The Gathering to Zion

Where the earlier corpus speaks of Zion mostly as a people or as Isaiah’s city-figure, these revelations do something the earlier texts never do: they give the term a survey. A land is named, a town inside it is named the center place, a temple lot is located by its bearing from a courthouse, agents are told to buy the tracts, and a second class of settlement — stakes — is defined for the overflow. This page maps that material. The term’s uses in the record are on Zion; the city’s doctrine is on The New Jerusalem.

What this page maps. Modern revelation, reported as the text gives it. The places and people named below are named inside verse text; section headnotes are not part of this wiki’s source text and no date, occasion, or setting is taken from them. Whether any place named here corresponds to a location identifiable on a modern map is an external, real-world question outside this wiki’s scope — what is reported is what the verses say.

Account

How large the vocabulary is

“Zion” stands at 394 distinct frozen verses in the corpus, counted word-bounded and case-insensitively with the possessive included. 186 of those verses are in the Doctrine and Covenants — the corpus’s densest Zion material by a wide margin — and 73 of the 186 stand in the twenty-one sections this page and its neighbours drain. The locative compounds are the giveaway that something has changed: “the land of Zion” stands at 54 distinct frozen verses in the corpus, all 54 in the Doctrine and Covenants; “the city of Zion” at two, both there; “stake of Zion” at four and “stakes of Zion” at three, all seven there. None of those compounds occurs anywhere else in the corpus. (Zion maps the record’s own usage, which is largely the people-and-figure sense; that page states plainly that the Doctrine and Covenants body is outside its scope, and this page is where that body lands.)

A land, a town, a lot

The naming is done in two verses, and both name the place in the verse text itself: “Hearken, O ye elders of my church, saith the Lord your God, who have assembled yourselves together, according to my commandments, in this land, which is the land of Missouri, which is the land which I have appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the saints.” (D&C 57:1); “Wherefore, this is the land of promise, and the place for the city of Zion.” (D&C 57:2).

The survey then narrows twice in one verse — to a town, and to a lot located by its bearing from a building: “Behold, the place which is now called Independence is the center place; and a spot for the temple is lying westward, upon a lot which is not far from the courthouse.” (D&C 57:3). “the center place” stands at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus. What follows is a purchase instruction with a boundary in it: “it is wisdom that the land should be purchased by the saints, and also every tract lying westward, even unto the line running directly between Jew and Gentile” (D&C 57:4); “And also every tract bordering by the prairies, inasmuch as my disciples are enabled to buy lands. Behold, this is wisdom, that they may obtain it for an everlasting inheritance.” (D&C 57:5). Both “the line running directly between Jew and Gentile” and “an everlasting inheritance” stand at exactly one distinct frozen verse each in the corpus.

The offices attached to the purchase are named with their holders: an agent “to receive moneys, to be an agent unto the church, to buy land in all the regions round about, inasmuch as can be done in righteousness, and as wisdom shall direct” (D&C 57:6, of Sidney Gilbert, named there); a bishop to “divide unto the saints their inheritance, even as I have commanded” (D&C 57:7, of Edward Partridge, named there); a merchant instruction, “establish a store, that he may sell goods without fraud, that he may obtain money to buy lands for the good of the saints” (D&C 57:8); and a printer, “let my servant William W. Phelps be planted in this place, and be established as a printer unto the church” (D&C 57:11).

The bishop’s office is then given a title borrowed from an older polity: “whoso standeth in this mission is appointed to be a judge in Israel, like as it was in ancient days, to divide the lands of the heritage of God unto his children” (D&C 58:17). “a judge in Israel” stands at three distinct frozen verses in the corpus, all three in the Doctrine and Covenants — this one and D&C 107:72 and 107:76, which are treated on Offices of the Church.

Before the survey: a land promised, not yet located

An earlier revelation had promised a land without naming one, in vocabulary older than the survey’s.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 38:18: “And I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord cometh;” - Exodus 3:8: “And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites…”

“a land flowing with milk and honey” stands at seven distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two, Exodus 3:17, Exodus 13:5, Exodus 33:3, Jeremiah 11:5, and Jeremiah 32:22 — every one of the other six an Exodus-or-prophets verse about the same ancient land, and none of them nearer to the revelation than Exodus 3:8, which is paired as the phrase’s first carrier in the corpus’s own order. Divergences reported: the older verses attach the phrase to a land the hearers are being brought to out of Egypt and list its current inhabitants; the revelation attaches it to a promise about a curse and a coming — “upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord cometh” (D&C 38:18) — which has no counterpart in any of the six.

