Joseph and the teenagers.....

[_Drifting]

I have been purusing Family Search.

Along with several Michael Mouse entries, a Jesus Christ entry for 2001 bc which list parents as 'Joseph' and 'The Virgin Mary', I found the one for Joseph Smith.

I have selected for discussion the ones where the female was under the age of 20 at the point of the marriage.

Sarah Lawrence 17 (Joseph Smith 37)
Nancy Winchester 18 (Joseph Smith 41)
Helen M Kimball 14 (Joseph Smith 37)
Lucy Walker 17 (Joseph Smith 37)
Sarah Whitney 17 (Joseph Smith 36)
Melissa Lott 19 (Joseph Smith 37)

Add to this official information the actual purpose of Polygamy.

...for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be glorified. (D&C 132)

Frankly I find the thought of a mid thirties Joseph marrying teenagers for the purpose of procreating with them quite disturbing.

However, was this an accepted custom and practice of the time and the place where Joseph lived - that teenage girls married mid thirties men?

[_Buffalo]

Sounds like a 50's doo-wop band.

It wasn't the norm, but it wasn't unheard of to marry teenagers or even close relatives. I doubt respectable, educated people did much of that. Of course, it was very aberrant to be marrying more than one of them.

If you look at how polygamy went in Utah, it was pretty common for even really old men to marry teenage girls. You'd also get cases of men marrying a woman AND her daughter, which would have been an abomination under Old Testament polygamy rules.

[Guest]

14... Nope, way to young.

An unwed mother whose husband had died in a war or from sickness; yeah right!

No way, she would have had to have been married the first time at 12 before she had even met Joseph.

Joseph and his friends just used printed documents to lure in idiots just to brainwash them; A standard cult practice that is still used today.

The Hail Bop Comet leader is a serial killer, probably the most successful and least recognized serial killer in the history of the united states, yet people call him a religious leader for some reason.

(Grammar Edit)

[_hatersinmyward]

Its Just the fact that Joseph Printed a fictitious text to lure innocent people and persuade them to do whatever sick thing he had in mind, then called his communes/towns God's Chosen Land to which God was on his way to lift its citizens up in the near future.

That's a Cult.

(Grammar Edit)