“John Whitmer Is to Accompany Oliver Cowdery to Missouri”
Doctrine and Covenants 69:1–2
1 Hearken unto me, saith the Lord your God, for my servant Oliver Cowdery’s sake. It is not wisdom in me that he should be entrusted with the commandments and the moneys which he shall carry unto the land of Zion, except one go with him who will be true and faithful.
2 Wherefore, I, the Lord, will that my servant, John Whitmer, should go with my servant Oliver Cowdery . . .
Elder Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjödahl wrote:
“At the conference held at Hiram, [Ohio,] November 1st and 2nd, 1831, it had been decided that Oliver Cowdery should take the Commandments and Revelations, in manuscript, to Independence, M[issouri], and publish them there; also that the Prophet should dedicate the work to God. After the dedicatory prayer, he received this revelation [D&C 69, on November 11, 1831], in which he was instructed to send John Whitmer with Oliver Cowdery, and charge him (Whitmer) to continue his labors as Church historian.
“. . . Notwithstanding the fact that Oliver Cowdery finally yielded to the temptation to greed, leaving his high and holy calling for that of law-practice, there is no reason to believe that the Prophet at this time had any reason not to trust him with the funds necessary for the publication of the revelations. But, as Elder B. H. Roberts points out [in History of the Church, 1:234], the journey from Kirtland to Independence, through a sparsely settled frontier country, was full of dangers for a lonely traveler carrying money or valuables; for that reason the Lord instructed the Prophet to send John Whitmer with him.”
(The Doctrine and Covenants Commentary, rev. ed. [1951], 417–18.)
