

Not the first child — the record has “sons and daughters” before him (Moses 5:2) — but the first it names: “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain” — and his mother’s word at the birth is “I have gotten a man from the Lord”. His own first recorded word answers it: “Who is the Lord that I should know him?” (Moses 5:16). He is “a tiller of the ground” (Moses 5:17).

The record then traces a descent in short steps. “Cain loved Satan more than God”, and offers at Satan’s command (Moses 5:18); his offering is not respected (Moses 5:21); he is warned that “sin lieth at the door, and Satan desireth to have thee” (Moses 5:23); he is told “thou shalt be called Perdition” (Moses 5:24). Satan binds him with an oath (Moses 5:29–30), and he takes a name of his own: “Truly I am Mahan, the master of this great secret, that I may murder and get gain” — “Wherefore Cain was called Master Mahan, and he gloried in his wickedness” (Moses 5:31).

He kills Abel in the field (Moses 5:32), answers the Lord “I know not. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Moses 5:34), is marked “lest any finding him should kill him” (Moses 5:40), and is “shut out from the presence of the Lord”, dwelling in the land of Nod (Moses 5:41). He builds a city and names it for his son (Moses 5:42). Long after, Enoch’s vision still knows “the seed of Cain” (Moses 7:22).

Perdition and Mahan are names the record confers on this same man; the roster keeps them here rather than minting separate entries for them.

Abel

Cain’s brother — “his brother Abel” (Moses 5:17) — and the record’s contrast between them is drawn in that one verse: “Abel hearkened unto the voice of the Lord. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.”

He “brought of the firstlings of his flock” (Moses 5:20); he “walked in holiness before the Lord” (Moses 5:26); Satan promises to deliver him into Cain’s hands (Moses 5:29); and he is killed in the field (Moses 5:32). He never speaks. Seth is afterward “appointed me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew” (Moses 6:2), and Seth’s own sacrifice is “like unto his brother Abel” (Moses 6:3) — the record’s measure of an acceptable offering is a man who says nothing in it.

Satan

Not a minor figure by volume — the record names him in five chapters of the book of Moses, and once more in Joseph Smith—History (1:46) — but he has no page of his own yet, so his verses are gathered here.

He appears first as an interruption: “Satan came tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man, worship me” (Moses 1:12). Moses answers with a question — “Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God” (Moses 1:13) — and then with commands: “Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not” (Moses 1:16), “Depart from me, Satan, for this one God only will I worship” (Moses 1:20). The record reports his reaction physically: “Satan began to tremble, and the earth shook” (Moses 1:21), and he cries “with a loud voice, with weeping, and wailing” (Moses 1:22) before departing (Moses 1:24).

Moses 4 gives his origin as a matter of record rather than inference: he “rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3), and “he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies” (Moses 4:4). In the garden he “put it into the heart of the serpent” (Moses 4:6).

Among Adam’s children he borrows the sentence Moses had spoken against him — “I am also a son of God” (Moses 5:13); Moses’s own words to him had been “I am a son of God” (Moses 1:13). He commands Cain’s offering (Moses 5:18), knows and is pleased when it is rejected (Moses 5:21), and binds Cain with an oath — “Swear unto me by thy throat” (Moses 5:29).

The line of Cain

The record runs this line as a chain of begettings, giving most of its names nothing but a father and a son. They are gathered here because that is all the record gives them.

Enoch (son of Cain)

The first Enoch of the record, and not the prophet: “Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch”, and Cain “called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch” (Moses 5:42). He is the father of Irad (Moses 5:43), and his son is named again when the secret passes on — “Irad, the son of Enoch, having known their secret, began to reveal it” (Moses 5:49).

Irad, Mahujael, Methusael

Three names in one verse, each holding one place in the chain: “unto Enoch was born Irad… And Irad begat Mahujael, and other sons and daughters. And Mahujael begat Methusael, and other sons and daughters. And Methusael begat Lamech” (Moses 5:43). Irad alone is given anything further: he knew the secret oath and “began to reveal it unto the sons of Adam”, and was slain for it (Moses 5:49–50).

