Offices of the Church

A list of jobs, written down. Several revelations in this range spend their verses not on doctrine but on who does what — who may baptize, who may ordain, who leads a meeting when the person above him is absent, who keeps the accounts — and the plainest thing about them is how specific they are.

What this page maps. Modern revelation, reported as the text gives it. Where the text names a man in connection with an office, the name is given exactly as the verse gives it. Dates, places, and occasions are not in this wiki’s source text and are not stated.

Account

The duty list

One section states the duties office by office, in descending order, and marks each transition with a heading sentence of its own: “The duty of the elders, priests, teachers, deacons, and members of the church of Christ—An apostle is an elder, and it is his calling to baptize” (D&C 20:38). The elder’s list runs on: “And to ordain other elders, priests, teachers, and deacons” (D&C 20:39); “And to administer bread and wine—the emblems of the flesh and blood of Christ—” (D&C 20:40); “And to confirm those who are baptized into the church, by the laying on of hands for the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, according to the scriptures” (D&C 20:41); “And to teach, expound, exhort, baptize, and watch over the church” (D&C 20:42); “And to take the lead of all meetings” (D&C 20:44).

The priest’s list repeats four of the elder’s five verbs and adds two duties of its own: “The priest’s duty is to preach, teach, expound, exhort, and baptize, and administer the sacrament,” (D&C 20:46); “And visit the house of each member, and exhort them to pray vocally and in secret and attend to all family duties” (D&C 20:47); “And he may also ordain other priests, teachers, and deacons” (D&C 20:48). Then the limiting clause that gives the list its shape: “And he is to take the lead of meetings when there is no elder present” (D&C 20:49); “But when there is an elder present, he is only to preach, teach, expound, exhort, and baptize,” (D&C 20:50); “In all these duties the priest is to assist the elder if occasion requires” (D&C 20:52).

The teacher’s duty is watching rather than administering: “The teacher’s duty is to watch over the church always, and be with and strengthen them” (D&C 20:53); “And see that there is no iniquity in the church, neither hardness with each other, neither lying, backbiting, nor evil speaking” (D&C 20:54); “And see that the church meet together often, and also see that all the members do their duty” (D&C 20:55); “And he is to take the lead of meetings in the absence of the elder or priest—” (D&C 20:56); “And is to be assisted always, in all his duties in the church, by the deacons, if occasion requires” (D&C 20:57).

The two lower offices are then bounded from both sides in a single pair of verses: “But neither teachers nor deacons have authority to baptize, administer the sacrament, or lay on hands” (D&C 20:58); “They are, however, to warn, expound, exhort, and teach, and invite all to come unto Christ” (D&C 20:59).

The same offices, sorted by priesthood

The later exposition sorts the same offices under the two priesthoods rather than listing their duties: “The office of an elder comes under the priesthood of Melchizedek” (D&C 107:7); “And again, the offices of elder and bishop are necessary appendages belonging unto the high priesthood” (D&C 84:29); “And again, the offices of teacher and deacon are necessary appendages belonging to the lesser priesthood, which priesthood was confirmed upon Aaron and his sons” (D&C 84:30). The order of advance is given as a sequence: “Wherefore, from deacon to teacher, and from teacher to priest, and from priest to elder, severally as they are appointed, according to the covenants and commandments of the church” (D&C 107:63).

Each office is also given a presiding number: “the duty of a president over the office of a deacon is to preside over twelve deacons” (D&C 107:85); “the duty of the president over the office of the teachers is to preside over twenty-four of the teachers” (D&C 107:86); “Also the duty of the president over the Priesthood of Aaron is to preside over forty-eight priests” (D&C 107:87); “the duty of the president over the office of elders is to preside over ninety-six elders” (D&C 107:89). The numbers double at each step — twelve, twenty-four, forty-eight, ninety-six — a pattern the verses state one at a time and never remark on.