The promise is then made hereditary and permanent in the next two verses — “I will give it unto you for the land of your inheritance, if you seek it with all your hearts” (D&C 38:19); “this shall be my covenant with you, ye shall have it for the land of your inheritance, and for the inheritance of your children forever, while the earth shall stand, and ye shall possess it again in eternity, no more to pass away” (D&C 38:20) — and the same section supplies the ground for the giving, in a figure with an older carrier.

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () - D&C 38:17: “And I have made the earth rich, and behold it is my footstool, wherefore, again I will stand upon it.” - Isaiah 66:1: “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?”

Registered as allusion, not shared phrasing: the shared run is two words, and the two verses put the figure to opposite uses. Divergences reported: the prophecy uses the footstool to dismiss a building project — “where is the house that ye build unto me?” (Isaiah 66:1) — where the revelation uses it to ground a land grant and a return, “wherefore, again I will stand upon it” (D&C 38:17), a clause with no counterpart in the prophecy. “my footstool” stands at five distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two, Abraham 2:7, Acts 7:49, and James 2:3, where the sense is a literal seat and unrelated.

The city that was taken away

The same section opens by naming an earlier Zion as something already gathered, and the naming is the corpus’s one link between this material and the oldest Zion in it.

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () - D&C 38:4: “I am the same which have taken the Zion of Enoch into mine own bosom; and verily, I say, even as many as have believed in my name…” - Moses 7:69: “And Enoch and all his people walked with God, and he dwelt in the midst of Zion; and it came to pass that Zion was not, for God received it up into his own bosom; and from thence went forth the saying, Zion is Fled.”

The revelation states in five words what the older text narrates in a verse, and the shared elements are the two proper terms and the receiving-into-the-bosom. Divergences reported: agency and voice — the revelation speaks in the first person, “I… have taken” (D&C 38:4), where the vision reports in the third, “God received it up” (Moses 7:69); and the vision supplies the saying that followed, “Zion is Fled” (Moses 7:69), which the revelation has no counterpart for. “the Zion of Enoch” stands at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus, and “Zion is fled” at exactly one. The older text also supplies the corpus’s one definition of the word by naming its cause — “And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18); “no poor among them” stands at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus, and “one heart and one mind” at exactly one. Registered as allusion rather than shared phrasing: no four-word run stands verbatim in both verses.

Wait, then buy, then move

The gathering is repeatedly slowed by its own instructions. Before the place was named: “It is necessary that ye should remain for the present time in your places of abode, as it shall be suitable to your circumstances.” (D&C 48:1); “It must needs be necessary that ye save all the money that ye can, and that ye obtain all that ye can in righteousness, that in time ye may be enabled to purchase land for an inheritance, even the city.” (D&C 48:4); “The place is not yet to be revealed; but after your brethren come from the east there are to be certain men appointed, and to them it shall be given to know the place, or to them it shall be revealed.” (D&C 48:5). Only then does movement begin, and it begins by household and by means: “then shall ye begin to be gathered with your families, every man according to his family, according to his circumstances, and as is appointed to him by the presidency and the bishop of the church” (D&C 48:6).

After the place was named the brake is applied again, in a sentence a later section quotes back: “let the work of the gathering be not in haste, nor by flight; but let it be done as it shall be counseled by the elders of the church at the conferences, according to the knowledge which they receive from time to time” (D&C 58:56); “as I have said unto you in a former commandment, let not your gathering be in haste, nor by flight; but let all things be prepared before you” (D&C 101:68). The purchase instruction is likewise repeated at scale: “purchase all the lands with money, which can be purchased for money, in the region round about the land which I have appointed to be the land of Zion, for the beginning of the gathering of my saints” (D&C 101:70); “All the land which can be purchased in Jackson county, and the counties round about, and leave the residue in mine hand.” (D&C 101:71); “let all the churches gather together all their moneys; let these things be done in their time, but not in haste” (D&C 101:72). One verse states the alternative to buying, and states it as a warning rather than a threat: “Behold, here is wisdom. Let them do this lest they receive none inheritance, save it be by the shedding of blood.” (D&C 58:53).

