The Revelatory Origins of the Temple Ordinances

Some people dismiss Joseph Smith’s story about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon a priori, having already concluded that “you don’t get books from angels and translate them by miracles.”[1] Others find the Prophet’s claim of divine origins for Latter-day Saint temple ordinances equally incredible — arguing instead, for example, that “the rituals of Masonry” provided the “starting point”[2] for the sacred ceremonies that were administered in Nauvoo.[3] Individuals who accept premises of this sort sometimes have come to “see the evolution of the temple as very organic, growing out of the mind of Joseph, not God.”[4]

In this article, we examine evidence that the Nauvoo Temple ordinances were revealed to the Prophet while he lived in Kirtland. While Joseph Smith’s 1842 initiation in Masonic ritual no doubt led him to seek further revelation as he prepared to introduce the ordinances of temple worship in Nauvoo, there is evidence that he had received crucial knowledge about temple ordinances by divine means well prior to that time. For instance, Matthew B. Brown has summarized some of the accounts that speak in broad terms about heavenly visions and visits from one or more heavenly messengers:[5]

Elder Parley P. Pratt stated in early 1845 that Joseph Smith had given the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles “a pattern in all things pertaining to the sanctuary and the endowment therein” and explained to them that this pattern had been shown to him in a “heavenly vision.”[6] On another occasion Elder Pratt asked: “Who instructed [Joseph Smith] in the mysteries of the Kingdom, and in all things pertaining to Priesthood, law, philosophy, sacred architecture, ordinances, sealings, anointings, baptisms for the dead, and in the mysteries of the first, second, and third heavens, many of which are unlawful to utter? Angels and spirits from the eternal worlds.”[7] Elizabeth A. Whitney likewise stated her understanding, in a Church periodical, that an angel of God committed the temple rituals to Joseph Smith.[8]

Besides these general statements there is a little-known specific claim, based on a secondhand report, that Jesus Christ came personally to the Kirtland Temple over a two-week period to give instruction about the details pertaining to the Nauvoo Temple ordinances.[9] Following a brief description of the account behind this claim, I will discuss the possible reasons argued by Matthew B. Brown for why it might have been expedient to wait until the Saints gathered to Nauvoo for the Prophet to have administered the full complement of temple ordinances to others.

The sequence of temple ordinances was revealed by at least January 1832. Although sealing in eternal marriage is not mentioned publicly in the 1841 and 1842 statements, the subject had been broached privately to trusted individuals.[10]

What Did Joseph Smith Know about the Temple by 1836?

Scholars have long known that the Lord had revealed to Joseph Smith most of the doctrines and principles relating to what we now call the ordinances of the initiatory, endowment, eternal marriage, the fulness of the priesthood, and exaltation in the presence of the Father long before he got to Nauvoo.[11] For example, by examining the second and third columns of the table above we see that the sequence of these blessings was summarized in Doctrine and Covenants 124:39 on January 19, 1841, and again in an eyewitness description of the events of May 4, 1842,[12] the day the Prophet Joseph Smith began to administer the Nauvoo temple ordinances in the upper story of the Red Brick Store. Significantly, however, the most complete list of these ordinances and blessings, shown in the leftmost column, was given by revelation in 1832, a decade earlier, within Doctrine and Covenants 84.[13] Not coincidentally, other revelations relating to specific priesthood and temple doctrines were given in this same period.[14] More detail about the relationship of Doctrine and Covenants 84 to temple doctrines and ordinances has been published elsewhere.[15]

Walter Rane (1949–): Moses, Elias, and Elijah Appear to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple.[16]

The Kirtland Temple: A Place of Preparation

A plausible occasion for additional revelation concerning temple ordinances was sometime following the dedication of the Kirtland Temple that took place during the five-day period of 27–31 March 1836. The dedicatory prayer for the Kirtland Temple, given by revelation, highlighted its preparatory function, including ordinances such as washing and anointing that were associated anciently with the Aaronic Priesthood.

Within the Kirtland Temple were given initiatory ordinances and an endowment focused on time—principally having to do with the immediate needs and duties of missionaries and others of the Saints[17]—while ordinances for both time and eternity—promising supernal blessings in both earth and heaven through continued faithfulness to the end, including the commencement of selected ordinances for both the living and the dead—would be performed only later in Nauvoo.[18] In the words of the dedicatory prayer, the Kirtland Temple was built “that the Son of Man might have a place to manifest himself to his people,”[19] and so that the Saints “may grow up in thee [that is, Jesus Christ], and receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost, and be organized according to thy laws, and be prepared to obtain every needful thing.”[20]

More specifically, the dedication of the Kirtland Temple would have provided a long-awaited place fit for additional, extensive personal instruction by the Lord Himself on details of the temple ordinances. At long last, the Savior had a place where He could “lay his head.”[21]

