Difference between revisions of "D&C 89:1-3"

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Doctrine & Covenants > Section 89

Questions

• What does it mean that the Word of Wisdom is "adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints" (verse 3)?
• Who are the "conspiring men" mentioned in verse 4, and why do we need to be warned about them?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verse 1

As recorded in the Kirtland Revelations Book, the Word of Wisdom originally began with the phrase "A Revelation for the benefit of the saints &...." The revelatory--and thus completely binding--character of the Word of Wisdom might too easily have been obscured in the 1835 reading (which begins with "A Word of Wisdom"), though this seems to have been taken care of by the current section heading, in which this section is again called explicitly a revelation. At any rate, there should be no doubt that the voice here is the Lord's and not Joseph's.

That the revelation is called, within the revelation, a "Word of Wisdom" is rather interesting, and the fact calls for some comment. The phrase appears only once in the Bible, in, of all places, 1 Cor 12:8, as one of the gifts of the Spirit. It may be, in the end, that this is far more significant than it at first appears: the phrase's single appearance in the Book of Mormon is similar (when Moroni discusses the same gifts in Moro 10:9), and its earliest appearance in the D&C (at D&C 46:17) is also similar. The phrase, with "word" in the singular, only appears, besides section 89, in these three places: the "word of wisdom" is first and foremost a question of the gifts of the Spirit. The phrase "words of wisdom" shows up in the D&C a number of times, the most significant of which are closely associated with the building of the Kirtland House of the Lord: D&C 88:118 and D&C 109:7, 14. The other three occurrences of the phrase (in the plural) might well imply connection with the temple as well: D&C 50:1 is about testing manifestations (which came to its fullest expression, of course, in the endowment of Nauvoo), D&C 78:2 is connected with the first establishment of a temporal means of accomplishing the law of consecration, and D&C 98:20 concerns specifically the "words of wisdom and eternal life." At any rate, it seems quite clear that references in general to the "word of wisdom" and the "words of wisdom" exhibit some connection with temple ordinances and with the gifts of the Spirit (with, that is, the endowment and the enduement, the endowment in its two manifestations).

More still suggests a connection with the temple: the word "wisdom." While the "wisdom writings" of the Old Testament have for many years been interpreted as collections of rather common advice, even as the texts of the Old Testament that link Israel up with the nations around them, there is a growing collection of evidence that this is not at all how they were understood in the ancient world. While the wisdom texts certainly do seem to transcend the religio-political concerns of the legal and prophetic texts, there is reason to understand this outstripping to be connected with the Abrahamic covenant, with Christ's universalization of the Israelite promises (which amounts to, in the end, the covenant as it was originally given, with its aim to bless all the nations--the Gentiles--of the earth). With the increased availability of pseudepigraphical writings especially, there is more reason all the time to understand the wisdom writings to be associated quite unequivocally with the temple rites of Israel. In short, "wisdom texts," it is being recognized, might well be the core of the Abrahamic experience of God, not the periphery.

What this implies for the revelation recorded in section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants remains to be explored, but at least this much can be said: this revelation has something to do with the temple. It is certainly significant that section 89 follows section 88, which contains the commandment to build the Kirtland House of the Lord. As this first verse makes quite clear, the revelation was given for the benefit of the "council of high priests, assembled in Kirtland," who had just received Joseph's first version of the endowment and were preparing to receive the second in the Kirtland House of the Lord, while the third still remained a good number of years away. At any rate, all of these details combine to suggest that section 89 should not be read as a revelation on physical health, but as a revelation closely tied to the ordinances of the temple. Stated another way, physical health, whatever that means for the Lord, should be taken up with careful attention to the context of the temple ordinances. What this means for this revelation can only be worked out in the careful commentary that must proceed.