The gathering’s own reason is given as a purpose clause: “it is my will, that all they who call on my name, and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel, should gather together, and stand in holy places” (D&C 101:22) — “stand in holy places” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus, this one and D&C 45:32 — and, in the earliest of these sections, as an escape: “that ye might escape the power of the enemy, and be gathered unto me a righteous people, without spot and blameless—” (D&C 38:31).

One place only — and then a second class of place

Two verses fix the exclusivity and then immediately provide for its overflow, and the provision is where the word stake enters: “there is none other place appointed than that which I have appointed; neither shall there be any other place appointed than that which I have appointed, for the work of the gathering of my saints—” (D&C 101:20); “Until the day cometh when there is found no more room for them; and then I have other places which I will appoint unto them, and they shall be called stakes, for the curtains or the strength of Zion.” (D&C 101:21).

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () The two nouns the revelation uses to define its new class of settlement are the two nouns of a tent image in Isaiah: - D&C 101:21: “…and then I have other places which I will appoint unto them, and they shall be called stakes, for the curtains or the strength of Zion.” - Isaiah 54:2: “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;”

Registered as allusion, not shared phrasing: the two words are shared, the wording around them is not. Divergences reported: in the prophecy both words are parts of an actual tent being enlarged, and the verbs are imperatives to the addressee (“stretch forth”, “lengthen”, “strengthen”, Isaiah 54:2); in the revelation “stakes” has become the name of a settlement type and “curtains” a gloss on what such settlements are for (D&C 101:21). The prophecy’s verse stands in the record too, at 3 Nephi 22:2 — “let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes” (3 Nephi 22:2) — disclosed, not paired. “strengthen thy stakes” stands at three distinct frozen verses in the corpus: Isaiah 54:2, 3 Nephi 22:2, and Moroni 10:31.

The stake vocabulary then does ordinary administrative work in later sections: “I have consecrated the land of Kirtland in mine own due time for the benefit of the saints of the Most High, and for a stake to Zion” (D&C 82:13); “it is expedient in me that this stake that I have set for the strength of Zion should be made strong” (D&C 96:1); “ye shall commence a work of laying out and preparing a beginning and foundation of the city of the stake of Zion, here in the land of Kirtland, beginning at my house” (D&C 94:1). And once the class exists, the tithing law is extended to it in one clause: “And this shall be an ensample unto all the stakes of Zion. Even so. Amen.” (D&C 119:7).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () The verse that states the stake programme states it in three phrases a closing Book of Mormon exhortation had already put side by side: - D&C 82:14: “For Zion must increase in beauty, and in holiness; her borders must be enlarged; her stakes must be strengthened; yea, verily I say unto you, Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments.” - Moroni 10:31: “And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever…”

Three elements stand in both verses — beautiful garments, stakes strengthened, borders enlarged — and only in these two among the corpus’s carriers of any of them. Divergences reported: grammatical person and mood, the exhortation being a second-person imperative to a hearer (“put on thy beautiful garments”, Moroni 10:31) against the revelation’s third-person statement of necessity (“Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments”, D&C 82:14); the exhortation addresses Jerusalem and calls Zion a daughter, the revelation addresses Zion directly; and the exhortation’s stated purpose, that “the covenants of the Eternal Father… may be fulfilled” (Moroni 10:31), has no counterpart in the revelation, which supplies instead “increase in beauty, and in holiness” (D&C 82:14). “beautiful garments” stands at five distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two, Isaiah 52:1, 2 Nephi 8:24, and 3 Nephi 20:36, all three of which carry the Isaiah wording “put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city” and are disclosed, not paired.

What the gathered are promised, and what they are warned

The promises are stated in a register that keeps reaching for older prophecy. One verse does it twice in a row.

[Textual] — verbatim / near-verbatim quotation. () - D&C 58:8: “And also that a feast of fat things might be prepared for the poor; yea, a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees well refined, that the earth may know that the mouths of the prophets shall not fail;” - Isaiah 25:6: “And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.”

