User:Chauvelin2000/sandbox/Messiah ben Joseph (LDS Church)

Messiah ben Joseph, in Latter-day Saint (LDS) studies, refers to an ancient eschatological figure that appears in both traditional Jewish and non-canonical texts (allusions to which appear also in the Hebrew bible) but one that, for adherents of the LDS faith, is personified in a modern historical figure foundational to their religion — the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr (1805-1844). Notwithstanding Smith having suffered a martyr's death, the end-times role for the Prophet, in the LDS worldview, has not yet been consummated.

Ancient ancestral prophecies concerning the House of Joseph (many of them now 'restored' through Joseph Smith from their lost or 'corrupted' state) center upon what some members and scholars of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have, in recent decades, come to view as a messianic figure — an 'anointed one' of Jewish tradition and legend who is variously called 'Messiah ben Joseph' or 'Messiah ben Ephraim'. This figure, set to 'prepare the way' for the coming of the great and atoning 'Messiah ben David', represents a Josephite 'restorer' and 'deliverer' from the tribe of Ephraim. Because Ben Joseph mirrors in significant ways, in his messianic-forerunner characterization, the earthly mission of the LDS Church's founding prophet, many LDS scholars believe that Ben Joseph's identification is to be found in the life and mission of Joseph Smith.

Within this millennia-old messianic tradition, the ancient texts foretell that in the latter days, by the grace of God, the tribes of scattered Israel (having dwelt in captivity and dispersion among the nations of the world through a long night of general apostasy) would be "gathered" again — by a 'chosen and anointed' deliverer — into "one" fold of the 'elect of God' in the Promised Land of Joseph's 'double portioned' inheritance. Latter-day Saints believe this 'second' promised land to comprise the whole of the American continent of North and South America (with North America serving as the center of the latter-day 'Zion') which God has consecrated to house, in a future day, His holy city of the 'New Jerusalem'.

In Jewish tradition, the restoration of Israel (its lost tribes), which included a special appearance (or 'return') of Elijah, was always associated with this Josephite mashiaḥ (messiah: 'the prophet who restores') of the tribe of Ephraim. Elijah's return is one that Latter-day Saints profess has already taken place (D&C 110:13-16).

For Latter-day Saints, the personification and the vouchsafing of the messianic-forerunner mantle to the House of Joseph, in the person of Joseph Smith, symbolizes the glorious restoration of light and knowledge (collectively called 'Wisdom' by the ancients) that thereafter, in its authorized dissemination to the rest of the world, became the central, divinely appointed mission of Joseph of Egypt's numerous latter-day progeny — which Church members consider themselves generally to be.

Latter-day Saints — representatives of the House of Joseph bearing the record of Joseph, the Book of Mormon — view themselves collectively as the counterpart to their brethren of the House of Judah, who hold and have gifted to the world their own record, many of the books of which were brought together to form the Bible. Together, these two tribal or familial sticks (Ezek 37:16-19) are today, according to LDS belief, being brought together, divisions and breaches are being healed, and their records are becoming "one" in the hands of many — a "marvellous work and a wonder" (Isa 29:14) made possible through the key instrumentality of a latter-day Joseph, one 'anointed' of God (mashiaḥ) whose coming, foretold in both scripture and legend, has been anticipated by prophets and wise men for millennia.

THE LEGENDS AND PROPHECIES OF A JOSEPHITE PRINCE

Facsimile frontispiece to Menasseh ben Israel's The Hope of Israel (1652), telling of some alleged descendants of Israel's lost Ten Tribes living among the Andes' Indians of South America. According to legend, in a future day these remnants would welcome the return of one 'Messiah ben Joseph', who would lead them to victory against Gog and Magog, and who, as a resurrected being, would be crowned 'viceroy' to 'Messiah ben David' in the Messianic Age. Engraved portrait of Ben Israel by Salomo d'Italia, 1642.

Ancient 'roots' of Ephraim's messiah

Thou shalt take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and shalt consecrate it, for the sake of the crown of the kingdom of the house of Judah, and of the King Messiah who is destined to redeem Israel at the end of days. And thou shalt anoint the altar of burnt offerings and all its vessels, and consecrate the altar, that it may be an altar most holy for the sake of the crown of the priesthood of Aaron and his sons, and of Elijah the High Priest who is to be sent at the end of the captivity [or at the gathering of the Israelites from long exile]. And thou shalt anoint the laver and its base, and consecrate it for the sake of Joshua, thy ministering attendant, head of the high council ['sanhedrin'] of his people, by whose hand the land of Israel is to be divided, and of Messiah bar Ephraim, who shall spring from ['nafiq' proceed from] him, and by whose hand the house of Israel will conquer [or vanquish] Gog and his confederate horde at the end of days ... (Targum Yerushalmi, or 'Pseudo-Jonathan', to Exodus 40:9-11)

Calling the Nephite people to whom He appeared in "the land of Joseph" following His resurrection "a remnant of the house of Joseph," the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking by command of the Father, said: This people will I establish in this land, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which I made with your father Jacob — promising them also that a "New Jerusalem" would be built upon this, their land of promise ... (3 Ne 15:12; 20:14, 22)

Joseph of Egypt's parting words to his brethren and to his posterity (as recorded in Joseph Smith's 'restored' translation of the bible), when he blessed and prophesied to them concerning latter-day Israel, take on added meaning and significance in the light of modern 'Messianic Age' scholarship. For, as McConkie (1980) wrote: "Joseph of Egypt knew of the role of his latter-day descendant ben Joseph" (p. 165; see JST Gen 50). Indeed, even prophets from among that 'Lehite' branch that was broken off from Israel and carried far away into a 'second' promised land, prophesied of a messiah-like 'Joseph' (2 Ne 3).

Yalḳuṭ on Zechariah by E. G. King (1882) — among the many biblical commentators on ancient Hebrew traditions and prophecies surrounding the mysterious figure 'Messiah ben Joseph', said to be the latter-day forerunner to the Millennial King, 'Messiah ben David'.

The title messiah is simply the anglicanized form of the Hebrew mashiaḥ. It is equivalent to the Greek Christos (Christ), meaning 'anointed one' (whether prophet, priest or king) And, in the context of this "prophet of promise" and messiah from the House of Joseph, ben means 'son of' — that is, the 'anointed son of Joseph'. Ancient Hebrew tradition (e.g., the Pesikta Rabbati) speaks of two separate messiahs that were pre-appointed, in celestial realms, before the earth was created — that is, foreordained — to come forth upon the earth in order to fulfill critical missions on behalf of humankind. But this was to be particularly and especially for the covenant people of the Lord, from whose bloodlines they would arise — one from the tribe of Judah (Messiah ben David) and one from the tribe of Joseph (Messiah ben Joseph/Ephraim).

Talmud Bavli (Babylonian recension) says that the prophet Zechariah, in the preserved oracles, makes reference to Messiah ben Joseph. An eighth-century midrash (Pirqei de Rabbi Eliezer) says also that Moses spoke of him: "Ben Joseph, his horns are taller than those of all kings, and he will gore [goad or push together] in the future [in the unified tribal gathering of all Israel] towards the four corners of the heavens. And concerning him Moses said: "The firstborn of his shor, majesty is his; and the horns of a rem are his horns [— that is, of the great white-bull gatherer of God's elect who becomes the slaughter-lamb of 1 En 90:37-38]. With them he shall gore [gather, unite] the peoples, all as one, even to the ends of the earth" (Deut 33:17).

In 1882, Edward G. King stated that "the germ of this belief [in Messiah ben Joseph] exists even in the Book of Genesis, and ... it runs through the whole of Jewish history, disappearing at times but always breaking out again with increased vividness." Mitchell (2016) notes that biblical scholars G. H. Dix and C. C. Torrey maintained that the doctrine of the Two Messiahs (Ben Joseph and Ben David) was a "widely accepted idea in Judaism several centuries before the Christian era," even "a standard article of faith [of Jewish theology], early and firmly established and universally accepted."

In fact, the "Messiah ben Joseph of the Rabbis steps forth from the Pentateuch fully formed, dying as a sacrifice and resurging again." The Ben Joseph tradition, Mitchell maintains, almost certainly predates the Babylonian exile, for the record of Jacob's great and lavish blessings upon Joseph's head can scarcely be imagined as originating in Judahite compositions, for those blessings "make Judah look pale and small in comparison with Joseph. So they could not have been written by Judahite monarchs or prophets or scribes. They must predate not only the Kingdom of Judah, but the united monarchy of David and Solomon as well." The presence in those writings, moreover, of the ancient aurochs (or rem 'wild-ox'), which became extinct by around 1100-700 BC, holds profound implications, Mitchell further notes, for the age of the Israelite tradition-texts themselves, the messianic texts as well as others (not the least of which are the Pentateuch and the Psalms).

As for ultimate origins for this 'second' messiah tradition, ancient Jewish lore, as preserved by Ginzberg in his Legends of the Jews, suggests that the Ben Joseph concept was 'given birth' with the progenitress of the House of Joseph herself — Rachel — when this mother of a future prince of Egypt prophesied that Joseph would be the progenitor of a messiah who would "arise at the end of days." But Mitchell professes that the Ben Joseph legend is neither a rabbinic, Judean, nor a Jewish idea at all. He asserts, rather, that the messianic figure fundamentally exists in "the ancient promise made to the Ephraimites, inherited by the rabbis from Israel's earliest traditions — from the ancient blessings [given by Jacob and Moses] on Joseph."

Promised 'anointed one' from the House of Joseph

Another king, not originating of the seed of David, goes before him, and they call him Messiah ben Joseph ... (Isaac Aboab)

First will come Messiah ben Joseph and after that Messiah ben David ... The house of Joseph, who committed folly ... will be restored ... (Isaiah Horowitz)

For he shall be a mighty man of valour, of the tribe of Joseph ... captain of the Lord's host in that war ... but in that war he shall die ... (Isaac Abravanel)

Ben Ephraim [another name for Ben Joseph], who for a while held sovereignty and executed judgment over Israel ... was taken away, because the Gentiles will resolve to slay him ... (Abraham Laniado ha-Darshan)

Biblical prophecy

The ancient seer Jeremiah prophesied that, in the end times, the Lord God of Israel would establish a true Prince to rule over His people (in the same way that Joseph was a Prince over Egypt, and also over his brethren). Jer 30:21 (which some Jewish writers claim to be a prophecy about Messiah ben Joseph) reads: "And their nobles shall be of themselves [i.e., they will rise from their own tribe], and their governor [their prophet, presiding high priest, and king] shall proceed from the midst of them [that is, from the house of Joseph]; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord." Edward G. King, finding the verse-translation obscure, provided his own (Yalḳuṭ, p. 87): "His Mighty One [Messiah ben Joseph] shall proceed from himself [Ephraim, of the house of Joseph] and his Ruler [Israel's rightful king, presiding high priest, and Restorer-prophet] come forth from his own midst [from his own tribe]" (emphasis added).

The Jerusalem Bible similarly reads: "Their Prince will be one of their own, their Ruler come from their own people. I will let him come freely into my presence and he can come close to me; who else, indeed [but Messiah ben Joseph], would risk his life by coming close to me? — it is Yahweh [Jehovah] who speaks." The New English Bible reads: "A Ruler shall appear, one of themselves, a Governor shall arise from their own number. I will myself bring him near and so he shall approach me; for no one ventures of himself to approach me, says the Lord." Thus, a singular leader from Ephraim, Messiah ben Joseph, would be brought into the presence of the Lord Jehovah and then assume the presiding role in the latter-day gathering of Israel.

The prophet Habakkuk, too, foretold of a prophet who would do a work that would cause men to "wonder marvelously" (1:5), a work which most would not believe. Yahweh Himself, in like manner, would say of His Josephite servant: "For in that day, for my sake shall the Father work a work, which shall be a great and a marvelous work among them; and there shall be among them those who will not believe it, although a man [Messiah ben Joseph] shall declare it unto them. But behold, the life of my servant shall be in my hand; therefore they shall not hurt him, although he shall be marred [persecuted, unjustly imprisoned, tortured and reviled] because of them. Yet I will heal [revive] him, for I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil" (i.e., if God heals, revives, and, even after his prophesied martyrdom, then resurrects His suffering servant, is that servant ultimately 'hurt' or destroyed? No. See 3 Ne 21:9-10). "This" indeed, said E. G. King, "is the Messiah ben Joseph to whom victory comes through death," or who, as a "forerunner ... prepares the way by his own death ... He sees that sufferings are in a special way the lot of God's chosen people, and he resolves not only to suffer with them but for them" ("Appendix A: Messiah ben Joseph," pp. 88 note 1, 103).

