Verified answer

Why did the women go along with it? Pretty simple really. Women are attracted to power. In the Mormon community of Nauvoo, Brother Joseph held absolute power. Joseph used his authority as the prophet to persuade many women and girls to "marry" him.

There is no Biblical support for the practice, and you won't gain much traction with Mormons by making an appeal to the Bible. As you know, Mormons believe that whatever their living prophet says trumps the Bible. That in itself should be a warning flag to Mormons who are honest.

The Bible makes it pretty clear that marriage is ordained of God, but also makes it clear that marriage is not required to get into heaven. The Bible also makes it clear that marriage won't exist in heaven. But Mormons will twist these verses to interpret them in a way that agrees with Brother Joseph's teachings. So really...what's the point?

The fact is that most Mormons have no idea about the polyandry. They have no idea that Joseph was married to women who already had faithful Mormon husbands. They have no idea that he "married" girls as young as 14, including his maid, many of them behind Emma's back. If they did have an idea, they would become ex-Mormons pretty quickly. And that's why their leaders tell them to avoid any information that is not "faith promoting". It's a vicious circle.

You either do not understand the definition of polyandry, do not understand the concept of temple "sealings," or are being deliberately dishonest.

Polandy means to have sexual relations with multiple partners of either sex. Joseph Smith never did this. Nor did the plural wives he was sealed to.

A temple sealing is a binding of a couple to each other for the eternities. Joseph Smith was sealed to several women in name only, in ordinance only, in sacred temple rite only. Words where spoken, sealing completed. The woman remained married to their previous husbands.

The sealing took place because Mormons believe that one of many requirements to enter the highest degree of heaven, one must have a temple sealing. These women to whom Joseph was sealed to did not have that prospect of a temple sealing. Their husbands were unrighteous men. They also were aware of the temple ordinance taking place. Again, this kind of a binding together does not involve any intimate sexual relations.

But of course, if that is where your mind goes, it says more about you than it does the temple sealing practice. Just sayin'

Did YOU read the fairlds link you give? Maybe you failed to understand what it is saying, or just chose to pick out pieces. What it is saying is that there were different kinds of marriages, some only kick in after this life, some are this life only, and some are both. And what the apologist is saying is that, with what little evidence we have, we can make the case that the women were monogamous. That the sealing to Joseph replaced the civil marriage not added to it.

Well when I was a mormon it was preached that marriage is a commandment.

But look at the responds from the mormons. "sealed" not married. Therefore a mormon marriage is not valid? maybe that's why they must be married at there ward then "sealed" at the temple?

What a joke. The women's husband gave permission to have their wives, "sealed" to Joe so that they could spend all eternity with joe in #1 heaven?

Well I guest those couples had a bad relationship and figured they would get at each other in the afterlife. I guest those guys said, Honey, I am going to put up with you for this life, under the next life, joe will have to deal with you. Wife said, yeah and you will be our slave, doing the laundry for me and Joe.

Well Judy, your ticket to #1 mormon heaven without being married has just been found. Tell your friend about it. Just get "sealed" with any mormon boy but don't even date him, and never even live with the guy. Hey y'all don't even have to know each other. Both of you can go your own way. Oh wait a minute, you will then have to be with him for all eternity in mormon heaven. Don't worry. One of these mormons here at YA is a lawyer. I am sure he can arrange a divorce in mormon heaven.

Hope this does not offend you, because it is just too funny not to say.

Mormonism is so ridiculous. They really need to come to Jesus.

God Bless.

Peace.

A common misconception. Sealing isn't the same as marriage. Joseph wasn't married to anyone else's wife; he was only sealed to them. He probably was both married and sealed to some unattached single sisters. I'm afraid the records aren't very good. So no, he didn't practice polyandry. Today, couples get married and sealed at the same time, which leads to the confusion.

I've always wondered about the whole "eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" thing. No where else is self mutilation apparently sanctioned. The Jews believed marriage to be a commandment, and raising up children was a sacred duty. So something is terribly amiss here.

[Edit]

I disagree. Why would Jesus command men and women to be married, if it wasn't important?

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

- Genesis 2:24

"4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,

5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

- Matthew 19

"I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully."

1 Timothy 5:14

"Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."

Hebrews 13:4

"...neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord."

1st Corinthians 11:11

The evidence is overwhelming that God commands us to marry. Paul had to be married. He was a Pharisee. He was on the council. Such were the rules. 1st Corinthians 7:7 is missing some key to understanding the content. Perhaps if we had read the letter he was responding to.

