In
the funeral sermon, Phelps stated that Joseph was “one of the holy ones commissioned
by his father among the royal seven, when the high council of heaven set them
apart.” This “royal seven” apparently corresponded with the seven heads of
gospel dispensations in LDS theology and with the seven archangels of Jewish
legend. In the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, Phelps used “Baurak Ale,” the name
of one of the seven archangels, as another code name for Joseph (see Doctrine
and Covenants 103:21 in editions issued between 1835 and 1971 inclusive).
Although the Doctrine and Covenants used “Gazelam” as a code name for Smith, he
really was named Gazelem. Similarly, although “Baurak Ale” was used a a code
name for Smith, he may have believed he really was Baurak el. Just as Joseph
identified himself as Gazelem and as the key-holder of the last dispensation,
he apparently identified himself as the archangel Baurak el. Smith claimed that
he received visits from the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. He
identified Michael and Gabriel as the dispensation heads Adam and Noah. He
apparently drew a correspondence between the archangels of classical angelology
and the major figures of his own dispensational view of world history. As the
head of the “dispensation of the fulness of times,” it made sense for Joseph to
count himself among the archangels. Joseph is also called “Baurach Ale” in the
privacy of his own journal, where there is no need or use for secrecy (Am
American Prophet’s Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith, ed.
Scott H. Faulring [Salt Lake City: Signature Books in Association with Smith
Research Associates, 1989], 416). The name of this angel had various spellings,
the most common of which were Barchiel and Barkayal (Quinn, Early Mormonism and
the Magic World View, 224). The name translates into English as “lightning
of God,” which compares with Phelps’s translation of Gazelem as “the Light of
the Lord.” The Doctrine and Covenants’s spelling “Baurak Ale” is unique and
seems to manifest Joseph’s study of the Hebrew language. It correctly parses “Baurak”
= lightning, from “Ale” = el = God. Also, whereas most spellings had
apparently contracted a form of the words for lightning, the Mormon spelling includes
the letters “ur” in “Baurak.” “Ur,” as in “Urim,” means “light.”
Source: Mark Ashurst-McGee,
"A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer,
and Judeo-Christian Prophet" (M.A. thesis., Utah State University, 2000),
p. 272 n. 395; the “funeral sermon” refers to William Wines Phelps, “The Funeral
Sermon,” Ms. Salt Lake City, 12 June 1866, LDS Church Archives.