Apocryphal prediction

The apocryphal Hebrew book of Enoch (3 Enoch) speaks of — and even names (45:5) — a latter-day prophet who would bring about a 'marvelous work and a wonder' of salvation for God's children, which was spoken of by Isaiah (Isa 29:14). The Hebrew Enoch recounts how Rabbi Ishmael, who — having ascended to a mountaintop, and thence to the Seventh Heaven on the wings of the Spirit looked upon the great Veil that was placed before the Holy of Holies of God's seventh heavenly temple:

Manuscript page showing an "extract" from the prophecies of Enoch (Mos 7:53-59) as revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith by God through the spirit of revelation, Jan-Feb 1831, dictated by Joseph and transcribed by witness Sidney Rigdon.

"Lord of Eternity ... grant me in this hour the crown of the priesthood ... And deliver me from Satan. And Metatron [Enoch] who served the Great Angel [Yaoel-Yahweh, or Jaoel-Jehovah], the Prince of the Presence, came to meet me with great joy. And he took me with his hand ... and he raised me up." Rabbi Ishmael then saw the events of the last times, singularly marked by the appearance of one Messiah ben Joseph and He who would follow him, Messiah ben David.

Hugo Odeberg, who translated 3 Enoch, observed that "the end of the course of the present world is marked by the appearance of Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David, in whose times there will be wars between Israel and ‘Gog and Magog’; the final consummation will then, so it seems, be brought about by the Holy One Himself" (p. 144).

The Book of Dreams' "Animal Apocalypse" of 1 Enoch — also linked to the Ben Joseph tradition, having as its context a grand overview of world history — uses animals to symbolize men: "And I saw that a white bull was born [Messiah ben Joseph, a faultless tsadik, or 'righteous one'], with large horns [that is, having great inherent majesty, authority, and power], and all the beasts of the field and birds of the air [Gentile citizens] feared him and made petition to him continually [all creatures revered him and sought his wise counsel and judgment]. And I saw till all their kinds were transformed [converted to righteousness], and they all became white cattle [through Ben Joseph's restored truth and ordinances of salvation made efficacious by Messiah ben David's salvific advent; through faithfulness, the elect are purified and reborn in the messianic image — thus by purity becoming 'white' — as joint-heirs of eternal life]. And that first white bull [firstborn] became a rem 'wild-ox' [or aurochs, being transformed also (as from Deuteronomy's innocent, servile shor) into a divinely appointed prophet, priest, and warrior-king] and that [wild-ox] was a great animal [a mighty 'anointed son' of God], and had great black horns on its head [was consecrated and endowed with great power and authority to carry out a mighty latter-day mission]. And the Lord of the sheep [El Elyon, or Elohim the Father, God Most High] rejoiced over them [all his creatures], and over all the cattle [or oxen — His chosen, converted ones; rejoicing especially over those who had transformed themselves and who are thereby protected from becoming prey to rebellious beasts]" (90:37-38; see Mitchell, p. 68).

The 'white bull' was the ancient symbol of a 'son of God' (ben ʼĕlōhîm). But the great horns of the 'wild-ox' "are the emblem of Messiah ben Joseph." And with his two 'horns' of power, as Deut 33:17 declares, Ben Joseph was to "push the people together to the ends of the earth [gather them into a unified body]: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh" (see D&C 110:9).

Babylonian tales of Ben Joseph

In the last days, wrote Ḥai ben Sherira Gaon (939-1038 C.E.), "there will arise from the sons of Joseph a man called the Messiah of the Lord. Many people will assemble around him ... and he will become their ruler. Others will gather themselves to him, two or three coming from this province [of the nations of the earth], and four or five from that one. Of this time, it is said: I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family (Jer 3:14) ... Then Messiah ben Joseph will go up ... to Jerusalem along with those who gathered to him ... He will dwell in Jerusalem for a brief time. When all the nations hear that a king has arisen for Israel in Jerusalem, they will rise up against them ... [And Gog] will ascend to make war against Jerusalem, and will defeat Messiah ben Joseph ... and drive [his people] out ... Some of them he will kill ... and he will divide their spoil ... Messiah ben Joseph will be slain, and Israel will experience great distress ... Why will [Gog] be given the power to kill Messiah ben Joseph? So as to break the heart of the doubters among Israel, that is, those who have no faith [i.e., in order to test them] ... Many Israelites will go out into the wilderness regions [from] their homelands [and] dwell there in tents, as it is said: I shall make you live in tents again (Hosea 12:9). Many of them will lack food and water, and will suffer ... Many will abandon the covenant with Israel and cleave to the nations, for they will be weary of their lives [with the requirements of strict discipleship], as it is said: I will purge from among you those who rebel and those who offend me (Ezek 20:38) ... Those who remain [with Israel] will be refined and purified [in] the wilderness [Ezek 20:35, 37] ... tested [for '40 years' but dwelling "securely, undisturbed for a long time. They will construct houses, plant vineyards, and enjoy prosperity in business and trade"] ... Of them it is said: I will refine them like one refines silver, and I will test them like one tests gold (Zech 13:9). At that time Elijah will appear ... among those in the wilderness, and he will restore their hearts [of fathers to children, and children to fathers - Mal 4:6] ... [Gog eventually rallies "wicked and destructive men" intent on annihilating Israel — conspiring nations who gather at the Valley of Decision from "the utter reaches of the north and all [Magog's] flanks — a vast horde" - Ezek 38:6; "but others, some of the best of the nations ... plan to gather beneath the wings of the Shekhinah [the radiant spiritual Presence of God]" in Israel's defence.] Messiah ben David [then appears] and raises [Messiah ben Joseph in resurrection] by the Lord's command ... for he will come to life again ... Then the Lord will come forth and wage battle against those nations ... At that time a mighty earthquake will also shake the Land of Israel ... A loud blast will sound on the shofar [trumpet] (Isa 27:13), the earth will shake, and the dead of Israel will arise [in every land: "All those ... who were completely righteous and those who even though they sinned made repentance"], as it is said: You will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you out of your tombs, O my people! (Ezek 37:13) ... The temple [the heavenly Jerusalem] will be revealed ... it will descend to its site from heaven, as it is said: Jerusalem built-up like a city joined together (Ps 122:3) [and] the Shekhinah will descend from heaven ... like a column of fire ... All who seek [Jerusalem] will be guided by its light (Isa 4:5, 60:3) ... The moon will be ashamed, and the sun abashed, for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem (Isa 24:23) ... ["The spirit of the Lord shall be poured out on Israel and heaven and earth shall be renewed" for a thousand years] ... The Holy One, blessed be he, will create another set of heavens and earth ... and the righteous will make their dwelling among them for all eternity (Isa 66:22) ..." (in Gaon's Responsum on the Redemption, cited in Mitchell, pp. 218-225).

A Jewish 'Ben Joseph' apocalypse

A long rabbinic tradition of studying and preserving ancient Jewish texts and legends kept alive the story of 'Messiah ben Joseph' — "a standard article of faith" according to scholars that "runs through the whole of Jewish history."

In Tefillat Rav Shimon ben Yoḥai, Rav Shimon, after praying that the Almighty reveal to him the secrets of "the end time of wonders" and when the great Messiah, "the redeemer of Israel," would come — and "how he will gather the exiles" of scattered Israel, but also of their great battles with the Enemy "after their ingathering" — God theophanically in vision "opens the gates of heaven" to Rav Shimon, to whom appears the archangel Metatron. The course of Israelite history is laid before Rav Shimon, and he sees the Edomites, the sons of Esau [Edom or Gog, servant of Belial], make great war upon Israel. On creation's "sixth" day a "star" springs forth "from Jacob" (Num 24:17) and "shines" for "two hours" in the "first watch of the night" (prefiguring a latter-day Messiah). But seeing the continued wars and devastation, and the rise of the "brazen-faced" Gog, Rav Shimon, like Enoch, weeps bitterly, and he asks Metatron when there might be deliverance for Israel: "Will there be no escape for the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob during his [Israel's] days?" Metatron replies that God's chosen people will "escape" to Mount Zion, for there, "there will be deliverance" and "help and relief for Israel" (Joel 2:32). Yet there would continue to be "strife and war in the world," when "the people of the Lord shall be displaced" and when Gog would turn some "to apostasy," a "time of trouble" such as there never was (Dan 12:1). In "great distress" the "children of Israel will flee" into the wilderness (Ezek 20:25) at the time when Elijah "comes forth" to heal and "to proclaim peace." The elect of God suffer privations for "forty-five days." But in time, Israel hears "a heavenly voice" that proclaims "in all the places where the Israelites are: Go forth and avenge the vengeance of the Lord against Edom (Ezek 25:14). Thereupon the young men of the sons of Israel will gather together and obey. They will make king over them a king of the seed of David." And they will do unto Edom and to "the nations of the world ... as Joshua did to Jericho."

Praying and fasting in sackcloth and ashes for "forty days," Rav Shimon again beholds Metatron, who, "from the doors of heaven," says: "Ask, O righteous one! What would you ask?" And Rav Shimon inquires: "How will all Israel be gathered together from the four corners of the earth?" Metatron answers: "The Lord will bring a great and strong wind ... and a cloud ... and from the midst of that wind the Holy One ... will disperse the tribes in each and every city. With regard to them it is said, Who are these who fly as a cloud? (Isa 60:8) And they will gather to Mount Zion, where their Messiah [ben Joseph] will have arisen to "perform miracles in accordance with the will of the Lord." But another will also have arisen to "become a religious heretic. He will give the appearance of being a servant of the Lord, but his heart will not be true to him. A mighty trembling will go forth throughout the world, and all the world will fear it" as Israel gathers herself to this Messiah, whom Gog later slays "in midday darkness." The rise of Gog in the world will be terrible, himself proclaiming, "I am your Messiah, I am your God!" and they will believe him, who deceives many and gathers the nations of the world to him to fight and again "make war with the sons of Israel," thousands of whom he slays. But then Gog turns his face to Jerusalem, where he and his mighty horde encamp "at the beautiful holy mountain" (Dan 11:45). "And the Holy One, blessed be he, will fight on behalf of Israel" (Zech 14:3). And then, suddenly, "Michael the great prince" is heard to blow "three blasts on the shofar (Isa 27:13) ... [which is] the right horn of the ram of Isaac ... and Messiah the son of David ... will be revealed [and] the fear of the Lord will fall upon ... all the nations. Israel will come back with the Messiah ... to Jerusalem. They will ascend the steps of the House of David [the Temple of the New Jerusalem] ... and the Messiah will take his seat there ... He will say to the Messiah [ben Joseph], Sit at My right hand (Ps 110:1). And the Messiah will say to Israel, 'Assemble yourselves and stand and see the deliverance of the Lord! (Exod 14:13; Adolf Jellinek's translation cited in Mitchell, pp. 265-276).

Key points of Ben Joseph's life & mission

"For more than two thousand years," observed Trevan G. Hatch, "many Jewish scholars and rabbis have attempted, with only a certain degree of success, to explain and even comprehend the Jewish traditions of the Messiah ben Joseph, the man who would come forth in the last days as a restorer and a forerunner to the Messiah [ben David]." It was a messianic tradition that, in the words of Aharon Agus, "survived ... because of its old roots," and "a currency of knowledge" about this tradition as it is transmitted from the ancient texts is, therefore, "assumed," but which, however, "is not readily apparent" to the modern reader "either in its currency or its meaning" (p. 289 note 1). But a thoroughgoing review of the most salient and generally recognized 'uniform' or central points that emerge from what might be viewed as the 'distilled essence' of the messianic Ben Joseph figure, as shown forth in the legendary texts and rabbinic literature, has been an instructive and illuminating venture for many scholars.

Twelve oxen representing the Tribes of Israel bear up the sacred baptismal font within the Salt Lake Temple, a holy edifice of granite stone, consecrated to the Lord, which sanctuary took the Latter-day Saints 40 years to build. The oxen-font design revealed to Joseph Smith and realized within the Nauvoo Temple was closely followed for fonts built within the many temples that came after it.

Preexistent origin

The 'Messiah ben Joseph' of ancient Jewish tradition appears throughout literature — written by Jews for Jews — of every genre and period, according to David Mitchell. But this 'Josephite' messiah-figure (a latter-day 'restorer', 'gatherer', and savior-martyr) was unknown to Christian scholarship until the last couple of centuries. Beyond his Josephite title, he remains, in all ancient sources, nameless, of unknown parentage and mysterious origins. Greenstone calls him "that obscure figure." And while those origins find a canonical basis in Genesis 49 (Jacob's blessing) and Deuteronomy 33 (Moses' blessing), the 'goings-forth' of Micah's Ephraimite moshel 'ruler' are 'from olam...' or eternity — that is, they are pre-existent. Ben Joseph is like Him for whom he prepares the way, whose name is 'Yinnon' (without beginning of days or end of years), and, according to LDS belief, like all of God's spiritual offspring, eternally preexistent and everlasting.

Transformer: from 'white bull' to 'wild-ox'

The ancient texts show Ben Joseph to appear, eschatologically, as a servile, suffering firstborn shor (bos taurus — the white bull or domestic ox that is "bound to" death, or to consecrated sacrifice), and which, after making possible the transformation of God's elect in its image as a true 'son of God', is martyred, but who then, in a post-mortem resurgence or resurrection, becomes (as per Moses' blessing) a mighty all-conquering rem, or aurochs (bos primigenius 'firstborn bull' — the fearsome Eurasian wild-ox, a giant beast of tremendous power and speed, with great 'upright' black horns — representative of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh). Thus is the lowly sacrificial shor transformed through its heroic resurgence into the triumphant, majestic rem.

