CES Letter Answers

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Priesthood Restoration ​

The CES Letter opens this section with a truncated Richard Bushman quote:

"The late appearance of these accounts raises the possibility of later fabrication."[1]

It stops mid-paragraph. Bushman's next sentences explain Joseph's silence as reflecting fear and pride, concluding the pattern looks "more like a refurbished memory than a triumphant announcement."[2] The truncation reverses his meaning.

If the priesthood restoration was invented years later, why were outsiders already reporting it in 1830?

The "nobody heard before 1832" claim is wrong ​

The CES Letter's central assertion:

"None of the members of the Church or Joseph Smith's family had ever heard prior to 1832 about a priesthood restoration from John the Baptist or Peter, James, and John."[3]

The Painesville Telegraph reported in November 1830 that Oliver Cowdery "pretends to have a divine mission, and to have seen and conversed with Angels." Its December issue added that Cowdery claimed "his commission directly from the God of Heaven" and "credentials, written and signed by the hand of Jesus Christ."[4]

The Palmyra Reflector reported in February 1831 that Joseph "received a commission from God" and Cowdery had "frequent interviews with angels."[5]

Hostile newspapers. No motive to fabricate pro-Mormon evidence. Eighteen months before the CES Letter's alleged earliest date.

Joseph's 1832 history lists two priesthood conferrals ​

In the summer of 1832, Joseph dictated his earliest personal history. He listed four foundational events: the First Vision, the ministering of angels, "the reception of the holy Priesthood by the ministring of Aangels to adminster the letter of the Gospel," and "a confirmation and reception of the high Priesthood after the holy order of the son of the living God."[6]

Two distinct priesthood conferrals. Both attributed to angelic ministry. Ranked among the four most important events of the Restoration.

The CES Letter dismisses this as "a glancing reference at best." Joseph called it one of four events worth recording in his first history.

The "backdating" charge ignores a paper trail that starts in 1829 ​

"It wasn't until the 1835 edition Doctrine & Covenants that Joseph and Oliver backdated and retrofitted Priesthood Restoration events to an 1829-30 time period -- none of which existed in any previous Church records."[7]

The boldest factual claim in the section. Also the most clearly wrong.

Oliver Cowdery's June 1829 letter to Hyrum Smith references apostolic calling using D&C 18 language. The April 1830 Articles and Covenants call Joseph "an apostle of Jesus Christ" -- a title requiring divine ordination. Joseph's 1832 history names two priesthood conferrals. Oliver published a detailed Aaronic Priesthood restoration account in October 1834.[8][9][10]

The 1835 D&C didn't invent the narrative. It added names and details that every earlier source already corroborated.

Oliver Cowdery never recanted ​

Oliver was excommunicated in 1838. He spent ten years outside the Church with personal grievances against Joseph. He practiced law independently. He had every incentive and every opportunity to expose a fraud.

In 1846, seeking readmission, he wrote to Phineas Young: "Had you stood in the presence of John, with our departed brother Joseph, to receive the Lesser Priesthood -- and in the presence of Peter, to receive the Greater... you would feel what you have never felt."[11]

At his 1848 return in Kanesville, he testified that the angelic messenger declared: "This priesthood shall remain on earth unto the end."[12]

A decade of estrangement. No recantation.

The D&C 27 expansion was a second revelation, not a fabrication ​

The CES Letter highlights differences between the 1833 Book of Commandments (Chapter 28) and the 1835 D&C 27, treating the expanded priesthood content as evidence of tampering.[13]

Both Joseph Smith and Newel Knight stated the expanded content was received in September 1830 -- five years before its 1835 publication. The Joseph Smith Papers editors confirm the two-stage composition.[14][15]

Oliver published the Aaronic Priesthood account in the Messenger and Advocate in October 1834 -- before the 1835 D&C was compiled.[10:1] You don't pre-announce a fabrication in a public newspaper.

