Patriarchs
The Restored Church also includes certain
ministers called patriarchs. Until recently, there was a patriarch for the
entire church as well as local patriarchs in most areas where the Church is
established. “This order was instituted in the days of Adam, and came down by
lineage . . . from Adam to Seth [through Enos, etc.]” (D&C 107:39-52) The
main duty of patriarchs is to give “patriarchal blessings,” which outline the
will of the Lord for individuals, to the saints. Similarly, the patriarch
Jacob, or Israel, gathered his sons together and administered blessings
relating to them and their children. “And Jacob called unto his sons, and said,
Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in
the last days.” (Genesis 49:1) Isaac gave a similar blessing to Jacob. (Genesis
27:27-30)
One might think that this office is likely
not to have been included in the early Church, since it seems to belong to the
first dispensations after Adam, but according to Joseph Smith the New Testament
Church did include patriarchs. “An Evangelist is a Patriarch” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
151), the Prophet preached, indicating that the New Testament function or
office of “evangelist” included (but perhaps was not limited to) this calling.
Indeed, the word “evangelist” is a translation of the Greek “euangelistes,” meaning “a messenger of
good tidings.” Can the good tidings of the gospel be preached in any more
personal way than through a patriarch called to bless the saints and pronounce
the will of the Lord for them?
None of this can really be considered firm
evidence for the existence of patriarchs in the early Church, however, since,
the office of evangelist is merely mentioned and not described, in the New
Testament. On the other hand, the ultraconservative Montanists at the turn of
the third century are said to have been governed by the usual bishops, elders,
and deacons, as well as offices called “patriarchs” and a shadowy order known
as the koinonoi (stewards) (Davies, The Early Christian Church, 90). Perhaps
these officers were a holdout from the old Church order. (Barry Robert
Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church:
Joseph Smith and Early Christianity [2d ed.; Redding, Calif.: FairMormon,
2013], 192)
Further Reading