Divergences reported: number — “wine on the lees well refined” (D&C 58:8) against “wines on the lees well refined” (Isaiah 25:6); the guests — the prophecy’s feast is “unto all people” (Isaiah 25:6), the revelation’s is “prepared for the poor” (D&C 58:8); the prophecy’s “of fat things full of marrow” has no counterpart in the revelation, which instead supplies a purpose clause the prophecy lacks, “that the earth may know that the mouths of the prophets shall not fail” (D&C 58:8). “a feast of fat things” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus — these two — and “wine on the lees well refined” at exactly one.

The next verses turn the feast into a supper with an invitation order in it: “Yea, a supper of the house of the Lord, well prepared, unto which all nations shall be invited.” (D&C 58:9); “First, the rich and the learned, the wise and the noble;” (D&C 58:10).

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () - D&C 58:11: “And after that cometh the day of my power; then shall the poor, the lame, and the blind, and the deaf, come in unto the marriage of the Lamb, and partake of the supper of the Lord, prepared for the great day to come.” - Revelation 19:7: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”

“the marriage of the Lamb” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus — these two. Registered as allusion: the four-word title is shared and nothing else in the two verses is. Divergences reported: the apocalypse announces the marriage as come and names the bride; the revelation names the guests who arrive at it — “the poor, the lame, and the blind, and the deaf” (D&C 58:11) — a list with no counterpart in the apocalypse’s verse, and stated in an order that inverts the invitation order two verses earlier (D&C 58:10). “the poor, the lame, and the blind” stands at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus.

Zion’s future standing among the nations is stated in the vocabulary of a different prophecy again.

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () - D&C 64:42: “And she shall be an ensign unto the people, and there shall come unto her out of every nation under heaven.” - Isaiah 11:10: “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.”

Divergences reported: the preposition — “an ensign unto the people” (D&C 64:42) against “an ensign of the people” (Isaiah 11:10) — and, more substantially, what is the ensign: in the prophecy it is a root of Jesse, a person-figure; in the revelation it is Zion herself, the antecedent of “she” being the Zion of the preceding verse, “Zion shall flourish, and the glory of the Lord shall be upon her” (D&C 64:41). Registered as allusion on that ground. “an ensign unto the people” stands at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus; the prophecy’s form “an ensign of the people” stands at two, Isaiah 11:10 and 2 Nephi 21:10, which reproduces it. The same section’s closing verse keeps the awe and drops the comfort: “the day shall come when the nations of the earth shall tremble because of her, and shall fear because of her terrible ones” (D&C 64:43).

The warnings run alongside. One is stated as a deadline with a burning behind it.

[Textual] — verbatim / near-verbatim quotation. () Intra-corpus, and near word-for-word: - D&C 64:24: “For after today cometh the burning—this is speaking after the manner of the Lord—for verily I say, tomorrow all the proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble; and I will burn them up, for I am the Lord of Hosts; and I will not spare any that remain in Babylon.” - D&C 29:9: “For the hour is nigh and the day soon at hand when the earth is ripe; and all the proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble; and I will burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that wickedness shall not be upon the earth;”

Sixteen words run identically. Divergences reported: the attribution formula — “for I am the Lord of Hosts” (D&C 64:24) against “saith the Lord of Hosts” (D&C 29:9); and each verse’s own tail, the earlier supplying a purpose (“that wickedness shall not be upon the earth”, D&C 29:9) and the later an exception (“and I will not spare any that remain in Babylon”, D&C 64:24). “shall be as stubble” stands at six distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two, 1 Nephi 22:15, 2 Nephi 26:4, 2 Nephi 26:6, and Isaiah 47:14 — disclosed, not paired, since none of the four stands as near as the two paired here. The verse before supplies the escape clause and belongs to The Law of Tithing: “he that is tithed shall not be burned at his coming” (D&C 64:23).

And one instruction turns the work’s smallness into an argument for it.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 64:33: “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.” - 2 Thessalonians 3:13: “But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.”

