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One of the things that really disturbed me in my research was discovering the real origins of polygamy and how Joseph Smith really practiced it.
Joseph Smith was married to at least 34 women. . . . Out of the 34 women, 7 of them were teenage girls as young as 14-years-old. Joseph was 37-years-old when he married 14-year-old Helen Mar Kimball, twenty-three years his junior. Even by 19th century standards, this was shocking.
Daughter of Heber and VilateKimball
Sealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith in May 1843, at 14 years of age
“He [her father—Heber C. Kimball] taught me the principle of Celestial marriage and having a great desire to be connected with the Prophet, Joseph, he offered me to him; this I afterwards learned from the Prophet’s own mouth. My father had but one ewe lamb, but willingly laid her upon the alter.”
“When she was twelve years old there was held a council of the priests . . .” (The Protoevangelium of James)
“Then Abiathar the priest offered gifts without end to the high priests, in order that he might obtain her as wife to his son. . . . Now it came to pass, when she was fourteen years old . . .” (The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew)
“Now the virgin of the Lord, with advancing age, also made progress in virtue . . . She came, therefore, to her fourteenth year, and not only could they devise against her no evil, nor anything worthy of blame, but all good men who knew her judged her life and conversation worthy of admiration. Then the chief priest publicly announced that the virgins who were publicly placed in the temple, and had arrived at this time of life, should return home and seek to be married, according to the custom of the nation, and the maturity of their age.” (Cowper, The Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ, pg. 91-92)
And Eliezer related to them all his concerns, and that he was Abraham's servant . . .
And they all blessed the Lord who brought this thing about, and they gave him Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, for a wife for Isaac.
And the young woman was of very comely appearance, she was a virgin, and Rebecca was ten years old in those days. (Book of Jasher 24:38-40)
“I had, in hours of temptation, when seeing the trials of my mother, felt to rebel. I hated polygamy in my heart . . .”
“I felt quite sore over [not being allowed to attend dances], and thought it a very unkind act in father to allow William to go and enjoy the dance unrestrained with other of my companions, and fetter me down, for no girl danced better than I did, and I really felt it was too much to bear. It made the dull school more dull, and like a wild bird I longed for the freedom that was denied me; and thought to myself an abused child, and that it was pardonable if I did not murmur.”
Likely received revelation as early as 1831
Careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40 wives.
Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as also Moses, David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines— . . .
Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you; for all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same.
Revealed by Jesus Christ (JST, Ex. 34:1–2)
“If a man have two wives . . .” (Deuteronomy 21:15)
Man marries brother’s widow (Deuteronomy 25:5-10)
“If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.” (Exodus 21:10)
Abraham
Isaac
Jacob/Israel
Moses
Gideon
Elkanah
Saul
David
Solomon
"Sister Smith bore a very strong testimony to the divinity of the principle of plural marriage. Pres. Smith endorsed it. He said it was taken away from the people--like the law of consecration--because the saints rejected it, and neither would be restored until there is a people prepared to live them. Anyone should beware that casts slurs upon the birth of those born under this covenant. Also that men who will not appreciate their wives and children and provide for them will lose them." (Joseph F. Smith, Salt Lake Temple dedication, John
Mills Whitaker Journal John Mills Whitaker Journal, box 123 : Topical Files, Va-Wh (1825-2002), University of Utah, Special Collections; See also W. H. Smart Diary, 1901-1902 book, (7/28/1901), 94)
My understanding is this: That the manifesto came after passage of certain laws and the final decision thereon by the Supreme Court, and not only that, I believe it came from pressure within the church as well. (Joseph F. Smith, 1/20/1905, Reed Smoot Hearings 3:212)
Biblical worldview Visions
Angels
Speak with God face to face
Plural marriage
Priesthood
Baptism
Apostles & Prophets
Some of the marriages to these women included promises by Joseph of eternal life to the girls and their families, threats of loss of salvation, and threats that he (Joseph) was going to be slain by an angel with a drawn sword if the girls didn't marry him.
I have a problem with this. This is Warren Jeffs territory. This is not the Joseph Smith I grew up learning about in the Church and having a testimony of. This is not the Joseph Smith that I sang “Praise to the Man” to or taught others about two years in the mission field.
