On the Authorship of Doctrine and Covenants 132

Last updated on: November 7, 2025 at 12:58 pm by Dan Peterson

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On the Authorship of Doctrine and Covenants 132 2025-11-07T12:58:00-07:00 Dan Peterson

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Brigham Young, ca. 1850 (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

This is an extremely important article, and I’ve been excitedly anticipating its publication for quite a long time — while, at the same time, not wanting to spoil the surprise. And now it’s here: “Historical and Stylometric Evidence for the Authorship of Doctrine and Covenants 132,” written by Paul Fields, Steven T. Densley, Jr., Matthew Roper and Larry Bassist:

Abstract: This paper examines the claim that Joseph Smith was not the author of the verses in Doctrine and Covenants 132 related to the doctrine of plural marriage. Our examination first describes the current controversy on the authorship of section 132. We next present historical evidence on the provenance of this section. We then present stylometric evidence on the possible authorship of the text. While it has been asserted that Brigham Young or perhaps some other individual was the author of section 132, our examination provides solid support for the Church’s claimed origin of the section. Our extensive statistical analyses indicate there is no stylometric evidence that Brigham Young or any other potential candidate provided the words in the text of the revelation.

Many among the so-called “polygamy denialists,” not wanting to blame Joseph Smith for early Latter-day Saint plural marriage, have sought to attribute all or part of Doctrine and Covenants 132 to Brigham Young and perhaps some other co-conspirators. (Some have actually gone so far as to accuse Brigham Young [and John Taylor and Willard Richards] of murdering Joseph and Hyrum Smith in furtherance of their polygamous plans.) This article will make it harder to accuse Brigham Young and his successors in the presidency of the Church of perpetrating a fraud in order to satisfy their carnal lusts.

“Interpreting Interpreter: The Stylometry of Doctrine and Covenants 132,” written by Kyler Rasmussen

This post is a summary of the article “Historical and Stylometric Evidence for the Authorship of Doctrine and Covenants 132” by Paul Fields, Steve Densley, Matthew Roper, and Larry Bassist in Volume 67 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. All of the Interpreting Interpreter articles may be seen at https://interpreterfoundation.org/category/summaries/. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter series is available at https:/interpreterfoundation.org/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought/.

A video introduction to this Interpreter article is now available on all of our social media channels, including on YouTube at https://youtube.com/shorts/4P5jyw12xuE.

The Takeaway: Fields and his colleagues analyze the claim that someone other than Joseph Smith is responsible for the content of Doctrine and Covenants 132, providing both historical and statistical evidence of Joseph’s connection to that section, as well as showing that the text aligns with the stylistic patterns of Joseph’s earlier revelations, rather than his later revelations, letters, or instructions.

“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you.” (John 15:16)

Deseret News: “Elder Gérald Caussé: Photos and facts about the church’s newest apostle: Elder Caussé, 62, was born in Bordeaux, France, and once worked as managing director of Pomona, France’s largest food distributor”

It seems only yesterday that critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were lambasting it on the grounds that its highest leadership — the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — were all older white Americans. Now, though, that those quorums contain a German, a Brazilian, a Briton, and a Frenchman, and that among them they speak native or fluent German, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Chinese, Japanese, and French — the complaint has come to focus rather precisely on the lack of an apostle “of color.” Elder Ulisses Soares, a native of Brazil, is too white, too European, to count. Elder Gerrit Gong, of Chinese ethnicity but born and raised in California, is too “white” to count. The wide variety of nationalities and ethnicities included in the Seventy and among the Church’s auxiliary organizations also counts for nothing.

There was a time when it would have been considered rather exciting that someone had been called to the Twelve who had been born and raised in Bordeaux, had graduated from one of France’s grandes écoles, had presided over a stake in Paris, and had made his career in France and in Europe more generally. Now, though, it’s plainly not enough. And, at least in some circles, the curious but misconceived notion has emerged that it is a core function of the Twelve to “represent” the ethnic diversity of the Church, rather in the manner of a delegate to a legislature.

A word, incidentally, about Jesus’ original twelve apostles: They were interrelated through several family ties. The most obvious of these is the two pairs of brothers Peter and Andrew, and James and John (the sons of Zebedee, who were business partners with Peter and Andrew). Additionally, James and John were likely Jesus’s first cousins, as their mother, Salome, was likely the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Some traditions also identify James and Thaddaeus (also known as Lebbaeus) as brothers, both sons of Alphaeus — which would make them Jesus’s cousins as well, since their father, Clopas, was the brother of Joseph, Jesus’s stepfather. And the Gospels mention Judas as the “brother of James,” likely referring to James the Less or James the Just, who was also a relative of Jesus. There’s not a “person of color” among them.

Dante holds a copy of his “Divine Comedy” in a fresco by Domenico di Michelino (1417-1491). With his right hand, he gestures toward a procession of sinners heading into Hell. Behind him on his right is Mount Purgatory, with repentant sinners toiling upward on its path. Behind him, to his left, is the city of Florence, including the dome of its cathedral and the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio. In the distance are the celestial spheres through which he will ascend during his tour of Paradise. Thus, all three books of the “Divina Commedia” — “Inferno,” “Purgatorio,” and “Paradiso” — are represented in this painting. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Latter-day Saints don’t believe in Purgatory. We certainly don’t use the word. Still, I find this brief article in the Wall Street Journal — written by a Roman Catholic thinker and author whom I’ve read for many years — very interesting: “Three Cheers for Purgatory: It’s why our prayers do real metaphysical work for the dead.” And, while the author correctly acknowledges that “the biblical warrant for [Purgatory] is weaker than Catholics and Orthodox Christians like to admit,” I humbly point out that there is actual biblical warrant for a practice that, in some ways, offers a functional analogue to requiem masses — that is, to masses for the [soul of the] dead — and to ritual prayers for the dead. That practice is, of course, vicarious baptism for the dead, an ordinance that exists and is performed within the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which are, symbolically speaking, representative of “the mountain of the Lord” and which, often architecturally and always ritually, depict ascent into the presence of God. And vicarious work for the dead is predicated upon and assumes a view of what happens in the postmortem world of spirits that, in important respects, parallels the notion of purgatory. That view is powerfully illustrated in the great vision of the redemption of the dead that was received by President Joseph F. Smith on 3 October 1918, an account of which has since been canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 138.

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