The bishop

The bishop is defined by two things the text keeps together: temporal administration and judgment. “Wherefore, the office of a bishop is not equal unto it; for the office of a bishop is in administering all temporal things” (D&C 107:68); “And also to be a judge in Israel, to do the business of the church, to sit in judgment upon transgressors upon testimony as it shall be laid before him according to the laws, by the assistance of his counselors, whom he has chosen or will choose among the elders of the church” (D&C 107:72); “Thus shall he be a judge, even a common judge among the inhabitants of Zion, or in a stake of Zion, or in any branch of the church where he shall be set apart unto this ministry” (D&C 107:74).

Eligibility is stated as a rule with a stated exception. “No man has a legal right to this office, to hold the keys of this priesthood, except he be a literal descendant of Aaron” (D&C 107:16); “But as a high priest of the Melchizedek Priesthood has authority to officiate in all the lesser offices, he may officiate in the office of bishop when no literal descendant of Aaron can be found, provided he is called and set apart and ordained unto this power by the hands of the Presidency of the Melchizedek Priesthood” (D&C 107:17); and the reverse case: “But a literal descendant of Aaron has a legal right to the presidency of this priesthood, to the keys of this ministry, to act in the office of bishop independently, without counselors” (D&C 107:76).

A separate revelation gives the office its working content: “To keep the Lord’s storehouse; to receive the funds of the church in this part of the vineyard” (D&C 72:10); “To take an account of the elders as before has been commanded; and to administer to their wants, who shall pay for that which they receive, inasmuch as they have wherewith to pay” (D&C 72:11); “And he who hath not wherewith to pay, an account shall be taken and handed over to the bishop of Zion, who shall pay the debt out of that which the Lord shall put into his hands” (D&C 72:13). The accounting runs upward as paper: “A certificate from the judge or bishop in this part of the vineyard, unto the bishop in Zion, rendereth every man acceptable, and answereth all things, for an inheritance, and to be received as a wise steward and as a faithful laborer” (D&C 72:17); “Otherwise he shall not be accepted of the bishop of Zion” (D&C 72:18).

Two men are named to the office in the verse text: “And now, verily I say unto you, my servant Newel K. Whitney is the man who shall be appointed and ordained unto this power” (D&C 72:8), and, earlier, “And again, I have called my servant Edward Partridge; and I give a commandment, that he should be appointed by the voice of the church, and ordained a bishop unto the church, to leave his merchandise and to spend all his time in the labors of the church” (D&C 41:9). The same verse states a reason: “And this because his heart is pure before me, for he is like unto Nathanael of old, in whom there is no guile” (D&C 41:11). The revelation’s comparison names a figure the wiki hosts in the New Testament corpus; that the revelation makes the comparison is textual, and the identification it implies is left where the text leaves it.

Standing in one’s own office

The charge that binds the list together is stated as a body figure.

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () - D&C 84:109: “Therefore, let every man stand in his own office, and labor in his own calling; and let not the head say unto the feet it hath no need of the feet; for without the feet how shall the body be able to stand?” - 1 Corinthians 12:21: “And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.”

Divergences reported: the epistle gives two refusals (eye to hand, head to feet), the revelation only the second; the epistle’s second person “I have no need of you” (1 Corinthians 12:21) becomes third person “it hath no need of the feet” (D&C 84:109); and the revelation adds a question the epistle does not carry — “for without the feet how shall the body be able to stand?” (D&C 84:109). The revelation continues the figure into the next verse: “Also the body hath need of every member, that all may be edified together, that the system may be kept perfect” (D&C 84:110). The run “no need of the feet” stands at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus, D&C 84:109; “I have no need of thee” likewise at exactly one, 1 Corinthians 12:21.

Ordination itself is described in the same terms the Book of Mormon uses for it.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 20:60: “Every elder, priest, teacher, or deacon is to be ordained according to the gifts and callings of God unto him; and he is to be ordained by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is in the one who ordains him.” - Moroni 3:4: “And after this manner did they ordain priests and teachers, according to the gifts and callings of God unto men; and they ordained them by the power of the Holy Ghost, which was in them.”