Lamech (son of Methusael)

The last father in the chain, and the one the record follows furthest. He “took unto himself two wives” (Moses 5:44); he enters the covenant “after the manner of Cain, wherein he became Master Mahan” (Moses 5:49); and being angry he slew Irad — “not like unto Cain, his brother Abel, for the sake of getting gain, but he slew him for the oath’s sake” (Moses 5:50).

Adah and Zillah

Lamech’s two wives, named in the verse that reports the marriage: “the name of one being Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah” (Moses 5:44). Adah bears Jabal, whose brother is Jubal (Moses 5:45); Zillah bears Tubal Cain, whose sister is Naamah (Moses 5:46).

Jabal and Jubal

Brothers, and the record gives each a trade rather than a story. Jabal “was the father of such as dwell in tents, and they were keepers of cattle”; Jubal “was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ” (Moses 5:45).

Tubal Cain and Naamah

Zillah’s son, and his sister. Tubal Cain is “an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron”; Naamah is named only as his sister — “the sister of Tubal Cain was called Naamah” (Moses 5:46).

The line of Seth

Where Cain’s line is a chain of names, Seth’s is a chain of years: each man is given a father, an age at his son’s birth, a remaining span, and a death.

Seth

“she bare a son, and he called his name Seth” — and Adam’s reason is recorded with the name: “God hath appointed me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew” (Moses 6:2). God reveals himself to Seth, “and he rebelled not, but offered an acceptable sacrifice, like unto his brother Abel” (Moses 6:3). Adam was “one hundred and thirty years” old when he begat him, and lived “eight hundred years” after (Moses 6:10–11).

Enos

Seth’s son — “to him also was born a son, and he called his name Enos” (Moses 6:3). He “lived ninety years, and begat Cainan”, and the record adds a migration to the formula: “Enos and the residue of the people of God came out from the land, which was called Shulon, and dwelt in a land of promise, which he called after his own son, whom he had named Cainan” (Moses 6:17). Distinct from the Book of Mormon’s Enos, who belongs to another record.

Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared

Three generations given in the formula and little else. Cainan “lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel”, and all his days “were nine hundred and ten years, and he died” (Moses 6:19). Mahalaleel “lived sixty-five years, and begat Jared”, and his days “were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died” (Moses 6:20). Jared “lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begat Enoch” (Moses 6:21) — the prophet, treated on Enoch. This Jared is not the Jared of the Book of Mormon.

Methuselah

Enoch’s son: “Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begat Methuselah” (Moses 6:25). The record gives him an absence and then a voice. When Zion was taken up, “Methuselah, the son of Enoch, was not taken, that the covenants of the Lord might be fulfilled” (Moses 8:2); then he “prophesied that from his loins should spring all the kingdoms of the earth” and “took glory unto himself” (Moses 8:3). He begat Lamech (Moses 8:5), and “all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died” (Moses 8:7).

Lamech (son of Methuselah)

A second Lamech, in the other line: “Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begat Lamech” (Moses 8:5). He “lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and begat a son” (Moses 8:8), and “he called his name Noah, saying: This son shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands” (Moses 8:9); “all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died” (Moses 8:11). The record keeps the two Lamechs in two genealogies — different fathers, different children — and the roster keeps two entries, with the occurrence table on the token.

Mahijah

One verse, one question, and the question is the reason the record keeps him: “there came a man unto him, whose name was Mahijah, and said unto him: Tell us plainly who thou art, and from whence thou comest?” (Moses 6:40). Enoch’s answer runs on from there; Mahijah does not appear again.

Noah and his sons

Noah

Named first inside Enoch’s vision rather than in his own generation: “Enoch also saw Noah, and his family; that the posterity of all the sons of Noah should be saved with a temporal salvation” (Moses 7:42). Enoch sees him build an ark, “and that the Lord smiled upon it” (Moses 7:43). His birth and naming come later — his father Lamech “called his name Noah, saying: This son shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed” (Moses 8:9) — and his own generation with them: he “was four hundred and fifty years old, and begat Japheth” (Moses 8:12), and he “walked with God, as did also his three sons” (Moses 8:27).

