3 Fascinating Things Every Mormon Should Know About Kolob

Kolob. We sing about it in one of our favorite hymns. We’ve named canyons and mountains and wards and stakes after it. But do we really know what Kolob is and what it’s like?

Generally defined as “the place nearest where God dwells,” most of what we know about this briefly-mentioned governing star comes from a heavenly astronomy lesson found in the book of Abraham.

And while it’s not a part of core Church doctrine, learning about Kolob is a wonderful way to begin to understand each of our places in the universe and comprehend the significance of the Creation. Here are just a few interesting things we know for sure about Kolob:

1. Kolob is the star that governs all the others.

We first learn about Kolob in Abraham 3:2-3, when Abraham sees it in a vision through the Urim and Thummim. He says, “And I saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones which were near unto it; And the Lord said unto me: These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God: I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest.”

From this scripture, we learn that Kolob is a huge star, which God has designated as the one to govern even the other “governing creations” (see Abraham Facsimile 2:2). But what does that mean?

Abraham 3:16 explains further that there is always one star greater than another, but that Kolob is the greatest. Not because it is the biggest or the brightest, but because it is the one that is closest to God. Joseph Smith adds one more piece of revelation in the first description of Facsimile 2: “Kolob, signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God.”

So we also learn that not only is Kolob closest to God, but it was also His first creation—a creation we can probably assume is near the center of the universe, or at the very least, our galaxy, with God’s throne where He sits “in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things” (D&C 88:13).