Orson Hyde Sees a Bright Sword and an Arm Grasping It in the Heavens off the Coast of Jaffa (1841)
Published October 4, 2026 at 3:45 AM
Contributed by
Times and Seasons Research
On 18 October 1841, while traveling by ship from Beyroote (Beirut) to Jaffa, Orson Hyde experienced a profound celestial vision. At one o'clock in the morning, while meditating on the deck against a 'sultry' wind, he observed a bright, glittering sword approximately six feet in length appear in the heavens. The sword possessed a beautiful, distinct hilt, and Hyde was further amazed to witness an arm with a perfect hand stretch out from the sky to grasp the hilt of the sword. The sight was so startling that it caused his hair to rise and his flesh to feel as though it were crawling on his bones. The appearance of this celestial sign caused a significant outcry among the Arab passengers on the vessel, who repeatedly shouted, 'Oh, Allah! Allah!' in astonishment at the vision. Hyde later recorded this experience in a letter dated October 1841, which was subsequently published in his 1842 account, 'A Voice from Jerusalem'.
In Their Own Words
“On my passage from Beyrut to this place (Jaffa) night before last, at one o'clock, as I was meditating on the deck of the vessel, as she was beating down against a sultry wind, a very bright glittering sword appeared in the heavens, about six feet in length, with a beautiful hilt, as plain and complete as any cut you ever saw; and what is still more remarkable, an arm with a perfect hand stretched itself out, and took hold of the hilt of the sword. The appearance really made my hair rise, and the flesh, as it were, crawl on my bones. The Arabs made a wonderful outcry at the sight. Allah! Allah! Allah! [O Lord, O Lord, O Lord] was their exclamation all over the vessel.”
— Orson Hyde, letter dated October 20, 1841, in History of the Church, Vol. 4, Ch. 26
Sources & References
Times and Seasons (Commerce, later Nauvoo, Illinois, November 1839–February 1846), 1 April 1842 (Vol. 3, No. 11). https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-04-01_3_11 (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Additional sources (periodical research): Orson Hyde, A Voice from Jerusalem, or a Sketch of the Travels and Ministry of Elder Orson Hyde (Liverpool: P. P. Pratt, 1842), 31. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46208/46208-h/46208-h.htm Full first-person account: History of the Church, Vol. 4, Ch. 26, p. 439 https://byustudies.byu.edu/online-book/history-of-the-church-volume-4/volume-4-chapter-26
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