In delineating who the prophet Joseph Smith was, it is important not to confuse him with the one and only Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ Jehovah. Because confusion has been proliferated by various scholars of the Bible, Jew and Christian alike, many of the Messianic prophecies have been mixed in with prophecies which concern singular prophets such as Elijah and the latter-day prophet of the house of Joseph, who are not the Messiah. And the error which involves Joseph Smith directly is that these intellectual Jewish scholars/Rabbis of scripture have 'authoritatively' stated according to their inovative imaginings their false conclusions such as there being two Messiahs, which we know is NOT the case. But even a number of LDS scholars have picked up on the Jewish view of the two Messiah theory. And even they with their Jewish counterparts have mixed the prophecies concerning the prophet who was to descend from Joseph of Egypt in the latter days, who we know to be Joseph Smith, with the Jewish 'Suffering Messiah' prophesies of Messiah ben Joseph, who is but Christ. And this Messiah ben Joseph, who we have presented in this text as having descended from Joseph of Egypt and Ephraim through Mahlon and the house of Elimelech as set out in this discussion concering Boaz the surrogate performing parent of Obed, the seed to be raised up to the dead via Ruth the wife of Mahlon.

Joseph Smith is not Jesus Christ, he is not the long awaited Messiah ben Joseph any more than was Moses or Joshua the Messiah. Those who make such presumptions are in the same boat as were the contemporaries and later scholars of Moses and Joshua, who have attempted to identify them as such. And thus we are guilty even in the scholarship of the Church of mixing before the world the concept of Messiahship upon Joseph Smith. And this is one of our critics claims against us that we do worship Joseph Smith even as being the Messiah. Which he is not, and we should not confuse him as being such, as he is NOT that Messiah ben Joseph to which all the other suffering Messiah scriptures have correctly been attributed. He can be revered as a prophet deliverer of the status of Moses, Joshua and numerous others, but we must stop short in our use of the title Messiah ben Joseph. For Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben Judah are one and the same person, even Jesus Christ as has been set out.

"The Book of Mormon came to Ephraim, for Joseph Smith was a pure Ephraimite." ~ Brigham Young, JD, 2:268

Now we come to the real topic of this item. Brigham Young most properly identified Joseph Smith as being a pure Ephraimite. That is by all ancestral rights of birth in every sense, Joseph Smith was a pure descendant from Ephraim and Ephraim only. This is not surprising and invariably must have been so, for Joseph of Egypt had prophesied concerning him that he was to be of his seed and therefore the promised prophet, descendant of Joseph reserved for the latter-day work (JST Genesis 50:32-33; 2 Nephi 3:14-15). Thus being a 'pure' Ephraimite precludes any other mixture by right in him.

In the Doctrine and Covenants in section 113 verses 1-6, Joseph Smith gives some revelation answers concerning the eleventh chapter of Isaiah. A number of LDS sources have further spoken concerning Joseph Smith's answers found there and they have attempted to explain them further. Such 'furhter' explanations of 'understanding' have not been totally successful nor fully in agreement with each other. Isaiah 11 and D&C 113 will be explored in greater detail in items 42 and 43. Here we will but mention the possible states of perhaps two through also possible of one and the same circumstance. In D&C 113:4 it speaks of 'a rod that would come forth out of the stem of Jesse' that he would be 'a servant in the hands of Christ, who is partly a descendant of Jesse as well as of Ephraim, or the house of Joseph, on whom there is laid much power.' And in D&C 113:6 is speaks of 'the root of Jesse spoken of in Isaiah 11:10 who is a descendant of Jesse, as well as of Joseph, unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days.'

Now without fully itendifying who these might be here, the concepts given is that one may be partly a descendant of Jesse as well as of Ephraim, or the house of Joseph. What is unique here is from one manner of reading this condition only one house is mentioned, the house of Joseph only. With the sifting of the House of Ephraim and the House of Manasseh in amoung the nations of the earth it is fully understandable how one might only be 'partly' of the house of Joseph mingled or sifted with the 'gentile' lines of of the nations. And in one line of thought, might not one be linially descendant of Jesse as well as Ephraim in one single ancestral line of linage. What seems unique here is that will the house of Joseph is mentioned here, the house of Judah IS NOT. And this text has set forth exactly how just one ancestral line of linage but from one house might well come from Jesse, that Ephrathite, son of Obed who would by legal right of the linage establish by God so have come out of Joseph. Though Obed was born of Ruth by the surrogate performing Boaz, Obed was legally and rightfully son and heir of the dead Mahlon, that Ephrathite/Ephraimite son and heir of Elimelech. Even was Jesse the son of Obed so distinguish as being an Ephrathite/Ephraimite. Thus was not Jesse an Ephraimite of the house of Joseph. And is not anyone and everyone who descended from Jesse also such, of Ephraim of the house of Joseph?

