Tuesday, January 25, 2022

George F. Gibb's Recollection of Joseph F. Smith Appealing to Abraham 1:26-27 and the Teachings of Joseph Smith to Support a Priesthood Restriction

  

It may be interesting to note that a late tradition related by Church leaders stated that the Book of Abraham did not contain the full story of how the cursed lineage was preserved through the flood according to Joseph Smith. On August 18, 1900, George F. Gibbs recalled:

 

“President [Joseph F.] Smith had on a previous occasion related something going to show how the full blooded negro came through the flood which had not to his knowledge appeared in our records, and suggested that President Smith be asked to repeat it. Upon being invited to do so President [Joseph F.] Smith said that he had been told that the idea originated with the Prophet Joseph [Smith], but of course he could not vouch for it. It was this: That the woman named Egyptus was in the family way by a man of her own race before Ham took her to wife, and that Cainan was the result of that illicit intercourse.” (Minutes of Meetings of the Quorum of the Twelve, 1900-1909 <18 August 1900> page 96) (Jacob Vidrine, “New Light on the Origin of the Priesthood Ban,” One Eternal Round: A magazine Dedicated to Mormon History and Theology, no. 15 [August 15, 2020]: 5, emphasis in bold added)