Mormonism and gender issues/Women/Role in the Church/Priesthood/Did Joseph ordain women to the priesthood

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Why do women not exercise priesthood authority in the Church?

Questions

Did Joseph Smith (or other early leaders) ordain or plan to ordain women to the priesthood?

To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here

Answer

Ordination of women to the priesthood is a matter of doctrine that is contrary to the Lord's revealed organization for His Church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a letter responding to the Ordain Women movement's request for tickets to the April 2014 General Priesthood Session. (17 March 2014)

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It seems evident from the historical record that:

• Joseph Smith did not ordain women to the priesthood--particularly in the sense of ordaining them to offices in the priesthood.
• None of the other early leaders did either.

There has been some confusion over the language used of the first organization of the Relief Society—but we shouldn't understand this as a priesthood ordination.

However, in other vital senses, women are included in the priesthood:

• through the temple ordinances they receive and administer
• by the authority delegated to all those who serve under the direction of priesthood keys
• because all people—men and women—must be sealed in marriage to be exalted; single women therefore share in the priesthood of their eventual partner, just as the currently married do with their spouse.

Detailed Analysis

Did Joseph Smith ordain women to the Priesthood?

No. The basis for this kind of suggestion usually comes from the language used when Joseph Smith first help organize the Relief Society. When the Relief Society was originally set up, it seems to have been intended to function in a way similar to the priesthood (but largely autonomous - it was not originally set up as an auxiliary to the priesthood in the sense that it exists today - that shift comes later). It had a similar organization (a presidency, councils, and so on).

The original minutes from the Relief Society's founding are available on-line as part of the Joseph Smith Papers project.

A look at these minutes illustrates the parallels in the type of language used. For example, on page 5:

If any Officers are wanted to carry out the designs of the Institution, let them be appointed and set apart, as Deacons, Teachers, etc., are among us."

Later on the same page:

Moved by President [Joseph] Smith, that Mrs. [Emma] Smith proceed to choose her Counselors, that they may be ordained to preside over this Society, in taking care of the poor."

And later again on the same page:

President Smith ... stated that she was ordained at the time,....

So, we have this language that mirrors the language of the priesthood, but it is likely just that: a mirror. This language describes an organization parallel to the priesthood, but it is not the priesthood. They are set apart, just like deacons and teachers are, but they are not set apart as deacons and teachers. We certainly have no record of women serving as deacons, teachers, priests, elders, etc. in Nauvoo or afterward.

Did Joseph intend to ordain women to the priesthood?

The language used caused some confusion in the church in the late 1800s. In particular, concerns were raised after members had been exposed to the full temple ordinances. And this brings us to the second issue-- did Joseph intend to ordain women to the priesthood?

In the temple, women administer ordinances and do other things that are suggestive of priesthood authority. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there was a push to make sure that temple ordinances were being performed the same way in all of the temples (this hadn't really been an issue until then, since there were only a couple of temples--but the number of temples began to grow quickly in this time frame).

So from this period one begins to see a series of comments from leaders of the church that relate to this subject.

Late nineteenth century

One of the earlier ones comes from President John Taylor in 1880, which was specifically in response to the question of Emma and the early Relief Society:

"Some of the sisters have thought that these sisters mentioned were, in this ordination, ordained to the priesthood. And for the information of all interested in this subject I will say, it is not the calling of these sisters to hold the Priesthood, only in connection with their husbands, they being one with their husbands."

The idea of women holding the priesthood in connection with their husbands is repeated in 1888 by President Franklin D. Richards, but given some additional context:

I ask any and everybody present who have received their endowments, whether he be a brother Apostle, Bishop, High Priest, Elder, or whatever office he may hold in the Church, "What blessings did you receive, what ordinance, what power, intelligence, sanctification or grace did you receive that your wife did not partake of with you?

I will answer, that there was one thing that our wives were not made special partakers of, and that was the ordination to the various orders of the priesthood which were conferred upon us. Aside from that, our sisters share with us any and all of the ordinances of the holy anointing, endowments, sealings, sanctifications and blessings that we have been made partakers of. Now, I ask you: Is it possible that we have the holy priesthood and our wives have none of it? Do you not see, by what I have read, that Joseph desired to confer these keys of power upon them in connection with their husbands? I hold that a faithful wife has certain blessings, powers and rights, and is made partaker of certain gifts and blessings and promises with her husband, which she cannot be deprived of, except by transgression of the holy order of God. They shall enjoy what God said they should. And these signs shall follow them if they believe. Moses said, when some one told him that a certain man was prophesying in the camp, and the people thought he had no right to do so, Moses replied saying: "I would to God that all of the Lord's people were prophets.

So I say: I wish all the sisters were so faithful that they were healers of the sick, through the power of God."

(There were a couple of additional ordinances that women performed in temples in the 19th and early 20th century that this refers to.)

Then, in 1912, Elder James Talmage further expanded these ideas to include single sisters being endowed (a growing trend in that time period), when he suggested that a single woman being endowed shared the priesthood of her future husband:

"It is a precept of the Church that women of the Church share the authority of the Priesthood with their husbands, actual or prospective; and therefore women, whether taking the endowment for themselves or for the dead, are not ordained to specific rank in the Priesthood."

Present day

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles expressed a similar idea:

When men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which by definition is priesthood power. While the authority of the priesthood is directed through priesthood keys, and priesthood keys are held only by worthy men, access to the power and the blessings of the priesthood is available to all of God’s children. ... Those who have entered the waters of baptism and subsequently received their endowment in the house of the Lord are eligible for rich and wonderful blessings. The endowment is literally a gift of power. All who enter the house of the Lord officiate in the ordinances of the priesthood. This applies to men and women alike."

These ideas were repeated again in April 2014 General Conference by Elder Dallin H. Oaks:

In his insightful talk at BYU Education Week last summer, Elder M. Russell Ballard gave these teachings:

“Our Church doctrine places women equal to and yet different from men. God does not regard either gender as better or more important than the other. …

“When men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which is priesthood power. … Access to the power and the blessings of the priesthood is available to all of God’s children.”

Thus, all have access to the power of the priesthood, but not all are ordained to priesthood office.

Notes

Further reading and additional sources responding to these claims