Footnotes
See Historical Introduction to Revelation, July 1830–A [D&C 24].
See Revelations, July 1830–A through C, in Book of Commandments 25–27 [D&C 24–26]. Oliver Cowdery, a recipient of the other two July revelations, left for Fayette, New York, around the middle of July and apparently did not return until the end of August to help JS and Emma move to New York. Therefore, if the order in the Book of Commandments is correct, the featured text was likely dictated before Cowdery’s departure. However, if the order in Revelation Book 1 is correct, this revelation could have been dictated later in the month.
Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. II,” Ohio Star (Ravenna), 20 Oct. 1831, [3]; Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 101–102.
Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.
Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.
Hicks, Mormonism and Music, 10–22; Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:57–59.
Hicks, Michael. Mormonism and Music: A History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.
Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.
Relief Society Minute Book, 17 Mar. 1842. At the founding of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, John Taylor recognized Emma Smith’s former ordination when he “laid his hands on the head of Mrs. Smith and blessed her, and confirm’d upon her all the blessings which have been confer’d on her, that she might be a mother in Israel and look to the wants of the needy, and be a pattern of virtue.” The minutes of the meeting state that Taylor then ordained Emma Smith’s two counselors. (Relief Society Minute Book, 17 Mar. 1842.)
John Whitmer likely created this heading when he copied the text into Revelation Book 1.
See 2 John 1:1; see also Relief Society Minute Book, 17 Mar. 1842. In 1842, JS commented on the meaning of “Elect Lady,” explaining that “Elect meant to be Elected to a certain work &c, & that the revelation was then fulfilled by Sister Emma’s Election to the Presidency of the Society.” (JS, Journal, 17 Mar. 1842, underlining in original.)
In early nineteenth-century America, women’s participation as exhorters or teachers in Protestant churches was generally limited to informal meetings; women customarily were barred from the pulpit on worship days. No extant sources indicate that Emma acted as a teacher either publicly or privately in this early period of the Church of Christ. (See Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims, chap. 3.)
Brekus, Catherine A. Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740–1845. Gender and American Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Emma Smith was confirmed a church member and received the gift of the Holy Ghost in August 1830. (JS History, vol. A-1, 52.)