The Feast of Dedication
It is winter, and they surround him in Solomon’s porch: how long will you keep us in suspense? He answers that his sheep already know his voice, says “I and my Father are one,” and when the stones come up he defends himself out of their own psalm: I said, you are gods.
Note. The Joseph Smith Translation leaves this passage entirely alone: Kent P. Jackson’s parallel-column edition of the JST prints no change in any of its twenty-one verses. Joseph Smith did preach it, though: the argument from Psalm 82 became the text of the last doctrinal sermon he gave.
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
22And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. 23And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. 24Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long do you make us to doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. 25Jesus answered them, I told you and you believed not. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. 26But you believe not because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30I and my Father are one.
31Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me? 33The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone you not, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God. 34Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law: I said, you are gods? 35If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, 36do you say of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, You blaspheme, because I said I am the Son of God? 37If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; 38but if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him. 39Therefore, they sought again to take him. But he escaped out of their hand 40and went away again, beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, and there he abided. 41And many went unto him and said, John did no miracle, but all things that John spoke of this man were true. 42And many believed on him there.
Did You Never Think of This Before?
The Father and the Son Possess the Same Mind
The Lectures on Faith were given to the elders’ school in Kirtland in the winter of 1834–35 and printed in 1835 as the first part of the Doctrine and Covenants. The fifth lecture says what “one” means in verse 30: the Father and the Son possess the same mind, and that mind is the Holy Spirit. Its catechism then quotes the verse as the proof. That is the claim the Jews contest in verses 31 to 33. In the Sermon in the Grove nine years later Joseph read “one” as “agreed,” and George Laub has him say “of one mind,” with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost separate persons.
Lectures on Faith, Lecture Fifth, ¶2 and questions 13–14, in Doctrine and Covenants (Kirtland, 1835), pp. 53–54, 57 · canonized in the CCE as Teachings and Commandments 110 · Joseph Smith Papers ↗Also recorded in Teachings and Commandments 110, Lecture 5:2; questions 13 and 14 of the same lecture (Lecture 5:19–20); page 57 of the 1835 printing, where the questions stand.
… And he being the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and having overcome, received a fulness of the glory of the Father—possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit, that bears record of the Father and the Son, and these three are one, or in other words, these three constitute the great, matchless, governing and supreme power over all things: by whom all things were created and made, that were created and made: and these three constitute the Godhead, and are one: The Father and the Son possessing the same mind, the same wisdom, glory, power and fulness: Filling all in all—the Son being filled with the fulness of the Mind, glory and power, or, in other words, the Spirit, glory and power of the Father—possessing all knowledge and glory, and the same kingdom: sitting at the right hand of power, in the express image and likeness of the Father—a Mediator for man—being filled with the fulness of the Mind of the Father, or, in other words, the Spirit of the Father: which Spirit is shed forth upon all who believe on his name and keep his commandments: and all those who keep his commandments shall grow up from grace to grace, and become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; possessing the same mind, being transformed into the same image or likeness, even the express image of him who fills all in all: being filled with the fulness of his glory, and become one in him, even as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.
… Q. Do the Father and the Son possess the same mind? A. They do. John 5:30. I [Christ] can of my own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. John 6:38. For I [Christ] came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. John 10:30. I [Christ] and my Father are one. Q. What is this mind? A. The Holy Spirit. …
The Scripture Says Ye Are Gods and It Cannot Be Broken
Ten months before the Sermon in the Grove, preaching on Hebrews 7 and the orders of priesthood, Joseph Smith quoted verses 34 and 35 as the answer to why God made man: to exalt him to be as God. Only James Burgess took down these words; Willard Richards’s notes of the same sermon have the parallel thought of becoming a joint heir with the Son, and switch to Scribal accounts to compare them.
Discourse, 27 August 1843 (Sunday morning), the grove near the Temple, Nauvoo · James Burgess, Notebook · Joseph Smith Papers ↗What was the design of the almighty in making man, it was to exalt him to be as God, the scripture says ye are Gods and it cannot be broken, heirs of God and joint heirs I with Jesus Christ equal with him possesing all power &c.
The Sermon in the Grove
On the last Sunday morning he ever preached doctrine, answering the charge that he taught a plurality of Gods, Joseph came to this passage and pointed out what its critics had never noticed: when Jesus was accused of blasphemy for calling himself the Son of God, his defense was a quotation from their own psalm. William P. McIntire’s minutes record that Joseph cited that psalm, the eighty-second, by name in the same sermon, and George Laub’s journal is the only report that has him quote verse 30, “I and my father are one,” and explain it. The reading is the History’s, which quotes verses 34 to 36 in full; where Thomas Bullock’s notes have Joseph ask why it should be thought “incredible,” the History reads “blasphemy.” Switch to Scribal accounts to read the three reporters.
Discourse, 16 June 1844 (Sunday morning), Grove east of the Temple, Nauvoo, Illinois · History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1, p. 104 (History of the Church 6:476–477; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 369–376) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗Also recorded in Thomas Bullock’s report.
They found fault with Jesus Christ because he said he was the Son of God, and made himself equal with God. They say of me like they did of the Apostles of old, that I must be put down. What did Jesus say? ‘Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Gods? If he called them Gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?’ It was through him that they drank of the spiritual rock; of course he would take the honor to himself. Jesus, if they were called Gods unto whom the word of God came, why should it be thought blasphemy that I should say I am the son of God? Oh poor blind apostates, did you never think of this before? …
… Go and read the vision in the Book of Covenants; there is clearly illustrated glory upon glory, one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and a glory of the stars; and as one star differeth from another star in glory, even so do they of the telestial world differ in glory; and every man who reigns in Celestial glory is a God to his dominions. … They who obtain a glorious resurrection from the dead are exalted far above principalities, powers, thrones, dominions, and angels; and are expressly declared to be heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, all having eternal power.