The Redemption of the Dead

A vision that begins as a reader’s problem. Two verses of Peter say the Son preached to spirits in prison; the narrator says he could not see how there was time, and reports being shown that the Son did not go himself.

What this page maps. Modern revelation, reported as the text gives it. D&C 138 and D&C 137 are first-person vision narrations whose narrators are not named in the verse text; this page does not name them and does not import names from the excluded section headnotes. What D&C 138 does supply about its own narrator is one relation, stated inside a verse: “my father, Hyrum Smith” (D&C 138:53). D&C 138:1 states its own date inside the verse text, and that date is quoted here as verse text.

Standing disclosure — KJV-overlap material. This page reports verbal correspondence with the King James text as textual fact, including where the correspondence follows the KJV’s English translation. What that correspondence implies about the origin of the Doctrine and Covenants text — in any direction — is an external question outside this wiki’s scope.

Account

The passages the vision names, quotes, and cites

Uniquely in this cluster, the vision opens by citing its source text with book, chapter, and verse, and then prints it. The narrator states the occasion in the first person — “On the third of October, in the year nineteen hundred and eighteen, I sat in my room pondering over the scriptures” (D&C 138:1) — names the writer, “the writings of the apostle Peter” (D&C 138:5), names the chapters, “the third and fourth chapters of the first epistle of Peter” (D&C 138:6), and closes the quotation with a parenthetical reference: “(1 Peter 3:18–20.)” (D&C 138:9). Four verses of the section are quotation.

[Textual] — verbatim quotation. () - D&C 138:7: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” - 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit”

Word-for-word and mark-for-mark identical across the whole verse. The section prints the passage inside quotation marks and supplies the reference two verses later; this record was minted asserted_by: "source" at the 2026-08-10 editorial review.

[Textual] — verbatim quotation. () - D&C 138:8: “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison” - 1 Peter 3:19: “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison”

Identical. “spirits in prison” stands at exactly three frozen verses in the corpus: 1 Peter 3:19, D&C 138:8, and D&C 138:28 — the second of which is the narrator restating the difficulty in his own words. Minted asserted_by: "source" at the 2026-08-10 editorial review.

[Textual] — verbatim quotation. () - D&C 138:9: “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” - 1 Peter 3:20: “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”

Identical. Minted asserted_by: "source" at the 2026-08-10 editorial review.

[Textual] — verbatim quotation. () - D&C 138:10: “For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” - 1 Peter 4:6: “For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”

Identical, doubled “For for” included; cited in the section as “(1 Peter 4:6.)” (D&C 138:10). Minted asserted_by: "source" at the 2026-08-10 editorial review.

The clause that had already travelled

The nine-word clause the vision quotes from Peter is the same clause two earlier sections use without attribution.

[Textual] — verbatim quotation. () - D&C 76:73: “And also they who are the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh” - 1 Peter 4:6: “For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”

“judged according to men in the flesh” stands at exactly five frozen verses in the corpus: 1 Peter 4:6, D&C 76:73, D&C 88:99, D&C 138:10, and D&C 138:34. Of those five, only the two in D&C 138 sit in a section that names Peter; D&C 76:73 and D&C 88:99 carry the clause with no source named, so those records are asserted_by: wiki. The D&C 138:34 recurrence carries its own record (), minted asserted_by: "source" at the 2026-08-10 editorial review — the phrase inherits the citation from the quotation at D&C 138:10, the same continuous discussion.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 76:73: “And also they who are the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the gospel unto them” - 1 Peter 3:19: “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison”

Divergences: the epistle’s continuous phrase “spirits in prison” is broken across a longer construction in the vision (“the spirits of men kept in prison”), and the vision adds a verb the epistle does not have at this point — the Son “visited” them (D&C 76:73). The vision then states an outcome the epistle does not: “Who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it” (D&C 76:74).

