Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sources

Revelation, 25 December 1832 [Doctrine and Covenants 87], The Joseph Smith Papers

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The Joseph Smith Papers Project's own annotated documentary edition of the December 25, 1832 revelation later canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 87, published in Documents, Volume 2: July 1831-January 1833 (The Church Historian's Press, 2013). It reproduces and annotates Frederick G. Williams's contemporary manuscript copy, the earliest surviving text, and its historical introduction sets the dictation against South Carolina's Nullification Convention of November 1832 and the Painesville Telegraph's coverage of it four days before the revelation was given. A professionally edited critical edition, comparable in method to other national documentary editing projects, produced by the Church History Department; read here for its manuscript provenance and its own historical framing, not for a defense or rejection of the revelation's fulfillment, which it does not argue either way.

Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier
1
The Joseph Smith Papers Project's own annotated documentary edition of the December 25, 1832 revelation later canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 87, published by The Church Historian's Press in 2013, the top tier reflecting a professionally edited critical edition reproducing and annotating the earliest surviving manuscript copy. Read here for its manuscript provenance and its own historical framing, not for a defense or rejection of the revelation's fulfillment, which it does not argue either way.
Notes
Produced by the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so it shares an institutional origin with the tradition it documents; it is treated here as a scholarly, tier one critical edition rather than as the tradition's own account, because its editorial method is documentary and annotative (manuscript transcription, provenance, dated historical context) rather than doctrinal or apologetic, and its historical notes state plainly, without softening, that the revelation's central prediction tracked days-old local news of an unfolding crisis.
Citation
Author
Matthew C. Godfrey, Mark Ashurst-McGee, Grant Underwood, Robert J. Woodford and William G. Hartley, eds.
Publisher
The Church Historian's Press
Publication Year
2013
URL
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-25-december-1832-dc-87/1
Source Type
Critical edition
Claims Backed By This Source (12 claims)

This source backs 12 claims across the atlas. As facts: 10 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate. Plus 1 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

  • Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.
  • Prophecies, 4 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 1 general references.
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