The Fulness of John's Record

Near the beginning of Doctrine and Covenants 93, the Lord stated, “And John saw and bore record of the fulness of my glory, and the fulness of John’s record is hereafter to be revealed” (v6). A natural question is this: Was He referring to a record of John the Beloved or John the Baptist? For the next 11 verses we appear to get a small portion of this record that we will be more completely revealed in some future day. The first five verses read this way: “And he bore record, saying: I saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was; Therefore, in the beginning the Word was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation—The light and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men. The worlds were made by him; men were made by him; all things were made by him, and through him, and of him. And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us” (v7-11). If this was all we had, then I think we would assume the words came from John the Beloved, because they are so similar to these words in John 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men…. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-4, 14). Both of those passages speak of the Word, the light, the beginning, and the glory of the Only Begotten. Both describe how “all things were made by him,” how He “dwelt among us,” and how He is “full of grace and truth.” The language of these two testimonies of the Savior is so close that if we stopped there it would seem obvious that John the Beloved was being referred here by the Savior in Doctrine and Covenants 93. Even the footnote 6c would seem to agree with this because it points us to this passage from John the Beloved in which John suggests that he has written other things about Jesus outside his gospel: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:30-31).  

            The subsequent language in the next six verses, though, would lead us to believe that this record alluded to in Doctrine and Covenants 93 is John the Baptist’s. The Lord quoted, “And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace; And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first. And I, John, bear record, and lo, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, and sat upon him, and there came a voice out of heaven saying: This is my beloved Son. And I, John, bear record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father; And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him” (v11-17). In John 1, John the Beloved quoted John the Baptist with these words, “John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace…. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God” (John 1:15-16, 32-34). Both of these accounts speak of His fulness, receiving grace for grace, and how the Savior is the Son of God. And in both we have a testimony of the baptism of the Savior when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Savior. Obviously, it was John the Baptist who was there present on that occasion and could bear witness of what happened that day. All of these details strongly suggest that the John being referred to is John the Baptist.

            My understanding is that the question of who the “John” is referred to in Doctrine and Covenants 93 is in fact still debated, and I can certainly see why. The student manual, though, suggests that it was indeed John the Baptist by quoting Bruce R. McConkie who was of that opinion: “John the Baptist [was] destined to write … the gospel of that Lord whose witness he is, but his account, perhaps because it contains truths and concepts that the saints and the world are not yet prepared to receive, has so far not been given to men. On May 6, 1833, however, the Lord did reveal to Joseph Smith eleven verses of the Baptist’s writings, and promised that ‘the fulness of the record of John’ would be revealed when the faith of men entitled them to receive it. (D&C 93:6–18.)” He also highlighted that “John the Apostle had before him the writings of John the Baptist when he wrote his Gospel,” and it would make sense to me that “John’s record” that we don’t have yet referred to by the Savior in our dispensation would be the same as “the record of John [the Baptist]” that John the Beloved referred to and quoted (John 1:19). Either way, we certainly look forward to the future day when this record of John will be fully revealed!