Sneak Preview: Read Chapter One from "Let's Talk About Polygamy"

CHAPTER 1

Beginnings of Polygamy (1830–40)

“Marriage [is] an institution of heaven.”

—Joseph Smith, 1835

 The story of polygamy in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began when Joseph Smith declared that the heavens were opened and God was again speaking to His children, raining down revelations upon His newly formed Church. This restored church was patterned after Christ’s ancient design, with prophets and apostles, organized under divine priesthood authority. The establishment of the Church promised to bring forth a restoration of all things preparatory to the Second Coming of Christ, ushering in a new heaven and a new earth.

When Joseph Smith organized the Church in 1830, its theology was still evolving. Continuing revelation guided the development of doctrine “line upon line, precept upon precept” as Joseph asked God questions and received revelatory answers (2 Ne. 28:30). Principles that would later become central to the Latter-day Saint faith, such as temple ordinances and eternal families, were still in embryo, and the Saints’ understanding of them would mature with the Church.

Latter-day Saint Views on Marriage, 1830–35

When  the  Church  was  founded,  Latter-day  Saint  beliefs about marriage were likely indistinguishable from those of other Christian faiths. The Saints held that marriage was “ordained of God,” and they embraced New Testament teachings affirming love and oneness in monogamous marriage (see D&C 42:22–26; 49:15–17; 101 [1835 ed.]). The early Saints largely adhered to traditional laws and cultural practices that placed men at the head of the family as well as society (see Gen. 3:16–17; Eph. 5:22–23). Although traditional marriage and social roles were being challenged by some groups, the early Saints accepted mainstream ideology that monogamous marriage was central to a moral society.

Joseph Smith and his wife,Emma Hale, were married in 1827, and they developed a partnership of mutual respect, deep friendship, and shared faith.

 Early Revelations on Marriage, 1831

While Latter-day Saints largely adhered to the conventional view of marriage, they began to develop a unique perception of the doctrine as early as 1831, when Joseph Smith “inquired of the Lord” for “a more perfect understanding” of marriage at the urging of convert Leman Copley, previously a celibate Shaker. 

Joseph’s resulting revelation endowed marriage with eternal creative purpose and established matrimony as essential to God’s eternal plan for humankind (see D&C 49:15–17). The first intimation of the Saints’ eventual practice of plural marriage may have occurred that same year, when Joseph worked on an inspired translation of the Bible. While so doing, he pondered the significance of polygamy as practiced by Abraham and other ancient patriarchs and received revelation from the Lord that polygamy would be reinstituted in the future but “that the time had not come to teach or practice it.”

The doctrines of eternal marriage and plural marriage would, years later, develop into a symphony of family-centered theology in which family ties endured forever, beyond this mortal life. Although the concepts of eternal marriage and plural marriage unfolded around the same time, they were—and remain—distinct ideas.

Eternal marriage is the foundational doctrine upon which plural marriage was built, but eternal marriage exists independently of plural marriage in the form of monogamy, making plural marriage only a component of the larger, more comprehensive principle of eternal marriage.

Development of Eternal Marriage Doctrine

The nature of marriage continued to be a subject of inquiry for Joseph Smith, even as the Saints endured persecution in Ohio and Missouri. Latter-day Saint doctrine further diverged from other Christian faiths as the Prophet’s understanding of eternal marriage and plural marriage matured. Joseph alluded to elements of the developing doctrine of eternal marriage while performing his first civil marriage on November 24, 1835, uniting Lydia Goldthwaite Bailey with Newel Knight. During the ceremony, Joseph described marriage as “an institution of heaven,” teaching that marriage wasnot just a civil contract and earthly condition but rather a religious covenant and heavenly condition. Joseph then solemnized the couple’s union “by the authority of the everlasting priesthood,” clarifying that priesthood power given from God, not authority given from civil institutions, bound families together.

 The First Plural Marriage, mid-1830s

Fragmentary sources suggest that in the mid-1830s Joseph introduced the principle of plural marriage to Latter-day Saint relatives of Fanny Alger, a Church member who worked in the Smith home in Kirtland, Ohio. Joseph received permission from Fanny’s parents to marry their daughter, and with the knowledge of several of her family members, Fanny consented to marry Joseph as a plural wife.

 Little is known about their union. No firsthand accounts of their marriage exist, and information has been gleaned only from several second- and third-hand sources with varying degrees of reliability. It is uncertain how much Emma knew of Joseph and Fanny’s relationship. In 1836, Fanny and her family moved from Ohio,

and Fanny married Solomon Custer in Indiana shortly thereafter. Fanny’s parents eventually rejoined the main body of Saints, and Joseph seems to have set aside the doctrine of plural marriage for several years.

Sealing Power, 1836–40

In April 1836, Joseph Smith received priesthood keys, or divine authority, from the ancient prophet Elijah to seal in heaven ordinances performed on earth, giving rise to the term “sealing” to refer to solemnizing eternal marriage and family relationships (see D&C 110:13–16).

With the sealing power, Joseph now had formal authority to transition marriage from a temporal institution in which “death us do part” to an eternal ordinance, in which a couple was bound, or sealed, in the eternities.

Based on available sources, Joseph did not teach publicly about this visitation, but later sermons indicate that it shaped his understanding of marriage and family relationships in the hereafter.

 The Familial Order of Heaven

Joseph Smith gradually introduced the doctrine of eternal marriage to select associates. In the winter of 1840, Joseph Smith taught Apostle Parley P. Pratt that he could remain with his wife “for time and all eternity” and that their posterity could increase even after death. Parley rejoiced; his view of heaven transformed from a place “weaned” of family affection to a paradise filled with loved ones. The promise that family relationships could have divine permanence brought great happiness and peace to the small number of Saints to whom Joseph taught this early doctrine. Parley later reflected, though, that Joseph “had merely lifted a corner of the veil and given me a single glance into eternity.” Parley had learned of marriage’s eternity, but not yet of its potential plurality.

Eventually,  Joseph  Smith’s  revelations  about  marriage  would place the sealing ordinance at the core of exaltation, eternally uniting the Saints together with generations untold, making family the foundation of heavenly life.