Josephite king & Restorer-forerunner

Ben Joseph, throughout the various canonical and non-canonical messianic traditions, is presented as a Josephite king reigning over an "interim kingdom" and an 'Elias' forerunner to the great 'Messiah ben David' who — having in the end times 'gored' or 'pushed' together the nations of the earth (that is, by gathering out from those nations God's elect and uniting them 'all as one'; see Isa 11:10-16; Jer 3:14), — is ultimately exalted to heaven, robed in divine glory, and apparently, in some sense, granted a "universal kingship."

In recounting the heroic mission of Messiah ben Joseph, the very early sources agree on several key points and, in general, their sequence:

As an Ephraimite (a name meaning 'twice fruitful'), Ben Joseph comes from a "northern land" bearing the name 'Upper Galilee', which by its many waters connotes a consecrated land of revelation (i.e., the thundering waterfalls of the Lebanon foothills of Mount Hermon — Psalm 29's 'young wild ox' — called also the 'waters of Dan', which feed the Galilee and are the source of the Jordan). His mission is to gather 'all Israel' to him. He ascends to that land deemed holy by God — 'Jerusalem' — where he is to re-establish a Temple for consecrated offerings of ancient ritual sacrifice that was once had among God's 'holy ones' in the world. Ben Joseph and his people subjugate the surrounding lands for the establishment there of a "temporary" messianic kingdom (Ps 72; Testament of Joseph 19:11-12; Aggadat Mashiaḥ). The great evil of Gog in the world, however, rises up in hostility to attack and make war on the elect of God.

Brethren that betray

Ben Joseph, by his own 'brethren' (in what the messianic texts describe as a 'silver pieces' kind of betrayal), is treacherously delivered into the hands of the enemy, who afflicts him with a death-like bondage from which, however, he is able to arise in brief triumph before he is slain.

The 'warrior'-messiah battles 'Gog', is pierced through and slain

Messiah ben Joseph is that 'promised one' of Josephite-Ephraimite descent who is destined to "suffer [and die] in conflict to liberate mankind." This life-and-death struggle is, apparently, fought with an ageless beast that has arisen anew in the world against a re-emergent Israel, and is called variously 'Edom' or 'Gog'. The apocalyptic midrash called Aggadat Mashiaḥ describes this monstrous latter-day Despot as a "brazen-faced king" who will arise over a world long-depraved of spiritual light, seizing his "kingship" by trickery as at Dan 11:21. Viewed as a second 'Joseph' or 'Josiah', and a "greater Joshua" ("at the head of," or leading Ephraim and Manasseh), from whose princely line he is also descended — that is, "a mashiaḥ of the ETERNAL [who] made the sun stand still" — Messiah ben Joseph is that 'chosen one' of the "latter days" (Gen 49:1) who the patriarch Jacob promised to Joseph would not only be a 'fruitful plant' (49:22; see Amos 9:15), but also a Shepherd-Rock from 'Shaddai', from the Might of Jacob (49:24) — an 'anointed' warrior-king of strength, refuge, and defense for the people of God. His mortal destiny, however, is to be finally 'pierced through' and martyred by the Enemy of God's elect.

'40 Years': wilderness-driven Israel & the Refiner's fire

Into the "wilderness" of the Refiner's fire — In 1846, the Latter-day Saints are driven into the wilderness and into the biting cold of winter after the murder of the Prophet Joseph by a lawless and bloodthirsty mob. They eventually make it to the Great Basin of the American West and a 'desert valley' amidst the Rocky Mountains, where they settle near a great inland 'salt sea'.

Ben Joseph's disciples, after mourning his death, are driven by the enemy into the wilderness for an allusory period of "40 years," continuing in relative peace as God, in His wisdom, "cleanses" or "purifies" and makes ready a people for the consummating salvation of their redeemer-Messiah. The return of Elijah and Moses (and also, according to the apocalyptic midrash called Pirqei Mashiaḥ, the "miracle" of the restored "heavenly secrets" of temple Wisdom, ritual, and covenantal signs) and, eventually, the summons of Messiah ben David to rally at 'Jerusalem', all precede the final end-time battle with Gog and his hostile horde. These events prepare the world for the coming thousand-year reign of God's great atoning Messiah.

Martyr-witness for God's kingdom

Thus it is in the messianic texts that, after opening a Temple-sanctuary "fountain to cleanse" the people and to "make way for the coming kingdom of the house of David" (Zech 13:1 — that is, after "opening the way" via clear, revelatory, purifying waters, in order for the atoning advent or parousia of Messiah ben David to be efficacious for humankind), Ben Joseph also appears in some sense to make a 'representative' sacrifice, offering up his own life, to stand against the 'blood-guilt' of his generation for its persecution of God's re-emergent, chosen people — thus becoming a 'Day of Judgement' witness against the native land-dwellers, especially, of the latter-day 'Jerusalem' that, according to the ancient texts, Ben Joseph establishes. His testimonial sacrifice would, one dreadful day, stand against those vile inhabitants (referred to in some texts collectively as "Gog") who viciously expelled Ben Joseph and God's 'holy ones' bearing His righteous priesthood from their midst.

The full inauguration of the Messianic Age begins, according to Mitchell, with the sacrificial death of a firstborn shor, to which fate Messiah ben Joseph was ever destined (According to Pseudo-Jonathan, at Zech 12:10, Ben Joseph is, by the monstrous 'Gog' [Edom] — but only "after many victories and miracles" — pierced, slain, and mourned by his people "before the gate of Jerusalem," or Zion: "And they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son"). Yet, like an irresistible rem triumphantly conquering the world, he becomes a firstborn also in inheritance, receiving with his people "the double portion" of both posterity (two tribes, each with a full inheritance in its own right) and promised lands (which are themselves 'tokens of covenant', the retention of which, however, is contingent upon righteous living).

Descent to Sheol

This latter-day nāzīr 'prince', by his ultimate sacrifice, manifests himself as "a firstborn, a fruitful plant, and a pierced innocent" — a king, like Joseph of Egypt, "attacked ... shot at ... hated" (Gen 49:23) and ultimately 'pierced through' by ruthless foes who murder him "at the gate of Jerusalem." And this, after suffering a 'silver pieces' betrayal in which he is treacherously delivered by his "brethren," in innocent Josephite fashion (Gen 37:28), to hostile "foreigners" — only to be, like Joseph, consigned to 'chains', to suffer a death-like underworld 'descent' to Sheol (Ps 88:3-5). This is a humiliating near-death subterranean incarceration, it seems, wherein Ben Joseph is "buried in a living death of pit and dungeon" (Gen 37:24; 39:20; see Ps 89:39, 45, whereat the Messiah's princely status is shamed and his youth is cut short).

It was an imprisonment and affliction, however, from which this Josephite figure was to be raised to even greater "honour" (Gen 41:39-45; 4Q372) and which ultimately "gave life to Israel" (Gen 50:20; 4Q372). The early homiletic midrash called Pesikta Rabbati speaks not only of Ben Joseph's ordination to his messiahship before the creation of the world ("of old you took this upon yourself") — a premortal assignment and solemn agreement by which he would "give light to the eyes of Israel and deliver his people" — but it also alludes to the "bitter pains" of Ben Joseph's oppressive suffering in treachery-induced bondage "for the benefit of Israel." It was thus to be a predestined ordeal and test by which, sitting bound in the "darkness, gloom, and affliction" of his prison, he would also endure the world's scorn, contempt, and derision.

Rising redivivus to teach & build God's Temple

The Nauvoo Temple upon a high bluff overlooking the city, c. 1846.

Yet after that terrible trial, albeit just before his martyrdom (which, like King Josiah's death in 609 BC, would be bitterly lamented by his people), he rises redivivus to become "a master, a lord, a ruler, and prince." Ben Joseph's 'rising again' to "rebuild the temple" and re-establish its ancient ordinances — or, as Klausner (1956) says of Ben Joseph's mission, to "restore everywhere the true Law to its former validity" (p. 484) — is attended, according to the texts, by the concurrent appearance of Elijah, who Malachi (3:1, 4:6) prophesied would return (as with the Lord Himself, "suddenly to his temple") to "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers" (see "The Eighth Sign" of the apocalyptic midrashim called Asereth Otot and Otot Rav Shimon ben Yoḥai).

Indeed, the biblical prophets, in their "one voice" prophecy of "the restoration and resurgence of the house of Joseph" under the leadership of the Ephraimites after Israel's 'scattering' (a result of unrepentant idolatry and sin) and centuries-long captivity and apostasy (4 Ezra 5:1, 7:28-30: referenced by the archangel Uriel, who tells Ezra, "the way of truth shall be hidden, and the land shall be barren of faith"), "seem to speak of a Josephite king who will lead their restoration," gathering a "sifted and purified" people again to their promised lands. Isaiah foretold of an end-times 'healing of the breach' between the Israelite brethren Ephraim and Judah, who in the latter days would reunite to conquer their enemies: the lost tribes would return to worship on Mount Zion (or 'Lebanon,' the ancient code-name for a Temple-crowned Jerusalem: see Isa 60:13). "Israelites scattered among all nations" would be "brought back to Jerusalem by foreign peoples," led by "a distinct individual" who would "gather" them (Isa 49:3, 5) — and who would, in wonderful similitude to Messiah ben David his master, become that "innocent victim, like a lamb led to slaughter; one despised, afflicted, and pierced-through, poured out to death, cut off from the land of the living, dead and buried (53:3-9, 12)."

People of righteousness 'transplanted'

Micah's moshel, from Bethlehem-Efrata (an archaic form of 'Ephraim' = fruitfulness wrought out through sorrow) where Joseph's mother Rachel died giving birth to second-son Benjamin, is like a raḥel — a ewe-lamb silent before its shearers, recalling Rachel the shepherdess herself — "whose life is poured out" in sacrifice. The "wounded and banished" Rachel (Micah 4:6-7) represents her "stricken and exiled children" that make up the Ephraimite confederation. After a period of grief-borne exile, these were to be "brought back to the fold" (re-united in joy with Judah) and made "into a strong nation" — into "one flock ruled by the ETERNAL from Zion" (Micah 4:7-8, 13). This Josephite confederation was to be gathered "through the sea" into that shepherds' watch-tower set on a hill, the 'Tower [or Temple] of the Flock' — "Migdal Eder, hill of Daughter Zion" (the offspring-offshoot of old-world Zion) — amidst the abundant 'Temple-flock' pasture-land set apart for "consecrated sacrifice". To achieve that renewed 'sanctuary service,' collective Israel — "repatriated" in 'Lebanon' (a new land of Zion once again temple-crowned) — would reinstate the kingship of its "former" or "first" dominion (Micah 4:8; Zech 10:5-12). This meant a return to the rule of Ephraimite 'kingship', such as Israel originally had with Joseph of Egypt and with Joshua when Israel first entered the Promised Land, before the establishment of its Judahite monarchy. Which is to say, that "the authority of Jerusalem shall cede her authority to Migdal Eder," and by that action latter-day Israel, comprised as it would be initially of a majority of Josephites, will become "the kingdom of Daughter Zion" — the "temporary" kingdom of a greater Kingdom eventually to come (see Torrey, p. 265).

Latter-day Saints believe that the return of Elijah and Moses of legend and prophecy occurred on 3 April 1836, when — after the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery had knelt in prayer — the Lord Jesus Christ in glory appeared above the breastwork of the Melchizedek Priesthood pulpits of the Kirtland Temple, attended by the great prophets. Whereupon, Elijah restored the sealing keys to eternally bind the generations of fathers to their children in love, and Moses, in turn, restored to the Prophet Joseph the keys for the gathering of scattered Israel. Interior view of the Temple breastwork, 1907.

The Targum Yerushalmi (Pseudo-Jonathan) of Genesis 35:23 affirms this 'relocation' of God's latter-day kingdom: Jacob "spread his tent beyond Migdal Eder, the place where the King Messiah will be revealed at the end of days." The prophet Micah adds also his testimony (5:4) that the coming moshel will be "a shepherd who will pasture his flock in the strength of the ETERNAL" — the Might of Jacob. With origins from olam or 'eternity', the promised Ephraimite ruler over this "temporary" kingdom was destined to come, "like a Shepherd-Rock, to the Tower of the Flock," whereupon "the kingship of the house of David [would] devolve upon him," who would be, according to the Targum of Ezekiel 17:12, but a youth, or a "child" (yoneq: Jeremiah's "lovely lad" - Jer 31:9, 18-20). Indeed, the appearance of this youth in the world would "set in motion" the great gathering of Israel (Ps 50).

