The Three Witnesses

A promise made before the fact, a condition attached to it, and a later revelation that lists exactly what the promised witnesses were to see. The Book of Mormon had already specified the number.

What this page maps. Modern revelation, reported as the text gives it. The verse text names two of the men involved — Martin Harris (D&C 5:1, 5:26) and, in the later section, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer (D&C 18:9, 18:37). Beyond that the revelations do not identify the three, and this page does not. Whether any witness later affirmed or retracted anything is external, real-world material outside this wiki’s scope.

Account

The promise, stated as a number

D&C 5 states the promise as a fixed count before any witness is identified: “in addition to your testimony, the testimony of three of my servants, whom I shall call and ordain, unto whom I will show these things, and they shall go forth with my words that are given through you” (D&C 5:11); “they shall know of a surety that these things are true, for from heaven will I declare it unto them” (D&C 5:12); “I will give them power that they may behold and view these things as they are” (D&C 5:13). The count is then repeated as a formula: “And the testimony of three witnesses will I send forth of my word” (D&C 5:15).

The promise is exclusive — “And to none else will I grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this generation” (D&C 5:14) — and it carries a consequence in both directions: “their testimony shall also go forth unto the condemnation of this generation if they harden their hearts against them” (D&C 5:18).

[Textual] — paraphrase. () The count and the establishing formula stand in Moroni’s charge on the Jaredite plates: - D&C 5:15: “And the testimony of three witnesses will I send forth of my word.” - Ether 5:4: “And in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established; and the testimony of three, and this work, in the which shall be shown forth the power of God and also his word, of which the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost bear record—and all this shall stand as a testimony against the world at the last day.”

The shared run is “the testimony of three” (Ether 5:4); both texts attach it to a number-of-witnesses rule and to a word that is to go forth. Divergences: the revelation makes the sending the speaker’s act (“will I send forth of my word” — D&C 5:15), Ether the establishing a matter of mouths (“in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established” — Ether 5:4). The preceding Ether verse states the same grant the revelation states — “And unto three shall they be shown by the power of God; wherefore they shall know of a surety that these things are true” (Ether 5:3) — beside the revelation’s “they shall know of a surety that these things are true” (D&C 5:12); that pairing is treated in the interpretive callout below rather than registered twice.

⚖️ Interpretation — weigh this. () The Book of Mormon’s prophecy of its own coming forth fixes the same number and the same means: “the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world, that the eyes of none shall behold it save it be that three witnesses shall behold it, by the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered; and they shall testify to the truth of the book and the things therein” (2 Nephi 27:12). The revelation promises precisely that: three besides the translator (D&C 5:11), power to “behold and view these things as they are” (D&C 5:13), and a testimony sent forth (D&C 5:15). Three, by divine power, besides the one who has the book, testifying to its truth — the correspondence is point for point. But the wording is not shared: the prophecy says “three witnesses shall behold it, by the power of God”; the revelation says “the testimony of three of my servants… I will give them power that they may behold and view these things as they are.” The revelation does not cite the prophecy, and the reading that the one enacts the other — rather than independently stating the same number — is offered for the reader to weigh.

The condition attached to one man

D&C 5 names Martin Harris and states his desire and its condition. “as my servant Martin Harris has desired a witness at my hand, that you, my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., have got the plates” (D&C 5:1). The condition is humility, stated positively and negatively in consecutive verses: “he exalts himself and does not humble himself sufficiently before me; but if he will bow down before me, and humble himself in mighty prayer and faith, in the sincerity of his heart, then will I grant unto him a view of the things which he desires to see” (D&C 5:24); “except he humble himself and acknowledge unto me the things that he has done which are wrong… he shall have no such views” (D&C 5:28).