Section 110 of the Doctrine and Covenants, a summary of a vision received by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery on 3 April 1836, is one of the most significant accounts we possess about the meaning and significance of temple-related knowledge and keys that were restored to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple. Shortly after the temple dedication, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery “retired to the pulpit, the veils being dropped,” and knelt “in solemn and silent prayer.”[22] “After rising from prayer,” a vision was opened to them, in which Jesus Christ, Moses, Elias, and Elijah successively appeared. Although we are told that Moses, Elias, and Elijah came in order to commit specific keys at that time, section 110 tells us relatively little about the specific purpose of the visit of Jesus Christ. The heart of His relatively brief message to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, as reported in section 110, is His personal testimony of Himself and His Atonement, and His formal declaration of acceptance of the temple built to His name.[23]

Did the Savior Come to the Kirtland Temple After 3 April 1836?

Matthew B. Brown concluded that the answer to this question is “yes.” Why would He have done so? Did He restore additional keys? Again, Brown answers “yes,” though concluding that these additional keys were probably keys of knowledge rather than what we typically think of as keys of the priesthood.[24] He writes:[25]

Even though one does not get the impression from reading the contents of Doctrine and Covenants 110 that the Savior delivered any particular keys during this [initial] visitation, as did the angelic messengers who appeared after Him, Elder Orson Pratt testified that the Lord did indeed bestow “keys of instruction and counsel and authority” on this occasion.[26] Elder Franklin D. Richards adds that the Lord “conversed with the Prophet Joseph and Oliver, and revealed to them their duties, and informed them that the gospel should go [forth] from there and be preached throughout the nations of the earth.”[27] It is apparent from these comments that Doctrine and Covenants 110 does not record everything that occurred during this manifestation.[28]

One of the most significant things we know about the Savior’s 3 April 1836 visitation to the Kirtland Temple is His personal, conditional promise that He would come to the temple again. He said, “I will appear unto my servants, and speak unto them with mine own voice, if my people will keep my commandments, and do not pollute this holy house”[29] The only known account of the fulfillment of this promise is in a late, thirdhand report wherein it is said that Jesus Christ repeatedly visited Joseph Smith and Zebedee Coltrin over a two-week period and “drilled them in the temple work.”[30] According to this report, “[He] took them through the ceremonies time and again.”[31] “Jesus Christ stood and talked to them just as I am talking to you.”[32] Elsewhere I have described the circumstantial evidence relating to this intriguing report and the reasons why Zebedee Coltrin, rather than Oliver Cowdery, could have been chosen to be Joseph Smith’s companion in this purported divine manifestation.[33]

Whether or not every detail of this report ultimately turns out to be reliable, the months following the restoration of priesthood keys on 3 April 1836 seem to provide the most likely general timeframe and the newly dedicated temple the most propitious place for the “heavenly vision” described by Elder Parley P. Pratt and Elizabeth A. Whitney wherein further instructions about the temple ordinances were given—perhaps by Jesus Christ Himself. During the last half of 1836, the Prophet’s attention turned largely to practical matters: raising money for Missouri land, traveling to the east (a journey which lasted into September) and preparing for the opening of Kirtland Safety Society on 9 January 1837. After another year of eventful and turbulent months, the Prophet left Kirtland definitively on 12 January 1838.

Why Were the Nauvoo Temple Ordinances Not Shared Until 1842?

If we accept that Joseph Smith had a substantial understanding of the temple by 1836, an additional question merits attention: Why might it have been expedient that the Saints wait several years before they received the full complement of temple ordinances that were eventually administered in Nauvoo? Matthew B. Brown replies to this question as follows:[34]

First of all, it must be remembered that Kirtland, Ohio, was only a temporary gathering place for the Saints. In May of 1831 the Lord indicated that the Saints would only remain in Ohio “for a little season” until he should “provide for them otherwise, and command them to go hence.”[35] On 11 September 1831 the Lord was even more specific when He announced that the Saints would only remain in Kirtland, Ohio, for the space of five years,[36] during which time they would lay the foundation for a great work which was yet to come.[37] It was not until near the very end of this time frame that the Kirtland Temple was dedicated and the angels of Doctrine and Covenants 110 came to commit their keys. According to Joseph Fielding Smith, the house of the Lord in Kirtland “was only a preparatory temple” that “was built primarily for the restoration of keys of authority.”[38]

Elder George A. Smith indicated that there were other reasons why the Lord only bestowed a portion of his full temple rites upon the Saints during the Kirtland period. He said that during those years the Saints had among them “a great many traditions which they borrowed from their fathers,” and some of them were so unstable in the gospel that they apostatized over very trivial matters. Even when the Lord restored the basic temple rituals of the Kirtland period, some of the Saints “apostatized because there was not more of it, and others because there was too much.” Elder Smith continues:[39]

If the Lord had on that occasion revealed one single sentiment more, or went one step further to reveal more fully the law of redemption, I believe he would have upset the whole of us. The fact was, he dare not, on that very account, reveal to us a single principle further than he had done, for he had tried, over and over again, to do it. He tried at Jerusalem; He tried away back before the flood; He tried in the days of Moses; and he had tried, from time to time, to find a people to whom he could reveal the law of salvation, and he never could fully accomplish it; and he was determined this time to be so careful, and advance the idea so slowly, to communicate them to the children of men with such great caution that, at all hazards, a few of them might be able to understand and obey.

