Smith announces revelations about two new practices. First, the dead can be baptized. [This practice is disclosed as a part of three different revelations.] Second, polygamy, or plural marriage, is not only permissible but in certain cases required. The second pronouncement, in particular, causes great division among Mormons, with Brigham Young stating he would rather die and Joseph Smith's wife Emma expressing opposition even though the revelation (now Section 132 in the LDS Doctrine and Covenants) expressly directs Emma Smith to accept plural marriage.) And although the doctrine will not be publicly announced for nearly a decade, rumors quickly spread, increasing anti-Mormon feeling. Joseph Smith will eventually have more than 25 wives, while Young will come to embrace the doctrine, take 20 wives, and father 57 children. (1)
Section 132, Place: Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois.
Historical Note: Section 132 is a revelation addressing the subjects of eternal and plural marriage and the principles upon which such marriages were to be performed in the Church. Because the Prophet had learned of and begun to practice plural marriage several years earlier, and because he started performing eternal marriages in 1841, many have concluded that section 132 was revealed years earlier, and merely written down in July 1843. A more accurate interpretation is that while Joseph Smith may have received revelation on matters contained in section 132 prior to 1843, this revelation (its form, language, and message) was unquestionably received for the first time in the summer of 1843.
Joseph Smith learned of the principle of plural marriage as early as July 1831, near Independence, on the border of Missouri and what later became Kansas. Moreover, available evidence attests that the Prophet began to take additional wives by 1836, in Kirtland, Ohio. Although plural marriage did not become a law of the Church until its public announcement in 1852, Joseph Smith, and later Brigham Young, did instruct a select number of faithful Mormon brethren to take additional wives before that date.
Whereas the concept of plural marriage appears to have had its birth in Kirtland, the principle of eternal marriage developed at Nauvoo. A combination of both principles was taught privately by the Prophet, beginning in 1841. From the beginning Joseph's wife, Emma, appears to have objected to his taking additional wives. Her refusal to accept the doctrine and to support her husband in righteousness resulted in a year's delay in administering the blessings of the temple endowment to women because Joseph desired his wife to be the first woman to receive the ordinance. Finally, in May 1843 she consented to the Prophet's taking plural-eternal wives, but by July she had reversed her position and was adamant. Hyrum Smith, William Law, and William Marks, presiding Church leaders, also were bitterly opposed to the doctrine, and while Law and Marks could never assent to the implications of the practice, the Prophet's brother, Hyrum, was converted to it on 26 May 1843.
Section 132 was received on the morning of 12 July 1843 at the request of Hyrum Smith, who hoped that a written revelation on the subject would assuage Emma's feelings. Hyrum was fairly confident that if the Prophet would write down a revelation on celestial marriage, he could take it for Emma to read and thereby regain her support. William Clayton took down the ten-page revelation at Joseph Smith's dictation in the "small office upstairs in the rear of [the Prophet's Red Brick] store." An entry in the Clayton diary for 12 July 1843 states the following:.
This A.M. I wrote a Revelation consisting of 10 pages on the order of the priesthood, showing the designs in Moses, Abraham, David and Solomon having many wives & concubines &c. After it was wrote Prests. Joseph & Hyrum presented it and read it to E[mma]. who said she did not believe a word of it and appeared very rebellious.
Towards evening on 12 July Bishop Newel K. Whitney received permission to copy the revelation. About mid-day on 13 July Joseph C. Kingsbury, store-clerk for Bishop Whitney, carefully took a copy, which both Whitney and Kingsbury proofread against the original. The Kingsbury copy, which was given to Brigham Young in March 1847, was used to publish the revelation five years later. Whereas the Clayton copy was burned, the Kingsbury copy is still in existence.
Publication Note. Section 132 was first published in a Deseret News Extra (14 September 1852), and was included as section 132 in the 1876 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. A statement known as the "Article on Marriage," written by Oliver Cowdery in 1835, served as the Church's official position on marriage and was printed in each edition of the Doctrine and Covenants until 1876, when it was replaced by section 132. (2)
Joseph Smith dictates the revelation concerning eternal marriage, or "the new and everlasting covenant", including the plurality of wive s(D&C 132). Although written down in 1842, Smith received portions of the revelation as early as 1831. (3)
[Joseph Smith Diary] Wednesday, July 12th Received a Revelation in the office in presence of Hyrum and W[illia]m Clayton. [several lines left blank] This P.M. Adams and Hollister returned from Springfield. G. L. Wylie called for an interview. (4)
-- Jul 12, 1843, Wednesday
[William Clayton Journal] Now, I say to you, as I am ready to testify to all the world, and on which testimony I am most willing to meet all the Latter-day Saints and all apostates, in time and through all eternity, I did write the revelations on celestial marriage given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, on the 12th of July, 1843.
When the revelation was written there was no one present except the Prophet Joseph, his brother Hyrum and myself. It was written in the small office upstairs in the rear of the brick store which stood on the banks of the Mississippi river. It took some three hours to write it. Joseph dictated sentence by sentence, and I wrote it as he dictated. After the whole was written Joseph requested me to read it slowly and carefully, which I did, and he then pronounced it correct. The same night a copy was taken by Bishop Whitney, which copy is now here (in the Historian's office) and which I know and testify is correct. The original was destroyed by Emma Smith.
I again testify that the revelation on polygamy was given through the prophet Joseph on the 12th of July, 1843; and that the Prophet Joseph both taught and practiced polygamy I do positively know, and bear testimony to the fact. (5)
Footnotes:
1 - Whitney, Helen, Timeline: The Early History of the Mormons, A Frontline and American Experience Co-Production, //www.pbs.org/mormons/timeline/
2 - Cook, Lyndon, Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants
3 - Wikipedia, Joseph Smith Chronology, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Joseph_Smith,_Jr.
4 - Faulring, Scott (ed.), An American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith: Joseph Smith Diary, 1843
5 - Fillerup, Robert C., compiler; William Clayton Nauvoo Diaries and Personal Writings, A chronological compilation of the personal writings of William Clayton while he was a resident of Nauvoo, Illinois. http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/clayton-diaries
LDS History Timeline
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