The revelation also prescribes the exact wording he is to use afterward, and limits him to it: “I the Lord command him, my servant Martin Harris, that he shall say no more unto them concerning these things, except he shall say: I have seen them, and they have been shown unto me by the power of God; and these are the words which he shall say” (D&C 5:26). The wiki reports the prescription as a textual fact; what it implies about the witness’s later speech is not in the text and is not supplied here.

The church out of the wilderness

The exclusivity verse closes on a figure whose four terms stand in an Old Testament poem — with two of them swapped.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 5:14: “…in this the beginning of the rising up and the coming forth of my church out of the wilderness—clear as the moon, and fair as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” - Song of Solomon 6:10: “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?”

The three-clause figure is the same and the third clause is word-for-word, but the first two attributes are exchanged: the revelation reads “clear as the moon… fair as the sun” (D&C 5:14) where the poem reads “fair as the moon, clear as the sun.” Reported as a textual fact; the wiki does not settle what the exchange means. The figure stands at five corpus verses: these two, Song of Solomon 6:4 (the banners clause alone), D&C 109:73, which carries the poem’s order rather than this one — “shine forth fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” — and applies it, as here, to a church coming “forth out of the wilderness of darkness”, and D&C 105:31, which swaps the order a third way — “fair as the sun, and clear as the moon” — with the banners clause following (recounted at the 2026-08-10 editorial review).

What the witnesses were to see

D&C 17 lists the objects. “you shall have a view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim, which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount, when he talked with the Lord face to face, and the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness, on the borders of the Red Sea” (D&C 17:1). The condition is faith — “it is by your faith that you shall obtain a view of them, even by that faith which was had by the prophets of old” (D&C 17:2) — and the stated purpose is protective: “that my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., may not be destroyed” (D&C 17:4).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () The revelation’s inventory names two relics in one clause; the Book of Mormon names the same two in one clause when a king hands the records on: - D&C 17:1: “…you shall have a view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim… and the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness, on the borders of the Red Sea.” - Mosiah 1:16: “…the records which were engraven on the plates of brass; and also the plates of Nephi; and also, the sword of Laban, and the ball or director, which led our fathers through the wilderness, which was prepared by the hand of the Lord…”

Both clauses pair the sword of Laban with the directing instrument and set the instrument in a wilderness. Divergences reported: the revelation reads “the miraculous directors” (plural) where Mosiah reads “the ball or director” (Mosiah 1:16) (singular); the revelation attributes the directors to Lehi “on the borders of the Red Sea” (D&C 17:1), Mosiah to “our fathers” in the wilderness without locating them. “the sword of Laban” stands at five corpus verses: these two, 2 Nephi 5:14, Jacob 1:10, and Words of Mormon 1:13. The relics have their own pages — Sword of Laban and Liahona — and the Book of Mormon side is hosted there rather than duplicated here.

⚖️ Interpretation — weigh this. () The revelation identifies the translating instrument by an origin story: “the Urim and Thummim, which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount, when he talked with the Lord face to face” (D&C 17:1). The book of Ether narrates a giving of two stones to that figure on a mount: “And behold, these two stones will I give unto thee, and ye shall seal them up also with the things which ye shall write” (Ether 3:23), later sealed up “until the Lord should show them unto the children of men” (Ether 3:28), in an encounter the same chapter frames as face to face. The identification is the revelation’s own claim about a named Book of Mormon figure, and the elements line up — brother of Jared, a mount, two stones, a face-to-face encounter. What the wiki does not have is shared wording: Ether never uses the term “Urim and Thummim,” and the revelation never quotes Ether. The pairing is therefore offered to weigh. **It is also Ruled at the 2026-08-10 editorial review: stays asserted_by: wiki — the revelation names relics and a figure, not a text.

The worth of souls and the Twelve

D&C 18 turns from the plates to a commission, and states its motive in a sentence that stands alone in the corpus: “Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God” (D&C 18:10) — the run “worth of souls” occurring at exactly this one frozen verse. The ground given is the Atonement.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 18:11: “For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.” - 2 Nephi 9:21: “And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam.”

