Question: Is an evangelist really a patriarch?

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Question: Is an evangelist really a patriarch?

Introduction to Question

In a report of a discourse given by Joseph Smith between June 26 and July 2, 1839, Willard Richards wrote that “An Evangelist Is a patriarch even the oldest man of the Blood of Joseph or of the seed of Abraham, whereever [sic] the Church of Christ is established in the earth, there should be a patriarch for the benefit of the posterity of the Saints as it was with Jacob. [sic] in giving his patriarchal blessing unto his Sons &c.”

This quote is often connected to the text of Ephesians 4:11–14:

11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Thus, Joseph Smith is assumed to be mapping the organization of the modern Church as it existed in mid-1839 to the ancient Church established by Christ. "[Doctrine & Covenants 107, a revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1835,] speaks of 'evangelical ministers,' which is understood [by members of the Church] to refer to Patriarchs. The [Quorum] of the Twelve Apostles has the responsibility of calling and ordaining stake Patriarchs 'as they shall be designated unto them by revelation' (D&C 107:39)."

Some have questioned whether evangelists really are patriarchs, given that the typical referent of the word “evangelist”—including its ancient Greek counterpart in the New Testament—is a missionary rather than one who pronounces blessings on people’s heads like patriarchs in the modern Church.

This article gives at least one bit of evidence that might be used to substantiate the teachings of Joseph Smith on this point.

Response to Question

Assuming Joseph Really Meant that an Evangelist is a Patriarch

Joseph's words can be interpreted to mean that he is saying that an evangelist and a patriarch are the same thing. Some good insights have been offered under this understanding.

S. Kent Brown wrote:

In its earliest sense, on the other hand, from a badly preserved inscription from the isle of Rhodes, the noun euvangelistēs refers to “one who proclaims oracular sayings.” That is to say, this person declared future events that were hidden from those in the mortal world, beyond human view. This is precisely the function of a modern patriarch—to tell individual church members the things they otherwise could not see about their own futures from God’s point of view, thus opening a window onto what that person may experience and become. Such declarations come not to congregations or to the church as a whole but to individuals, one by one, person by person.

To add potential evidence to the view that an evangelist is a patriarch, Richard Lloyd Anderson notes that “Paul, the most successful missionary on record, never calls himself an evangelist…Philip is called an evangelist many years after any of his known missionary journeys (Acts 21:8), and Timothy is told to do the work of an evangelist in the context of correcting and guiding the Saints who are in danger of apostasy, not of preaching to outsiders who do not have the truth (2 Tim. 4:2–5).”

It is clear that the evidence we have from the early Church and archaeology on this matter is quite fragmentary. Barry Bickmore rightly observes that the office of evangelist is mentioned but not described fully within the New Testament. As Richard Lloyd Anderson stresses, this reminds us of the need for modern revelation in excavating and restoring to our knowledge the best understanding regarding it.

Assuming that Joseph Meant that Something More Like a Patriarch is an Evangelist

On the other hand, we might take a different interpretation of Joseph's words. Robert Boylan—a Latter-day Saint apologist, scholar, and theologian—wrote:

When Joseph Smith said that an evangelist is a patriarch, he was not claiming that they meant the same thing; instead, within the realm of being a patriarch, one is an evangelist. It would be akin to saying "a bishop is a missionary" or "a mother is a chef." In a special way, patriarchs spread the gospel[.]

To provide evidence for his view, Boylan points to the writings of Taylor Drake: a critic of the Church who apparently holds to the belief that Joseph Smith became a fallen prophet during his ministry. Drake writes:

Patriarchs are Evangelists

The great patriarchs of golden times, including Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and many other evangelists (meaning “missionaries”) of the simple gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph himself said that “an evangelist is a patriarch” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 38-39). Don’t be confused by this term. We are not talking about the man called in each stake to give patriarchal blessings to those who request them. Instead, the scriptures describe an evangelist (and thus a patriarch) as one who has the priesthood to minister the gospel unto the inhabitants of the earth. It is a lineal priesthood that is passed down from father to son, as we have previously discussed. This is not to say the great patriarch/evangelists did not ultimately receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. The distinction is that they first had the Patriarchal Priesthood by lineal descent and right and may alter have received the higher priesthood of Melchizedek, being called by God’s own voice form heaven.

Abraham, of course, was the prime example of a patriarch whose responsibility was to bear the tidings of the gospel to foreign lands, both personally and through the posterity. That is the essence of the Abrahamic Covenant. Abraham was told this directly by God himself:

I have purposed to make of thee a minister to bear my name in a strange land which I will give unto thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession, when they hearken to my voice. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after three that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations; And I will bless them through thy name for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father; And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for a Give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessing of salvation, even of life eternal. (Abraham 2:6, 9-11. The New Testament is also very consistent in linking the concept of an evangelist with the work of the ministry. See Acts 21:8; 2 Tim 3:5; Ephesians 4:11-12. Likewise D&C 107:39-40 teaches that only those identified as the seed of Abraham through revelation should be ordained as missionaries)

As can be plainly discerned, the Patriarchal/Evangelical Priesthood is synonymous with preaching the gospel to the world[.]

We May Not Have to Defend This At All

We might well remember that this teaching of Joseph Smith does not announce itself as coming from revelation and comes from a second-hand source. That does not necessarily mean that it didn’t come from revelation and that it is unreliably documented, but it can give us at least a little reason to be skeptical of efforts to defend the teaching at all costs. It might have been Joseph’s best guess based on reading of the New Testament texts, Doctrine and Covenants 107, and/or other sources.

Even if evangelists aren't patriarchs, they are still clearly missionaries, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints clearly tracks well with the New Testament practice of evangelism and the office of evangelists with its strong missionary program and the many modern revelations that stress the importance of missionary work. Assuming that Joseph Smith was wrong in his view would thus likely not be damaging to any core truth claim of the Church.

Further Reading

• Underwood, Grant. “The ‘Same’ Organization That Existed in the Primitive Church.” In Go Ye into All the World: Messages of the New Testament Apostles, 31st Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, 167–86. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002.

Notes