Divergences reported: “unto him” for “unto men”; the revelation locates the power in a single ordainer — “which is in the one who ordains him” (D&C 20:60) — where Moroni’s account locates it in the ordaining group, “which was in them” (Moroni 3:4); and the offices listed differ, four in the revelation against two in Moroni. The run “the gifts and callings of God” stands at three distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two and D&C 20:27, where the sense is belief in the gifts rather than ordination by them.

How an ordination is worded

Sections outside this cluster ordain men to these same offices, and the wording is worth setting beside the duty list. The commonest formula names the office and then the work it carries: “Take upon you mine ordination, even that of an elder, to preach faith and repentance and remission of sins, according to my word, and the reception of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands” (D&C 53:3); “And then thou shalt be ordained by the hand of my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., to be an elder unto this church, to preach repentance and remission of sins by way of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God” (D&C 55:2).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () That formula is the one Moroni records for the Nephite church: - D&C 55:2: “And then thou shalt be ordained by the hand of my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., to be an elder unto this church, to preach repentance and remission of sins by way of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.” - Moroni 3:3: “In the name of Jesus Christ I ordain you to be a priest (or if he be a teacher, I ordain you to be a teacher) to preach repentance and remission of sins through Jesus Christ, by the endurance of faith on his name to the end. Amen.”

The five-word run “to preach repentance and remission of sins” stands at exactly these two distinct frozen verses in the corpus. Divergences reported: the office differs — elder in the revelation, priest or teacher in Moroni’s formula; the revelation attaches the preaching to baptism, Moroni to endurance, “by the endurance of faith on his name to the end” (Moroni 3:3); and Moroni gives the words the ordainer says, where the revelation gives the words that appoint. A third section uses the same shape for a different work: “And thou shalt be ordained under his hand to expound scriptures, and to exhort the church, according as it shall be given thee by my Spirit” (D&C 25:7).

Ordination is also stated as something conditional and deferred: “Wait patiently until the solemn assembly shall be called of my servants, then you shall be remembered with the first of mine elders, and receive right by ordination with the rest of mine elders whom I have chosen” (D&C 108:4); and as something offered on a general condition rather than to a named man: “That as many as shall come before my servants Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith, Jun., embracing this calling and commandment, shall be ordained and sent forth to preach the everlasting gospel among the nations” (D&C 36:5); “And this commandment shall be given unto the elders of my church, that every man which will embrace it with singleness of heart may be ordained and sent forth, even as I have spoken” (D&C 36:7).

Offices that are not in the duty list

Several appointments in the corpus name work that appears nowhere in the elder-priest-teacher-deacon frame. An agent: “And also to be an agent unto this church in the place which shall be appointed by the bishop, according to commandments which shall be given hereafter” (D&C 53:4) — the same function the bishop is told to fill in D&C 90:22 and D&C 84:113. A recorder: “it shall be appointed unto him to keep the church record and history continually” (D&C 47:3); “he shall continue in writing and making a history of all the important things which he shall observe and know concerning my church” (D&C 69:3). A writer of schoolbooks: “you shall be ordained to assist my servant Oliver Cowdery to do the work of printing, and of selecting and writing books for schools in this church, that little children also may receive instruction before me as is pleasing unto me” (D&C 55:4). And a spokesman, defined by its relation to another office: “I will ordain you unto this calling, even to be a spokesman unto my servant Joseph” (D&C 100:9); “that thou mayest be a spokesman unto him, and he shall be a revelator unto thee” (D&C 100:11).

The bishop’s account-keeping has a counterpart obligation running the other way.