I felt such a desire to read it, that I could not refrain from asking him to let me take it home and read it . . . I pled so earnestly for it, he finally said, "Child, if you will bring this book home before breakfast tomorrow morning, you may take it.“
If any person in this world was ever perfectly happy in the possession of any coveted treasure I was when I had permission to read that wonderful book. . . . we all took turns reading it until very late in the night as soon as it was light enough to see, I was up and learned the first verse in the book.
. . . When I handed [Brother Morley] the book, he remarked, "I guess you did not read much in it." I showed him how far we had read. He was surprised and said, "I don't believe you can tell me one word of it." I then repeated the first verse, also the outlines of the history of Nephi. He gazed at me in surprise, and said, "child, take this book home and finish it, I can wait."
Risked life to save Book of Commandments
Appearance of angel
Visited by Joseph, Hyrum and Heber C. Kimball after their deaths
“Joseph said I was his before I came here and he said all the Devils in Hell should never get me from him.”
Read more on Mary Elizabeth
“In 1834, [Joseph] was commanded to take me for a wife. I was a thousand miles from him. He got afraid. The angel came to him three times, the last time with a drawn sword and threatened his life.” (1902 statement)
“Joseph made known to me that God had commanded him in July, 1834, to take me for a wife. But he had not dared to make it known to me, for when he received the revelation, I was in Missouri and when he did see me, I was married. But he was again commanded to fulfill the first revelation or suffer condemnation, for I was created for him before the foundation of the earth was laid.”
“. . . Mary Elizabeth entertained a mysterious old man whom she suspected of being one of the three Nephites-in Mormon folklore, the immortal, wandering Native American apostles from the time of Christ. After she gave him food, he commended her Christianity, then disappeared with no explanation. A Three Nephite story is a necessary part of any repertoire of the miraculous in early Mormonism.” (In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Todd Compton, pg. 217)
“Divine vengeance on persecutors of the Latter-day Saints is another persistent theme in Mormon folklore.” (In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Todd Compton, pg. 216)
Accomplished poet and author “Oh My Father”, “Behold, the Great
Redeemer Die” Preserved Relief Society records Sacrificed inheritance for the construction
of the Kirtland Temple Remained faithful when parents
abandoned Restoration Traveled throughout Mormon settlements,
teaching women homemaking skills, medicine, child-rearing and more.
Assisted in establishing the Retrenchment Society
Read more on Eliza R. Snow Smith
“at least a warm feeling of patriotism inspired my childish heart, and mingled in my earliest thoughts, as evinced in many of the earliest productions of my pen. …My grandfather on my mother’s side, when fighting for the freedom of our country, was taken prisoner by the British troops, and confined in a dreary cell, and so scantily fed, that when his fellow-prisoner by his side died from exhaustion, he reported him to the jailor as sick in bed, in order to obtain the amount of food for both. …
This, with many similar narratives of revolutionary sufferings recounted by my grand-parents, so deeply impressed my mind, that as I grew up to womanhood I fondly cherished a pride for the flag which so proudly waved over the graves of my brave and valiant ancestors.” (Edward Tullidge, The Women of Mormondom (New York: 1877), pp. 30–31.)
“Spent the aft[er]n[oon] with Lucy in com[pany] of Zina, Loisa and Emily. E[mily] and myself spoke in the gift of tongues.” (Diary of Eliza R. Snow, June 2, 1847)
“Sis[ter] Sess[ions], Kim[ball], Whit[ney] and myself spent the eve[ning] at Sarah Ann's—had a pow'rful time—deep things were brought forth which were not to be spoken.” (Diary of Eliza R. Snow, June 3, 1847)
“. . . a time of blessing at sis[ter] K[imball]'s . . . Sis[ter] Sess[ions] and myself blest Helen. I spoke and she interpreted. I then blest the girls in a song, singing to each in rotation.” (Diary of Eliza R. Snow, June 6, 1847)
“Sylvia and I went to a meeting to Sister Leonards. None but females there. We had a good meeting. I presided. It was got up by E. R.Snow. They spoke in toungues; I interpreted. Some prophesied. It was a feast.” (Patty Sessions, Diary, 1 May 1847)
“[Eliza R. Snow] was a complex, flesh-and-blooded individual with strengths and weaknesses, in many ways the product of her culture and the early Mormon worldview.” (In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Todd Compton, pg. 217)
“Miracle and prophecy were the neo-biblical psychic environment in which the early Mormons lived.” (In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Todd Compton, pg. 206)
When I was a child, in a Relief Society meeting, Eliza R. Snow, by the gift of tongues, and Zina D. Young, by the interpretation thereof, promised that child playing on the . . . that that child should grow to manhood and become an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. . . . .
