written on the plates, "they would not believe my servant Joseph, if it were possible that he could show them all things." Nevertheless, according to the revelation, the words of the plates would go forth to "this generation" accompanied by the testimonies of three witnesses who would have the exclusive privilege to "view [the plates] as they are". Harris could be one of those three witnesses if he would "go out and bow down before me [God], and humble himself in mighty prayer and faith". Arrival of Oliver Cowdery Part of Smith's March 1829 revelation told Smith to stop translating for a while, until there was a means whereby he could continue the translation. That "means", in Smith's view, arrived on April 5, 1829, in the form of Oliver Cowdery. Cowdery, a school teacher born in Vermont, had heard about Smith's golden plates while he boarded with the Joseph Smith Sr. family during the school year, and had traveled with Joseph's brother Samuel Harrison Smith to Harmony hoping that he could serve as Smith's scribe. Smith was happy to have his assistance, and on April 7, 1829, Smith and Cowdery began translating full-time. During this time, they received financial support from Joseph Knight Sr. An April 1829 revelation by Smith soon stated that Cowdery had a "gift" that could allow Cowdery to translate ancient hidden records, and that the "keys of this gift" to translate would be given both to Smith and to Cowdery. According to Smith's revelations, this gift to translate was not limited to the golden plates, but included other ancient hidden records. For example, Smith's next revelation was what he said was the translation of a hidden parchment written by John the Apostle, and presumably still hidden at the time of the translation. While Cowdery, too, was to have the "gift" to translate, when Cowdery attempted his own translation of some unknown hidden record, he was unsuccessful, and he returned to acting as Smith's scribe. Consequently, a revelation by Smith stated that Cowdery's translation of hidden records would have to wait until after Smith had fully translated the golden plates. With Cowdery as scribe, Smith continued dictating what he said was the translation of the golden plates. On or before May 1829, Smith dictated a revelation warning him that whoever had stolen the 116 manuscript pages was planning to wait until Smith re-translated that section of the