Section 25 of the Doctrine and Covenants is significant as one of the few revelations Joseph Smith received that directly addresses a woman, his wife, Emma Hale Smith. Given in 1830, the revelation designates Emma as an “elect lady” and outlines her roles in the early Church, including the compilation of a hymnbook and providing comfort to her husband. In this interview, Latter-day Saint scholar Robin Jensen explains the historical context of D&C 25 and how Emma’s personal experiences influenced the revelation’s text.
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“Elect Lady” revelation in As It Shall Be Given Thee: Reading Doctrine and Covenants 25.
What is D&C 25 about?
Doctrine and Covenants section 25 is a revelation directed to Joseph Smith’s wife, Emma Hale Smith. This text explores and clarifies Emma’s relationship with God, her leadership role within the early Church organization, her expectations as a wife, and her work on a hymnbook.
What is the historical context of section 25?
Several important events took place around the time that Section 25 was received in 1830. For instance, the Book of Mormon was published in March, the Church of Christ was organized on April 6, and Emma was baptized on June 28.
Joseph and other early believers had begun to preach and spread the work of the gospel, traveling from community to community. The precise date of the dictation of the revelation is unknown. So, too, is the identity of the scribe.
Presumably, Emma was in the room as it was dictated. She had served as a scribe to Joseph for the Book of Mormon translation, and she would later serve as a scribe for the Bible Revision project. So, it’s quite possible she also served as a scribe for this revelation.
What was the trajectory of Emma’s revelation?
Too often this revelation gets interpreted by Emma’s Kirtland publication of the hymnbook or her Nauvoo Relief Society activities. That is understandable and appropriate in certain contexts. But we shouldn’t forget that there was an immediate 1830 context and reception to this revelation—as well as an attempt to fulfill the words of the revelation.
The challenge is that contemporary sources do not tell us the minutiae of daily life in that first year of Church activity. Determining how Emma immediately fulfilled the words of the revelation proves challenging.
But that she served as Joseph’s scribe in late 1830, conferences opened with singing, and she “[went] with him” to Ohio means that Emma possibly also fulfilled other commands from the revelation, including “expound[ing] Scriptures & exhort[ing] the Church.”
What is the significance of D&C 25 calling Emma Smith an “elect lady”?
“Elect Lady” is a biblical term (2 John 1:1), but it might imply a chosen status within the Church. Elect speaks to religious tones (e.g., Christ’s elect), and “lady” implies royalty or female authority. Joseph hearkened back to this when he appointed Emma as president of the Nauvoo Female Relief Society, saying:
Elect meant to be Elected to a certain work &c, & that the revelation was then fulfilled by Sister Emma’s Election to the Presidency of the Society.
JS Journal, 17 March 1842
Why should we consider revelation recipients like Emma, not just Joseph?
It’s not that we shouldn’t focus on Joseph’s role in the revelatory process. After all, without Joseph, the revelations wouldn’t exist. But we have too long ignored the recipient’s role in forming the revelation.
The revelatory process was collaborative. Taking the Doctrine and Covenants seriously means that we try to understand all the questions asked and contexts surrounding the creation of those texts, including scribes, recipients, and the earliest audience.
Are D&C sections a collaboration between prophet, scribe, and reader?
Joseph Smith was not a fax machine for God. He did not dictate words without his own personality and experiences influencing those texts. So, too, must we imagine how the very request of the recipient of a section in the Doctrine and Covenants influenced the nature of the resulting revelation.
Answers come only based on questions—and well-formed questions result in better answers. When Emma Smith, Oliver Cowdery, or Martin Harris requested a revelation, they spoke to Joseph about what concerned them.
Such conversations shaped the very nature of the revelation output.
What is the significance of the revelation existing first as an oral text?
If we don’t remember that the text has an oral beginning, we assume things about it that aren’t there. Very likely, Emma Smith was in the same room as Joseph when the text of Doctrine and Covenants 25 was dictated.
