In 1845, W.W. Phelps, writing under the name of “Joseph’s Speckled Bird,” write a two-part article “Paracletes.” As Samuel Brown noted about the theology of these fictional pieces:
Beyond presenting a
link between Joseph Smith and Young’s Adam-God, Phelps’s short story provides
windows on several other aspects of early Mormon belief. Contrary to the
“infinite regress” view, and in support of Blake Ostler's “kingship
monotheism,” Phelps reports a “head” God, one intermittently identified with
the Lord-God of the Old Testament. (He would later equivocate on this point,
following uncertain cues in Joseph Smith’s June 1844 Sermon in the Grove.)
Contrary to some versions of Brigham Young's Adam-God formulation, Adam was an
immature immortal, and the “head” remained involved in earthly affairs. In
support of Eliza R. Snow and others, the divine anthropology clearly included
God’s wife, the entity later dubbed Mother in Heaven (though more likely
denominated the Queen of Heaven at the time). (Samuel Brown, "William
Phelps's Paracletes, an Early Witness to Joseph Smith's Divine Anthropology,"
International Journal of Mormon Studies, volume 2 [Spring 2009]:62-82, here,
p. 66)
In a footnote to the above, Brown also noted
that, while:
Teaching Greek in Winter
Quarters, Phelps retranslated 2 Peter 1:17, converting “he received from God
the Father honer Glory” into “he recived in presence of God’s Father honer and
Glory,” misunderstanding apposed Greek genitive nouns. This later belief in God
having a Father of his own is not clearly endorsed in Paracletes. Maurine Carr
Ward, ed., Winter Quarters: The 1846-1848 Life Writings of Mary Haskin
Parker Richards (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1996), February 21,
1847, 191. (Ibid., 66 n. 12 [note: the diary entry is actually February 21, 1848, not 1847)
The following are the two parts of
Paracletes as published in the 1 May and 1 June 1845 issues of the Times and
Seasons:
Times and Seasons, vol. 6, no. 8 (1
May 1845):891-92:
PARACLETES.
MR. EDITOR -- If you
think the following sketch of the "Paracletes" worthy of a place, in
the Times and Seasons, use it.
Once upon a time, the
most honorable men of the creations or universes, met together to promote the
best interest of the great whole. -- The "head" said to his oldest
son, you are the rightful heir to all, but you know I have many kingdoms and
many mansions, and of course it will need many kings and many priests, to
govern them, come you with me in solemn council, and let us and some of the
"best" men we have had born in the regions of light, to rule in those
kingdoms and set them in order by exhibiting good that evil may be manifest.
It was said and done,
for every thing there, was adopted from the "head" by common consent.
As free agency gave the sons of the "head" a fair chance to choose
for themselves, the most noble of the hosts, came forward and selected a world
or kingdom, and a time or a season, when he would take his chance, at winning
the hearts of the multitude, a kingdom, crown, and never ending glory.
The innumerable
multiplicity of kingdoms, or spheres for action, with beings and animals in
proportion, and time, times, eternity and eternities, for a full development of
the qualities and powers of each, would so far exceed the common comprehension
of mortals, that I can only say eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath
a natural heart yet been able to calculate either. I then shall content myself,
for this time to sketch but one. Idumia is the one as interesting as any, and
being situated at an immense distance from the center or "head's"
residence, and many eternities from the birth of the "Son of the
morning" or even the great holy day when the "morning stars sang
together," because so many worlds had been wrought out and left
"empty and desolate," as places for "all the sons" of God
to multiply and replenish the earth, I select that.
Time being divided
into seven parts, the following men agreed to reaorganize every thing necessary
to fill a kingdom for the space of many of the Lord's days, viz: Milauleph,
Milbeth, Milgimal, Mildauleth, Milhah, Milvah and Milzah. Now after they had
organized the kingdom of Idumia spiritually, then one at a time, was to come
temporally and open the door of communication with the spiritual kingdom, that
all that would, might return to their former estate; for, for this reason, all
the regions created and to be created, were filled with a variety of beings:
agents to themselves but accountable to the "head" for promises,
made, when they agreed "to go" and be born of the flesh as they had
been of the spirit; that they might know the evil, and choose the good: and
then be born (again) of the spirit and the water," and enter into the
mansions prepared for them before the foundations of the worlds.
Milauleph being the
eldest and first chosen for Idumia, came on when 'there was not a man to till
the ground," that is, there was not a "man of flesh" to labor
temporally; and his elder brethren who had wrought out their salvation, upon worlds
or realms, or kingdoms, ages, yea even eternities before, formed him a temporal
body like unto their spiritual bodies, and put the life of his spiritual body
into it, and gave him the power of endless lives.
Now the acts of his
spiritual body, while he was a child with his father and mother in heaven; and
his acts while he was in the spiritual councils of the Gods for millions of
years; and his acts upon Idumia, while he named, arranged and prepared every
thing upon it to fulfil the end and aim of their creation, behold they are
written in 'the books' of the 'head,' -- which are to be opened when the
judgment comes for just men to enter into the joys of a 'third existence' which
is spiritual.
