Oliver Cowdery
The Second Elder of the Church — scribe of the Book of Mormon, co-recipient of the restored priesthood, and a witness who never denied his testimony
The Scribe
In April 1829, Oliver Cowdery arrived at Joseph Smith's home in Harmony, Pennsylvania, having heard of the young prophet through Joseph's father. Within two days of meeting Joseph, he had taken up the pen and begun recording the translation of the Book of Mormon. He would write nearly every word of the finished text.
The work went fast. Joseph would dictate and Oliver would write, hour after hour, day after day, for weeks across the spring and early summer of 1829. Near the end of his life Oliver would recall: “I wrote, with my own pen, the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as he translated it by the gift and power of God, by means of the Urim and Thummim, or, as it is called by that book, ‘Holy Interpreters.’ I beheld with my eyes and handled with my hands the gold plates from which it was translated.”
He never retracted a word of that. Through years away from the Church, through bitter personal disputes, through legal proceedings and public controversy, Oliver Cowdery never denied that he had written the Book of Mormon as Joseph Smith dictated it, and never denied that the plates were real.
The Restoration of the Priesthood
While translating the Book of Mormon, Joseph and Oliver encountered the text about baptism for the remission of sins. They had questions. On May 15, 1829, they went into the woods by the Susquehanna River to pray. A heavenly messenger appeared — later identified as John the Baptist — and laid his hands on their heads, conferring the Aaronic Priesthood with authority to baptize. He told them that the Melchizedek Priesthood would follow in due course, to be conferred by Peter, James, and John.
Joseph and Oliver baptized each other in the river that day. Shortly afterward, the Melchizedek Priesthood was restored as promised. Oliver was not a passive recipient of these events. He was the second party, the co-witness, the man who knelt in the grove alongside Joseph and received the same laying on of hands. The restoration of the priesthood had two witnesses from the beginning.
When the Church was officially organized on April 6, 1830, Oliver Cowdery was ordained the Second Elder — second only to Joseph Smith himself in the new organization.
The Kirtland Visions
On April 3, 1836, one week after the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, Oliver Cowdery was present with Joseph Smith in the temple when the heavens opened. They saw Jesus Christ standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit. Moses appeared and committed the keys of the gathering of Israel. Elias appeared with the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham. Then Elijah came and restored the sealing keys, fulfilling Malachi's ancient prophecy (D&C 110:13–16).
Oliver was co-witness to all of it. Again, the Lord provided two witnesses: the great events of the Restoration happened in the presence of two men, not one.
The Departure and the Return
In 1838, amid conflicts in Kirtland and Far West, Oliver Cowdery was brought before a Church council on charges including dishonesty in business dealings. He rejected the council's authority and withdrew from the Church. He spent the next decade practicing law in Ohio and Michigan, a respected attorney who had left the faith he had helped to found. Several of the other early witnesses also left during this period; the movement that had seemed so certain in 1830 was tested severely.
But Oliver never stopped believing the core of what he had witnessed. Even during his years outside the Church, when asked about the Book of Mormon, he affirmed it. He had seen the angel. He had heard the voice of God. Those facts were not in dispute for him — only the institutional and personal conflicts that had driven him away.
In 1848, Oliver Cowdery was rebaptized into the Church and rejoined the Saints who were gathering in Iowa, en route to Utah. He intended to make the journey to the Salt Lake Valley. He died in March 1850 before he could go, at the home of David Whitmer's family in Missouri. Those who were present at his deathbed testified that he bore his final witness to the Book of Mormon and the Restoration clearly and without qualification, even at the end of his life.
Testimony of Three Witnesses
“We declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true.”
Key Scriptures & Sources