The year 1842 is marked by several developments which are reflected in the public teachings of Joseph Smith.
The Book of Abraham has some correlation with Joseph Smith's teachings during the period of 1839 to 1844. Material from chapter 3 of the Book of Abraham continued to surface during these years. The temple practices and rituals introduced by Smith in May 1842 are anticipated by the explanations he ascribed to the figures in "Facsimile 2" of the Book of Abraham as published in the March, 1842 issues of the Nauvoo Times and Seasons.
The establishment of the Relief Society also in March 1842 served several purposes. These included the formalization of a charitable organization; partly a prototype for the women's organizational functions in the future temple, and a parallel to the male priesthood quorums (see Smith's 28 April 1842 remarks to the Society).
The temple endowment and other temple ordinances introduced during this and the following year occupied a considerable, if sometimes veiled, portion of Smith's preaching.
Former Nauvoo mayor John C. Bennett's departure generated new problems with Missouri and exacerbated the state's desire to get Smith to stand trial as an accessory in the attempted murder of Lilburn Boggs. Bennett was excommunicated from the Church over his involvement in a scheme that partly mirrored Smith's secret practice of polygamy in Nauvoo–whether Bennett knew about Smith's early experiments from Smith or took advantage of circulating rumors is difficult to know. Bennett left Nauvoo and began a public campaign against Joseph Smith (see Benjamin E. Park, Kingdom of Nauvoo (Liveright, 2023). Joseph Smith and his friend and sometime bodyguard O. P. Rockwell were arrested by two Missouri lawmen on August 8, 1842 on a warrant from the Governor of Illinois. The Nauvoo court issued a writ of habeas corpus and so released the prisoners. The two officers objected to this and went in search of legal advice. On the advice of counsel, Smith and Rockwell evaded arrest by hiding out in and around Nauvoo. Newly elected Governor of Illinois Thomas Ford agreed to have the Illinois Supreme Court decide the matter of the legality of Joseph's arrest. On January 5, 1843 Smith and Rockwell were discharged by the court which declared the Boggs affidavit of questionable validity. While Joseph Smith was in hiding, he appeared at some meetings to give instructions. However, during the latter part of the year, this circumstance curtailed the number of his public appearances. For more, see, Park, The Kingdom of Nauvoo.
Sources of Joseph Smith's teachings for 1842 include the Manuscript History of the Church, the Wilford Woodruff journal, the Nauvoo Relief Society minutes (kept by Eliza R. Snow) and the Times and Seasons. Manuscript sources for the period may be found in the JSP (JosephSmithPapers.org).
Joseph Smith became editor of the Times and Seasons beginning March 1842. No doubt some subsequent editorial statements can be assigned to him. However, it would be unwise to give blanket acceptance of these remarks as Smith's without definite proof. Day-to-day running of the paper during Smith's editorship was handled by John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff with Taylor likely assuming responsibility for writing much of the copy as time went on. An example of this is the September 1, 1842 editorial (3:902-905). While the text of the editorial clearly borrows from Smith's doctrinal themes of the period, it was perhaps not written by him: as noted above, Joseph Smith was living out of the public eye at the time.