Japheth, Shem, Ham

The three sons, given with their father’s ages: Japheth first, then “forty-two years afterward he begat Shem of her who was the mother of Japheth, and when he was five hundred years old he begat Ham” (Moses 8:12). They are named together once more, walking with God as their father did (Moses 8:27). Shem shares his name with one of the seven lands of Enoch’s vision (Moses 7:9); the roster keeps the man and the land as separate entries.

Peoples named in the book of Moses

Israel

Named once in the book of Moses, and as a promise rather than a nation in place: “thou shalt deliver my people from bondage, even Israel my chosen” (Moses 1:26). The referent is the people, not the patriarch. The Pearl of Great Price names Israel three times more — twice at Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:18 and once at Articles of Faith 1:10.

Canaan (the people)

A people Enoch beholds, never a land in this record: “I beheld the people of Canaan, which dwelt in tents” (Moses 7:6). He is bidden prophesy against them (Moses 7:7), and he “continued to call upon all the people, save it were the people of Canaan, to repent” (Moses 7:12). The Canaanites of the book of Abraham are spelled differently and never equated with them; the roster keeps them apart.

Abraham’s household

Terah

Abraham’s father, and the record is unsparing about him. He “yet lived in the land of Ur” when the famine took his other son (Abraham 2:1). He follows Abraham out of Ur, but stops short: “my father tarried in Haran and dwelt there, as there were many flocks in Haran; and my father turned again unto his idolatry, therefore he continued in Haran” (Abraham 2:5). The record had already given the reason in its own voice — “my father was led away by their idolatry” (Abraham 1:27).

Haran (Abraham’s brother)

Named once as a death — “Haran, my brother, died” (Abraham 2:1) — and once as a father, Milcah being “the daughter of Haran” (Abraham 2:2). He shares his name with the land the family afterward denominated Haran; the roster keeps the man and the land as separate entries.

Nahor and Milcah

Married in the same verse that records Abraham’s own marriage: “Nahor, my brother, took Milcah to wife, who was the daughter of Haran” (Abraham 2:2). Neither appears again.

Sarai

Abraham’s wife, married in Ur — “I, Abraham, took Sarai to wife” (Abraham 2:2) — and recalled later as the one “whom I took to wife when I was in Ur, in Chaldea” (Abraham 2:15).

The record gives her one episode, and gives it as instruction rather than as her own act. Approaching Egypt, the Lord tells Abraham “Sarai, thy wife, is a very fair woman to look upon” (Abraham 2:22), and directs the arrangement: “Let her say unto the Egyptians, she is thy sister, and thy soul shall live” (Abraham 2:24). Abraham tells her all that was said (Abraham 2:25). The record does not report her answer.

Lot

Abraham’s nephew, taken along at the departure from Ur — “I took Lot, my brother’s son” (Abraham 2:4) — and again at the departure from Haran, “Lot with me” (Abraham 2:14). He prays with Abraham (Abraham 2:6) and travels with him toward Canaan (Abraham 2:15); this record follows him no further.

The gods of the Chaldeans

The record names the gods the fathers turned to in one list: “the god of Elkenah, and the god of Libnah, and the god of Mahmackrah, and the god of Korash, and the god of Pharaoh, king of Egypt” (Abraham 1:6). The same names recur when the record describes the altar’s setting (Abraham 1:13), and again when the Lord states his reason for coming down (Abraham 1:17).

Shagreel joins them three verses on (Abraham 1:9); Pharaoh, named with them, has an entry of his own below. Two of the rest are given something further. Elkenah has a priest — “The priest of Elkenah was also the priest of Pharaoh” (Abraham 1:7) — and an altar the Lord breaks down: “the altar of Elkenah, and of the gods of the land” (Abraham 1:20). Shagreel is identified outright: “the god of Shagreel was the sun” (Abraham 1:9).

⚖️ Interpretation — weigh this. Whether these five names belong to the gods themselves or to the peoples and places whose gods they were is not settled by the record. “the god of Elkenah” (Abraham 1:6) reads naturally as a god belonging to some party; “the altar of Elkenah, and of the gods of the land” (Abraham 1:20) reads just as naturally as the god’s own name. The roster admits each as a named figure of the text’s internal world without deciding which — the evidence is set out here, and the reading is left to the reader.