Royal psalmody for God's 'anointed'

Between Psalms 60 and 108 there exists, according to Mitchell, a messianic inclusio or 'Josephite core' (especially Psalms 80 to 92 with its "great theodical crux" at Ps 89), "a nucleus of Josephite language and imagery" (including a majority of the priestly Josephite 'Asaph' and 'Korah' Psalms) that ultimately prefigures the mighty Davidic deliverance of both exiled and faithful modern Israel in the latter days. The core's closing "coda" — Psalms 105 and 106 — "eulogizes Joseph [of Egypt] as Israel's suffering saviour before the exodus, and presents him as a type of one to precede a greater exodus to come" — a latter-day gathering out of exiled Israel from the nations of the earth, famously foretold by Jeremiah (30-33), that would eclipse the Exodus from Egypt (Ps 77:15). A paired reading of Psalms 1 ('blessed man') and 2 ('king') reveals a conflated image of Josephite and Judahite messianism — envisioning "a greater Joseph-Joshua and a greater David combined" — and it occurs again at Psalm 89. "Strangest of all," says Mitchell, "Psalm 81, in the middle of the Joseph core, spells the name of Joseph as 'Yehoseph', that is, Joseph merged with [Yahweh's] Tetragrammaton [YHWH], and perhaps with Judah. This Josephite-Judahite king descends to Sheol in Psalms 88 and 89, anticipating Joseph's imprisonment spoken of in Psalm 105, and then reappears triumphant in Psalm 110, 'the man of the right hand' [Ps 80:17 likewise references Jacob's blessing on Ephraim], to conquer the nations."

Polymessianic & Qumranic witnesses

The pseudepigraphic text of 1 Enoch 90 "borrows from Deuteronomy 33:17" to present Messiah ben Joseph as "a firstborn ox who transforms all nations into his image [or is the enabling agent through which all might be transformed into white 'purified' bulls], and then rules like a sovereign aurochs." The Israelite, pre-Christian Testament of Naphtali (5) also points to several "expectant deliverers." In it, the Patriarch Joseph is, from the Mount of Olives and in godly glory (exaltation), "borne heavenward on an aurochs, representing the triumphant messianic [seer, his descendant], in the presence of Levi [whose high priest progeny seize the greater-glory sun] and Judah [whose kingly progeny seize the lesser-glory moon], after which a 'holy writing' announces the captivity of the twelve tribes of Israel," from which oppressive dispersion Messiah ben Joseph is prophesied to liberate by gathering them 'all as one'.

Similarly, in the Babylonian Talmud (a commentary on the Mishnah), the 'Four Craftsmen' baraitha presents, in its various iterations, four 'redeemer' heroes — prophet (Elijah), Davidic king (Ben David), priest ('Righteous Priest' or Melchizedek), and Josephite warrior (Ben Joseph). And another polymessianic testimonium — the Qumranic 4Q175 — reveals this same redeemer 'quartet' of end-times apocalypticism — a Moses-like prophet, a king, a priest, and a Joshua-like hero (showing that, just like its Talmudic counterpart, Qumranic 4Q175 springs from an exegetical tradition of Zechariah 2:3 that predates 100 BC). The Dead Sea texts, as Mitchell notes, feature "a latter-day priest who will 'teach righteousness at the end of days' (CD 6:11) and preside over the eschatological battle liturgy (1QM 15:4; 16:3; 18:5) and banquet (1QSa 2:12-21)." Likewise, the Testament of Benjamin (3:6-8) prophesies of a coming 'son of Joseph' who, "as spotless for the lawless will he be given up, and as sinless for the godless will he die," the death of a 'faultless' tsadik ('righteous one'; wholly innocent) which, therefore, in some undelineated way, opens wide the gate to final messianic redemption and which ushers in Davidic kingship, victory, and renewal (see '4 Ezra 7:26-35, 43-45; Mitchell, pp. 12, 60, 68, 148).

Fifth Vision of Ezra by Nicolaes de Bruyn, 1613. The archangel Uriel shows the exiled prophet Ezra, in vision, a latter-day "little kingdom" of 'righteous ones' that transforms, like Daniel's small stone, into a great "Mount Zion" ("graven without hands"), rolling forth to fill "the whole earth". Its righteous 'forest lion' leader comes roaring out of a wood, speaking with a human voice to "the eagle ... rebuking her for her unrighteousness" and announcing the end of the Age and of all evil. "This lion," says Uriel, "is the Anointed One, whom the Most High has kept unto the end of days" (Ezra 12:31) — a prophet, priest and king who sits in mighty judgement among his own people.

Ezra, Uriel, and a kingdom-Lion that roars

The apocalyptic passage of 4 Ezra 12:30-34 is particularly germane to the Josephite messiah tradition. It is also, as with other Ben Joseph/Ben David traditions, polymessianic in the sense of its dualistic Ben Joseph/Ben David interpretations, laden also as it is, per the traditions of ancient Hebrew literary structure and style, with multiple levels of prophetic meaning.

Ezra, mourning over "the desolation of Zion" after its ruin in 586 BC — troubled as he gazes "upon the wealth of them that dwell in Babylon," their "impieties without number" (4 Ezra 3:1-2, 29-31), and perplexed concerning God's purposes for Israel — prays unto the Lord and is given a series of dreams under the supervision of the archangel Uriel (4:1, 10:59, 13:53-56), who helps illuminate Ezra's mind so that he can understand their interpretation — particularly concerning God's "small [Josephite] kingdom" of 'righteous ones' ("a plant of a great people" - 4 Ezra 9:21) that "the Highest" will establish at a time "full of trouble" in the latter days (see also 4 Ezra 8:50, 9:3; Dan 12:1). The kingdom's 'forest lion' leader of "roaring" righteousness — one who 'speaks' to "the eagle ... rebuking her for her unrighteousness" — is the Almighty's messianic "anointed one" — a prophet, priest and king who sits in mighty end-time judgement to "reprove ... correct [and] deliver with mercy those that have been pressed upon my borders [oppressed, driven to the boundaries of God's Zion], and he shall make them joyful [who have "fallen into danger [and] come into great perils" yet "have works, and faith toward the Almighty" to courageously endure them - 13:19, 23] until the coming of the day of judgment."

Ezra beholds that Israel's 'little' kingdom has become a great "Mount Zion" that is "graven without hands" (not made by man: Daniel's latter-day "kingdom" that began as a "small stone cut out without hands," or without human intervention, and rolled forth to fill "the whole earth" - Dan 2:34-35), and he sees also Daniel's 'Son of Man' rising up from the midst of the sea — "whom God the Highest hath kept a great season," created from His own Being, who comes to "order them" of the "multitude with peace" (4 Ezra 13:5-7, 12, 25-26, 39, 47, 51-52). Ezra learns that, in the time when "the most High" begins marvelously to "deliver" the nations from their long night of apostasy, the righteous who commit to brave the "danger" and the "great perils" of the fiery latter-day storm and tempest (of both temporal and spiritual warfare) that arises concurrently with His Restoration, fare "easier" and are "more blessed" than the wicked who "pass away as a cloud out of the world" without engaging in the battle (4 Ezra 13). It will evolve into a most ominous conflict involving not only the 'eagle nation' and its consecutive, successional leaders (as also the center of the Lion's 'little kingdom' within it that simultaneously battles the great spiritual Enemy of the world), but also other overwhelming conspiratorial forces from both within and without itself, culminating in that last battle with Evil's confederation at world's end as it arrays itself against the Son of Man and His destroying host (11-12). Uriel then, as he similarly does Enoch, commands Ezra to "write all these things that thou hast seen in a book, and hide them: And teach them to the wise of the people, whose hearts thou knowest may comprehend and keep these secrets" (12:37-38; see also 14:6-8, 26, 45-47)

Joseph's 'City of Refuge'

Joseph and Aseneth calls its narrative's "firstborn son of God ... Joseph" — the ideal connubial 'mate' prefigured, as it were, for God's 'City of Refuge'. Such a refuge of safety, according to the Josephite legends, would be sorely needed by the people of God who followed Ben Joseph, for, as foretold by Ezra, both they and their leader would be despised, hated, and driven to Zion's borders by the Enemy. Sefer Zerubbabel describes Messiah ben Joseph as "a man despised" (ish niḇzeh). Qumranic 4Q372 eschatologically reveals one called 'Joseph' fallen into the hands of enemies attacking a united latter-day Israel dwelling amidst an end-time Zion or 'Jerusalem', which, after the foreign Enemy attacks is left in ruins — its surrounding areas raped, and its temple-locations idolatrously desecrated. In his distress and near-death circumstances of oppression, Ben Joseph "cries to God his father to deliver him" (4Q372, lines 15-17; Psalms 22:1; 38:12, 21; 89:26, 39), questioning why he has been 'forsaken' into the hands of enemies seeking his life, but then, acknowledging God's universal strength and promising to praise Him if He will avenge them of their overpowering enemies and mercifully deliver the poor and afflicted of His people, Ben Joseph anticipates not only God's justice and righteous vindication, but also his own subsequent "kingship," his teaching of "divine law," and his establishment of sacred ritual worship for God's people — all of which, according to Mitchell, requires the "wisdom, authority, and power" of a "righteous ruler" (4Q372, lines 23-27). Thus is Ben Joseph, though "mortified and bound over to death," able to rise from the oppressive depths of that Sheol-like test, and return to "comfort Zion" (11QMelch 1:20), but also to "make [her] understand [the Wisdom of] all the ages"; see Isa 11:2-3, 9; 61:2-3; Hab 2:14)

In the Qumranic 4Q521, a priestly Messiah 'son of Joseph' — one "to whom the heavens and the earth will listen" and in whose time "the Lord will proclaim good news to the poor, heal the wounded, and raise the dead" (Mitchell, p. 99) — appears in some sense to sacrifice himself "for his generation." "Messiah bar Ephraim" (using the Aramaic patronymic 'bar' rather than the Hebrew 'ben') is in the Targumic Tosefta (to Zech 12:10) slain by Gog at "the gate of Jerusalem" (Zion), reflecting the Babylonian Talmud's assertion that Ben Joseph is to be slain, not only before his people's '40-year' trial in the desert, but also, therefore, before the final confrontation with Gog and the appearance of Messiah ben David (who is sometimes identified with 'Menahem ben Ammiel' — a name, however, that is applied at other times to Ben Joseph, for it means "Comforter, son of God's people"). The Tosefta concurs that God's elect mourn their messianic prophet but are driven by Gog into a wilderness exile (Psalms 90-106), where for '40 years' they are tried, tested, "purified and sorted like silver and gold, so that their patience and their faith will become known... Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant (Ezek 20:36-37)" (Sa'adya Gaon, Book of Beliefs, VIII: On the Redemption, Sect V). Through that Refiner's 'fire', however, every vestige of apostate 'dross' is allowed to fall by the wayside. For "those whose faith is weak [will] desert their religion ... And I will purge out from among you the rebels and them that transgress against me (Ezek 20:38)" (cited in Beliefs).

Egypt provided a mighty refuge from the great famine in the land for Jacob and his sons, at the time when Pharaoh's noble vicegerent Joseph revealed himself to his brethren (Gustave Doré).

A raging aurochs at Megiddo: the risen & conquering hero

Thus is foretold Ben Joseph's martyrdom by a foreign and hostile Enemy (whereas, conversely, Ben David, as Christians believe, is slain by His own house of 'Jerusalemites'). But then, as several messianic texts attest, Ben Joseph returns, resurrected, to himself raise the spirits of earth's dead. "The first to rise will be Ben Joseph, by virtue of his being a righteous and well-tried servant of God, greatly rewarded by his Master" (Sa'adya Gaon, Book of Beliefs, VIII: On the Redemption, Sect VI; see also "The Ninth Sign" of the apocalyptic midrash called Asereth Otot).

As seeming prelude to this miraculous advent of the resurrection of the righteous, Qumranic 11QMelch reveals "a heavenly warrior" and "exalted" High Priest (a Melchizedek 'King of Righteousness') and hero-conqueror identified with the 'cut off' mashiaḥ-prince of Daniel 9:25-26 and with Isaiah's "herald of good news [52:7], and mashiaḥ of the spirit" (see Luke 4:18-19). Gabriel's Revelation (GR) also features "a Messiah called Ephraim," one who descends with chariot-riding Michael and is personally directed by the Davidic Servant to "place the sign" amidst the battling end-time nations at Jerusalem, who in collusion, and under the machinations of Gog, have come against the prosperous promised lands of the kingdom of modern Israel (GR lines 13-14, 16-17, 26-28).

"Then Gog and Magog will hear about Ben David and the excellence of his people and country and the abundance of their wealth, and how they feel themselves secure without locks or fortifications or aught resembling them. They will, therefore, covet them, as it is said ... And you shall say: I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will come upon them that are quiet, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates (Ezek 38:11). [Gog] will thereupon gather around himself people from the sundry nations, crossing countries in order to reach them, as Scripture says: And you shall come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you, and many peoples with you ... to the valley of Jehoshaphat ... Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision (Joel 3:12, 14)."