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () - D&C 72:5: “Verily I say unto you, the elders of the church in this part of my vineyard shall render an account of their stewardship unto the bishop, who shall be appointed of me in this part of my vineyard.” - D&C 69:5: “And also, my servants who are abroad in the earth should send forth the accounts of their stewardships to the land of Zion;”

Intra-D&C. Divergences reported: singular “an account of their stewardship” (D&C 72:5) against plural “accounts of their stewardships” (D&C 69:5); and the recipient differs — a local bishop in one, “the land of Zion” in the other, which the same section explains as “a seat and a place to receive and do all these things” (D&C 69:6). The exact run “an account of their stewardship” stands at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus (D&C 72:5), which is why this is registered as allusion rather than shared phrasing. The general principle behind both stands at D&C 72:3: “it is required of the Lord, at the hand of every steward, to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and in eternity”.

A counselor’s charge

One short revelation states an office and its work in a single breath: “Listen to the voice of him who speaketh, to the word of the Lord your God, and hearken to the calling wherewith you are called, even to be a high priest in my church, and a counselor unto my servant Joseph Smith, Jun.” (D&C 81:1), addressed by name to “my servant Frederick G. Williams” (D&C 81:1). Its charge is borrowed language.

[Textual] — verbatim quotation. () - D&C 81:5: “Wherefore, be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed unto you; succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.” - Hebrews 12:12: “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;”

Seven words identical, and both begin the sentence with “Wherefore”. Divergences: the epistle’s compressed “and the feeble knees” (Hebrews 12:12) is expanded to a verb phrase, “and strengthen the feeble knees” (D&C 81:5); the revelation prefixes “succor the weak” (D&C 81:5), which the epistle lacks. The run “lift up the hands which hang down” stands at exactly these two distinct frozen verses in the corpus; “the feeble knees” stands at four — these two, Isaiah 35:3 and Job 4:4 — disclosed, not paired.

Significance

The striking feature of this material is its ordinariness. A text that elsewhere speaks of the heavens opened spends dozens of verses on who takes the lead of a meeting when the elder is away, how many deacons a president presides over, and what a certificate must say. The revelations do not treat the two registers as different in kind: the duty list and the priesthood lineage sit in the same sections, in the same voice.

A second feature is redundancy with limits. The elder, priest and teacher lists share verbs — preach, teach, expound, exhort — and are separated chiefly by two things: who may baptize and administer the sacrament, and who leads when who is absent. The wiki reports the overlap and the boundary; what the arrangement is for is not stated by the text and is not supplied here.

Key references

D&C 20:38–67 — the duty list, office by office, with the presence-and-absence rules
D&C 41:9–11 — a bishop called by name, appointed “by the voice of the church”
D&C 72:8–22 — the bishop’s working duties: storehouse, funds, accounts, certificates
D&C 81:1–7 — a counselor’s charge
D&C 84:29–30, 84:109–111 — offices as appendages; every man in his own office
D&C 107:7–17, 107:58–98 — offices sorted by priesthood; the bishop as judge; the presiding numbers

The Two Priesthoods · The Councils of the Church · The Order of the Church · Church of God · Index · Connections

Sources

Doctrine and Covenants sections 20, 41, 72, 81, 84, and 107 (verse text only; headnotes excluded), with sections 25, 36, 47, 53, 55, 69, and 100 quoted as cross-section evidence on ordination wording and on offices outside the duty list, and D&C 90:22 cited for the bishop’s agent. Cross-references quoted from 1 Corinthians 12, Moroni 3, and Hebrews 12; Isaiah 35 and Job 4 are cited, not quoted, inside a disclosure.

Every quote is verbatim from the frozen source text, cited to its exact reference and checked character-for-character; no quote crosses a verse boundary. Five connection records are registered on this page, all [textual] and all asserted_by: wiki — none of these revelations names a source for the clauses paired. The doubling of the presiding numbers is an arithmetic observation about four quoted verses, not a claim the text makes. Phrase distributions are counts of distinct frozen verses in the corpus, derived by search at the time of writing.