Question: Since first wives were generally to grant permission for sealings to subsequent wives, did Joseph's later sealing to Emma mean that Emma no longer held the role of "first wife"?

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Was it necessary for those already married to make a new marriage covenant?

Taking the above mentioned considerations into account, for the general membership, there was no urgency for already legally married couples to make a new or modified marriage covenant that added blessings (rather than nullified the prior vows) until the Nauvoo temple was completed after Joseph's death. Even among the legally married couples in the select group that Joseph Smith taught the concept of eternal marriage to, there was no urgency to formalize that promise with a new marriage rite until much later.

What ordinances related to marriage did Emma receive before any other woman?

A full appreciation of what being married for time and eternity really meant awaited three other milestones for which Emma was honored as not only to be first of Joseph's wives to experience, but the first woman of this dispensation to experience. [1]

  • Married in an Anointed Quorum setting (28 May 1843) [2]
  • Initiated (endowed) (28 Sept. 1843)
  • Marriage unconditionally sealed (28 Sept. 1843)

== Notes ==

  1. [note] See M. Scott Bradshaw, "Joseph Smith’s Performance of Marriages in Ohio," Brigham Young University Studies 39/4 (2000) off-site
  2. [note] Blair Hodges's summary of Kathleen Flake's Arrington lecture regarding Methodist liturgy. off-site
  3. [note] See: "W. W. Phelps to Sally, May 26, 1835", Saints Without Halos (website) off-site
  4. [note] "Funeral Sermon delivered at the Nauvoo temple site on August 13, 1843." off-site
  5. [note] Gary James Bergera, "The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 35 (Fall 2002): 41-66.
  6. [note] Devery S. Anderson, Gary James Bergera, Editors. Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1846: A Documentary History; See also Ehat, "Introduction of Temple Ordinances," 74-75.
  7. [note] Ehat, "Introduction of Temple Ordinances," p. 63 and Table 2 p. 102-3
  8. [note] Gary James Bergera, "The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 35 (Fall 2002): 41-66. -->
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