There was no polyandry because Joseph did not legally marry them according to the laws of the USA. What was done was a "sealing", which is not recognized by the laws then or now. There was no "marriage", therefore there was no polyandry.

Edit: Historians are not certain if Sylvia Lyon was married to her "husband" at the time Joseph may have fathered a child on her. Nor are they certain that Josephine was really the daughter of Joseph. DNA testing AFAIK hasn't been completed. Of course people will believe what they want to believe, regardless of how weak the evidence is. You probably think the same thing about us LOLOL

I do enjoy reading the responses from brainwashed morg, who claim that smith never had sex with his polygamous wives...........smith invented the doctrine of polygamy when he was found out having sex with his young (16 yrs old) family maid. - fanny Alger

"Meanwhile, the Prophet, with Louisa Beeman and my sister Delcena, had it agreeable arranged with Sister Almera, and after a little instruction she stood by the Prophet's side and was sealed to him as a wife, by Brother Clayton; after which the Prophet asked me to take my sister to occupy number "10" in his Mansion home during her stay in the city. But as I could not long be absent from my home and business, we soon returned to Ramus, where on the 15th of May, some three weeks later, the Prophet again came and at my house occupied the same room and bed with my sister, that the month previous he had occupied with the daughter of the late Bishop Partridge, as his wife." (Benjamin F. Johnson, Letter to George S. Gibbs, 1903, cited in E. Dale LeBaron, "Benjamin Franklin Johnson: Colonizer, Public Servant, and Church Leader" (M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1967)

It's weird because you dont see them making the same claim about the second mormon prophet - brigham young...... or the third, John Taylor.........or any of the many, many early mormon apostles who were - basically - sexual predators

BTW, he didnty need to 'pay off' the husbands of the polyandrous wives he was shtupping...... he just sent them on a mission to the other side of the world

for example.... David sessions was sent off on a mission, and then 'the prophet' took David's wife AND DAUGHTER

edit at publius

to the best of your knowledge

and that says it all really. there are NO honest, knowledgable mormon apologists

there are Ignorant Mormon apologists

there are uninformed mormon apologists

there are brainwashed mormon apologists, who have never seen anything outside the sanitized church approved resources

but there are no knowledgeable AND honest mormon apologists

an informed and honest mormon, pretty soon becomes an ex-mormon

First of all, yes, I knew this, almost everybody knows it.

Second, most of his marriages were simply dynastic, in many cases it would have been impossible for him to ever have consummated the marriage; so what kinds of marriages are these?

Last, are you really looking for verse from the Bible to discredit men who are polygamists? Like Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, or even David, or basically most notable men in the bible. I don't think that's going to be too effective for you.

EDIT - There is no direct evidence of Joseph Smith consummating a marriage with anybody other than his wife Emma. Unsubstantiated stories are out there, and people have claimed to be his children, but DNA testing has refuted those claims in 100% of the known cases.

Dynastic marriages do not imply polyandry, many of his wives were married to him while he was in prison, and a lot of them were after he was dead - are you implying that he was able to practice polyandry post-mortum?

What are you talking about suggesting that non-married men are servants to married LDS gods? You don't seem to have a clue as to what we believe. Attacking exaggerations won't get you too far.

Christ mentioned marriage briefly - but we don't have records on long discussions on it. It seems that many of His apostles were likely married. But the topics are short and scattered and don't really benefit either of our points. Except that your insinuation that the bible goes against polygamy is way off, and even in polyandry your missing the subtle inclusion of 3 separate sexual scandals in the OT that occur in the stated lineage of Christ which doesn't help your case at all.

Not only practiced polyandry, they passed around the "wives" amongst them as well. Zina Jacobs Smith Young was married and had children by her first living husband, and was eventually sealed to Joseph Smith. After he died Brigham Young took her to his bed and had a daughter by her, all while she was still legally married to another. Young once publically referred to this woman and her children as his physical "property", all because they were once Smith's "property" which he "inherited" as pope of the LDS. The original wife swap club mentality.

There's nothing new under the sun, indeed.

Yes, Joseph Smith was sealed to several other women who had husbands, however, he did not live with them nor did he have sex with them. They were only sealed to him for eternity in the hereafter, not for this earth life. And most of them received permission from their husbands before the sealing took place. So there was no Polyandry as such, because Joseph Smith did not become their husband until in the hereafter. And they did not become his wife until in the hereafter. So you see there was no Polyandry in the Church whatsoever. Whomever says there was does not understand what happened.