Who Was Emma Smith? The Elect Lady of D&C 25, Her Losses, and Her Choices

Who she wasFrom Harmony to Nauvoo

Emma Hale was born July 10, 1804, in Harmony, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale. She met Joseph Smith when he boarded at her parents’ home in 1825. Her father disapproved of the young treasure-seeker, so on January 18, 1827, they eloped. That September 22 she went with him to the hill where Joseph received the gold plates, and in Harmony she served as one of his first scribes. See How the Book of Mormon Was Translated.

She was baptized on June 28, 1830, and that July the Lord spoke to her directly in section 25, the only revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants addressed to a woman by name. She followed Joseph from New York to Ohio, Missouri and Illinois. When he was imprisoned in Liberty Jail, she led their children across the frozen Mississippi River into Illinois in February 1839, reportedly carrying his Bible translation manuscripts in bags under her skirts. In Nauvoo she became the first president of the Female Relief Society on March 17, 1842. See What Is the Relief Society?.

Joseph wrote of her in August 1842, while hiding from arrest: “Again she is here, even in the seventh trouble, undaunted, firm and unwavering, unchangeable, affectionate Emma.” Late in life she gave her own account of the translation to her son. That testimony gets its own post: Emma Smith’s Last Testimony (1879).

↑ Back to contents

What she carriedThe losses

Emma and Joseph had eleven children, two of them adopted twins, and six died in infancy or early childhood. Her first son died the day he was born in 1828, during the same weeks the 116 pages were lost. Her adopted son Joseph died after the mob attack in Hiram in 1832. She was driven from three states. When Joseph was killed in 1844 she was 39 and pregnant with her last son, David Hyrum. See Why Was Joseph Smith Tarred and Feathered? and What Were the 116 Lost Pages?.

↑ Back to contents

The Doctrine and CovenantsThe elect lady

Section 25 opens with forgiveness and a title: “thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou art an elect lady, whom I have called” (D&C 25:3). It gives her real work. She was to be “a comfort unto my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun., thy husband, in his afflictions,” a scribe, and “ordained under his hand to expound scriptures, and to exhort the church” (D&C 25:5–7).

And it gave her the Church’s music: “it shall be given thee, also, to make a selection of sacred hymns … For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me” (D&C 25:11–13). Her Collection of Sacred Hymns, published in 1835, was the Church’s first hymnbook. The section ends with a warning and a promise: “Keep my commandments continually, and a crown of righteousness thou shalt receive. And except thou do this, where I am you cannot come. And verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my voice unto all” (D&C 25:15–16).

↑ Back to contents

The BibleRuth, and the virtuous woman

Emma left her family to marry a man her father distrusted, which is Ruth’s story in reverse: “Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Proverbs describes the wife she was in the hard years: “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her … She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life” (Proverbs 31:10–12). Paul commended Phebe as “a succourer of many, and of myself also” (Romans 16:1–2). Nauvoo’s Relief Society, under Emma, did the same work.

↑ Back to contents

The Book of MormonSariah

The Book of Mormon Emma helped write down opens with another prophet’s wife. When her sons were overdue, Sariah complained “that he was a visionary man; saying: Behold thou hast led us forth from the land of our inheritance, and my sons are no more” (1 Nephi 5:1–2). When they returned, she said, “Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness” (1 Nephi 5:8). Scripture lets prophets’ wives be human, doubts included. The stripling warriors credit their mothers: “We do not doubt our mothers knew it” (Alma 56:47–48).

↑ Back to contents

The Pearl of Great PriceEve

The Pearl of Great Price restores Eve as a full partner: “Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed … and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient. And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters” (Moses 5:11–12). That is the pattern section 25 set for Emma: a wife who expounds, exhorts and teaches. See Do Latter-day Saints Believe in Heavenly Mother?.

↑ Back to contents

The hard partsNamed plainly

Emma’s story includes real pain over plural marriage. In May 1843 she consented to Joseph marrying some plural wives, then turned against the practice. The July 1843 revelation on eternal marriage speaks to her by name: “let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph … let mine handmaid forgive my servant Joseph his trespasses; and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses” (D&C 132:51–56). It is one of the hardest passages in the canon, and Latter-day Saints shouldn’t pretend it isn’t. See Polygamy, Explained Honestly.

After 1844 she did not follow Brigham Young west. She stayed in Nauvoo, married Lewis C. Bidamon in 1847, and in 1860 joined the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, led by her son Joseph Smith III. She died in Nauvoo on April 30, 1879, and is buried beside Joseph and Hyrum. Latter-day Saints today honor her as the elect lady, and her hymns are still sung. Judging her is the Lord’s business. Honoring what she gave is ours. See Who Was Brigham Young?.

↑ Back to contents

Check the premiseThe presuppositions baked into the question

Before this question can be answered fairly, the person asking has to justify a few assumptions packed inside it:

1. That Emma left the faith. She never denied the Book of Mormon; late in life she testified that Joseph could not have written it. She did not follow Brigham Young west, and later joined the Reorganized church.
2. That women had no role in the early Church. The Lord called her to expound scripture, exhort the Church and compile its hymns (D&C 25:7, 11), and she led the first Relief Society.
3. That D&C 132 tells the whole story of her marriage. It records one painful conflict. Joseph’s own journal calls her “undaunted, firm and unwavering, unchangeable, affectionate Emma.”
4. That a prophet’s wife must be without struggle. Sariah struggled too (1 Nephi 5:2), and scripture records it honestly.

↑ Back to contents

FAQQuick answers

↑ Back to contents

Sources

• King James Bible (churchofjesuschrist.org): Ruth 1:16 · Proverbs 31:10–12 · Romans 16:1–2
• Book of Mormon: 1 Nephi 5:1–2 · 1 Nephi 5:8 · Alma 56:47–48
• Doctrine and Covenants: D&C 25:3 · D&C 25:5–7 · D&C 25:11–13 · D&C 25:15–16 · D&C 132:51–52 · D&C 132:56
• Pearl of Great Price: Moses 5:11–12
• Joseph Smith Papers, August 16, 1842 · “Voices of the Restoration: Emma Hale Smith” · Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith (1984)

• Featured image and in-article graphic: original graphics by thebookofmormon.ai (painterly backgrounds; no photographs or likenesses of real people).