Verse 2

The revelation is "to be sent greeting." The phrase is somewhat awkward, but it does echo two verses in the New Testament: Acts 15:23 and 23:26, both of which are openings of letters. The point of the phrase, then, seems to be that the Word of Wisdom is to be sent as a circular letter, not unlike the epistles of the early apostles. This is a most fascinating aspect of the revelation, since most early revelations were simply published in Church periodicals (or, of course, subsequently in the Book of Commandments or the Doctrine and Covenants). This revelation was apparently understood to be so broadly applicable that the word was given to Joseph precisely to be sent among the growing membership of the Church. This subtle connection to apostolic circulars is suggestive in another way as well: not unlike the advice, answers, and information the apostles circulated in these earliest epistles, the Word of Wisdom was not to be "by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom." The very phrase, "to be sent greeting," clarifies the meaning of the remainder of the verse. In short, the revelation is a revelation from a prophet less than from the prophet, is one prophet's "showing forth the order and will of God" rather than the word of a hierarchical president of the Church.

But all of this phrasing, hesitant as it is to enforce anything like a policy on temporal health, nonetheless makes itself quite clear that nothing short of the "order and will of God" is at work in the revelation. There is something remarkable about an authoritative word like this that does not programmatically impose itself, but is simply sent "by revelation and the word of wisdom": the saints are given to govern themselves, but knowing full well the Lord's desires in the situation. But this rather precise characteristic of this revelation perhaps highlights the opposite nature of all the other revelations gathered in the D&C. If this is "not by commandment or constraint," how many of the others are? Certainly, forms of the word "commandment" are plentiful throughout the revelations, if "constraint" is less frequently encountered. There is, then, a suggestion that this revelation is something peculiar, something different from all the others: as a word of wisdom, only those who seek wisdom need follow it. If, that is, the commandments and constraints of Joseph's "usual" revelations draw a dividing line between the righteous and the wicked, this revelation (and others like it, which, as the comments on verse 1 would suggest, would be revelations about the temple, most of which are not published in the D&C) draws a second dividing line, one that separates the righteous from the exalted, perhaps. Might all of this be summarized by saying that revelations like the Word of Wisdom are what demarcate the boundary between the terrestrial and celestial? At the very least, one must recognize in the Word of Wisdom the opportunity of pressing beyond simple "commandments" and "constraints."

A couple of particular words in this verse might be worth careful consideration. For example, "order" is a rather suggestive word. To this point in the D&C, it appears twenty-one times, only one of which (D&C 87:3) does not clearly have something to do with priesthood (two are somewhat questionable, in D&C 77:3, but that the verse is speaking of angelic orders might well be read to have reference to heavenly priesthoods). This apparent priesthood connection here might be confirmed in the opening of the first verse, where the revelation is directed first and foremost (at least, as the revelation stands today) to "the council of high priests. Of course, the then most recent references to "order" in the D&C were all references to the order of the Kirtland House of the Lord, and to the ordering of the priesthood that would take place in it: the "order" referred to here again ties the Word of Wisdom to the temple and to questions of the priesthood. In short, that this shows forth "the order and will of God" suggests that one take the temple and its priesthood into consideration in interpreting the details of the revelation.

Another word of vast importance is the all-too-simply interpreted "temporal," or the whole phrase "temporal salvation." The word "temporal" appears only once in the Bible (in 2 Cor 4:18), where it is opposed to "eternal," though it shows up a number of times in the Book of Mormon as opposed rather to "spiritual." Interestingly, in the 1828 Webster's Dictionary, the first definition explicitly states that "temporal" is "opposed to spiritual," while the second explicitly states that it is "opposed to eternal." There seems, then, to have been a sort of shift of emphasis between 1611 and 1828 from "temporal" as opposed to "eternal" to "temporal" as opposed to "spiritual." Thus, "temporal" seems in Joseph's revelations to be best understood as meaning that which is "pertaining to this life or this world or the body only; secular." However, D&C 29:34-35 may well overturn that understanding in a characteristic redefinition of terms. Without delving here into the details, that revelation seems to redefine the relationship between the temporal and the spiritual: rather than being understood as separate or opposite realms, they are understood as closely connected, the temporal being quite simply an outward or even a "fallen" manifestation of the spiritual. The temporal, in other words, cannot be separated from the spiritual, because it is simply a consequence of the spiritual.

