Did Joseph Smith marry women who were already married to other men? Isn’t that stealing wives?
The Bible answers
King James Version
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
NRSVUE
For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
King James Version
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband.
NRSVUE
For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband.
Also restored
Doctrine and Covenants 132:16–19
Sealings in Nauvoo included time-and-eternity marriages and eternity-only covenants that bound families to the Prophet without always creating a new earthly household.
Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.
Levirate and dynastic marriage in the Hebrew Bible
Israel already knew marriages whose first purpose was covenant and posterity, not a modern nuclear romance (Ruth, Genesis 38, royal marriages).
That does not baptize every Nauvoo sealing. It does mean ‘already married’ in 1840s covenant language is not automatically ‘affair.’ Read the essay before the meme.
Gospel Topics Essays
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church publishes that Joseph was sealed to women already married. Some of those husbands knew. Some sealings were for eternity only. Polyandry in the internet sense — Joseph as a homewrecker collecting other men’s wives — is not what the documents uniformly show. It is still a hard, Restoration-specific practice. Honesty is the essay. The cartoon is not.
Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married. Some of these women continued to live with their first husbands.
Faithful voices only. Most of these are independent — not official Church productions unless marked as such.
Be the first to tell us if this case is strong.