The difficulty, and what the vision reports in answer

The narrator states the problem as a problem of time. The ministry among the living ran “about three years” (D&C 138:25), but “his ministry among those who were dead was limited to the brief time intervening between the crucifixion and his resurrection” (D&C 138:27) — and so, the narrator says, “I wondered at the words of Peter… and how it was possible for him to preach to those spirits and perform the necessary labor among them in so short a time” (D&C 138:28).

The reported answer turns on a distinction the epistle does not draw: “the Lord went not in person among the wicked and the disobedient who had rejected the truth, to teach them” (D&C 138:29); instead “from among the righteous, he organized his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority… and thus was the gospel preached to the dead” (D&C 138:30). The vision states the same limit twice more in the negative: “unto the wicked he did not go… his voice was not raised” (D&C 138:20); “Neither did the rebellious who rejected the testimonies and the warnings of the ancient prophets behold his presence, nor look upon his face” (D&C 138:21).

Named names in the assembly

The vision lists the assembled dead by name, and in several cases names a prophet together with the words that prophet spoke.

[Textual] — near-verbatim quotation. () - D&C 138:42: “And Isaiah, who declared by prophecy that the Redeemer was anointed to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound” - Isaiah 61:1: “he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound”

The vision names the prophet and then reproduces twenty-two consecutive words of the prophecy, with two divergences: the hyphenation of “broken-hearted” and “them that were bound” for “them that are bound” — the tense shifted to match the vision’s past-tense frame. Counted as printed, with neither divergence set aside, the longest unbroken run is fifteen words, “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that” (D&C 138:42, Isaiah 61:1). Minted asserted_by: "source" at the 2026-08-10 editorial review.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 138:17: “Their sleeping dust was to be restored unto its perfect frame, bone to his bone, and the sinews and the flesh upon them” - Ezekiel 37:7: “and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.”

The vision uses the phrase before it names the prophet; twenty-six verses later it names him and the vision he was shown — “Ezekiel, who was shown in vision the great valley of dry bones, which were to be clothed upon with flesh, to come forth again in the resurrection of the dead, living souls” (D&C 138:43). The second half of the run belongs to the following verse of the prophecy: “the sinews and the flesh came up upon them” (Ezekiel 37:8). Because the naming and the quotation are in different verses of D&C 138, this record is asserted_by: wiki — D&C 138:17, the verse that carries the words, names no source. The naming verse itself carries its own record () against Ezekiel 37:1, where the valley of bones is set — complementary records, not duplicates.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 138:44: “Daniel, who foresaw and foretold the establishment of the kingdom of God in the latter days, never again to be destroyed nor given to other people” - Daniel 2:44: “shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people”

The vision summarises rather than quotes: “given to other people” against “left to other people,” and “never again to be destroyed” against “shall never be destroyed.” Ruled at the 2026-08-10 editorial review: stays asserted_by: wiki — the shared wording is the vision’s summary, not a verbatim run.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 138:38: “Among the great and mighty ones who were assembled in this vast congregation of the righteous were Father Adam, the Ancient of Days and father of all” - Daniel 7:9: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow”

“Ancient of Days” stands at exactly six frozen verses in the corpus: Daniel 7:9, Daniel 7:13, Daniel 7:22, D&C 27:11, D&C 116:1, and D&C 138:38. (Counted case-insensitively; the prophecy prints “Ancient of days” and the two Doctrine and Covenants carriers on this page print “Ancient of Days,” a difference material enough to state because the count folds it.) In the prophecy the title belongs to an unnamed enthroned figure; in both Doctrine and Covenants carriers it is applied to Adam — “Michael, or Adam, the father of all, the prince of all, the ancient of days” (D&C 27:11). That identification is the Doctrine and Covenants’ own; whether the prophecy’s figure is the same figure is not something this page settles.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 138:55: “I observed that they were also among the noble and great ones who were chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God.” - Abraham 3:22: “the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones”

The four-word phrase stands at exactly these two frozen verses in the corpus. Both attach it to a pre-mortal choosing and to rule — “These I will make my rulers” (Abraham 3:23) against “chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God” (D&C 138:55) — but the sphere of rule named differs, and this page does not merge them.