All of this raises an interesting question. Since Joseph Smith had the necessary keys, could he have restored and administered the Nauvoo-style temple rites during the Kirtland period? Brigham Young seems to have thought so. After giving a basic outline of the Nauvoo-era temple rites, President Young said that “before these endowments could be given at Kirtland, the Saints had to flee before mobocracy.”[40] The Saints then settled in Far West, Missouri, and laid the cornerstones of a temple there but eventually “had to retreat to [Nauvoo,] Illinois to save the lives of those who could get away alive from Missouri.” President Young lamented that the Kirtland Temple then fell “into the hands of wicked men, and by them [it was] polluted, like the temple at Jerusalem, and consequently it was disowned by the Father and the Son.”

And what about the Far West Temple? Did the Lord plan to restore the full temple ordinances to the Saints in His house at Far West, Missouri? This seems to be a definite possibility. The “pattern” that the Lord revealed for the Kirtland Temple[—which was also used for the planned but never-built Independence Temple—]would not have lent itself very well to the administration of the type of ordinances that were practiced during the Nauvoo period. But notice that the Lord was going to “show” the First Presidency the “pattern” for the Far West Temple just as He had for the Kirtland Temple.[41] Why would this have been necessary unless the “pattern” for the Far West Temple was going to be different than the “pattern” for the Kirtland Temple? As noted above in Brigham Young’s statement, persecution and mobocracy prevented the building of the Far West Temple and the Saints did not get another chance to build a House of God until they had settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. Before the Prophet even set foot in Nauvoo, he wrote a member of the Church saying: “I never have had [an] opportunity to give [the Saints] the plan that God has revealed to me.”[42]

How Did the Kirtland and Nauvoo Temple Ordinances Differ?

Joseph Smith taught: “The order of the house of God has and ever will be, the same, even after Christ comes, and after the termination of the thousand years it will be the same, and we shall finally roll into the celestial kingdom of God, and enjoy it forever.”[43]

Note, however, that this statement was made 1835, as the Saints prepared to receive the subset of ordinances that would be available to them in the Kirtland Temple. Since the Nauvoo Temple ordinances had not yet been given to the Saints, it is evident that the Prophet is not asserting the completeness and exactness in every detail of the ordinances the Saints had then received. Nevertheless, the differences between the Kirtland Temple ordinances and the Nauvoo ordinances seem to have been more a matter of completeness than of change.

In considering how the limited set of ordinances available in the Kirtland Temple prepared the Saints for the complete set of ordinances in the Nauvoo temple, Andrew F. Ehat has made the important observation that in both temples the ordinances were given in the same order. The ordinances listed below in bold were given in the Kirtland Temple, while the full set of ordinances was given in the Nauvoo Temple:[44]

ENDOWMENT ORDINANCES

Washing the Body With Water and Perfumed Alcohol (set wording)

Sealing the Washing

Anointing the Body with Oil

Confirming the Anointing (set wording)

Aaronic Portion of the Endowment

Melchizedek Portion of the Endowment

ETERNAL MARRIAGE ORDINANCES

Marriage for Time and Eternity

FULNESS OF THE PRIESTHOOD ORDINANCES

Second Anointing

Sealing the Anointing

Washing of Feet

Kirtland Temple, 2022.[45]

Summary and Conclusions

What did Joseph Smith know about modern temple ordinances by 1836? Plenty, it seems. An analysis of the historical record provides evidence that significant components of priesthood and temple doctrines, authority, and ordinances were revealed to the Prophet during his early ministry. Further, many aspects of Latter-day Saint temple worship are well attested in the Bible, as Joseph Smith discovered during his three-year tutorial of translation and revelation.

Although Joseph Smith knew much about the specifics of temple-related matters early in his ministry, his understandable reluctance to share details of sacred events publicly[46] has resulted in our possessing only very general descriptions of how these things were revealed to him. Of particular relevance as we try to understand the origins of the temple ordinances is that we know even less about how the Prophet gained the knowledge necessary for teaching these things to others. From what limited evidence we currently have it seems plausible that the additional keys of knowledge that prepared the Prophet for administering the ordinances were given to him in Kirtland. And if this supposition is true, there would have been no better place for this additional knowledge to have been revealed than the Kirtland Temple and no more opportune time for it than in the months following the restoration of priesthood keys on 3 April 1836.