Egypt’s founding line

Pharaoh

The record uses the name for a man and glosses it as an office in the same verse — “which Pharaoh signifies king by royal blood” (Abraham 1:20).

As a man he is the founder: “the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham” (Abraham 1:25). The record’s judgment of him and its limitation on him sit in one sentence — “Pharaoh, being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days”, while Noah “blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood” (Abraham 1:26). A Pharaoh of Abraham’s own day has a god, a priest, and a court (Abraham 1:6, 1:7, 1:20). The roster keeps two entries — the first Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh of Abraham’s day — because the record distinguishes them by era and by description, and once pluralizes the name: “the Pharaohs would fain claim it” (Abraham 1:27).

Egyptus, mother and daughter

One name, and the record’s own descriptions put two women under it. At Abraham 1:23 the woman who discovered Egypt “was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus” — so this Egyptus is the discoverer’s mother. At Abraham 1:25 the first Pharaoh is “the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham” — so this Egyptus is Ham’s daughter, bearing the description the record gives the discoverer, whom it never names. The roster keeps two entries, with the occurrence table on the token. The gloss at 1:23, “which in the Chaldean signifies Egypt”, is about the word.

Onitah

One verse, and it belongs to his daughters. The priest “had offered upon this altar three virgins at one time, who were the daughters of Onitah, one of the royal descent directly from the loins of Ham”, and the record gives the reason they died: “These virgins were offered up because of their virtue; they would not bow down to worship gods of wood or of stone” (Abraham 1:11). Onitah does nothing in the record; his descent is what places the daughters.

Peoples named in the book of Abraham

Chaldeans

The people among whom the book of Abraham opens: “In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers” (Abraham 1:1). Their manner supplies the comparison for the altar’s form, “such as was had among the Chaldeans” (Abraham 1:13), and their language glosses a name (Abraham 1:23).

Egyptians

Named first as a manner of sacrifice — an offering made “even after the manner of the Egyptians” (Abraham 1:9), and virgins killed “after the manner of the Egyptians” (Abraham 1:11). Their descent is stated plainly: “From this descent sprang all the Egyptians” (Abraham 1:22). They appear last in the Lord’s instruction about Sarai — “Let her say unto the Egyptians, she is thy sister” (Abraham 2:24).

Canaanites

Named through blood rather than territory: the king of Egypt “was a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites by birth” (Abraham 1:21), and “thus the blood of the Canaanites was preserved in the land” (Abraham 1:22). Abraham later comes “into the borders of the land of the Canaanites”, which he calls “the land of this idolatrous nation” (Abraham 2:18). Distinct from the people of Canaan in Enoch’s vision — the record spells them differently and never equates them.

Figures of Joseph Smith—Matthew

Daniel

Cited twice, both times as the authority for a sign: the abomination of desolation is “spoken of by Daniel the prophet, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem” (Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:12), and “again shall the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, be fulfilled” (Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:32).

Jews

Named inside the disciples’ question — they ask concerning “the destruction of the temple, and the Jews” (Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:4). That question shapes the whole chapter that answers it.

The Ten Tribes

Named once, in a list of things believed rather than narrated: “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes” (Articles of Faith 1:10).

The Smith family

The record names eleven souls in one verse and then follows only a few of them. What it gives the rest is their place in the household — which is the whole of what it gives.

Joseph Smith, Sen.

The narrator’s father, and the first of the household the record names: “My father, Joseph Smith, Sen., left the State of Vermont, and moved to Palmyra, Ontario (now Wayne) county, in the State of New York” (Joseph Smith—History 1:3). Four years on he moved the family into Manchester (1:3).

The record returns to him repeatedly and always briefly; two moments stand out. His worldly circumstances “were very limited”, so the family hired out by day’s work (1:55). And when his son came in from the field with an account of an angel, he did not argue: “I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed the whole matter to him. He replied to me that it was of God, and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger” (1:50).