When I was called to be one of the apostles [my mother] asked me if I remembered that meeting . . . "No."
"Well," she said, "do you remember Aunt Eliza talking to you on the floor?" I said. "Yes, but I did not understand it."
"Of course, you did not, because she spoke by the gift of tongues." Then she said: "Do you remember anything that Aunt Zina said? . . . she said you would be a great big man in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that you would be an apostle." (President Heber J. Grant, Conference Report, April 1927, 17 - 18.)
On an individual basis, Mormons made many mistakes with polygamy, a social system that I believe does not work for "modern" (nineteenth and twentieth century) women. As I mentioned earlier, I do not think polygamy is an eternal system that needed to be "restored"; it is rather a cultural artifact from Semitic culture, resurrected by restorationist enthusiasm. . . .
Some might ask me, what about many statements by General Authorities saying that polygamy was an eternal principle? I believe in Joseph Smith's adage that "a prophet is not always a prophet"; he, and other Mormon leaders, may have had moments of inspiration, and other moments in which they were expressing their own limited, fallible views. As I state in my book (p. 629), I am a practicing Mormon, of a liberal, Lowell Bennionsort . . . (Todd Compton)
The speaker [Joseph F. Smith] testified in all soberness that henceforth and forever there was laid up for her a crown of glory, a queenly crown for her [Elizabeth Ann Whitney] and all those honorable women who sacrifice their own feelings in order to establish in the Church and make honorable in the earth, the doctrines of patriarchal [plural] marriage. He knew that such women would stand in the presence of the Eternal God crowned with glory and eternal lives, which none living can enjoy but those who are worthy and made this sacrifice.
Here, the speaker said, perhaps, for the first time in public, that the women who entered into plural marriage with the Prophet Joseph Smith were shown to him and named to him as early as 1831, the Lord showed him those women who were to engage with him in the establishment of that principle in the Church, and at that time some of these women were named and given to him, to become his wives when the time should come that this principle should be established. God knew their hearts, as he proved by the fact that they have been true and faithful through all the trying vicissitudes through which they have passed, and that too in the face of a frowning world; they have endured it all, and are to-day examples of womanhood and purity.
It was something to be associated with righteous, honorable and pure woman, with women who dare receive and obey the revelations of God at the sacrifice of their own feelings, the most tender feelings of the human heart. God bless them now and forever.
Mother Whitney was one of those faithful women chosen of God as one of the pioneers, so to speak, of this peculiar doctrine; and she and her daughter [Sarah Ann Whitney] will receive the reward of those whom God will not forget in the day when He shall reckon up his jewels.
Polyandry: Of those 34 women, 11 of them were married women of other living men. Among them being Apostle Orson Hyde who was sent on his mission to dedicate Israel when Joseph secretly married his wife, Marinda Hyde. Church historian Elder Marlin K. Jensen and unofficial apologists like FairMormon do not dispute the polyandry. . . .
D&C 132:63 very clearly states that the only purpose of polygamy is to “multiply and replenish the earth” and “bear the souls of men.” Why did Joseph marry women who were already married? These women were obviously not virgins, which violated D&C 132:61. Zina Huntington had been married seven and a half months and was about six months pregnant with her first husband’s baby at the time she married Joseph; clearly she didn’t need any more help to “bear the souls of men.”
The man Joseph, the husband of Mary, did not, that we know of, have more than one wife, but Mary the wife of Joseph had another husband. On this account infidels have called the Savior a bastard. This is merely a human opinion upon one of the inscrutable doings of the Almighty.
