The New Testament was one of Joseph Smith's most important sources. He used thirty-two pages from St. Matthew with a sprinkle here and there from the other Gospels and, of course, from St. Paul. Whatever he used, though, he enlarged and expanded "to make it more plain." In short, St. Matthew was the clay and Joseph the potter.

The narrative of St. John gives this account, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, . . . they also shall hear my voice." Nephi, in the Book of Mormon expands this into a chapter to show that the Nephites are the "other sheep" referred to.

St. Matthew relates of the crucifixion of Christ when the veil of the temple is rent "and the earth did quake and the rocks rent." Of this, Nephi makes a whole chapter, describing in awful detail the cataclysmal destructions in the Western continent . . . "Many large cities were swallowed up in the earth, mountains rose from the plains, and the whole face of the land was changed." Whole cities were destroyed by fire "and all the inhabitants thereof." Three days of total darkness, "yea, and we did feel the vapor of darkness"—all this at the moment of Christ's agony on the opposite side of the world.

The remnant of this holocaust standing together in fear on the third day and looking heavenward, saw this same Jesus descending out of the sky. A brief line in St. Matthew gives the account, "And Jesus ascended into heaven." Nephi, however, devotes a full page in describing His descent form heaven to preach to the Nephites. "And it came to pass that a voice came out of heaven . . . and it was not a harsh voice . . . neither was it a loud voice . . . never the less it being a small voice it did pierce them to the center." "Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come."

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The extraordinary claims of Joseph might have been given but scant attention a century later, but in 1830 the atmosphere was charged with tense emotion and Joseph's work was but a natural consequence of the time. No, Joseph was not a shameless calculating knave, but a naive crusader against sin and each and every synonym thereof. The most powerful discourse in the New Testament against evil is Matthew, Chapter 24. This chapter Joseph would fortify with 390 potent words of his own, including seven "Beholds" and repeating verses twelve and thirteen—all to give it more power. (See Pearl of Great Price, p. 45).