Messenger

The Parable of the Talents
and Plural Marriage

Posted on 11/17/2007 at 3:43:45 PM

Because of the sacred nature of many of the doctrines revealed to Joseph Smith, and due to the ridicule and persecution that many of the world would have given them, the Prophet taught many things in secret to only his most trusted associates. However, not all of his friends proved to be trustworthy, and they shared with the world, usually in some twisted form, those things he had taught them in purity.

William Law was one such person, who revealed publicly what had been taught to him in private. This he did in the infamous Nauvoo Expositor, and in a neighboring newspaper known as the Warsaw Message. In this latter publication he tried to put into rhyme the deepest of doctrines that had been imparted to him by Joseph Smith, but which he now sought to mock. The principle which he took most exception to was plural marriage, which he described in the following language:

“The man that has got ten fair wives,
Ten worlds he may create;
And he that has got less than this,
Will find a bitter fate.
The one or two that he might have,
He’ll be deprived of then;
And they’ll be given as talents were,
To him who has got ten.” (1)

Whilst Law’s words are certainly not an accurate rendering of exactly what Joseph had taught him, he certainly attributes certain concepts to the Prophet, amongst which is the idea that a man might be rewarded with more wives if he improves upon his marital status as the good servants were rewarded with greater riches in Jesus’ parable of the talents (2), whereas a person who contents himself with just one wife, will find himself without any after this life.

Could this possibly be true? Did Joseph Smith indeed teach this doctrine?

For the first mention of this idea we will look at another early anti-Mormon, John C. Bennett. Bennett was at one time Assistant President of the Church, but became bitter against the Prophet when Bennett’s adulterous behavior had been discovered. This led to Bennett making a career out of exposes of Joseph Smith’s plural marriages. In August of 1842 he send the Sangamo Journal a letter he claimed was written by Joseph Smith to Nancy Rigdon (3), purportedly following Smith’s proposal of plural marriage to Nancy. One sentence specifically refers to the parable of the talents:

“Blessings offered, but rejected, are no longer blessings, but become like the talent hid in the earth by the wicked and slothful servant; the proffered good returns to the giver; the blessing is bestowed on those who will receive and occupy; for unto him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundantly, but unto him that hath not or will not receive, shall be taken away that which he hath, or might have had.” (4)

Perhaps if Bennett were the only one claiming the authenticity of this letter we might dismiss it as false, however a manuscript copy exists in the Church Historian’s Office, dated January 1842, which had been dictated to apostle Willard Richards by Joseph himself, and which became part of the official History of the Church (5), and is reprinted in the book “Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith”. (6)

Some might argue, however, that Joseph was not really comparing the parable of the talents to plural marriage, and if there were no further evidence that could be considered a possibility, but we have other, more faithful, witnesses to Joseph’s teachings on this matter.

Nancy Rigdon was not the only woman to whom he taught this doctrine, and whilst she did not accept it, another woman, Lucy Walker, who he taught it to was more receptive:

“He [Joseph] said men must beware how they treat their wives. They were given them for a holy purpose that the myriads of spirits waiting for tabernacles might have pure and healthy bodies. He also said many would awake in the morning of the resurrection sadly disappointed; for they, by transgression, would have neither wives nor children, for they surely would be taken from them, and given to those who should prove themselves worthy. Again he said, a woman would have her choice; this was a privilege that could not be denied her.” (7)

Benjamin F. Johnson was a faithful Church patriarch, who recounted in a letter to the First Presidency’s secretary how the Prophet asked him to approach his sister Almera with the idea of her being Joseph’s plural wife: (8)

“But how,’ I asked, ‘Can I teach my sister what I myself do not understand, or show her what I do not myself see?’ ‘But you will see and understand it,’ he said, ‘And when you open your mouth to talk to your sister, light will come to you and your mouth will be full and your tongue loose, and I will today preach a sermon to you that none but you will understand.’ Both of these promises were more than fulfilled. The text of his sermon was our use of the ‘one, five and ten talents,’ and as God had now commanded plural marriage, and as exaltation and dominion of the saints depended upon the number of their righteous posterity, from him who was then but with one talent, it would be taken and given him that had ten, which item of doctrine seems now to be somewhat differently constructed.” (9)

Although we do not have a complete record of what Joseph Smith said in his sermon, we do have Willard Richards summary of the Joseph’s remarks, in which Joseph asked the congregation:

“What is the meaning of the Parable of the 10 talents? What is the meaning of the scripture [that] he that is faithful over a few things shall be made ruler over many? And he that is faithful over many shall be made ruler over many more?” (10)

It seems that as well as hinting to Benjamin F. Johnson about this doctrine, he explicitly taught it to Erastus Snow, who later recollected:

“Joseph Smith said that the parable that Jesus spoke of that the man who had one talent and hid it in the earth was the man who had but one wife and would not take another, would have her taken from him and given to the one who had the more.” (11)

The idea of a woman symbolically representing a talent can be seen in the Old Testament vision of Zechariah:

“And behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of ephah.” (12)

One wonders if any of the Apostles of Jesus who heard him relate the parable of the talents was aware of this connection, or if this was first recognized by Joseph Smith. Years after the Prophet’s death this doctrine became common place enough to be included in a hymn written during the reformation movement of the mid-1850s:

“Now, this advice I freely give,
If exalted you would be,
Remember that your husband must
Be blessed with more than thee.