She first heard the words before seeing them in writing. Having the text of that revelation spoken out loud offers a different sensory and processing experience. If we want to try to recover Emma’s history and experience with the text, remembering its origin is vital.
What two key shifts did Emma’s revelation mark in Joseph’s process?
Joseph Smith and the early believers called some of the earliest divine communications “commandments.” The Elect Lady signified two shifts in the Prophet’s revelatory process:
- Revelation terminology. When this communication was dictated by Joseph, it called itself “a Revelation” instead of a “commandment,” marking an important shift in the revelations’ self-referencing.
- Seer stone (dis)usage. The second important shift is Joseph’s (dis)use of a seer stone to undergo the revelatory process. Around this time, Joseph gave up the seer stone and dictated text without a physical instrument.
How did D&C 25 call Emma to participate in the revelation process?
If we understand the revelations as part of a larger collaborative process, then Emma Smith—as the recipient—assisted in creating this revelation. But what’s more, the revelation itself seems to invite Emma to “lay aside the things of this world & seek for the things of a better.” Such a search would bring Emma to the spiritual world.
In addition, Emma was called to expound the scriptures and exhort the church. In other words, she was commanded to shape scripture as it was being used and read within the early church community.
How can we see D&C 25 differently by considering how Emma received it?
Revelations are to be understood best in their original context. Members of the Church are, of course, encouraged to “liken” the scriptures to their own lives. But as we uncover the history of these texts, they will bring forward passages earlier ignored or misunderstood and offer us new insights into what the texts might mean.
How does Emma’s call to select hymns for the church relate to her call to expound scriptures?
If God spoke to early church members through revelations and commandments, those texts would have prompted early believers to continue with that conversation.
If they heard God’s voice through revelations, they would answer God’s call through prayer and, as the text makes clear, “song[s] of the righteous” are prayers to God. The earliest community would turn their voice to God through music compiled by Emma.
What is the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar?
The Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar is a wonderful opportunity for scholars worldwide to think deeply about particular chapters, sections, or passages of Latter-day Saint scripture through a theological lens. Such study offers new insight, interpretation, and intriguing possibilities for members of the Church to “liken” these scriptures to themselves.
What do you hope people take away from your book chapter about the ‘Elect Lady’ revelation?
I hope readers will begin to see the sacred texts of the Doctrine and Covenants as a rich source of communal revelation during the early Church of Christ. These are not texts isolated from their origins. Instead, they are products of complicated interactions between Joseph, scribes, recipients, and early Church leaders.
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About the interview participant
Robin Jensen is a Project Archivist at Joseph Smith Papers and the author of the chapter “Revelatory Language Expounded: Emma Smith’s Role in Divine Communication” in As It Shall Be Given Thee: Reading Doctrine and Covenants 25. He specializes in document and transcription analysis and coedited the five volumes in the Revelations and Translations series of the Joseph Smith Papers.
Further Reading
- Come Follow Me 2025: Doctrine and Covenants Study Resources
- Why Does the Savior’s Church Matter?
- What Are the Foundational Texts of Mormonism?
- Was William W. Phelps a Ghostwriter for Joseph Smith?
- What’s in Joseph Smith’s Uncanonized Revelations?
Elect Lady Revelation Resources
- As It Shall Be Given Thee: Reading Doctrine and Covenants 25: Proceedings of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar (Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar)
- Revelation, July 1830–C [D&C 25] (Joseph Smith Papers Project)
- “Thou Art an Elect Lady” (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
- Doctrine and Covenants Context (BYU Studies)
- A Sacred Space for Women: Hymnody in Emma Hale Smith’s Theology (Journal of Religious History)
- Emma Smith: A Case Study for Women in Worship (Public Square)
- Divine Aid: Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants (Maxwell Institute of Religion)
- The “Elect Lady” Revelation (D&C 25): Its Historical and Doctrinal Context (BYU RSC)
One reply on “Emma Smith’s Role in Shaping the ‘Elect Lady’ Revelation (D&C 25)”
I enjoyed the article, I think all too often that women are skipped over as part of the revelation process.