Milauleph had one
thousand years to account for, as well as to be 'arch angel' of Idumia, after
he laid down his temporal body. Behold here is wisdom, he that hath ears to
hear let him hear, for Milauleph, as yet had not been tempted with evil that he
might (know) the good. He had not exercised the power of endless lives that he
might (do) the works that his father had done: and he had not 'fell that men
might be.' Although he had seen his eldest brother create worlds, and people
them; and had witnessed the course and conduct of that world and people, as
free agents, 'sinning and being sinned against,' while 'death' who held a
commission from the 'Son of the morning,' to end the first partnership between
the spirit and the body, yet, with all this knowledge, and a liberal education
in the great college of the nobles of heaven, wherein all perfection was
taught, all science explained from first to last, and all that was, is, or will
be, was exhibited on the great map of perpetual systems, and eternal lives,
Milauleph had to take his wife or one of the 'Queens of heaven,' and come upon
Idumia, and be tempted, overcome, and driven from the presence of his Father,
because it had been agreed by the Gods and grand council of heaven, that all
the family of the 'head' that would do as he or his eldest son did, should be
exalted to the same glory.
This was to be
accomplished by the power of 'perpetual succession' in eternal lives, wherein
there was no 'remission of sin without the shedding of blood;' no forgiveness
without repentance; and no glory without perfect submission to the 'head.' The
foundation was (truth): and the continuation, perpetual succession by
revelation. Milauleph, then, knew that he and his wife would sin, and be
troubled; but as the eternal spirit in him was the candle of the Lord, he knew
also that the light thereof upon the eyes of his understanding, would show some
of the way marks to the original 'truth,' whereby he might work out his
salvation with fear aork of the hands of the 'Son' might be lost or any souls
which his father had given him, might be left in prison, angels were
commissioned to watch over Idumia, and act as (spiritual guides) to every soul,
'lest they should fall and dash their feet against a stone.' They were
denominated 'the angels of our presence.
But I must stop, Mr.
Editor: my story of the whole (seven) who managed the seven dispensations of
Idumia, will be too long for one communication. And let me say that I have
began this story of the 'Paracletes,' or Holy Ones to counterbalance the
foolish novel reading of the present generation. My story is not revelation,
but the innuendoes relate to holy transactions, which may lead good people to
search after truth and find it. If this meets the approbation of virtuous
minds, I shall write more.
JOSEPH'S SPECKLED
BIRD.
Times and Seasons, vol. 6, no. 10 (1 June
1845), 917–8:
COMMUNICATIONS. THE
PARACLETES. CONTINUED.
To continue the
history of the seven holy ones, who agreed to take upon them bodies of flesh,
and work out a more exceedithe flesh, knew before they left their "first
estate," what their fathers' will was; and that when they should begin to
replenish the earth, Satan, who had been raised and educated with them in their
father's family, would descend from heaven like lightning to tempt them, that
they might know to choose good and reject evil. These two, who had engaged to
people Idumia: to subdue it, and to return, having (kept the faith) once
delivered to the chosen seed, were informed, when they agreed to go and labor
their hour, that besides the comforter, to bring all things to their
remembrance, the angels which attended them on high should attend them below to
preserve them from the secret of unforseen snares of those angels who kept not
their first estates, but were left in their sins, to roam from region to
region, and in chains of darkness, until the great day of judgment.
It was written in the
law of the Lord on high, that they that overcome by obedience, should be made
kings and queens, and priests and priestesses to God and his Father, through
the atonement of the eldest son, and that natural eyes should not see, nor
natural ears hear, neither should the natural heart conceive the great,
glorious, and eternal things, honors and blessings, that were then, in the
Father's dominions, and mansions, prepared in the beginning for them that kept
the faith to the end, and entered triumphantly into their third estates: (the
eternal life).
It was also written
in the law of the Lord on high, that when the Lord punished men for their sins,
he would "punish the hosts of the high ones on high," and the
"kings of the earth upon earth," -- that spirit might judge spirit,
and flesh judge flesh; for this honor have all the just, and this honor have
all the saints.
Having this
understanding Idumia was placed in its space, but was "desolate and
empty." and the life organizing power of the Gods, or sons of the
"head," moved over the matters and then the land and water
separatedcam" and they went on and organized a world, and created every
thing necessary to beautify and adorn it, with life and the power of lives to
sustain it, until it should fill the measure of all designed, from a mite to a
mammoth; from a man to a God; and Milauleph's and his wife's spirits, clothed
in heavenly garments, and learned in eternal wisdom, witnessed the creation, as
the spirits of the Gods had witnessed their Father: for even the elder brother
could do nothing but what he had seen his Father do in eternities before.
Perhaps this subject
may excite the curiosity of some: as it will lead the mind back among the
worlds that have been organized and passed away, -- and among the Gods and
angels that have attended to execute the laws and decrees of one universe after
another, from eternity to eternity, from the beginning till (now); and, to
increase the curiosity of having this present world pass away with a great
noise, when there is no place found for it; -- and of having organized a new
heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth "righteousness" and as our
fathers cannot be perfect without us, nor we without them; and as the man is
not without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord, perhaps
Milauleph and his wife, as king and queen to God, and all the sons and
daughters of the "head" will shout for joy, and the morning stars
sing together again, at the "third" entrance of Idumia and sanctified
millions! -- Who knows?
JOSEPH'S SPECKLED
BIRD.