What this would mean for the present revelation is not at first clear. The phrasing of this second verse seems quite clearly to suggest that God is here meddling in temporal affairs. However, there may be a structural reason to read the verse otherwise:

  by revelation
     and the word of wisdom
  showing forth the order and will of God
     in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days

If "revelation" is read as an antithetical parallel to "the word of wisdom," the one might be justified in reading "the order and will of God" as a similar antithetical parallel to "the temporal salvation of all saints." In other words, the prophetic revelation is, in this circular, translated into the "word of wisdom," and the "order and will of God" (inevitably temple business, priesthood business) is translated into "temporal salvation." In the end, this seems to be the best understanding of the "wisdom writings" of the Old Testament anyway: they are the words of a father to his son in the temporal language of their communication, rather than direct words of revelation or prophecy. Just as in the temple, revelation and prophecy are redefined as being bound up with the keys of communication, understood no longer as the reception of an absolute word. In short, the "temporal salvation" that is at work in the Word of Wisdom might just be the prophetic--almost patriarchal--translation of the spiritual into the temporal realm, the prophetic work of making the transfer from spiritual to temporal suggested by D&C 29. If so, the Word of Wisdom should hardly be understood to be a temporal commandment. This point is perhaps best confirmed by the closing verses of the revelation.

Finally, a brief consideration of the word "all" might be fruitful: this revelation is a question of "all saints." There are two ways the word might be read: one might read the revelation, on the one hand, as showing forth God's order and will for each and every saint, or one might read it, on the other hand, as showing forth God's order and will for the saints collectively. If one adopts the first reading, then the Word of Wisdom is a rather individual struggle, something one must work out before God with fear and trembling. If one adopts the second reading, however, there seems to be reason to connect this revelation still more profoundly with the temple: if all saints are to be drawn together in a temporal salvation, and if this Word of Wisdom has something to do with it, then there are clearly reasons to recognize this revelation as outstripping the simple concerns of "health."

Verse 3

Verse 3 tells us that this law is "adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints." The word adapted suggests that, were it not for the needs of the weak saints, a different law might have been given. Why is the Lord telling us that he has adapted this law to the weak saints? He may be implicitly reminding us of the strict health code given in the law of Moses. That health code with all of its many restrictions and special rules seems difficult to follow. In contrast the word of wisdom seems simple to follow. Under this interpretation, this verse may explain why the law of the word of wisdom has such a prominent place in the interview for a temple recommend. The idea then would be that that since this law is adapted to the weakest saint, those who cannot follow it are not and cannot be called saints in the true sense of the word.

In another intepretation we might interpet that this adaption of the law amounts to including things in the law so that even the weak members of the church can be saints. The most obvious example of something like this in this section is the prohibition against alcohol. By not drinking any "strong drink" (verse 7)--interpreted by the church later to mean any alcoholic drinks--even the weakest member of the church is protected from becoming someone addicted to alcohol.

The Word of Wisdom is such a wonderful law and promise. In just a few short verses, the Lord teaches us how we should live our lives from the standpoint of physical nourishment, but of course attached with a spirtual promise. As is the case with everything in the Lord's gospel and kingdom on earth, the Word of Wisdom is orderly, and relevant for our time: "showing forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days."

Just as the Law of Moses was relevant to the people of that time, with all its specific instructions on what to eat and what not to eat, the Word of Wisdom teaches us that we do need specific instructions on what not to take into our bodies (though even there many things are left for our interpretation). And like the Law of Moses we do need encouragement on the good things we should eat - grains, fruits, vegetables, and some meat - which by doing are fulfiling God's purposes for which they were created.

By worldly standards, some commandments of God are difficult to see the direct benefit or reward from doing them. The Word of Wisdom, however, is one of the easier ones. If we eat right and don't partake of the bad things, we're healthier, and it's obvious to us and the outside world that we have been blessed by keeping this commandment.

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