The earlier vision of the same kingdom

D&C 137 reports the celestial kingdom seen, a specific perplexity, and an answer given as a voice.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 137:1: “The heavens were opened upon us, and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out I cannot tell.” - 2 Corinthians 12:2: “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.”

Both narrators disclaim knowledge of their own bodily state in the same construction. The letter states the disclaimer twice at length and in the third person about “a man in Christ”; the vision compresses it to one clause in the first person. The letter adds a clause the vision does not carry — “God knoweth” (2 Corinthians 12:2).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 137:9: “For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.” - Alma 41:3: “And it is requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good.”

Both couple works and heart’s desire as the two measures of judgment. Divergences: singular “desire” for plural “desires,” and the sermon’s conditional construction — “if their works were good… and the desires of their hearts were good” (Alma 41:3) — against the revelation’s flat declaration. The revelation applies the rule to a specific case the sermon does not raise — those who died without a knowledge of the gospel (D&C 137:7–8).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () Among the named dead: - D&C 138:46: “And Malachi, the prophet who testified of the coming of Elijah—of whom also Moroni spake to the Prophet Joseph Smith, declaring that he should come before the ushering in of the great and dreadful day of the Lord—were also there.” - Malachi 4:5: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:”

The verse names Malachi as the prophet who testified of the coming of Elijah — the content of the prophecy’s verse — but the near-verbatim wording, “before the ushering in of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (D&C 138:46), sits in the em-dash clause about Moroni speaking to Joseph Smith, not in the Malachi naming itself; the record is therefore asserted_by: wiki. The divergence inside the run: “the Lord” against the prophecy’s “the LORD”. The same sentence is frozen at 3 Nephi 25:5, reading “the Lord” as this verse does, and Joseph Smith—History 1:38 carries the Moroni-rendered variant.

Significance

The vision is unusual among the sections on this page for being explicitly a piece of reading. It states which book was open (D&C 138:6), prints the verses (D&C 138:7–10), states the difficulty those verses posed (D&C 138:28), and reports an answer that resolves the difficulty by a mechanism the epistle does not mention — delegation rather than personal visitation (D&C 138:29–30). That structure is worth naming precisely because it makes the vision checkable in a way most visionary material is not: a reader can compare the four quoted verses against the epistle character by character, as this page has, and find them exact. What the answer resolves and whether it resolves it are questions of interpretation the vision settles for itself; the wiki reports the sequence, the quotations, and the divergences, and leaves the rest to the reader.

Key references

D&C 138:1–10 — the occasion; the epistle named, quoted, and cited
D&C 138:11–24 — the assembled righteous; the Son’s appearing among them
D&C 138:25–37 — the difficulty of time; the messengers; who was not visited
D&C 138:38–49 — the named dead, several with their own words
D&C 137:1–10 — the earlier vision; judgment by works and desire; children
D&C 76:72–74, D&C 88:99 — the same clause of Peter’s, carried without attribution
1 Peter 3:18–20, 1 Peter 4:6 — the quoted passages

The Resurrection · Degrees of Glory · Little Children and Accountability · Temple in the Record · Atonement · Index · Connections

Sources

Doctrine and Covenants sections 76, 88, 137, and 138 (verse text only; headnotes excluded). Cross-references quoted from 1 Peter 3, 1 Peter 4, Isaiah 61, Ezekiel 37, Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Abraham 3, 2 Corinthians 12, and Alma 41.

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. Sixteen connection records are registered here, all [textual]. Six — the four quoted verses of the epistle, the prophecy attributed to Isaiah, and the vision’s later return to the epistle’s wording, which carries the earlier citation — were minted asserted_by: "source" at the 2026-08-10 editorial review; the content attributed to Daniel stays asserted_by: wiki, being the vision’s summary rather than a verbatim run. Distribution figures are counts of distinct frozen verses in the corpus, derived by search at the time of writing. Neither vision narrator is named in the verse text and neither is named here.