The Kirtland Temple Anointing of January 1836: The Spirit Poured Out on Twenty-Four Elders — Tongues, Prophecy, and Vision

On January 25, 1836, twenty-four elders of the Church gathered in the Kirtland Temple for a sacred anointing preparatory to the promised endowment of power. The Kirtland Elders' Quorum Record — an official Church minutebook not previously published or widely studied — records the full list of those present and anointed:

Jonathan Stevens, Wm. Draper, Hezekiah Fisk, Edmund Bosley, James Webb, Isaac Mcwithey, Samuel Canfield, John Gould, Alpheus Cutler, Elijah Cheney, Stephen Starks, Joel Mcwithey, Samuel Phelps, Ezra Thornton, Selah J. Griffin, Shadrach Roundy, Zerah Pulsifer, King Follett, Joseph Rose, Robert Culberson, Gideon Ormsby, John Young jun., Sam. Newcomb, and Blake Baldwin.

The record, as quoted in the edited edition by Lyndon W. Cook and Milton V. Backman, states that 'President Beman anointed twenty-four Elders' and that following the anointings, 'the Lord poured out his spirit, and some spake with tongues and prophesied.'

Those anointed included men whose names are deeply woven into the founding generation of the Church: Zerah Pulsipher, who had baptized Wilford Woodruff; Elijah Cheney, his companion on that mission; Shadrach Roundy, who would become Joseph Smith's bodyguard; King Follett, whose death would prompt Joseph's greatest theological discourse; Alpheus Cutler, Nauvoo temple builder; and John Young Jr., brother of Brigham Young.

This was one of the preparatory anointings for the great spiritual outpouring of the Kirtland Temple dedication, part of a season the early Saints described as a latter-day Pentecost — when angels appeared, visions were seen, and the Spirit moved among the gathered people in extraordinary ways.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Journal, 1835–1836, Page 56, The Joseph Smith Papers):

To this end, washing, anointing, and blessing the presidents of quorums began 21 and 22 January 1836. In the coming weeks, these rituals were administered in hierarchal order to each church officer in the House of the Lord. The ordinances were accompanied by exclamations of “hosanna” in unison. They remained in the House of the Lord through the night, prophesying, speaking in tongues, and seeing visions. Many felt that the promise of an endowment of spiritual power had been fulfilled, and elders began leaving Kirtland the following day to perform missions.