Lucy Smith

The narrator’s mother, named with her maiden name in the same breath: “my mother, Lucy Smith (whose name, previous to her marriage, was Mack, daughter of Solomon Mack)” (Joseph Smith—History 1:4). She is one of the four of the family who joined the Presbyterian church (1:7), and it is to her that the narrator reports the first vision’s outcome — leaning on the fireplace, he tells her “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.” (1:20).

Solomon Mack

Named once, as his daughter’s father: Lucy’s name before marriage was Mack, “daughter of Solomon Mack” (Joseph Smith—History 1:4).

Alvin, Hyrum, Samuel Harrison, William, and Don Carlos

The five brothers, listed in one verse: “my brothers, Alvin (who died November 19th, 1823, in the 26th year of his age), Hyrum, myself, Samuel Harrison, William, Don Carlos” (Joseph Smith—History 1:4).

Three of them appear again. Hyrum and Samuel Harrison are among the four who joined the Presbyterian church (1:7). Alvin appears only as a loss — “the death of my eldest brother, Alvin” (1:56). William and Don Carlos are named in the list and nowhere else.

Sophronia, Catherine, and Lucy (the sister)

The three sisters, named in the same verse as the brothers: “my sisters, Sophronia, Catherine, and Lucy” (Joseph Smith—History 1:4). Sophronia appears once more, among the four of the family who joined the Presbyterian church (1:7). Catherine and the younger Lucy are named once and not again.

The mother and the youngest sister share the name Lucy; the roster keeps them as separate entries with the occurrence table on the token.

Neighbours, employers, and helpers

Josiah Stoal

The man whose hiring moves the narrative: “I hired with an old gentleman by the name of Josiah Stoal, who lived in Chenango county, State of New York. He had heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna county, State of Pennsylvania” (Joseph Smith—History 1:56). The digging is where the boarding arrangement — and so the marriage — begins.

Isaac Hale

Named as the household the narrator boarded with: “I was put to board with a Mr. Isaac Hale, of that place” (Joseph Smith—History 1:57). He is the father of Emma, and the record later credits his family, opposed to mobs, with the protection that let the translation continue (1:75).

The Isaac token is one the scan’s classifier would have dropped — its single occurrence follows the abbreviation “Mr.”, and the census spec counts a period as a sentence end. The roster claims it by hand.

Emma Hale

The narrator’s wife, named in the verse that records the meeting: “it was there I first saw my wife (his daughter), Emma Hale. On the 18th of January, 1827, we were married” (Joseph Smith—History 1:57). She is present in the record thereafter as “my wife” rather than by name — travelling to Pennsylvania (1:61), and in the household whose friendliness shields the work (1:75).

Tarbill

Named once, for his house: “we went and were married at the house of Squire Tarbill, in South Bainbridge, Chenango county, New York” (Joseph Smith—History 1:58). Squire is his office; the roster carries the name alone.

Martin Harris

The record introduces him by an act rather than a description: “in the midst of our afflictions we found a friend in a gentleman by the name of Martin Harris, who came to us and gave me fifty dollars to assist us on our journey”, and then places him — “Mr. Harris was a resident of Palmyra township, Wayne county, in the State of New York, and a farmer of respectability” (Joseph Smith—History 1:61).

He is the one who carries the characters east: he “got the characters which I had drawn off the plates, and started with them to the city of New York” (1:63), and the account of what happened there is given in his own words, which the record quotes at length (1:64–65).

Charles Anthon

The professor Martin Harris consulted: “I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments” (Joseph Smith—History 1:64).

The record has him certify the characters as “true characters”, then ask for the book itself, then — on being told part of it was sealed — return the answer the account turns on: “I cannot read a sealed book.” (1:65).

Mitchell

Named once, as a second opinion: “I left him and went to Dr. Mitchell, who sanctioned what Professor Anthon had said respecting both the characters and the translation” (Joseph Smith—History 1:65).

Like Isaac, this token follows an abbreviation — “Dr.” — and would have been classed machine and dropped; the roster claims it by hand.

Oliver Cowdery

Named on arrival: “Oliver Cowdery came to my house, until which time I had never seen him” (Joseph Smith—History 1:66). Two days later “I commenced to translate the Book of Mormon, and he began to write for me” (1:67).