Then, O, let us say,
God bless the wife that strives
And aids her husband all she can
T’ obtain a dozen wives.” (13)

Multiple wives were seen as a blessing to women as well as men. As one modern Fundamentalist Mormon woman put it “an only wife is a lonely wife.” Brigham Young taught that both men and women were expected to live plural marriage, or they would be unworthy of being with their monogamous spouses taken from them in eternity:

“Now, where a man in this Church says, ‘I don’t want but one wife, I will live my religion with one,’ he will perhaps be saved in the celestial kingdom; but when he gets there he will not find himself in possession of any wife at all. He has had a talent that he has hid up. He will come forward and say, ‘Here is that which thou gavest me, I have not wasted it, and here is the one talent,’ and he will not enjoy it, but it will be taken and given to those who have improved the talents they received, and he will find himself without any wife, and he will remain single for ever and ever. But if the woman is determined not to enter into a plural marriage, that woman when she comes forth will have the privilege of living in single blessedness through all eternity.” (14)

If a man wont take this responsibility he will find himself without a wife in eternity, as would any woman who held her husband back from righteously taking another wife, or chose to remain single in this life rather than marry a good man willing to live this principle, even if he already has a wife.

The time will come when those good women whose husbands refuse to live this way will have the choice to marry a man who will, as is taught in this early Mormon hymn -

“He who one talent has abused,
Hear it! ye sons of men,
Shall lose it, and it shall be given
To him who improves ten.” (15)

The Savior also hinted at the idea of men who had proved faithful – even to the point of losing a wife – receiving many more in this life or the life to come, when he promised:

“There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting. (16)

This does not mean, however, that woman are mere property, but rather that a woman who desires to serve God will have the choice of a righteous man, even though he is already married, and will not be forced to stay with a husband unworthy of her throughout eternity.

As Eliza R. Snow pointed out; to a good woman it does not matter how many wives her husband has: “What to Eve, though in her mortal life, [if] she’d been the first, the tenth, or fiftieth wife?” (17) she asked.

In most Christian congregations today and even in the LDS Church, religiously active women outnumber devoted men by quite a proportion18, leaving some destined to be single throughout this life with no security of marriage in the next, unless they are sealed to a good man who is already married.

Anticipating this, Isaiah looked forward to the time when “seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.”19 Through Celestial Plural Marriage in our day both the parable of talents and the prophecies of God are fulfilled.

Footnotes

1. Buckeye’s Lament for Want of More Wives, Warsaw Message, February 7th, 1844.
2. Matthew 25:14-30. Note: a “talent” is a unit of currency, based on weight and value.
3. Nancy G. Rigdon, was the 19 year old daughter of Sidney Rigdon. She did not accept Joseph’s proposal and 4 years later she married a man by the name of Robert Ellis.
4. Sangamo Journal, 19 August 1842; The History of the Saints: An Expose’ of Joe Smith and Mormonism, 1842, p. 243
5. History of the Church 5:135.
6. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 257.
7. Lucy Walker, Autobiography of Lyman O. Littlefield. Lucy married Joseph on May 1st, 1843.
8. Joseph married Almera in April 1843.
9. Benjamin F. Johnson to George F. Gibbs, date? 1903
10. Willard Richards, Joseph Smith’s Diary, 2 April 1843. Interestingly it is from part of this sermon that we derive section 130 of the Doctrine and Covenants.
11. Erastus Snow, Meeting of the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve, Wilford Woodruff Journal, October 14th, 1882
12. Zechariah 5:7, see 5-11. Ephah usually refers to a unit of measurement (Exodus 16:36).
13. 1856 Reformation Song. Used as a Hymn in an edition of Songs of Zion.
14. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses Vol. 16, p.166.
15. Veneration, Sacred Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 17th ed, 1881, no. 326 (also 20th ed., 1890, no. 392 & The Latter-day Saint Psalmody, no. 159, 1896.)
16. Luke 18:29-30; Mark 10:29-30
17. Eliza R. Snow, An Immortal, Poems of Eliza R. Snow 2:8,9.
18. “For all singles over 30 there are 19 active men [who attend church weekly] for every 100 active women. [Thats less than a 1 in 5 chance of finding a mate] … Marriage to an active male is demographically impossible for many active single females over 30. And even when there are available males, they may possess other characteristics that rule them out as potential mates.” (Kristen L. Goodman and Tim B. Heaton, “LDS Church Members in the U.S. and Canada: A Demographic Profile”, AMCAP 12, no. 1 (1986), p. 91).
19. Isaiah 4:1.

“For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

… And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

… Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

… Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” (Matthew 25:14-29.)

“if they are not more faithful unto me, it shall be taken away, even that which they have.” (Doctrine & Covenants 60:23.)

“every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold” (Doctrine & Covenants 82:18.)