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| − | Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.Conservapedia will never stop being vandalized.
| + | [[Image:Joseph Smith.gif|thumb|right|150px|Joseph Smith, Jr.]] |
| | + | <small>''For other Joseph Smiths, see [[Joseph F. Smith]] or [[Joseph Fielding Smith]].''</small> |
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| | + | '''Joseph Smith, Jr.''' (1805 - 1844) was the founder and 1st [[President]] of the [[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]. Joseph Smith was the first [[prophet]], [[seer]] and [[revelator]] of the church. Joseph was born on December 23, 1805 in [[Sharon]], [[Vermont]]. |
| | + | ==Visions== |
| | + | [[Image:First Vision.jpg|thumb|125px|Joseph Smith's First Vision]] |
| | + | After reading {{Bible ref|book=James|chap=1|verses=5|version=KJV}}, Joseph decided to ask God which church he should join. In the Spring of 1820, Joseph said he saw [[God]] and [[Jesus]] in a vision.<ref>[http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,959-1,00.html The First Vision] Mormon.org</ref> Joseph claimed to have been visited by an [[angel]] named [[Moroni]] from 1823 to 1827. According to Smith's account, Moroni showed Joseph where to find buried gold plates, and the plates contained the full gospel of Jesus Christ in "reformed Egyptian" (a language which few, if any non-Mormon, believes ever existed). Smith claimed to have translated these gold plates by the inspiration of God, and he published them in 1830 as the [[Book_of_Mormon|Book of Mormon]].<ref>[http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,1293-1,00.html Translation of the Book of Mormon] Mormon.org</ref> It was later claimed that, on May 15, 1829, the resurrected [[John the Baptist]] appeared to Joseph and [[Oliver Cowdery]] and gave them the authority to [[baptism|baptize]].<ref>[http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,1291-1,00.html Authority to baptize] Mormon.org</ref> In 1829 the [[apostle]]s [[Peter]], [[James the Apostle|James]], and [[John]] gave them the authority to restore Christ's Church.<ref>[http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,1292-1,00.html Authority of Apostles] Mormon.org</ref> |
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| | + | Joseph Smith also worked on a revision of the [[King James Bible]], known as the [[Inspired Version]] of the Bible. It was not published until after his death. |
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| | + | ==Wives== |
| | + | Smith married [[Emma Hale]] (daughter of Isaac Hale) in 1827 against her father's wishes. A judge in South Bainbridge, [[New York]] married them. This angered her father. He said to Smith “You have stolen my daughter and married her. I had much rather have followed her to the grave.” <ref>MORMON ENIGMA: EMMA HALE SMITH (Newell & Avery, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1994)</ref> |
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| | + | Later, in Nauvoo, Joseph Smith tried to establish [[polygamy]]. Between 1841 and 1843, Joseph married more than thirty wives although he kept the practice hidden from the public and from Emma. In order to cause Emma to accept his additional wives, Joseph claimed to receive a revelation regarding this “new and everlasting covenant” of plural marriage, partly directed at Emma - [[Doctrine and Covenants]] 132: |
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| | + | D&C 132:1 Verily, thus saith the Lord... |
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| | + | D&C 132:4 ...no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory. |
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| | + | D&C 132:52 And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive all those [wives] that have been given unto my servant Joseph... |
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| | + | D&C 132:55 But if she will not abide this commandment, then...I will...give unto him an hundred fold in this world, of...wives...” |
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| | + | D&C 132:62 And if he have ten virgins given unto him...he cannot commit adultery... |
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| | + | D&C 132:64 ...if any man have a wife...and he teaches unto her [this] law...then shall she believe and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed... |
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| | + | Despite the document's stipulation that the multiple wives be "virgins", Smith unabashedly married eleven women who had current marriages to other men (who were still alive at the time of each woman's marriage to Smith). |
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| | + | Smith's wives (and their husbands) were: Emma Hale, Fanny Alger (16 years old), Lucinda Morgan Harris (married to George W Harris), Louisa Beaman, Zina Huntington Jacobs (married to Henry Jacobs), Presendia Huntington Buell (married to Norman Buell), Agnes Coolbrith, Sylvia Sessions Lyon (married to Windsor Lyon), Mary Rollins Lightner (married to Adam Lightner), Patty Bartlett Sessions (married to David Sessions), Marinda Johnson Hyde (married to Orson Hyde), Elizabeth Davis Durfee (married to Jabez Durfee), Sarah Kingsley Cleveland (married to John Cleveland), Delcena Johnson, Eliza R. Snow, Sarah Ann Whitney (17 years old), Martha McBride Knight, Ruth Vose Sayers (married to Edward Sayers), Flora Ann Woodworth, Emily Dow Partridge, Eliza Maria Partridge, Almera Johnson, Lucy Walker (17 years old), Sarah Lawrence (17 years old), Maria Lawrence, Helen Mar Kimball (14 years old), Hanna Ells, Elvira Cowles Holmes (married to Jonathan Holmes), Rhoda Richards, Desdemona Fullmer, Olive Frost, Melissa Lott, Nancy Winchester (14 years old) and Fanny Young.<ref>[http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp Family Search] Familysearch.org</ref><ref>[http://http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/ Wives of Joseph Smith] WivesofJosephSmith.org</ref> |
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| | + | Although there is some historic indication that Smith married more women than those listed here (such as Clarissa Reed Hancock, the mother of John Reed Hancock), the evidence is not conclusive. |
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| | + | ==Imprisonment and Death== |
| | + | Smith had been imprisoned in [[Carthage]], [[Illinois]] for destroying the printing press of the Nauvoo Expositor. The Expositor had denounced (in its only printed edition) "false doctrines" (for instance the "doctrines of many gods") and Smith had had the printing press burned in the street. In retaliation, an angry mob broke into the prison on June 27, 1844. In an attempt to defend himself (with a pistol which had been smuggled in to him), Smith shot and wounded three men. He was preparing to jump from the unbarred second floor window where he had been incarcerated, but was shot, causing him to fall injured to the ground below. Four men shot him to death on the ground. None were convicted. His brother [[Hyrum]] (who was also armed with a pistol) was shot in the face and killed during the same gun-battle. <ref>[http://www.josephsmith.net/portal/site/JosephSmith/menuitem.da0e1d4eb6d2d87f9c0a33b5f1e543a0/?vgnextoid=ad10001cfb340010VgnVCM1000001f5e340aRCRD&locale=0 Martyr for God] JosephSmith.net</ref> |
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| | + | ==References== |
| | + | <small><references/></small> |
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| | + | ==External Links== |
| | + | *[http://www.josephsmith.net/portal/site/JosephSmith JosephSmith.net] - The official web site on Joseph Smith by the LDS Church. |
| | + | *[http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,957-1,00.html "Who was Joseph Smith?"] - At Mormon.org |
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| | + | {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Joseph}} |
| | + | [[Category:Religious People]] |
| | + | [[Category:LDS Church]] |
| | + | [[Category:Mormon Prophets]] |