After this 'forties' period of purification of God's 'holy people' (its 'true' length being, by its eschatologically symbolic nature, indeterminable), Mashiaḥ bar Ephraim, that 'conquering heavenly hero' now resurrected who, in concert with Judah, at long last vanquishes Gog — a scene in which, as "the wild-ox is the warrior Messiah," one might well imagine a raging aurochs at Megiddo (Ezek 38-39; see 4 Ezra 13:5, 8-11, 27-28, 33-35, 37-38, 49-50).

Reunion in Zion: where heaven & earth meet

Another point of general consensus in the messianic texts is that, under the supreme command of Messiah ben David, the Josephite forces route Gog's horde of conspiring nations and "ascend to Jerusalem, displacing the invaders from the holy city." All of this, according to the Targum Yerushalmi, is reflective of Ben Joseph's rem-like achievement as the apocalyptic and exegetic midrashim's 'War Messiah' or Mashuaḥ milḥamah — a title meaning "one Anointed for War" (i.e., anointed by others), by whose principal "hand" the adversarial Kingdom of Edom will "fall". In the Targum to Song of Songs 4:5, Messiah bar Ephraim — who a Lamentations targum calls "the King Messiah of the House of Joseph of the House of Ephraim" — appears as "co-deliverer" with Messiah ben David, the two messianic figures being described as "twins" who are likened to Moses and Aaron, by whose joint "merit" Israel was fed, sustained, and "well"-watered for 40 years in the wilderness. The comparison suggests that Ben Joseph would stand as the presiding latter-day High Priest for Israel, symbolically "making atonement" for them, as did Aaron, at sacred altars (Lev 16:24, 32-33) — from which consecration would proceed latter-day Israel's miraculous sustenance and purification in their '40 year' wilderness sojourn amidst the 'Shekhinah' of the great Refiner.

In his co-deliverance of a united Israel, then, Messiah ben Joseph reappears finally triumphant — resurrected — in his aurochs 'warrior' incarnation in the Valley of Jehosaphat, the Valley of Decision (Joel 3:12, 14; Micah 4:13: his armature complete with "iron horn" and "brazen hoofs" to thrash the nations), to route the forces of Gog and Magog — the nations of the earth hostile to God and to His people Israel (Ps 83-86; Joel 3:1-2, 9-14; Micah 4:11-12; Zech 12:2-3). Deliverance comes (as with the messianic "Holy One" of Zech 14:4-8) with the Bridegroom-king's descent upon Mount Olivet (the 'Mount of Anointing') with the heavenly hosts (Ps 45, 110; Isa 40:5; Dan 7:13). The spirits of the righteous dead are, by messianic command (an authoritative order of miraculous manifest power that is issued variously, in the Josephite texts, either by Ben David, Ben Joseph, Elijah, or a combination of the three), 'caught up' in resurrection to meet their Deliverers. Gathered Israel exults in the holy city: Israel's Daughter of Zion, the New Jerusalem (having embraced, or received unto herself, the 'heavenly' Jerusalem), stands with her heroic Messiahs exalted and triumphant (Ezek 40-48; see the apocalyptic midrash called Nistarot Rav Shimon ben Yoḥai, vv. 30-32).

Messiah ben Joseph's other titles include 'Ephraim Messiah Tsidqi [Righteous One]', 'Messiah ben Ephraim', and 'Ephraim ben Joseph'.

Myth becomes history: Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith, Jr. — Prophet of the latter-day Restoration

These Jewish legends of Messiah ben Joseph, given in summary above, hold very special interest for Latter-day Saints. This is because, in the legends' inherent claims that Joseph of Egypt uttered prophecies about a future Messiah ben Joseph, those claims essentially mirror a similar profession put forth by Latter-day Saints as to their own divinely revealed prophecies once uttered by Joseph of Egypt. These, they profess, were recorded anciently upon metal plates (the source records for The Book of Mormon) by the American prophet Nephi (their content conveyed by his father, the Josephite colonizer Lehi - 2 Ne 3:6-15). Other Josephite prophecies, including several lost or corrupted verses from the book of Genesis, were likewise restored by revelation (JST Gen 50:26-33) through the Prophet Joseph Smith — to whose life, as Latter-day Saints readily recognize, the 'Messiah ben Joseph' legends closely correspond at many points.

Foremost is the legend and prophecy that the Messiah ben Joseph, born through the lineage of Ephraim ben Joseph ben Jacob, was destined to appear upon the earth in "the last days," yoked with great authority and power to perform a unique mission that was foreordained in eternity before the creation of the world. On this point, Ben Joseph's name surfaces even in the Hekhalot literature of the Merkabah school of Jewish mysticism: Rabbi Ishmael, in his ascent to the seventh Heavenly Temple, beheld upon the Veil place before the Holy of Holies "the events of the last times. The end of the course of the present world [was] marked by the appearance of Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David."

The Jewish rabbis were well aware from their own traditions that the mighty warrior-king forerunner Messiah ben Joseph, as an Ephraimite descendant of Joseph of Egypt, was set to appear "in the last days" that preceded both the coming of Elijah (Mal 1:3; 4:5-6; Matt 17:11) and of Messiah ben David — to commence the "gathering" of the remnants of the Ten Tribes and to "restore the true faith" of Israel that had been lost to them through long years of Apostasy. He, like his forefather Joseph of Egypt, was to "save" the world from a great "famine" in the land — "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11). In the new "promised land" of the Josephite birthright (America, "the land of Joseph"), which had been "added" as part of Joseph's 'double' "firstborn" portion, he would (as a "fruitful vine" over-spilling its walls or boundaries) "plant" Zion and the 'New Jerusalem' in a new world, and — under this new Josephite (but also, apparently, Judahite) king (see below) — this restored church and kingdom would grow like Daniel's Rock "cut out of the mountain" without human "hands" or intervention, to roll forth until it "filled the whole earth" (Dan 2:34-35, 45).

The 'messianic' Jewish legends and traditions of a great end-times 'gatherer' and 'restorer' thus seem for Latter-day Saints to point strongly to the restoration of a latter-day Kingdom of God — the Church of Jesus Christ — under the founding leadership of a latter-day Prince of all Israel (David-Ephraim) who is called Messiah ben Joseph.

Joseph ben Joseph: Latter-day ensign-bearer for the House of Israel

Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple ... (Malachi 3:1)

He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people. (JS–H 1:33)

The Pharisee Josephus [as also previously the apocalyptic prophets Daniel, Enoch, Ezra, and Baruch] had already seen Adam, the first man, as a prophet whose vision encompassed not only the flood of Noah's day but also the flood of fire at the end of time and thus included all of history (Antiquities, 1:70) ... Likewise, the priest of the End of Days (the priestly Messiah) who appears in the Habakkuk commentary of the Dead Sea sectarians [Messiah ben Joseph] will be able to interpret the visions of the ancient prophets regarding the total course of the history of Israel as all of their features now [in the new Messianic aeon] become fully visible ... (Gershom Scholem)

Noah came before the flood. I have come before the fire ... (the Prophet Joseph Smith, to an individual inquiring after his identity, as reported by Lorenzo Snow)

Joseph Smith, Jr. — the son of Joseph Smith, Sr. — in his lifetime, and on numerous occasions, was approached by individuals earnestly inquiring after his identity. "Who are you?" they would ask, hoping perhaps to glean some deeper insight into what lay behind the clearly charismatic facility possessed by this Prophet of the Restoration who was revealing God's word anew and drawing thousands to him from out of Europe's northern nations and isles of the sea. To one such inquiring mind, and as reported by future apostle and church president Lorenzo Snow, the Prophet replied: "Noah came before the flood. I have come before the fire" — meaning the boiling, melting conflagration (Isa 64:2) set to accompany the coming of the 'Son of Man' to reign for a thousand years, then judge the world.

'No man knows my history'

While such statements as the Prophet made about himself appear rather 'cryptic' in nature, Smith's reluctance to broach the subject of his 'eschatological' identity, as strongly supported by his own documented statements, was rooted in a divine restraint that had been imposed upon him. Early church leaders, on multiple occasions, recall the Prophet saying to them, in effect, that he desired, but was by the Lord restrained from, revealing his true or 'eternal' identity to the world: "You do not know me. No man knows my history ... I cannot tell it: I shall never undertake it ... If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself ... Would to God ... I could tell you who I am! ... You would call it blasphemy ... When I am called by the trump of the archangel [meaning Michael, who was for him Adam, the father of the race] and weighed in the balance, you will all know me then." Such were his statements at Nauvoo on 6 April 1844, only weeks before his martyrdom.

On another occasion, as recorded by Wilford Woodruff, a later successor as president-prophet for the church and one of the faith's prolific diarists, Joseph said: "Brethren you do not know me, you do not know who I am ... I would to God that I could unbosom my feelings in the house of my friends!" (JD 21:317). In remarks given at a meeting of the Relief Society, the church's nascent women's organization, the Prophet, as Elizabeth Lightner recalled, said: "People little know who I am when they talk about me, and they never will know until they see me weighed in the balance in the kingdom of God. Then they will know who I am and see me as I am. I dare not tell them and they do not know me."

Brigham Young, Smith's immediate successor as church president stated on 8 Jan 1845 at Nauvoo: "You have heard Joseph say that the people did not know him. He had his eye on the relation to blood-relations ... The Lord had his eye upon him, and upon his father, and upon his father’s father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood [Noah], from the flood to Enoch, and from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that family and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of that man! ... Joseph Smith, Jr., was foreordained to come through the loins of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and so on, down through the Prophets and Apostles ... He was foreordained in eternity to preside over this last dispensation" (JD 7:289-90, 9 Oct 1859; emphasis added).

Notwithstanding the Prophet Joseph's reluctance to disclose more than he did about his precise 'eschatological' identity, it is a matter of record that he, on one occasion, declared solemnly, but boldly, that he had been called of God "to lay the foundation of this great work and kingdom in this dispensation, and [to] testify of His revealed will to scattered Israel" — at a later time emphasizing, moreover, that that kingdom to which he referred was "the kingdom of Daniel"; that now "already" it had been "set up," and that he was "the king over it."

Royal prince 'from eternity'

Joseph Smith — to whom the angel Moroni appeared several times to reveal sacred ancient records and to instruct the young prophet concerning his great destiny — was quick to confirm to all of his associates that none knew truly, nor could he tell them fully, who he was. Moroni Reveals the Plates to Joseph Smith by Lewis A. Ramsey, 1919.

Finally, there are the discursive remarks of a one-time traitor to the Prophet, now returned to full fellowship, W. W. Phelps, who gave the Prophet's funerary oratory in the days following his violent death and martyrdom: "Surely, as one of the holy ones commissioned by his Father among the royal seventy, when the High Council of Heaven set them apart to come down and 'multiply and replenish this earth,' he was the 'last,' and who knows but the 'greatest,' for he declared we knew not who he was! So, I may say, as the last is to be first, and the first last in eternal rotation, that Joseph Smith, who was Gazelam in the spirit world, was, and is, and will be in the endless progress of eternity — The Prince of Light."

Joseph Smith's successor, Brigham Young, only months later stated that the Prophet's descent was "direct" from "Joseph who was sold into Egypt ... the blood was pure in him" (JD 7:290). But more than this, Heber C. Kimball, who later was a member of the church's First Presidency, bore witness that Joseph Smith had a legitimate right to rule as king over Israel, for the Prophet was, he said, "near kindred to ... Jesus Christ" because he shared the same "lineage" (JD 4:248).

"Abraham received promises concerning his seed, and of the fruit of his loins," declared the Lord to His "servant" Joseph "— from whose loins ye are, namely, my servant Joseph ... As I said unto Abraham concerning the kindreds of the earth, even so I say unto my servant Joseph: In thee and in thy seed shall the kindred of the earth be blessed” (D&C 132:30; 124:58; emphasis added).

The significance of these lineage statements of the Prophet's patriarchal descent, in light of ancient scripture as outlined below, translates to a collective pronouncement that Joseph Smith descended, in part, through the priestly birthright line, as an Ephraimite of the House of Joseph, and partly through the royal kingship line of Jesse of the House of Judah:

And there shall come forth a rod [the direct offspring of royal Davidic heirs, culminating in Joseph Smith] out of the stem of Jesse [Jesus Christ, the 'Root of David'], and a Branch [Joseph again, according to some, but which also may refer to the 'true and living church' of Christ of Isa 4:2; 2 Ne 3:5; D&C 1:30] shall grow out of his roots [the distant-future offspring of Christ — Joseph Smith Jr, the Davidic heir, a Judahite-Ephraimite] ... (Isa 11:1; 2 Ne 21:1)

Latter-day Saint scripture reveals the identity of Isaiah's 'stem of Jesse' as being the Lord Jesus Christ (Isa 11:1-5; D&C 113:1-2), and the 'rod' and the 'root' of Jesse spoken of (Isa 11:1, 10; D&C 113:3-6) as being "a servant in the hands of Christ, who is partly a descendant of Jesse [through the royal Davidic line] as well as of Ephraim, or of the house of Joseph [the priestly birthright line], on whom there is laid much power ... unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days" (113:3) — which is to say, Joseph Smith — the direct offspring of both Judah and Joseph.

