1 There are two kinds of beings in heaven, namely: Angels, who are resurrected personages, having bodies of flesh and bones—
Without faith no man pleaseth God; and with whom God is angry he is not well pleased; wherefore, unto such he showeth no signs, only in wrath unto their condemnation. 63:11
Trivia: What man in the Doctrine and Covenants is said to be a perfect man who looked just like his father - so much so, in fact, that they could only be distinguished by their age?
Instructions given by Joseph Smith at Nauvoo, Illinois, February 9, 1843
129:1-91 There are two kinds of beings in heaven, namely: Angels, who are resurrected personages, having bodies of flesh and bones—
There are two kinds of beings in heaven: Angels, who are resurrected men, having flesh and bones.
2 For instance, Jesus said: Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
Jesus, for example, said,
Handle me and see. A spirit doesn't have flesh and bones, but I do. [1]
3 Secondly: the spirits of just men made perfect, they who are not resurrected, but inherit the same glory.
Secondly, there are the spirits of just men made perfect.
They're not resurrected but have the same glory.
4 When a messenger comes saying he has a message from God, offer him your hand and request him to shake hands with you.
When a messenger comes to you saying he has a message from God, ask to shake his hand.
5 If he be an angel he will do so, and you will feel his hand.
If he's an angel, he will shake your hand, and you'll feel his hand.
6 If he be the spirit of a just man made perfect he will come in his glory; for that is the only way he can appear—
If he is the spirit of a just man made perfect, he will come in all his glory.
7 Ask him to shake hands with you, but he will not move, because it is contrary to the order of heaven for a just man to deceive; but he will still deliver his message.
Ask him to shake hands.
He will refuse to shake your hand, because it's against the law in heaven to deceive.
But he'll still deliver his message.
8 If it be the devil as an angel of light, when you ask him to shake hands he will offer you his hand, and you will not feel anything; you may therefore detect him.
If it's the devil pretending to be an angel of light, ask him to shake hands.
He will shake hands with you, but you won't feel anything, and you'll detect him.
9 These are three grand keys whereby you may know whether any administration is from God.
These are the three grand keys whereby you can tell if a messenger is from God.
This refers to the story in the gospel of Luke (24:36-43), where the disciples thought Jesus was a spirit, but Jesus shows them that he's not by showing them his hands and feet and eating some fish. So I guess, Joseph Smith is telling us here that Jesus is an angel, since he has a body of flesh and bones.
Copyright © 1999-2026
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible
Send comments to Steve Wells
at steve(at)skepticsannotededbible.com
I've tried to make the function and navigation of the SAB website as intuitive as possible. And so, hopefully, not much explanation is necessary. However, there are a few things that I've recently added (and that I'm currently working on) that I should mention.
The images on the SAB homepage link to the homepages of each of the four scriptures that are presented at the SAB website: the Bible, the Mormon Scriptures, the Quran, and the Bhagavad Gita. Clicking on an image opens the homepage for that scripture. The link below the image opens a drop-down table. This is a way to quickly access individual books or chapters in a particular scripture.
The header displays links to selected verses and trivia questions, which are randomly selected from the four scriptures. The images in the bookshelf on the right are links to the home pages for each scripture. And, of course, the SAB logo on the left side of the header links to the SAB home page.
Links to The Bible in Fewer Words are in the upper right. This is a podcast that my wife, Carole, and I did which covered the entire Bible in 309 episodes - but in fewer words. It is available on the usual podcast platforms as well as on YouTube. There is also a link to the text and notes for episodes with embedded YouTube videos. This allows you to read the text along with us as we do each podcast episode.
The rest of the links on the homepage probably need no explanation, except for, perhaps, the Scripture Comparisons link. This compares how various topics are treated in the scriptures. But be sure to notice the images of the books in the lower right. These are books that I have published, with links to the SAB bookstore where the books are for sale. There is also a link to our Patreon page below the links to the SAB bookstore.
The Bible homepage includes links to the books of the Bible, as well as the Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical books. Under the header on the left side is a drop-down table that allows quick access to the books and chapters of the Bible.
As on the SAB homepage the links are fairly self-explanatory. However I would like to mention a few that seem most important.
The Mormon Scriptures includes the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Each of these is presented in a similar manner as discussed for the Bible homepage.
The Quran consists of 114 chapters or surahs. Each surah is presented in a way that is similar to the way the chapters are presented in the books of the Bible and in the Mormon Scriptures.
The Gita is the shortest of the four scriptures. It consists of 700 verses in 18 chapters. The chapters are presented in the same way as in the other scriptures.
Each book in the Bible has an outline page that includes a list of the chapters of the book, along with the sections within each chapter, with links to the chapters and sections. The left panel includes links to an introduction to the book, selected verses, Drunk With Blood killings, trivia questions, and Bible in Fewer Words episodes. Category links are shown below, ordered by the number of items in each list, with the number shown in parentheses.
In the header of every chapter page you'll find a "Bible Books" drop-down menu that displays the books in the Bible, with links to the chapters in each book of the Bible and Apocrypha. This allows you to go to any chapter in the Bible from any chapter page. And there are forward and back arrows at the top and bottom of every chapter page that will take you to the next chapter of the book.
There is also a small scripture book icon on the upper right corner of each chapter page. Clicking that will open a pop-up that provides links to all the chapters in that chapter's book. Clicking on the book icon again will close the pop-up.
Each chapter includes one or more section headings on the left, with category icons on the right. Clicking on these icons displays a list of category items in that section. (I am currently working on this feature, so some of the chapter pages will display the category items for the entire chapter, rather than for the section alone.)