The Baptism of Joseph Smith Sr.

Today, January 22, 2014 we interviewed Bill Hartley at BYU. He is the expert on the Joseph Knight family who were among Joseph Smith’s closest friends. They kept journals or wrote later histories that provide invaluable insight into events from the earliest moments of the Restoration. Here is an insight that comes from Joseph Knight Sr. about the baptism of Joseph Smith Sr. and Joseph Jr.’s reaction. Obviously Joseph saw and understood something that no one else did.

“Old Mr Smith and Martin Harris came forward to be baptized for the first. They found a place in a lot where a small stream ran through, and they were baptized in the evening because of persecution. Joseph was filled with the Spirit to a great degree to see his Father and Mr. Harris [baptized]. He burst out with grief and joy and seemed as though the world could not hold him. He went out into the lot and appeared to want to get out of sight of everybody, and would sob and cry. [He] seemed to be so full that he could not live. Oliver and I went after him and came to him, and after a while he came in, but he was the most wrought upon that ever saw any man. His joy seemed to be full.”

The art is by Robert Barrett