Consequently, the significance of the angel Moroni quoting the entire 'identity' chapter of Isaiah 11 (and many other 'restoration' passages including Malachi 4:6 and Acts 3:20-26) to a young Joseph Smith in 1823, emphasizing his lineage, is better understood.

Thus does Joseph Smith become the two-house descendant of Judah and Joseph who, it was long-prophesied, would be the instrument God would use to heal the brothers' ancient tribal breach and — through the restoration of Christ's "only true and living Church" and gospel kingdom (D&C 1:30) — begin to restore the world's wasteland to its primeval paradisaical state, the future Garden of the Lord ...

And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse [Joseph Smith], which shall stand for an ensign of the people [the bright banner to which the descendants of both Ephraim and Judah — the priestly birthright and royal ruling-right lines — and all Israel will rally]; to it shall the Gentiles seek [the lost ten tribes scattered among the nations]: and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord [the Root of David] shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant ['firstborn' and royal-priesthood elect] of his people, which shall be left ... And he shall set up an ensign for the nations [the Branch of God's chosen people, or true Church and gospel kingdom restored through Joseph — himself the rod/root of Jesse] and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah [the Jews] from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah [for its kingly scepter-right of royal blood], and Judah shall not vex Ephraim [with its claim to the priestly 'firstborn' birthright — the ancient breach will at last be healed, and the desolate wasteland restored to its primeval paradisaical glory as the Garden of the Lord] (Isa 11:10-13; 2 Ne 21:10-13; Art of Faith 1:10)

For twenty pieces of silver — the treacherous price of betrayal — was "Joseph sold by his brethren" to Egyptian traders from Midian (by Gustave Doré).

Like Father, like son

The Lord promised Joseph of Egypt that "I will remember you from generation to generation; and his name [the latter-day Restoration prophet's] shall be called Joseph, and it shall be after the name of his father [Joseph Smith, Sr, but also Joseph of Egypt]; and he shall be like unto you; for the thing which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand shall bring my people unto salvation" (JST, Gen 50:33).

This prophet-son of Joseph of Egypt, who would play such a dominant role in latter-day events, was, as LDS scripture proclaims, the same 'root'-and-'rod' servant of Christ (Christianity's Messiah ben David, who was Himself 'the stem of Jesse'), the same 'unlearned' man, Latter-day Saints believe, who would read a 'sealed book' that the learned [Professor Charles Anthon of Columbia College] could not read and from which the spiritually blind would 'see out of obscurity, and out of darkness,' of which Isaiah prophesied (Isa 11 & 29). This 'anointed one', a messiah called Joseph — whose Hebrew name, Asaph, means 'he who gathers,' 'he who causes to return,' or 'God gathereth' — was the same who would initiate in the last days what the ancient prophets called the 'gathering' of scattered Israel and the 'restitution' or 'restoration' of all things (Acts 3:21) spoken of by Peter. That gathering of the Israelite exiles would usher in the great Millennium, both advents seen and foretold by all the holy prophets since the world began.

Isaiah 49, one of the 'suffering servant' prophecies, has, McConkie (1980) suggests, a dual application to both Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Joseph. While its application to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ (the 'Messiah ben David' of Christianity) is well known and attested, Isaiah's 'suffering servant' passages are seen by some LDS scholars to also describe, in such a dual application, Joseph Smith and his role as the legendary Josephite 'anointed one' of the latter-day 'restoration'.

The Book of Mormon translation of this Isaianic chapter (2 Ne 27) gives added insight to the standard bible text, for, after first giving "a warning voice to Israel," which is scattered now among every nation, kindred, and tongue, "they are told to give heed to the voice of the Lord as he speaks through the mouth of his servant. The servant is to declare that 'the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.' So we look for a prophet," McConkie summarizes, "one declaring his own foreordination, with the added claim that his name was known to Israel even before his birth ... As Israel knew the name of the prophet who was to liberate them from their Egyptian bondage, Israel also knew [as apparent from the restored verses of Gen 50] the name of the prophet who would 'bring them out of darkness into light; out of hidden darkness, and out of captivity unto freedom' (JST, Gen 50:25) in that day when they were scattered among all the nations of the earth" — even this Messiah ben Joseph, that prophet who was to be, as Christ was, "like unto Moses" (JST, Gen 50:29), and, with his partly Judahite lineage, another 'Lion of the Lord'. "Surely it is more than coincidence," says McConkie, "that D&C 1, the revelation given by the Lord to introduce the compilation of revelations declaring authority to gather Israel, would use the very language of Isaiah to introduce Joseph Smith and the Restoration (see D&C 1:1-4, 17, 24, 29, 38; Isaiah 49:1)."

Latter-day Saints believe that Joseph Smith, Jr., is that Josephite-Judahite 'root' and Ephraimite-Judahite 'rod' (Isa 11:1, 10) who, in the last days, according to Jewish legend, was set to appear as forerunner to the Millennial King Messiah ben David, who they believe is Jesus Christ, the rightful 'stem' of Jesse (JST Gen 50:26-33; 2 Ne 3:6-15, 21:1; D&C 113:3).

Joseph of Egypt, in the divinely ordained pattern of his father Jacob, gave a father's blessing also to his own sons, in which he revealed that the world would be greatly blessed through their posterity: "I have obtained a promise of the Lord, that out of the fruit of my loins [Ephraim-Manasseh] the Lord God will raise up a righteous branch ..." (JST Gen 50:24). Joseph knew that the Lord would raise up a "choice seer" in the latter days. He would be named "Joseph,' the son of "Joseph," and would come from "a righteous branch" (a chosen people: a "plant of righteousness" or "righteous branch of my planting") of his loins (JST Gen 50:30; Isa 60:21; 2 Ne 3:15). This descendant and "anointed" leader from the House of Joseph (and of Judah) — as described with such precision in 'restored scripture' — many Latter-day Saints believe also to be the 'Messiah ben Joseph' or 'ben Ephraim' of ancient Jewish tradition.

"According to the Talmud, the Messiah [of the Parousia — which, for Christians, however, is Christ's second, not His first, coming] will be a descendant of the House of David and will be preceded by a secondary Messiah from the House of Joseph" — springing principally from the exiled Israelite tribe of Ephraim. Raphael Patai affirmed: "Talmudic legend unhesitatingly identifies him with the Messiah, and understands especially the descriptions of his sufferings as referring to Messiah ben Joseph"

An Ephraimite in the Promised Land

Latter-day Saints affirm, moreover, that Isaiah's "Branch" — Enoch and Ezra's "plant of righteousness" — indeed took root in the house of Joseph's second Promised Land of the latter-day Zion (the Americas), to branch, and finally to "blossom" (Isa 27:6, 35:1-2; D&C 49:24). Its "fruit" was that mighty rod and root of Jesse, Joseph Smith Jr., the 'rightful' scion of Ephraim and the 'lawful' royal heir of David and Jesus Christ, but that 'fruitful' designation also included all of the 'chosen seed' of Joseph's house that would gather to that land.

The Lord's 'Voice of Warning' to the nations, revealed to Joseph Smith on 1 Nov 1831 (D&C 1). This image shows an extract from the oracle, corresponding to its first five verses as seen today in the restored Church's canonical book of scripture, the Doctrine and Covenants. The Prophet joined with the voice of the Lord, in newspapers of the day and in other national — and international — forums and venues, to boldly condemn a world rampant in its deepening evil and corruption, calling it to repentance.

It is interesting that, notwithstanding Joseph's partly Judahite heritage, Brigham Young ever maintained, when speaking of the Prophet's lineage, that "Joseph was a pure Ephraimite" (JD 2:269). But the Lord Himself bore a more comprehensive witness in identifying Joseph, beyond his Ephraimite heritage, as the Judahite 'rod' and 'root' of Jesse of Isaiah 11:1, 10 (D&C 113:3-6), emphasizing, moreover, in addressing priesthood authority, that a 'rightful' lineage was important: "The order of this priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father to son, and rightly belongs to the literal descendants of the chosen seed, to whom the promises were made" (D&C 107:40; emphasis added). Concerning that 'right' of the "chosen seed," inherent in the House of Joseph, Brigham Young said: "Ephraim is the character who has the pure blood of promise in him. The Lord has respect unto it. This doctrine is perfectly plain and simple. Those who have the right will redeem the nations of the Earth" (8 Jan 1845, Nauvoo).

Speaking more broadly of Joseph's holistic heritage, President Young said: "The decrees of the Almighty will be exalted — that blood which was in him was pure and he had the sole right and lawful power, as he was the legal heir to the blood that has been on the earth and has come down through a pure lineage. The union of various ancestors kept that blood pure." Concerning the entire Smith family, Brigham later declared: "He [God] has watched that family and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain [from Adam to Abraham to Jacob, from Joseph and Judah] to the birth of that man ... Joseph Smith, Jr" (JD 7:289-90, 9 Oct 1859).

"God, by appropriate unions of ancestors," wrote Truman G. Madsen, "had watched over that blood until it came pure and unsullied into Joseph [Smith]." Of the Prophet Joseph's own strong desire that a 'rightful' and 'lawful' lineage be properly established, McConkie wrote: "There have been countless religious leaders and reformers, but one alone who thought it necessary to establish his claim to authority by virtue of lineage" — Joseph Smith having declared himself, canonically and in discrete statements to his closest brethren, that he was a literal descendant of Joseph of Egypt and of Judah's royal house.

When Shiloh comes

When, in the 1920s, the Jews of Palestine inquired if they could now build a temple (destroyed since the year AD 70), they were answered with the words of the great 12th-century Rabbi Moses Maimonides, who said, in effect, that the priestly rights were gone and that the Jews awaited the Messiah ben Joseph: "to him will be given the keys to the gathering of Israel: He will restore temple worship" — a comment that is in precise alignment with the priesthood authority and Restoration roles of Joseph Smith, Jr., whom Latter-day Saints often refer to as 'the Prophet of the Restoration' (see also D&C 27:12-13; 81:2; 97:14; 115:19; 128:20). Cleon Skousen notes that the "advent" of Joseph Smith answers a puzzling Jewish tradition: "From the most ancient times, Jewish tradition has proclaimed that a great servant of God from the House of Joseph would come in the latter days to prepare the way for the coming of Shiloh ['Man or Child of Peace whose right it is to rule '], the Great Messiah."

This precursor or 'Elias' (forerunner) would come as a messiah ('anointed one' or 'deliverer') in his own right, just as Qumran's 'Messiah ben Aaron', or John the Baptist, was, as all Christians believe, forerunner to Christ at His first coming, and his mission would commence, it was said, near the time that the prophet Elijah returned in the latter days, as promised in Malachi (3:1; 4:5-6). Elijah's chief activity was to restore the purity of the family, as Louis Ginzberg said in 1911. Latter-day Saints believe, however, that Elijah has already come, with his appearance to Joseph Smith at the Kirtland Temple on 3 April 1836 — during the sacred Passover season — to restore the "keys" of sealing families together eternally (see D&C 110:13-15).

The mighty "Repairer/Restorer" of whom Isaiah prophesied (58:11-12) finds genuine applicability in God's 'other' messiah, Ben Joseph — that 'other' great restorer of truth and repairer of tribal breaches in the latter days.

All of the holy prophets appointed to administer to the inhabitants of the earth from before the foundation of the world prophesied of a great ruler who would preside over Israel in the last days. Having come to the earth in the fulness of times, Joseph Smith — that rightful heir to the throne of both the house of Judah and the house of Joseph, as Latter-day Saints believe — discovered the modern Gentile world in a degenerate state, and he thus went forth, endowed with great authority and power from on high, to fully restore God's kingdom to the earth and to enable the redemption of His people Israel.

Mashiaḥ Joseph: true prophet, priest, and king

We mean to be understood as speaking of ... the gathering of the elect of the Lord out of every nation on earth, and bringing them to the place of the Lord of Hosts, when the city of righteousness shall be built, and where the people shall be of one heart and one mind, when the Savior comes: yea, where the people shall walk with God like Enoch, and be free from sin ... (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 93; see Moses 7:18, 69)

In one of the coldest winters on record, the Prophet Joseph languished for four months in the inhuman conditions of a subterranean dungeon at Liberty Jail, Missouri, 1838-39.

