Of Joseph Smith’s many revelations, his vision of the three degrees of glory recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 76 was surely among the most significant and spectacular.
It restored the ancient concept of a multitiered heaven. In the Greek New Testament, the plural term “heavens” occurs far more commonly than the singular “heaven” — as it does, for that matter, in the seventh-century Arabic Quran. In biblical Hebrew, a singular form of the word scarcely exists. And many non-biblical texts from the ancient Near East and early Christianity also speak of multiple heavens.
Section 76 further illustrates the fact that other witnesses often corroborated Joseph’s revelations. Sidney Rigdon, for example, saw the entire vision with Joseph. But additional people were also present in that small room at the John Johnson farm in Hiram, Ohio. One of them was Philo Dibble (1806-1895), who, as an elderly man 60 years later, shared his memories of the event:
“During the time that Joseph and Sidney were in the spirit and saw the heavens open, there were other men in the room, perhaps twelve, among whom I was one during a part of the time — probably two-thirds of the time — I saw the glory and felt the power, but did not see the vision.”
“Joseph would, at intervals, say: ‘What do I see?’ as one might say while looking out the window and beholding what all in the room could not see. Then he would relate what he had seen or what he was looking at. Then Sidney replied, ‘I see the same.’ Presently Sidney would say ‘What do I see?’ and would repeat what he had seen or was seeing, and Joseph would reply, ‘I see the same.’
“This manner of conversation was reported at short intervals to the end of the vision, and during the whole time not a word was spoken by any other person. Not a sound nor motion made by anyone but Joseph and Sidney, and it seemed to me that they never moved a joint or limb during the time I was there, which I think was over an hour, and to the end of the vision.”
Dibble’s account of that memorable occasion ends on a gently humorous note:
“Joseph sat firmly and calmly all the time in the midst of a magnificent glory,” he recalled, “but Sidney sat limp and pale, apparently as limber as a rag, observing which, Joseph remarked, smilingly, ‘Sidney is not used to it as I am’ ” (see "Joseph and 'The Vision,' 1832," by Robert J. Woodford, BYU Religious Studies Center or "Doctrine and Covenants Institute Student Manual," Section 76, The Vision of the Degrees of Glory).
The idea of human deification is often assumed to have developed only during the Nauvoo period. The classic statement of that doctrine is the April 1844 King Follett discourse, which the Prophet Joseph delivered less than three months before his murder by an anti-Mormon mob. Section 76, however — received in February 1832, well before the LDS Church’s second birthday — already includes the concept:
Recording their vision afterward, Joseph and Sidney said that they were told, regarding the righteous Saints who inherit the celestial kingdom, that “they are gods, even the sons of God — Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. And they shall overcome all things” (see Doctrine and Covenants 76:58-60).
Of course, that doctrine of exaltation had already been latently present in the Book of Mormon, which was published in March 1830, the month before the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Speaking to three of his Nephite disciples (in 3 Nephi 28:10), the resurrected Savior had promised that “ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one.”
The implication is clear, and it falls along the lines of the “transitive property of equality” that’s so fundamental in mathematics (if “a” equals “b” and “b” equals “c,” then “a” equals “c”): If a human is like the son, and the son is like the Father, then that human is like the Father.
Finally, Section 76 plainly demonstrates that God doesn’t condemn honest questions: Just as the Restoration itself began with an earnest inquiry from Joseph, this revelation, too, as the prefatory note to it in the Doctrine and Covenants suggests, apparently came in response to Joseph’s questioning.
Daniel Peterson teaches Arabic studies, founded BYU's Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, directs MormonScholarsTestify.org, chairs mormoninterpreter.com, blogs daily at patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson, and speaks only for himself.