Priesthood authority vs. priesthood office ​

The CES Letter notes that Lyman Wight ordained Joseph to the high priesthood in June 1831, arguing this makes an earlier Peter, James, and John ordination superfluous.[16]

The June 1831 conference involved ordinations to the office of high priest, not initial conferral of priesthood authority. The actual minutes record Joseph himself ordaining Wight before Wight ordained Joseph at the same conference -- a sequence that makes sense for office ordinations but would be absurd for initial priesthood conferral.[17]

Joseph's own framework: "All priesthood is Melchizedek; but there are different portions or degrees of it."[18] Apostleship in 1829, elder in 1830, high priest in 1831, temple keys in 1836. The same pattern of sequential authorization found in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon.[19]

The silence has a documented explanation ​

Joseph wrote almost nothing before 1832. His reluctance to produce written records is well documented.

He also said outright: "We were forced to keep secret the circumstances of our having been baptized, and having received this Priesthood, owing to a spirit of persecution."[20]

Given that hostile newspapers were already publicizing his angelic authority claims by late 1830, his caution was pattern recognition.

Bottom line: The CES Letter says no one heard about priesthood restoration before 1832. Hostile newspapers were reporting angelic ordination claims in 1830. Joseph's own 1832 history lists two distinct priesthood conferrals. Oliver Cowdery maintained the account through a decade of excommunication. The "late fabrication" theory requires ignoring the evidence that predates it.

  1. Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Priesthood Restoration," p. 80, quoting Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, p. 75. ↩︎

  2. Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 75-76. Bushman's full passage concludes the pattern looks "more like a refurbished memory than a triumphant announcement." ↩︎

  3. Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Priesthood Restoration," no. 1, p. 81. ↩︎

  4. "The Golden Bible," Painesville Telegraph, November 16, 1830; "The Golden Bible, No. 2," Painesville Telegraph, December 7, 1830. Reprinted in Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996-2003), 2:271, 274-275. ↩︎

  5. "Gold Bible, No. 6," Palmyra Reflector, February 14, 1831. Reprinted in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:256. ↩︎

  6. Joseph Smith, History, ca. Summer 1832, Joseph Smith Papers. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/1 ↩︎

  7. Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Priesthood Restoration," no. 5, p. 83. ↩︎

  8. Oliver Cowdery to Hyrum Smith, June 14, 1829. References apostolic calling using language from D&C 18. See Larry C. Porter, "The Priesthood Restored," in Studies in Scripture, Volume 1: The Doctrine and Covenants, ed. Robert L. Millet and Kent P. Jackson (Sandy, UT: Randall Book, 1984), 35-36. ↩︎

  9. "Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ" (April 1830), later D&C 20:2. Calls Joseph Smith "an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." ↩︎

  10. Oliver Cowdery, Letter to W.W. Phelps, Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 1, no. 1 (October 1834): 14-16. A detailed published account of the Aaronic Priesthood restoration by John the Baptist. ↩︎ ↩︎

  11. Oliver Cowdery to Phineas Young, March 23, 1846. Published in "Oliver Cowdery," Improvement Era 2, no. 10 (October 1899): 829-830. ↩︎

  12. Oliver Cowdery, testimony before the Kanesville high council, October 21, 1848. Recorded in Reuben Miller's journal. See Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Reuben Miller, Recorder of Oliver Cowdery's Reaffirmations," BYU Studies 8, no. 3 (1968): 277-293. ↩︎

  13. Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Priesthood Restoration," no. 3, pp. 81-83. ↩︎

  14. Newel Knight's journal records that the expanded portions of D&C 27 were revealed to Joseph in September 1830, weeks after the original August 1830 revelation. See Larry C. Porter, "The Restoration of the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods," Ensign (December 1996): 30-47. ↩︎

  15. "Revelation, circa August 1830 [D&C 27]," Joseph Smith Papers. The editors note the two-stage composition of the revelation. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-circa-august-1830-dc-27/1 ↩︎

  16. Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Priesthood Restoration," no. 6, pp. 83-84. ↩︎

  17. "Minutes, circa 3-4 June 1831," Joseph Smith Papers. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minutes-circa-3-4-june-1831/1 ↩︎

  18. Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976), 180. ↩︎

  19. John S. Thompson, "Restoring Melchizedek Priesthood," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 62 (2024): 263-318. https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/restoring-melchizedek-priesthood ↩︎

  20. Joseph Smith--History 1:74, note. See also Larry C. Porter, "The Restoration of the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods," Ensign, December 1996. ↩︎

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