The revelation reads “the pain of all men” (singular) where Jacob’s discourse reads “the pains of all men” (plural); the tense differs (“suffered” / “suffereth”). Both attach the suffering to a universal purpose — the revelation “that all men might repent and come unto him,” Jacob “that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice.”

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () The name clause: - D&C 18:23: “Behold, Jesus Christ is the name which is given of the Father, and there is none other name given whereby man can be saved;” - Acts 4:12: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

Divergences: the epistle inserts “under heaven” and “among men,” and reads “we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) where the revelation reads “man can be saved.” The corpus carries the rule in a third wording at 2 Nephi 31:21 — “there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God” — registered separately below.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 18:23: “…there is none other name given whereby man can be saved;” - 2 Nephi 31:21: “…this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God.”

Divergences: Nephi’s closing inserts “way nor” before “name,” adds “under heaven,” and extends the clause with “in the kingdom of God”; the revelation has none of the three. The shared spine — “none other… name given… whereby man can be saved” — is otherwise word-for-word. Nephi states it as the close of the doctrine of Christ (2 Nephi 31:21); the revelation states it as the ground for taking the name upon oneself (D&C 18:24).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () The instruction on contention names a category the Book of Mormon defines: - D&C 18:20: “Contend against no church, save it be the church of the devil.” - 1 Nephi 14:10: ”…Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.”

The phrase “the church of the devil” stands at exactly these two verses in the frozen corpus. The revelation uses the term without defining it; the definition — a two-church division — is Nephi’s, and is treated on Two Churches. Whether the revelation intends Nephi’s two-church scheme is not stated in either text, and this page does not supply it.

Significance

The number three is fixed twice over before any man is named: by the Book of Mormon’s own prophecy of its coming forth (2 Nephi 27:12) and by Moroni’s charge on the Jaredite record (Ether 5:2–4), and then by the revelation that promises it (D&C 5:11–15). What D&C 17 adds is an inventory: the objects a witness was to see are named one by one, and four of the five — plates, sword of Laban, the interpreting stones, the directors — are objects the Book of Mormon itself tracks across its whole span. The reader can check the inventory against the record; the wiki registers the two clauses where the checking yields shared wording, and holds the rest as readings to weigh.

Key references

D&C 5:1–4 — Martin Harris’s desire; the gift to translate
D&C 5:11–18 — three servants promised; “the testimony of three witnesses”; the exclusivity clause
D&C 5:23–29 — the condition of humility; the prescribed words
D&C 17:1–9 — the inventory; faith as the condition; “he has translated the book”
D&C 18:9–23 — the worth of souls; the Atonement ground; the name
D&C 18:26–39 — the Twelve, and the desire that identifies them
2 Nephi 27:12–13 — three witnesses foretold
Ether 5:2–4 — “unto three shall they be shown by the power of God”

Joseph Smith · Oliver Cowdery · The Coming Forth of Scripture / the Sealed Book · Sword of Laban · Liahona · Two Churches · Index · Connections

Sources

Doctrine and Covenants sections 5, 17, 18 (verse text only; headnotes excluded). Cross-references quoted from Ether 3, Ether 5, 2 Nephi 9, 2 Nephi 27, 2 Nephi 31, 1 Nephi 14, Mosiah 1, Acts 4, Song of Solomon 6, and D&C 109.

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. Nine connection records are registered here — seven [textual] and two ⚖️ interpretive. One of the interpretive records (the interpreting stones and the brother of Jared) was ruled at the 2026-08-10 editorial review: it stays asserted_by: wiki — the revelation names relics and a figure, not a text. All records here carry asserted_by: wiki. Phrase distributions are counts of distinct frozen verses in the corpus, derived by search at the time of writing. The revelations name Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer in verse text; they do not state which three received the view, and neither does this page. Later affirmations, retractions, or biography of any witness are external, real-world questions outside this wiki’s scope.