Divergences reported: the epistle’s verse is the whole of the exhortation and stops; the revelation attaches a reason to it — “for ye are laying the foundation of a great work” (D&C 64:33) — with no counterpart in the epistle. “weary in well doing” stands at three distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two and Galatians 6:9, “let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9), whose negation is first-person plural rather than the imperative both paired verses carry — disclosed, not paired.

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () The same verse’s second half states a maxim the record states twice: - D&C 64:33: “And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.” - Alma 37:6: “…but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.”

Registered as allusion: the proposition is the same and no four-word run is. Divergences reported: the record’s maxim adds a second clause about confounding the wise (Alma 37:6), restated at Alma 37:7, which the revelation has no counterpart for; and the record applies it to a physical object it has just been describing, where the revelation applies it to a work being founded. “out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (D&C 64:33) stands at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus.

One more thing the gathering is for

Two verses in the earliest of these sections make the gathered people’s oneness the point rather than the means, and state it through a small parable of a father and twelve sons: “For what man among you having twelve sons, and is no respecter of them, and they serve him obediently, and he saith unto the one: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there—and looketh upon his sons and saith I am just?” (D&C 38:26); “Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.” (D&C 38:27). The same section states the ethic twice in consecutive verses — “let every man esteem his brother as himself, and practice virtue and holiness before me” (D&C 38:24); “And again I say unto you, let every man esteem his brother as himself.” (D&C 38:25) — and “esteem his brother as himself” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus, both of them these.

Significance

The reportable fact about this material is the change of register. The corpus’s earlier Zion vocabulary is figurative and prophetic; here the same word acquires a land, a town, a lot with a bearing, a purchase order, a class of secondary settlement with a name, and a brake on the whole operation applied three times in three sections. That is measurable rather than impressionistic: every locative compound of the word — “the land of Zion”, “the city of Zion”, “stake of Zion”, “stakes of Zion” — stands only in the Doctrine and Covenants, and nowhere else in the corpus. Counted as a union of distinct frozen verses they come to sixty-two, one verse short of the sum of the four figures because a single verse carries two of the compounds.

At the same time the promises attached to the survey keep reaching backward, and each reach is quoted above with its divergences: a feast from Isaiah, a marriage from the Apocalypse, an ensign from Isaiah again, stakes and curtains from a tent image, a city taken up in Enoch’s vision. What the wiki does not do is say whether any of the places named here can be found on a modern map. That is an external question, outside this wiki’s scope in both directions; what is reported is what the verses say.

Key references

D&C 38:4, 38:17–20, 38:24–27, 38:31–32 — the Zion of Enoch; the land promised; be one; the escape and the endowment
D&C 48:1–6 — stay put, save money, wait for the place, then gather by household
D&C 57:1–16 — the land, the center place, the temple lot, the agents and the printer
D&C 58:8–11, 58:17, 58:53–56 — the feast and the supper; a judge in Israel; buy, and not in haste
D&C 64:41–43, 64:33 — Zion as ensign; small things, great work
D&C 82:13–14, 94:1, 96:1 — a stake to Zion, and the laying out of one
D&C 101:20–22, 101:68–75 — one place only; stakes for the overflow; purchase, not haste

Zion · The New Jerusalem · The Redemption of Zion · Consecration and Stewardship · The Law of Tithing · Covenant of Israel · Enoch · Promised Land · Index · Connections

Sources

Doctrine and Covenants sections 38, 48, 57, 58, 64, 82, 94, 96, 101, and 119 (verse text only; headnotes excluded). Cross-references quoted from Exodus 3, Isaiah 25, Isaiah 54, Isaiah 66, Isaiah 11, Revelation 19, 2 Thessalonians 3, Alma 37, Moroni 10, Moses 7, 3 Nephi 22, Galatians 6, and D&C 29; Exodus 13, Exodus 33, Jeremiah 11, Jeremiah 32, Abraham 2, Acts 7, James 2, Isaiah 47, Isaiah 52, 1 Nephi 22, 2 Nephi 8, 2 Nephi 21, 2 Nephi 26, 3 Nephi 20, D&C 45, and D&C 107 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. Eleven connection records are registered on this page, all [textual] and all submitted asserted_by: wiki. Phrase distributions are counts of distinct frozen verses in the corpus, derived by script at the time of writing; the basis is stated at the head of this draft.