Behold, I raised up my servant Joseph Smith to introduce my gospel, and to build up my church, and establish my kingdom on the earth. And I gave unto him wisdom, and knowledge, and revelation, and intelligence pertaining to the past, the present and the future, even to that extent which was not known among men; And I endowed him with power from on high, and conferred upon him the priesthood of Aaron, and also the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which is after the Order of the Son of God, even the holiest of all, and after the power of an endless life — and administereth forever in this world and the world to come. He was called and ordained to this office before the world was; he was called by me, and empowered by me, and sustained by me to introduce and establish my church and kingdom upon the earth — And to be a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator to my church and kingdom; and to be a King and Ruler over Israel ... (from a revelation given to President John Taylor on 27 June 1882; meeting minutes of The Council of Fifty, 27 June 1882, LDS Church Archives)

Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. (D&C 135:3)

A Lion in winter: bondage at Liberty, descent to Sheol

After several winter months of languishing unjustly (from a 'silver pieces' brand of betrayal by some of his own dear brethren) within vile dungeon circumstances at the ironically named "Liberty Jail" in bitterly cold 1838-39 Missouri, and in the very midst of his oppressed people being viciously driven by murderous mobs from the lands that they had dedicated, at God's command, to be His 'New Jerusalem' (D&C 57:1-2; 84:1-2; see also Ether 13:3-6, 10; 2 Ne 20:22; and Art of Faith 1:10) — which in a future day, it was promised (Mos 7:62-65), would welcome the return of the heavenly 'City of Enoch' that John the Revelator saw in vision (Rev 3:12; 21:1-5) — the latter-day seer Joseph Smith, in great distress, raised his prophetic voice to the heavens:

O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place? How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries? Yea, O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them? O Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, and seas, and of all things that in them are, and who controllest and subjectest the devil, and the dark and benighted dominion of Sheol — stretch forth thy hand; let thine eye pierce; let thy pavilion be taken up; let thy hiding place no longer be covered; let thine ear be inclined; let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us. Let thine anger be kindled against our enemies; and, in the fury of thine heart, with thy sword avenge us of our wrongs. Remember thy suffering saints, O our God; and thy servants will rejoice in thy name forever ...

Whereupon the Lord answered him:

My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes ... Cursed are all those that shall lift up the heel against mine anointed, saith the Lord ... It had been better for them that a millstone had been hanged about their necks, and they drowned in the depth of the sea. Wo unto all those that discomfort my people, and drive, and murder, and testify against them, saith the Lord of Hosts; a generation of vipers shall not escape the damnation of hell. Behold, mine eyes see and know all their works, and I have in reserve a swift judgment in the season thereof, for them all; For there is a time appointed for every man, according as his works shall be ... Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.

The ends of the earth shall inquire after thy name, and fools shall have thee in derision, and hell shall rage against thee; while the pure in heart, and the wise, and the noble, and the virtuous, shall seek counsel, and authority, and blessings constantly from under thy hand. And thy people shall never be turned against thee by the testimony of traitors ... thou shalt be had in honor; [this test is] but for a small moment ... and [then] thy voice shall be more terrible in the midst of thine enemies than the fierce lion, because of thy righteousness; and thy God shall stand by thee forever and ever. If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea; if thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring ... and if then [they] shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb; and if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for [thine enemies' ] bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever ... (D&C 121:1-8, 16, 22-25, 45-46; 122)

The Prophet Joseph and his cell-mates had on several occasions, in what he called "a hell surrounded by demons," been poisoned, given filthy, contaminated food unfit for any living creature, tortured and derided mercilessly by their captors, and, consequently, were driven in their extremity of suffering and by such reprehensible abuse into a delirium, from the depths of which none seemed to care whether they lived or died. Joseph truly had been left to writhe in the squalor and stench of the dregs of death.

Renewal & rebirth in the 'City of Joseph'

But after four tortuous months, his freedom at last won on 6 April 1839, the Prophet went on (despite all the deprivations, wrongs, even rape and massacre that had been inflicted) to reassemble his people, 'modern Israel', a few miles to the north at Commerce, Illinois, where they established their 'City Beautiful' — Nauvoo (est. 1840) — on the banks of the mighty Mississippi, and there, upon a high bluff overlooking the city, they at last built the temple to their God which they could not build in the land that had been dedicated for the future 'Zion of the Lord'.

Lieutenant General Joseph Smith, commander of the Nauvoo Legion — by 1844 it was the largest military unit in Illinois, second only in size to the U.S. Army.

The great challenges inherent in building an entire city from barren marsh and swampland — the ultimate cause also of deadly outbreaks of cholera and malaria in 1839-40 — were ameliorated by the united efforts of Joseph's people to overcome all obstacles with patience, and with the grace of heaven's power attending. Indeed, Joseph, though weak and afflicted with the cholera himself, arose with other priesthood brethren to attend to the sick, blessing and commanding them to be made whole again, and even in at least one documented instance, wherein the Prophet personally ministered to one William D. Huntington, calling his soul back again from the dead. By the early 1840s Nauvoo’s population numbered more than 12,000 — second only in size to Illinois' largest city, Chicago.

Having come from what certainly had been (at Liberty Jail) among the most depraved depths of human experience imaginable, Joseph, renewed by his God, swiftly rose in glory in the eyes of his people, working alongside them, cheering the downcast, caring for the orphan and widow, healing the sick and performing other miracles, discerning and casting out evil spirits, communing with angels and expounding the restored gospel in its fullness, all while receiving continued revelation for the church. But Joseph reached his zenith as a blessing to his people as a powerful teacher of ancient dispensational Wisdom, sacred ritual ordinances, and salvational doctrines newly restored for the sanctification, justification, sure election, and ultimate exaltation of the Lord's true church and kingdom (see D&C 121:26-33).

Meanwhile, the Saints' burgeoning city grew at an astonishing rate with the Prophet's official 1841 call having gone forth to the nations of the earth (and in light of the Apostles and other missionary forces having been or soon to be dispensed to Europe and beyond) that they yield up Israel's long-scattered children. Soon, immigrant-proselytes from Canada, northern Europe, and the British Isles came pouring into American ports, making their way west to Nauvoo.

Joseph Smith — a self-professed "lawful" heir (an heirship long hidden "from the world with Christ in God") to the princely thrones of the house of Judah and the house of Joseph — believing that he had been sent to the earth in its final dispensation, or in "the fulness of times," discovered (as he records in his history) the earth's peoples living in a degenerate, apostate world over which the power of the great Enemy (Satan/Leviathan) had grown monstrously strong. Having in early spring 1820 been given his prophetic calling in vision by God the Father's personal appearance with His Messiah Son (JSH–1), the boy-prophet Joseph (later a recipient of both the lesser and higher priesthoods under the hands of the resurrected John the Baptist and Christ's chief apostles Peter, James and John) went forth into the world, endowed with great authority and power from on high. His divinely decreed mission was to restore the fullness of God's kingdom with its saving ordinances and primordial doctrines that would bring efficacy to the Davidic Messiah's redeeming atonement made at the meridian of time, and thus consummate salvation for God's chosen people and for all the world, if they would believe, repent, accept His eternal covenant and everlasting gospel, and endure faithfully to the end.

The return of Elijah & Moses

'Mine Anointed': Joseph Smith's wooden cane, carved with his initials upon a warrior's shield surmounted by royal crown. LDS Church History Museum, Salt Lake City.

On 3 April 1836, the Lord Jehovah appeared to Joseph 'suddenly' in the Kirtland Temple with the prophets Noah, Elijah, and Moses, to restore the priesthood keys of the gospel of Abraham, the keys of temple 'sealing' ordinances that would bind generations of "fathers to their children," and the keys of gathering scattered Israel from the nations of the earth "and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north" (D&C 110:11). Thus did Moses, according to Latter-day Saint belief, "commit" unto Joseph Smith the restoration "keys" to gather all Israel to the gospel kingdom's standard for the last time before the coming of the Lord.

Legion-commander & Warrior-prince

In the spring of 1841, the Governor of Illinois Thomas Carlin commissioned the mayor of Nauvoo, Joseph Smith, Jr., as Lieutenant General over the Nauvoo Legion, which, within three years had risen to become, at 5,000 men strong, "not only the largest military unit in the state of Illinois but it was second only in size to the United States Army."

In the midst of his national campaign in 1844 for the Presidency of the United States, the Prophet, in his capacity as military commander addressed the Nauvoo Legion for the last time, with words that championed human liberty and civil rights: "Come, all ye lovers of liberty, break the oppressor's rod, loose the iron grasp of mobocracy, and bring to condign punishment all those who trample under foot the glorious Constitution and the people's rights."

Then, drawing his sword, and presenting it to heaven, he said: "I call upon God and angels to witness that I have unsheathed my sword with a firm and unalterable determination that this people shall have their legal rights, and be protected from mob violence, or my blood shall be spilt upon the ground like water, and my body consigned to the silent tomb. While I live, I will never tamely submit to the dominion of cursed mobocracy. I would welcome death rather than submit to this oppression" (History of the Church, 6:500).

Apostle Parley P. Pratt recalled one instance (among many) of the Prophet's great intolerance for oppression, injustice, and the amorality of 'mobocracy', in Pratt's sharing upon a time a jail cell with Joseph as they were, once again, unjustly detained. He recorded that they, and the other brethren imprisoned with them, had:

... listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of our guards ... as they recounted to each other their deeds of rape, murder, robbery, etc., which they had committed [against our people] while at Far West, [Missouri], and its vicinity. They even boasted of defiling by force, wives, daughters, and virgins, and of shooting or dashing out the brains of men, women, and children. I had listened till I became so disgusted, shocked, horrified, and so filled with the spirit of indignant justice that I could scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and rebuking the guards; but had said nothing to Joseph, or anyone else, although I lay next to him and knew he was awake. On a sudden he arose to his feet, and spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion, uttering as near as I can recollect, the following words: 'SILENCE, ye fiends of the infernal pit! In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still [Even as Ezra's Lion rebuked an end-time nation of sinners and idolators]. I will not live another minute and hear such language. Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS INSTANT.' He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained, and without a weapon; calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked upon the quailing guards, whose weapons were lowered or dropped to the ground, whose knees smote together, and who shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon and remained quiet till a change of guards. I have seen the ministers of justice, clothed in magisterial robes, and criminals arraigned before them, while life was suspended on a breath, in the courts of England; I have witnessed a Congress in solemn session to give laws to nations; I have tried to conceive of kings, of royal courts, of thrones and crowns and of emperors assembled to decide the fate of kingdoms, but dignity and majesty have I seen but once, as it stood in chains, at midnight, in a dungeon in an obscure village of Missouri" ...

'King of All Israel'

And in [those] days ... shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever ... (Dan 2:44)

On 11 April 1844, at Nauvoo, The Council of Fifty ("Princes of the Kingdom") — the Church's governing body of High Priesthood brethren — anointed the Prophet Joseph Smith, amidst shouts of 'Hosannas', as rightful "Prophet, Priest, and King of All Israel."

On 11 April 1844, as recorded by church scribe William Clayton, the Prophet Joseph Smith — just weeks before his wholly innocent but violent death, and in a solemn assembly of Nauvoo's Council of Fifty ("Princes of the Kingdom") — was crowned "King of All Israel." This action, performed by election and solemn proclamation (with a holy shout of accompanying 'Hosannas') constituted an unqualified acceptance and holy sanction by the earthly Kingdom of God's presiding brethren, its ruling political body, as Joseph Smith Jr. was ordained and ceremoniously anointed to the high honor of "Prophet, Seer, Revelator, Priest, Ruler and King," to rule in righteousness over the newly established kingdom of God on earth. Thus it was, Brother Clayton recorded in his journal, that the Prophet Joseph, as "lawful heir" through revelation to both Ephraim's birthright and Judah's sovereignty, attained to Israel's high kingship; and in one other recorded entry Clayton wrote that Joseph had ordained the Council to be "the governing body of the world with himself as its King" (William Clayton Journal, entries of 11 April 1844 and 1 January 1845). Indeed, the Council of Fifty had been established at Nauvoo as a political organization of the kingdom of God over which Joseph Smith, as also the church and kingdom's chief High Priest, presided. It was a council established to govern the temporal affairs of God's earthly kingdom, and it was to be the Lord's instrument for theocratic government, or in the Prophet's own words, a "THEO-Democracy" serving both God and His people.

Finally, at the conclusion of five years of consecrated toil and most remarkable sacrifice to build a fully ordinal Temple to their God, in divinely revealed similitude to Jerusalem's first Solomonic temple, the Saints were able to at last participate fully in sacred ritual worship, performing saving ordinances for themselves and for their deceased loved ones — even as their determined enemies began, once again, to subject them to the most bitter hostilities — relentlessly seeking thenceforth to abuse, pillage, and oppress them.

Messianic martyr: Joseph's testimony sealed with his blood

On 27 June 1844 at Carthage, Illinois, their monstrous conspiracy now ripe and ready, an organized but lawless, bloodthirsty mob (comprised of mostly Illinois and Missouri militiamen) stormed Carthage Jail, where Joseph and others of his closest brethren were unlawfully held, and brutally took the young life of the 'Prophet of the Restoration' (his 38-year-old body, which had fallen from a two-story window, was found pierced by lead bolts many times through). His brother Hyrum lay dead also, a joint-witness and martyr to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in the latter days.

Into the fire: a 'modern Moses' leads saviors upon Mount Zion

The vigilantes turned then, in the dead of winter, to mercilessly drive a grief-stricken Latter-day Saint people — in deep mourning and disillusionment over the loss of their revered Prophet — from their beloved homes and city, setting also the Lord's holy temple aflame — just as 'Edomites' had done long ago to Solomon's Temple (1 Esd 4:45).

