Richard Packham, a former Latter-day Saint and critic of the Church wrote the following against Joseph Smith’s abilities as a linguist:
"evangelists" The sixth "Article
of Faith" says that Mormons believe in the "same organization that
existed in the Primitive [New Testament] church..." and lists various
offices of the primitive church, including "evangelists."
"Evangelists" are mentioned only three times in the New Testament.
Philip was an evangelist in Caesarea (Acts 21:8), but there is no hint
as to why he was called that. Evangelists are listed among other
callings (prophets, teachers, pastors, apostles) at Ephesians 4:11, without
defining what an evangelist is. But Paul hints at what an evangelist is
in 2 Timothy 4:1-5, where it seems clear that an evangelist is one who works at
spreading the Gospel. Since the Greek word for "gospel" is
'euangelion' and the verb meaning "to preach the gospel" is
'euangelizein', clearly the Greek word for "evangelist"
(euangelistes) means "preacher of the gospel."
However,
Joseph Smith declared: "An Evangelist is a Patriarch, even the oldest man
of the blood of Joseph or of the seed of Abraham." (Teachings of
the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 151) He goes on to say that the function of a
"patriarch" in the Mormon church is to give blessings. It is
not primarily to preach or to spread the gospel.
There
are thus two problems with the "evangelists" of the sixth
"Article of Faith." First, Joseph Smith gave a completely new
meaning to the word, justified neither scripturally nor linguistically.
And second, there is no such title or office in the Mormon church. (The
Reorganized LDS Church, now renamed "Community of Christ" at least
calls their patriarchs "evangelists," but they are no more correct
linguistically than the Mormons.)
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, so Packham is reading too much into the use of “is”
in order to score a point against Joseph Smith.
Taylor Drake, himself a critic of the Church
(he holds to some form of the “Joseph became a fallen prophet” thesis, one that
David Whitmer also held to) wrote the following about Patriarchs being Evangelists:
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 . . . (Taylor Drake, Joseph in the Gap: The Hidden
History that Explains Mormonism's Past, Present and Future [2021], 236-37)