The Three Witnesses
Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris — who saw the angel, handled the plates, and never denied it
The Promise and the Vision
Before the Book of Mormon was published, God promised that three specific witnesses would see the plates, hear the voice of God, and have the truthfulness of the record confirmed to them by an angel — and that their testimony would stand as a witness to the world (D&C 17). In June 1829, in a wooded area near the Whitmer farm in Fayette, New York, that promise was fulfilled.
Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris knelt in prayer with Joseph Smith. An angel appeared, holding the plates, turning the leaves one by one. The voice of God declared that the translation was correct and commanded them to bear testimony of what they had seen. Their written testimony — still printed in every copy of the Book of Mormon — is one of the most carefully worded testimonial documents in religious history:
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.”
Three Men Who Left — and Never Denied
What makes the Three Witnesses uniquely compelling as a historical testimony is not merely what they saw — but that all three of them later fell out with Joseph Smith and the Church, and not one of them ever recanted.
Martin Harris funded the first printing of the Book of Mormon by mortgaging his farm, lost those pages of the manuscript through his wife, and was eventually excommunicated. He joined several other religious groups over the decades. He was re-baptized into the Church in 1842, drifted again, and finally returned to Utah in old age where he bore public testimony of the angel and the plates until his death in 1875 at age 92.
Oliver Cowdery was the co-scribe of the translation, present for the restoration of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods by John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. He was excommunicated in 1838 during bitter disputes with Church leadership. He practiced law in Ohio for years — during which time critics assumed he would deny everything — and he did not. He returned to the Church in 1848 and died in 1850, reaffirming his witness to his dying day.
David Whitmer was never re-baptized. He left the Church in 1838 and remained outside it for the remaining fifty years of his life. He wrote an open letter in 1887 explicitly criticizing many Latter-day Saint doctrines and practices. Yet when asked whether he had seen the angel and the plates, his answer never wavered. Near the end of his life he said: “I have never at any time denied that testimony or any part thereof… I dare not deny it; for I know it is true.”
Why Their Testimony Matters
The standard charge against religious witnesses is that they stick to their story because they have something to gain by it — community, status, social belonging. The Three Witnesses refute this entirely. Each of them lost significant social belonging by their testimony. Each of them had strong personal reasons — anger at Joseph Smith, doctrinal disputes, estrangement from the community — to have privately admitted the whole thing was false. None of them did.
David Whitmer, in particular, is a case study in testimonial integrity. He had every incentive to disavow. He had spent fifty years outside the Church, criticizing it. He could have gained enormous sympathy from critics of the restoration by simply saying: “We made it up.” He never said it. Because what he had seen, he had seen — and he knew he would answer for it before God.
Key Scriptures
- D&C 17 — The commandment to the Three Witnesses; what they would see and testify
- D&C 5:11–15 — The promise of witnesses given months before it was fulfilled
- 2 Nephi 27:12 — Isaiah’s prophecy: “three witnesses shall behold it, by the mouth of three”