Brigham Young — successor to the Prophet Joseph Smith, a 'modern Moses' to the Latter-day Saint people, and a zealous colonizer of the West — as the prophet and church president appeared in the 1840s.

The Latter-day Saints were thus driven into the wilderness, where many languished in sickness and disease, and died from exposure; many others fell away in apostasy. But led on by Brigham Young — God's renewed 'mouthpiece' who veritably became for them a 'modern Moses' — the Saints eventually found their refuge far to the West, in the midst of the Rocky Mountains near a great salt sea. President Young boldly took up the Prophet Joseph's mantle and his divine commission to enlarge Zion's borders (Isaiah's "tent"), "strengthen her stakes," and "put on her beautiful garments" (Isa 52:1, 54:2; D&C 82:14). It was from this 'blossoming desert' in the 'valley of the mountains' (Isa 35:1-2), enjoying as it were the ancient templed-glory of 'Lebanon', that modern Israel, in the years that followed, strove steadfastly to submit to the will and purifying power of the Great Refiner's fire, promising in high and holy places ("interim" temples that the Saints thereafter built to God and in which they served as "saviours on Mount Zion" - Obad 1:21) to continue in faithful, consecrated devotion to the restored 'gospel kingdom' until that time when the Messiah's voice would call them back to the dedicated lands of the 'New Jerusalem', there to literally now 'build up' the Holy City, make ready to receive the great Bridegroom of Zion and to embrace the people of Enoch. But instead of its previous 'interim' or 'temporary' role, it thenceforth promised to be an "everlasting" Kingdom of God on earth.

'New Jerusalem' & the last battle

That Kingly summons to Zion would come, their 'living prophets' assured them, at a time when the earth staggered in upheavals and commotions of every kind (D&C 88:87-91), when hostile nations by their evil machinations against Israel finally had assembled themselves at Megiddo to wage war — there, in the Jezreel Valley, and at Jerusalem, in the ancient Valley of Decision (Jehosaphat; see Joel 3:1-2, 9-14; Micah 4:11). It would be at a time when the mighty archangels of God's Presence had sounded their trumps of dire warning to the world (Rev 8:2, 6, 13; D&C 88:92), and when Old Jerusalem prepared then to cede her authority to a newly established Zion on earth — having united itself with Enoch's heavenly city — which thereafter would serve the mighty Shepherd-King of David as the millennial watch-tower for His flock (Micah 4:7-8).

Messiah ben David: return of the Millennial King

Thus would Micah's prophecy (4:2) stand fulfilled which foretold of the establishment, in both the East and West, of two world capitals ruled by the Son of Man in the Millennial Day, wherein "the law shall go forth [out] of Zion [the 'New Jerusalem'], and the word of the Lord from [the ancient Holy City] Jerusalem." Latter-day Saints look forward to that bright, future break of day when, by mighty Messianic voice, "the graves of the saints shall be opened; and they shall come forth and stand on the right hand of the Lamb, when he shall stand upon Mount Zion, and upon the holy city, the New Jerusalem; and they shall sing the song of the Lamb, day and night forever and ever" (D&C 133:56).

The 'warrior'-messiah yet to come

Carthage Jail, Illinois — place of the Prophet's martyrdom on 27 June 1844. His body 'pierced through' many times, he had only recently said: "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer’s morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me — he was murdered in cold blood."

These correspondences of the life of the 'founding father' of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to "the scattered threads of Hebrew legends and traditions as they relate to Messiah ben Joseph" form themselves, as McConkie said, "into a remarkable likeness of the Prophet Joseph Smith."

Latter-day Saints believe that, in the eschatological sense, the Prophet Joseph's earthly mission as head of the Lord's final gospel dispensation did not end with his mortal death. They await his glorious return in resurrected form to heroically 'conquer' the arraigned Enemy and to formally organize, as Messiah ben David's 'vicegerent', and thereafter to help govern, a literal City of Zion amid the righteous and, indeed, all among the noble of the earth who wish to join themselves with the true fold of God. Apostle Orson Pratt, in declaring that "God's arm is not shortened that He cannot raise [Joseph] up even from the tomb," noted that the Saints of the latter days were "living in the dispensation of the resurrection [when some would] wake from their tombs for certain purposes ... decreed by the Great Jehovah; and if the Lord sees proper to bring forth that man [Joseph] just before the winding up scene to lead forth the army of Israel, He will do so" (JD 15:263, 9 Mar 1873; Orson's apostolic brother Parley likewise stated in November 1832 that it will be through Joseph Smith that Christ will succeed in the latter days - The Evening and Morning Star, Nov 1832).

President Young elucidated the post-resurrection work of Joseph Smith at that final day: "When we return to Zion and build the great Temple which Joseph saw and the center of Zion is established [the New Jerusalem, which will operate under the Order of Enoch], the glory of God will rest upon it by day and by night and those that are prepared will see the face of the Son of Man and they will see Joseph and Hyrum [the Prophet's brother and fellow martyr] in the flesh in their resurrected bodies. Then will the armies of Israel be terrible to all Nations. Then will one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight [see Deut 32:30; D&C 133:58-59]. Who will resurrect Joseph's body? ... One who has or will receive the keys of the resurrection ... who [will then hold such] keys of this dispensation ... But the world will not see it or know [of] it, for wickedness will increase ... Joseph [that 'Messiah ben Joseph' of prophecy and legend] will lead the armies of Israel whether he is seen or not, whether visible or invisible as seemeth him good ..." (as recorded by Apostle and later Prophet-President Wilford Woodruff in his Journal 4:390-91, 13 Jan 1856; emphasis added).

In a patriarchal blessing pronounced upon the Prophet Joseph's head in 1835 under the hands of Oliver Cowdery, then Assistant President of the Church, the promise was made that, in rallying the Saints to the dedicated lands of the American 'Zion', which stood still to be fully redeemed, Joseph would yet lead Israel's armies in great battle under the banner of the Most High: "For with the voice of his thunder shall he strike terror to their hearts, as with the wings of an eagle shall [my servant Joseph] be carried beyond all harm by the power of the Anointed ... Go thou, and say to the strength of my house, 'To your tents, O Israel: build up the wastes and raise up the foundation of desolation that this generation has made' ... Thus shall he be honored of the Lord, and thus shall it be recorded of him, that the generation to come may bless his name, in Israel, saying, 'The Lord make thee as Joseph the Seer, who was of the house of Ephraim' [see Brigham Young, JD 7:290] ... His loins shall be like iron, girded by the hand of the Lord; and his feet shall be swift to execute the commandment of the Most High when He shall say 'destroy' ... His learning and wisdom [in his capacity of Messianic 'viceroy'] shall astonish the great, for they shall acknowledge that by his intelligence he has far surpassed their learning and their science ... He shall sit in the great assembly and general council of patriarchs [at Adam-ondi-Ahman], and execute the will and commandments under the direction of the Ancient of Days, for he shall have his place and act in his station. Behold my [servant] Joseph is blessed, blessed are all who bless him, and blessed are all those whom he blesses. Behold there is no end to the vision, of the multiplicity of blessings and glories, which shall come upon my [servant] Joseph ... Thus closes the vision, and thus it shall be. Even so: Amen"

Charles Torrey, in speaking of the Two Messiahs, Ben Joseph and Ben David, said: "Here are two divinely anointed beings, each connected in the closest way with the fate of both Israel and the nations of the world. It is hardly possible to believe that the Rabbis could have adopted and given out this very significant article of faith merely on the basis of speculation, without definite prophetic authority" (p. 257). Such a remarkable feature of Jewish eschatology — a firmly rooted rabbinical tenet of significant import, seen in the Talmud, Targum, and Midrash — reflects the Latter-day Saint belief of the origins of this dual-messianic tradition (that of two supremely pre-eminent 'anointed ones', foreordained in heaven's premortal councils to their heroic missions to save and redeem mankind) as contained in the prophecies of Joseph of Egypt, restored by God through Joseph's princely descendant himself, the Prophet of the Restoration, Joseph Smith, Jr.

Joseph's continuing 'call' for Israel to 'gather home'

I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth ... (Isa 43:6)

Yea, and surely shall he again bring a remnant of the seed of Joseph to the knowledge of the Lord their God ... [when] the envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim ... (3 Ne 5:23; Isaiah 11:13)

And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them ... (Zech 10:6)

The 'Call to Zion' continues to sound throughout the world, as Ephraim leads its enlisted ranks to gather Israel and "thresh the nations" one last time (D&C 35:13; 133:59). The 'angel Moroni' blows his trump atop the Salt Lake Temple, 1892.

For Latter-day Saints who "have the luxury of the antitypical Joseph having already appeared, making comparisons between Joseph [of Egypt]" or between Jewish tradition's 'Messiah ben Joseph' and their own 'Joseph ben Joseph' is exceptionally facile (Sigvartsen, p. 87). Like his forefather Joseph of Egypt, Latter-day Saints hold that Joseph Smith Jr. was a guileless, pure-hearted visionary — "the receiver of dreams and keeper of Divine secrets." He was "filled with God's spirit and knew his Father's will." By his own 'brethren' "practically given over to death" through tortuous imprisonment, Joseph Smith was betrayed, suffered some of mankind's cruelest derision and persecution, and in martyrdom was many-times "pierced," sealing his valiant testimony with his blood. As the restored church and kingdom's foremost "saviour on Mount Zion" (Obad 1:21), Latter-day Saint belief holds Joseph Smith to be a true 'prince' over his brethren — was in fact 'anointed' by them as prophet, priest, and king — and he will yet, according to that same belief, gloriously return one day to take his rightful place beside the Son of Man, the great 'Second David' of Jewish tradition, and King of kings and Lord of lords.

The very purpose for restoring Christ's primitive church and the record of the house of Joseph (the Book of Mormon), as revealed to the latter-day "Restorer" himself by the Savior-Redeemer of the world, was so that the Lord might gather the "elect from the four quarters of the earth, even as many as will believe in [Him], and hearken unto [His] voice" (D&C 33:5–6) — that is, to "gather in, from their long dispersion" the "house of Israel" (3 Ne 21:1), "the ancient and long dispersed covenant people of the Lord" (Mormon 8:15; compare 3 Ne 21:26–27). "As Joseph Smith dedicated the first temple of our dispensation," wrote Millet and McConkie, "he prayed that 'all the scattered remnants of Israel,' whom he said had 'been driven to the ends of the earth,' might 'come to a knowledge of the truth, believe in the Messiah, and be redeemed' (D&C 109:67)."

Joseph Smith's 1841 call to latter-day Israel, scattered throughout the world, to gather to Zion — made particularly to those of Europe's north countries and adjacent Isles of the Sea — was renewed by Brigham Young, his successor in the First Presidency of the restored church and kingdom of LDS faith. Thus to the 'elect of God', then living among the Gentiles who for centuries had served as their "nursing fathers" and "mothers" (Isa 49:23; 1 Ne 22:6), came the renewed proclamation to 'come home': "Ephraim has become mixed with all the nations of the earth, and it is Ephraim that is gathering [those of his own tribe] ... It is Ephraim that I have been searching for all the days of my preachings, and that is the blood which ran in my veins when I embraced the gospel. If there are any of the [lost] tribes mixed with the Gentiles, we are searching for them ... You understand who we are; we are of the House of Israel, of the royal seed, of the royal blood" (JD 2:268-269b, 8 Apr 1855). In other words, Ephraim ben Joseph was gathered first, that he might gather the rest of Israel 'home' to the lands of their inheritance.

Led by 'living' prophets, Latter-day Saints today bear their solemn witness, expressed often to friends and associates but also through the church's worldwide missionary program, not only that Joseph Smith was God's long-prophesied "Restorer" of the last "dispensation of the fulness of times," but also that "the Lord has set his hand again a second time to gather his people Israel ... first to Christ and his [restored] gospel and then to the lands of their inheritance (2 Ne 9:2) [— gathering] Abraham’s descendants into the true fold of God, and in so doing is preparing a people for the return to earth of the King of Zion, who is the Holy One of Israel."

They remember Christ's words to the ancient Nephites of the American continent when He recalled for them the prophet Micah’s striking Josephite imagery, for Latter-day Saints continue the mission of Micah's moshel — taking as their model that majestic symbol of a white bull "having horns of iron and hoofs of brass" to "thresh the nations by the power of my Spirit" and to "push" Israel together "as one" (D&C 35:13, 133:59; Micah 4:13). They are modern 'Israel' (a name that means 'soldier of God'), and are all enlisted to "march in the army of the Lord."

For Latter-day Saints, the house of Joseph is engaged vigorously still in what they consider to be their special "gathering" mandate from the Lord, renewed in modern times by Joseph Smith, but which God appointed anciently to His Ephraimite-Manassehite servants of the House of Joseph. Their belief holds them a Heaven-proclaimed "people of destiny."

References

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