Debates around dietary guidelines were prominent in the United States during this time. For example, Samuel Underhill, a prominent member of the Owenite community (a communitarian group related to the Morley family communal farm) preached around Kirtland before JS arrived. One tract that he wrote in 1829 included the following text:
Now it came to pass that the sons of men found in the land a certain plant having broad leaves and an acrid taste and it stupified the people.
2. And some burned it and drew the smoke thereof into their mouths & some put it in their mouths and spit forth the juice thereof for it was much & many made it very fine and drew it into their noses…[H]earken unto wisdom & be ye saved.
6. Strong drink is ruin; much wine is an evil, tea is a curse, coffee is injurious, tobacooes disgustful and poisonous and altogther are a great damnation.
6. [sic] Drink water alone, live on simple diet take due exercise and ye shall be happy. [n1]
The Morley family farm community apparently didn’t eat pork until JS came and said it was okay. [n2] The Shakers also had a dietary code. Moreover, the Temperance movement was by the early 1830s making significant ground, including in Kirtland; for example a whiskey distillery nearby was burned down. [n3] Later that decade Sylvester Graham (of cracker fame, and who also taught against alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea) made significant inroads across America as part of his health reform movement.
Additional important context is the early Latter-day Saint affinity for Thomsonian, or botanic, medicine [n4] and their rejection of traditional allopathic medicine until it became clinically viable at the end of the nineteenth century. Frederick G. Williams of the First Presidency was a prominent Thomsonian physician in the area when this revelation was dictated by JS.
This revelation was first published on a broadsheet during the winter of 1833-34. It was included in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. Frederick G. Williams copied the earliest extant text into RB2.
In 1876 Orson Pratt moved verses 1-3 from the heading to the body of the section. The comma following “used” in verse 13 was added in the 1921 Doctrine and Covenants, and was perhaps a printing error. It was retained in the 2013 edition.
2. not by commandment or constraint. See following discussing of the history of the Word of Wisdom’s implementation.
3. adapted to the capacity of the weak. Does the Lord do this often?
4. conspiring men. Does this relate to the revelation on Sacramental beverages?
5. only in assembling your sacraments before him. Remember the description of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper at the School of the Prophets. Look forward to the dedication of the Kirtland Temple.
6. of your own make. Bishop Whitney owned a significant tract of red currents, which he and his wife used for wine production and supplied the Latter-day Saints for most of the early Kirtland period.
7. washing of your bodies. This was a common medical treatment (remember that not only had the weekly bath not yet been invented, but also the winter bath was uncommon). This is an antecedent to the Kirtland Temple liturgy as well.
8. used with judgement and skill. Tobacco was commonly employed for medical purposes during this period.
9. hot drinks. This has been controversial since it was first dictated. Not all of the earliest Saints thought it applied to coffee and tea, though by Nauvoo it was clear that this was the subject. Some early Saints thought that any hot beverage was to be avoided. Though various church leaders have commented about the relationship of caffeine to the Word of Wisdom, presently there is no Church position regarding caffeinated beverages; though all habit forming substances are discouraged.
10. wholesome herbs. Early Saints viewed this to support Thomsonian medicine.
12. used sparingly. How are we doing there?
13. not be used, only. Does that comma make a difference? Clearly folks like Lorenzo Snow took this seriously.
15. these. I.e., the beasts, fowls and animals of vs. 14.
17. Note that rye is not great for fowls. This verse should not be read as prescriptive.
17. What “mild drinks” are made from barley and other grain?
18-21. Like other aspects of the School of the Prophets, this revelation should be viewed as a step toward the temple.
WORD OF WISDOM IN MORMON HISTORY
The following are articles dealing with how the Word of Wisdom was employed in our history.
Thomas G. Alexander, Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890–1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986), 258-272. [not available online]
Thomas G. Alexander, “The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 14 (Autumn, 1981): 78-88.
Lester E. Bush Jr., Health and Medicine among the Latter-day Saints: Science, Sense, and Scripture (New York: Crossroad, 1993), esp. 48-59. [not available online]
Edward L. Kimball, “The History of LDS Temple Admission Standards,” Journal of Mormon History 24 (Spring, 1998): 135–176.
Paul H. Peterson and Ronald W. Walker, “Brigham Young’s Word of Wisdom Legacy,” BYU Studies 42, no. 3 & 4 (2003), 29-64.
Paul H. Peterson “An Historical Analysis of the Word of Wisdom” (MA thesis, Brigham Young University, 1972).
- Samuel Underhill, “Chronicles, Notes, and Mixims of Dr. Samuel Underhill,” quoted in Staker, Hearken O Ye People, 110.
- Ibid., 270, 402, and 406.
- See Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “The Forms and the Power: The Development of Mormon Ritual Healing to 1847,” Journal of Mormon History 37 (Summer, 2009): 70-71.