Elder Jeffrey R. Holland noted: “Those three witnesses were to be Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris … and their testimony is forever fixed to the opening pages of the Book of Mormon. … In keeping with this same covenantal principle, it is interesting to note that there were three earlier witnesses—special witnesses—not only of the divine origins of the Book of Mormon but also of Divinity himself. These early witnesses were Nephi, Jacob, and Isaiah, and it is not by coincidence that their testimonies appear so conspicuously at the beginning of this ancient record” (Christ and the New Covenant, 31–32).