That very babe that was cradled in the manger, was begotten, not by Joseph, the husband of Mary, but by another Being. Do you inquire by whom? He was begotten by God our heavenly, father. (Brigham Young)
Scriptures embodying the ordinary signification—literally that of Parent—are too numerous and specific to require citation. The purport of these scriptures is to the effect that God the Eternal Father, whom we designate by the exalted name-title “Elohim,” is the literal Parent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and of the spirits of the human race. Elohim is the Father in every sense in which Jesus Christ is so designated . . .
Jesus Christ is the Son of Elohim both as spiritual and bodily offspring; that is to say, Elohim is literally the Father of the spirit of Jesus Christ and also of the body in which Jesus Christ performed His mission in the flesh, and which body died on the cross and was afterward taken up by the process of resurrection, and is now the immortalized tabernacle of the eternal spirit of our Lord and Savior.
Luke 1:31–32, 3531 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: . . .
35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
John 3:16–17For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Luke 2:49And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?
Joseph F. Smith
Now, we are told in scriptures that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God in the flesh. Well, now for the benefit of the older ones, how are children begotten? I answer just as Jesus Christ was begotten of the flesh… Jesus is the only person who had our Heavenly Father as the father of his body. (Joseph F. Smith)
Joseph Fielding SmithJesus was not the son of any mortal man. His biological fatherwas God, the Father. As Son of God, Jesus represents the Father and acts as his agent in all things.
1886 - Sarah M. Granger Kimball, counselor in Relief Society General Presidency stated that “her brother Lafayette Granger and the late Bishop George Miller in conversation once with the prophet Joseph Smith were told by him that when Mary the mother of Jesus was on her way to the hill country she was met by God the Father and the Angel Gabriel and the latter performed the marriage between Father (God) and Mary.
In 1834, [Joseph] was commanded to take me for a wife. I was a thousand miles from him. He got afraid. The angel came to him three times, the last time with a drawn sword and threatened his life. I did not believe. If God told him so, why did he not come and tell me?
The angel told him I should have a witness. An angel came to me – it went through me like lightning – I was afraid. Joseph Said he came with more revelation and knowledge than Joseph ever dare reveal. (Brigham Young sealed me to him, for time and all eternity – Feb. 1842.) Joseph said I was his before I came here and he said all the Devils in Hell should never get me from him.
. . . Joseph made known to me that God had commanded him in July, 1834, to take me for a wife. But he had not dared to make it known to me, for when he received the revelation, I was in Missouri and when he did see me, I was married. But he was again commanded to fulfill the first revelation or suffer condemnation, for I was created for him before the foundation of the earth was laid.
We also heard him [Joseph Smith] say that God had revealed unto him that any man who ever committed adultery in either of his probations that that man could never be raised to the highest exaltation in the Celestial Glory and that he felt anxious with regard to himself and he inquired of the Lord and the Lord told him that he, Joseph, had never committed adultery.
This saying of the Prophet astonished me very much. It opened up to me a very wide field of reflection. The idea that we had passed through probation prior to this and that we must have been married and given in marriage in those probations or there would be no propriety in making such an assertion and that there were several exaltations in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, the highest we supposed to be the Godhead and we conclude that there are several grades of exaltations in servants to the Gods. Be this as it may, this is what he said. We will know the truth of the matter some day.
“On May 23, 1843, I listened to a discourse preached in the Nauvoo temple, which was then only partially finished. Brother Joseph was talking on the pre-existence of our spirits, and our relations to God in the spirit world, and our standing in the family circle of our Father. Now I am telling the truth, and I remember that while thus talking he suddenly turned around to the Apostles sitting on the stand and said in effect:
‘Brethren, if I were to tell you all I know of the kingdom of God, I do know that you would rise up and kill me.’
Brother Brigham arose and said, 'Don't tell me anything that I can't bear, for I don't want to apostatize.' Brother Joseph, addressing the Apostles, then said: 'The weight of this kingdom has been as a millstone around my neck, but I am going to roll it off on your shoulders, and then the kingdom of God will go on.' There were eleven of the Apostles present at this time. Among them I saw Parley Pratt, Orson Pratt, Willard Richards, Geo. A. Smith, Brigham Young and John Taylor. I don't remember the others. (Robert Horne, "Reminiscences of the Church in Nauvoo," Latter-Day Saints'
Millennial Star, Vol. 55, No. 36, Sept. 4, 1893, p. 585)
