I also recommend Reluctant Polygamist by Meg Strout. The main thesis of the book is that Joseph was reluctant to practice it, but due to the spiritual wifery that was being practiced by John Bennett and others, and due to being commanded to, he used the true principle of plural marriage to shed light on it to those who were most vulnerable (widows and single sisters). Though some claimed to have had his children, it is very likely that he never consummated any of the marriages, because none of the women who were sealed to him ever bore children, unless they were already married to someone else. And of those children born to women married to others, none of them matched Joseph's DNA.jim wrote: ↑November 14th, 2017, 12:05 pm Rensai, I'd recommend reading Andrew Ehat's essay - Joseph Smiths Introduction of Temple Ordinances
https://archive.org/details/EhatIntroOf ... rdinances2
I've struggled with the question of polygamy for a long time. I've read all of the Joseph Fought Polgamy books, and articles. I've tried to look up all scriptures talking about it (the closest you can get justifying it by scriptures alone apart from D&C 132 seem to be 2 Sam 12:1-8, Jacob 2:30, 2 Nephi 14:1). I'm not going to cite scriptures against it, or the bad examples against it because they're a lot more numerous. I just wanted to say I read the above essay and it made me at least consider it's possible the Lord can command it. It *might* be required under certain circumstances (only if the Lord ever commands it though, otherwise Adam, and Noah couldn't have been saved without it). I'm not sure if it was commanded, but I realized for me, I only need to do the things the Lord is commanding me now, and worrying about it now won't do me any good.
Some might struggle with the idea that Joseph sealed himself to other women, but of those he sealed himself to, they either had non-member husbands or husbands who had been excommunicated. Since being sealed to Joseph was a way to be a part of the New and Everlasting Covenant, the women wanted to be a part of the covenant and obviously questioned whether their husbands could ever get them there. One of the husbands even encouraged it because he thought it was all gibberish, but would make his wife happy. None of the husbands ever became upset at Joseph. It is most likely that Emma felt that plural marriage should not include sexual relations, and though 132 is clear that it can, it is likely that Joseph never consummated the marriages in respect of Emma's feelings. The dearth of DNA evidence which has debunked all claims that Joseph sired children with his wives, the view that birth control was evil (and people got arrested back then for even publishing about it), and the lack of any birth control in any event, make it extremely unlikely that Joseph ever consummated those sealings. Joseph never had problems getting Emma pregnant, and almost all the women he was sealed to had children with their husbands or the men they married after Joseph's death.
A further problem when reading historical accounts is that people often interchanged the term spiritual wifery with plural marriage or polygamy. Spiritual wifery was the idea that John C. Bennett and other men used to seduce widows, single sisters, and even Orson Pratt's wife while he was on his mission. These foul beings taught that if you had illicit sex and "no man knew" it was okay. That was the very thing Joseph and Emma tried to root out by teaching the correct principle of plural marriage. The big divide between Emma and Brigham was that Brigham understood what section 132 meant, that seed could be raised up through the plural wives, but Emma rejected it. But she definitely knew about Joseph's marriages and was even a part of the ceremony of some of them, and was fine with them so long as they did not include conjugal relations. So when Emma rejected polygamy or that Joseph ever practiced it, she was probably rejecting the idea that Joseph had sexual relations with those wives. And when Joseph claimed he was not a polygamist, well he may have been telling the truth at the time. In the context of sexual relations, that may be completely true. It could be further true if he was speaking about polygamy in the sense of spiritual wifery that Bennett was teaching.
Anyway, the truth is often far more complex than people would like to admit. For that reason, I highly recommend the book, Reluctant Polygamist. It tends to put things in context. The author was also one who always struggled with Joseph's polygamy. She did not set out to vindicate his character, but I think that is exactly what she has done. I think it also explains why Brigham and Emma had a falling out. Common belief is that it is because Emma thought Joseph Smith the III should be the prophet. He was just too young for that to really be a consideration. It is more likely the difference between how Brigham Young and she both considered plural marriage, Brigham understanding 132 to mean conjugal relations in that marriage are fine, and Emma rejecting that idea.
All that being said, while it is an interesting historical discussion, I have a testimony that both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were prophets. I had to ask the question about Brigham Young in order to understand that the true Church did successfully transition from Joseph to Brigham. Brigham Young may not have been perfect, nor was Joseph, but each was perfectly suited to their mission--Joseph to restore the gospel, and Brigham to be the example of how Church leadership succession would take place (following the example in the New Testament of filling vacancies of the apostleship, by the way) and lead the Mormons west to settle in the Rockies. That both men were suited for those missions there can be little doubt based on the results.