D&C 107: Noah Was Ordained at Ten

Noah was ten years old when he was ordained, and that's verse 52, one short sentence in a stretch of D&C 107 that most of us cross the way you cross a parking lot. He received it "under the hand of Methuselah." Methuselah was a hundred (verse 50). Enoch was twenty-five (verse 48), and Lamech thirty-two (verse 51). Mahalaleel, further up the same list, was four hundred and ninety-six years and seven days old (verse 46), and the text bothers to count the seven days.

Conference is today, and this is the chapter that sets out the quorums the speakers come from, so the timing seemed right. I'm writing before any of it, which means I'll stay on the text and keep this one short.

Why is it called the Melchizedek Priesthood?

The chapter answers in three verses.

But out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being, to avoid the too frequent repetition of his name, they, the church, in ancient days, called that priesthood after Melchizedek, or the Melchizedek Priesthood.

D&C 107:4

The older name, in verse 3, was the Holy Priesthood, "after the Order of the Son of God." The reason for the change is a kind of courtesy, and that's all verse 4 claims.

It's easy to come away from verses 1 to 3 with three priesthoods in your head, the Melchizedek, the Aaronic and the Holy. The chapter counts two. Verse 1 says so and verse 6 calls them "two divisions or grand heads." The word "appendage" turns up for the Aaronic in verse 14, which is why it's called the lesser priesthood. What it holds, according to verse 20, is the keys of the ministering of angels and the outward ordinances, including "the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." Nothing in the verse says it matters less.

Twelve, twenty-four, forty-eight, ninety-six

The presidencies run twelve deacons, twenty-four teachers, forty-eight priests and ninety-six elders, each double the one before. The chapter doesn't remark on it. Verse 88 adds that the president over the priests is to be a bishop, and verse 90 says the elders' presidency is "designed for those who do not travel into all the world."

I was elders quorum president in our previous ward, before 2015. The roster I inherited had sixty-three names on it. I counted them at the kitchen table my first Thursday with a yellow highlighter, and what I was really doing was checking how far sixty-three was from ninety-six. Nineteen men were in the room that Sunday. One of the names was Orrin Pace, who had moved to Idaho Falls two years earlier, and it took me four tries to reach him. When he picked up he said he'd figured somebody would call when they needed him, and we talked for forty minutes, mostly about his truck.

He didn't come back to the quorum and I didn't ask him to. Verse 89 says the president is "to sit in council with them, and to teach them according to the covenants," and says nothing about what to do when the room holds nineteen.

In verse 21 the presiding officers are "appointed of or from among those who are ordained," and I spent a post on who does the appointing in the D&C 104 chapter. This chapter gives the same answer in different words, with the three presidents in verse 22 "chosen by the body."

The Twelve, the Seventy and the vote

In verse 24 the Twelve form a quorum "equal in authority and power to the three presidents." Verse 26 says the Seventy form a quorum "equal in authority to that of the Twelve." The second verse drops the word "power," and I can't tell whether that was deliberate.

Verse 34 has the Seventy acting "under the direction of the Twelve," and verse 38 says the Twelve are to call on the Seventy when they need help. So the chapter has equality and direction in adjoining verses, and it doesn't reconcile them for us. Verses 36 and 37 go further and give the standing high councils at the stakes a quorum "equal in authority" to the presidency and to the Twelve, which surprised me the first time I counted how many bodies the chapter calls equal. By the end of verse 37 it's four of them, and nobody is placed above anybody except where verse 34 says so outright.

The rule I'd underline is the one in verse 27.

And every decision made by either of these quorums must be by the unanimous voice of the same; that is, every member in each quorum must be agreed to its decisions, in order to make their decisions of the same power or validity one with the other—

D&C 107:27

The one nobody quotes is the very next verse: "A majority may form a quorum when circumstances render it impossible to be otherwise." It's a single line, the shortest in that stretch of the chapter. To me it reads like somebody who had run a meeting and knew that people get sick or get snowed in. Verse 29 then says that unless this is the case, their decisions "are not entitled to the same blessings" as those of the three presidents of old. Verse 30 asks that decisions be made "in all righteousness, in holiness, and lowliness of heart," and the list that follows runs through meekness, patience and charity before it stops. Verse 32 is the other one I'd hold onto, where a decision made in unrighteousness can be brought before "a general assembly of the several quorums," and otherwise there can be no appeal. That's a check written onto the same page that grants the authority.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does every church council have to vote unanimously?

The chapter doesn't say. Verse 27 is about "either of these quorums," meaning the Twelve and the Seventy, and verse 28 gives the exception for when a full quorum can't meet. If you've heard it stated as a rule for every council, that's more than the verses carry.

Why does a bishop have to be a high priest?

According to verse 69 a bishop "must be chosen from the High Priesthood, unless he is a literal descendant of Aaron." Verse 68 gives the reason for the office, that a bishop administers temporal things. Verse 17 allows a high priest to act as bishop when no literal descendant of Aaron can be found, as long as he's set apart by the Presidency of the Melchizedek Priesthood. That looks to me like two cases and not a contradiction. Verses 72 to 74 add that such a bishop is also "a common judge" among the inhabitants of Zion, so the office is more than the temporal side of the church.

Why is the chapter full of ages?

The chapter says the order "came down by lineage in the following manner" and then gives it, name by name, with ages at ordination. Verse 57 says these things were written in the book of Enoch. My guess is that the ages anchor the line, but a ten-year-old in verse 52 and a man of nearly five hundred in verse 46 are treated exactly alike, and that's the part I keep looking at.

How many deacons are supposed to be in a quorum?

Verse 85 says the president presides over twelve deacons, and verses 86 to 89 give twenty-four, forty-eight and ninety-six for the others. Those are the numbers the chapter gives and it stops there. Ask your bishop how your ward actually runs it.

What I still don't like

I still don't like verse 16, because "legal right" is a phrase from a courtroom, set in a chapter that otherwise reads like a work schedule, and the condition it names is literal descent from Aaron. Verse 17 handles the case where no literal descendant "can be found," and verse 69 says it again. I can follow the logic. The text doesn't say how anyone would find out, and a rule with a condition nobody can look up leaves me uneasy. I'd have written the verse differently, which is a poor thing to say about a revelation.

— D.