He is present for the rest of Joseph Smith—History: he goes into the woods to pray about baptism (1:68), receives the priesthood alongside the narrator (1:69), is baptized first and baptizes in turn (1:71), prophesies on coming out of the water (1:73), and is named as the second Elder of the Church (1:72).

The messengers

Moroni

The messenger who names himself: he “was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do” (Joseph Smith—History 1:33).

He tells of a book “written upon gold plates” and of the Urim and Thummim deposited with it (1:34–35); he quotes Malachi, Isaiah, Acts, and Joel (1:36–41); he forbids showing the plates (1:42); he ascends by “a conduit open right up into heaven” (1:43). He returns each year for four years (1:53–54), delivers the plates with a charge (1:59), and afterward calls for them again (1:60).

John (the Baptist)

The messenger of the priesthood, who names himself and is identified: he “said that his name was John, the same that is called John the Baptist in the New Testament” (Joseph Smith—History 1:72). His words at the conferral: “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” (1:69). He states the limit of what he brings — this priesthood “had not the power of laying on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost” (1:70) — and directs the order of the baptisms.

John (of Peter, James and John), and Peter

Named together, as the authority the Baptist acted under: “he acted under the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which Priesthood, he said, would in due time be conferred on us” (Joseph Smith—History 1:72).

The same verse names John twice over, for two different men — the Baptist who speaks, and the John of the three under whose direction he came. The record separates them plainly and does not equate them; the roster keeps two entries with the occurrence table on the token.

James

Named as the writer of the passage that starts everything: “I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse” (Joseph Smith—History 1:11). The narrator returns to him twice — “I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God” (1:13), and afterward “I had found the testimony of James to be true” (1:26).

He is named a fourth time among “Peter, James and John” (1:72). The record neither equates that James with the epistle’s author nor distinguishes them, and the roster holds one entry rather than assert a division the text does not make.

Prophets and apostles cited

Malachi, Isaiah, and Joel

The three the messenger quotes from the Old Testament and the prophets. He “commenced quoting the prophecies of the Old Testament. He first quoted part of the third chapter of Malachi” (Joseph Smith—History 1:36), with variation from “the way it reads in our Bibles” (1:36). He “quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled” (1:40), and “also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to the last” (1:41).

Elijah

Named inside the quoted revelation rather than in the narration: “Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Joseph Smith—History 1:38).

Paul and Agrippa

Named together, in the narrator’s comparison of his own case to Paul’s. Defending his account of the vision, the narrator writes: “I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light” (Joseph Smith—History 1:24). Paul is the figure the narrator measures his own position by; Agrippa is the audience in that comparison.

Aaron, Levi, and Melchizedek

Three names carried by the priesthoods rather than by any act in this record.

Aaron is the eponym of the priesthood conferred: “I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels” (Joseph Smith—History 1:69), afterward called “this Aaronic Priesthood” (1:70). Levi appears in the same conferral, as the measure of when the promise closes: this shall never be taken from the earth again “until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness” (1:69). Melchizedek is named for the greater priesthood, whose keys Peter, James and John “held” and which “would in due time be conferred” (1:72).

The religious bodies of the revival

Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists

The three bodies the record names in the excitement, and it names them as parties in a contest rather than as doctrines. “It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in that region of country”; “Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist” (Joseph Smith—History 1:5).

The record then reports the contest with unusual evenness. “The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their errors”; and “the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others” (1:9). The narrator’s own leaning is stated — his mind “became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect” (1:8) — and then overruled: he is told to “join none of them” (1:19); his family, meanwhile, joined the Presbyterians (1:7).

Presbyterianism, the system, is a separate word in the record from the Presbyterians, the people; the roster carries the people and leaves the system out.

Peoples named in Joseph Smith—History

Gentiles

Named once, inside the messenger’s night of quotations: he “further stated that the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in” (Joseph Smith—History 1:41).

Spaniards

Named once, in the rumour that set the digging going: a silver mine “having been opened by the Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna county, State of Pennsylvania” (Joseph Smith—History 1:56).