Roles and Ecclesiastical Offices
This document briefly traces the development of the
significant roles and the ecclesiastical offices that JS introduced by June
1831. In identifying those holding offices such as elder,
priest, and teacher, this document relies exclusively on church minutes
of this period. Such minutes generally identify only those officers who
were present or newly ordained at the meeting being reported on. It is
possible other individuals had been ordained to offices but were not
present at any of the meetings whose records provide this data. In this
document, names of officers are listed in the order in which they appear
in the minutes.
Detailed
definitions of many of these offices and roles are found in the
glossary.
By June 1829
By June 1829, the Book of
Mormon manuscript and the “Articles of
the Church of Christ” compiled by had identified ecclesiastical roles to preach,
, and administer the . These documents identified the specific
offices of , , and and outlined their
respective duties, but it is not clear that anyone was ordained to these
offices before the formal organization of the church on 6 April 1830. The terms and were also in use by June 1829: the Book of Mormon
manuscript used both terms, and a June
1829
revelation commanded Oliver Cowdery and to call twelve disciples.
, Reuben Hale, , , , , and
one or more unidentified individuals assisted JS as scribes for the Book of
Mormon
prior to the end of June 1829. Eleven witnesses of the Book of
Mormon were called by revelation and commanded to testify of the and the translation. Their names are
listed below.
| Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon | Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon |
June 1829 to February 1831
JS may have begun working on the text titled “Articles and
Covenants of the Church of Christ” as early as summer 1829, but in any
case the document was in more or less complete form by 10 April 1830. The church voted upon and
unanimously accepted the document at the first of the church on 9
June 1830. Articles and Covenants built upon the
structure and offices described in the Book of
Mormon to become the Church of Christ’s official
ecclesiastical document.
Two April 1830 documents designated JS and as apostles. Later accounts
explained that Peter, James, and John JS and Cowdery as
apostles during this period (at some point after 15 May 1829), but
there are no contemporary accounts that explain the meaning of the visit
and it is unknown whether it was public knowledge at the time. In 1835, the Quorum of the was organized and twelve men were selected as
apostles in that quorum.
JS and were ordained the first and
second elders of the on 6 April 1830 at the church’s
organizational meeting. A revelation dictated just after the meeting stated that JS was
to be called “a seer & Translater & Prop[h]et an Apostle of
Jesus Christ an Elder of the Church” and instructed Cowdery to ordain
him. Cowdery later affirmed that on this date he ordained JS “to be a
Prophet, Seer, &c., just as the revelation says.”
JS’s later history indicates that other ordinations occurred
at the organizational meeting but does not provide specific names or
offices. Minutes of church conferences held on 9 June 1830 and 26 September 1830 reveal the growing
ecclesiastical structure, identifying those men who had previously been
ordained as elders, priests, and teachers or who were ordained at those
conferences. (Minutes are
not extant for the church’s conference held in January 1831.) Though Articles and
Covenants mentions the office of ,
the first known ordinations to that office occurred in October
1831.
At the June 1830 conference, was appointed the keep the church record and
conference minutes, and he kept minutes of that conference and the one
held September 1830. At the
September conference was appointed to keep the
church records until the next conference, which was held January 1831, but there are no extant
minutes with his signature. During the period from mid-1829 to February 1831, Oliver Cowdery,
, , , and possibly others served as scribes for JS.
The
following chart outlines the ecclesiastical structure as it existed in
February 1831.
| Seer, Translator, Prophet, Apostle, Elder |
| Joseph Smith Jr. |
| Apostles | First and Second Elders |
| Joseph Smith Jr. | Joseph Smith Jr. |
| Elders | Priests | Teachers |
| Joseph Smith Jr. | ||
February 1831 to June 1831
In February 1831, soon after he moved to ,
JS dictated the revelation known as “the
Law,” which provided additional information about the duties of
elders, priests, and teachers. This
revelation also gave instructions to the ,
an office that had just been introduced, and called for the bishop to
have two assistants. In
March 1831, a JS revelation called to “keep the
church record and history continually.” A May 1831 JS
revelation commanded that an agent be appointed to assist
with temporal affairs.
At a
conference on 3 June 1831, nearly two
dozen men were ordained to the , adding one
more office to the church’s unfolding organization. Many individuals were also
ordained to the offices of elder and priest at the same conference. By mid-June, a few additional men were
ordained elders.
During the
period from February to June
1831, , , and possibly other individuals assisted JS as scribes.
The
following chart outlines the ecclesiastical structure as it existed in
mid-June
1831.
| Seer, Translator, Prophet, Apostle, Elder |
| Joseph Smith Jr. |
| Apostles | First and Second Elders |
| Joseph Smith Jr. | Joseph Smith Jr. |
| Bishop | Historian and Recorder |
| Assistants to the Bishop | |
| Agent | |
| Ordained to the High Priesthood | Elders | Priests | Teachers |
| Lorin Page | |||
| Jacob Sherman | |||
| Benjamin Bragg | |||
| Isaac Beebe | |||
| William Carter | Samuel Day | ||
| Thoret Parsons | |||
| Ebenezer Abbott | |||
| John Woodard | |||
| Jacob Scott | William Mitchell | ||
| Ebenezer Page | |||
| Alpheus Gifford | |||
| Joseph Smith Jr. | |||