With the same logic which builds upon what D&C 113:4 does well state, one may consider what D&C 113:6 does state. Where verse 4 denotes only the need for being 'partly' descended from Jesse, that Ephraimite of the house of Joseph, verse 6 does not speak of a 'partal' descendant but rather 'a descendant of Jesse, as well as of Joseph.' Again this need be but one ancestral descent alone for as explained Jesse was of Joseph. Now many have so stated that this person of Isaiah 10:11 which D&C 113:6 speaks is Joseph Smith. Now for Brigham Young to state of Joseph Smith that he was a 'pure Ephraimite', and for the Book of Mormon to identify this latter day prophet as being descendant from Joseph of Egypt, that Joseph Smith would have at least a direct 'paternal' linage within the covenant priesthood rights for verse 6 to further specify that it was he to 'whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, etc.'.

In the world of logic there are two deliniating conjuctions common, that is the state of being 'exclusive' and the state of being 'inclusive'. Thus one excludes one state from being in union with another and the other unifies or includes two states into being includable under the same umbrella so to speak. The one conjunction is 'or' and the other is 'and'. My son, and my father are both of the Hender family-of the house of Hender. My son or my father is older than the other. Thus in the case of 'or', they are not to be considered of the same age. Sometimes the selection of the use of either 'or' or 'and' can become confused though it can effect the meaning dramatically.

Such is the case with Joseph Smith and his ancestry of 'right'. We have just well established that Joseph Smith held by the 'right', of being a 'pure ephraimite' of the seed of Joseph of Egypt, his position as the promised prophet of the latter-day restoration in conjunction with fulfilling the promises of the fathers and the Covenant of Abraham in being a tool in bring to the world the blessings of the covenants of the salvation of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. And Joseph Smith was that promised prophet, son of Joseph his immediate father, and descendant from Joseph of Egypt through his second son Ephraim with a direct legal covenant right to the priesthood covenant of the blessings of the fathers (D&C 27:10). And it is he who was to lead Joseph's latter-day branch of Ephraim in raising this ensign to the nations of the world.

But elsewhere we also learn and understand that Joseph Smith was a descended out of the 'root of Jesse'.(1) In fact many early church leaders of the restoration were said to have shared the same ancestry as Jesus Christ including Joseph Smith.(2) And Jesse was of the bloodline of Judah, son of Obed, son of Boaz. And this 'root of Jesse' was of the same ancestral line from which the Savior Jesus Christ descended. Now how can a 'pure Ephraimite' be of the bloodline of Judah as was Jesus Christ?

This is the very dichotomy and matter with which this entire work has been involved in ascertaining, concerning Jesus Christ. How could the Messiah be both the son of Joseph/Ephraim as Messiah ben Joseph and the son of David/Judah as Messiah ben David? How could Joseph Smith be a 'pure Ephraimite' of the house of Joseph of Egypt and also be of the 'root of Jesse' the son of Obed? Well the same answer which makes Jesus Christ both Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Joseph/Ephraim, makes Joseph Smith a 'pure Ephraimte' of the bloodline of Judah. And that centers back to the fact that Boaz of the house of Judah and a 'near kinsman' of Naomi and Elimelech, when he married Ruth, whose first husband was Mahlon an Ephrathite, was doing the Lawful duty of a brother kinsman of raising up seed unto the dead. And the first born son of the marriage of Boaz and Ruth was the legal heir by right of the Law of Moses to the house of Mahlon and Elimelech both Ephrathites. And as discussed here in Elimelech and Mahlon where of the tribe of Ephraim which made Obed, Jesse, David, Jesus Christ, and even Joseph Smith Ephraimites by right and law despite their bloodline.

Now in one reading of Joseph Smith coming out of the 'root of Jesse' one could conclude that this means that Joseph Smith was a descendant of Jesus Christ himself. But that is another topic of total speculation, which includes that Christ was married and had children, which did settle themselves in Great Britain. And while there is much speculative evidence which points to Joseph of Arimathaea being the possible connective link of this possibility, it is certainly way beyond the topic of this discussion, or any other discussion which this author wishes to engage in, at least at this point in time. Thus it surfices to say that Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith did at some point share ancestry in order for them both to be of the seed and root of Jesse.

But what might be concluded upon here is that while Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ where both of the seed and 'root of Jesse' it was in fulfillment of the promises made to Joseph of Egypt as recorded in the the Inspired Version of Genesis 50 and in 2 Nephi 3, which speak of the latter-day prophet descendant of Joseph of Egypt being Joseph son of his father Joseph, which Joseph Smith was. And it is by this right of being a 'pure Ephraimite' that Joseph Smith was called, chosen and ordained to be the head of this latter-day despensation of the fulness of times. That right and calling came through the Covenant blessings of the fathers, through the Covenant of Abraham to Joseph of Egypt and thence on to Ephraim and thence to Joseph Smith, that 'pure Ephraimite' as declared by Brigham Young.

And in terms of conjunction logic relative to Joseph Smith, it is not a matter of him being 'either'/'or' the 'root or Jesse' or a 'pure Ephraimite' as he is both. And both in that same way that Jesus Christ is also. And thus the consistence is that both Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ received their right of calling under the promises of the fathers through the Abrahamic Covenant as it came doen to Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and then Ephraim, Christ being both by law and legal right the seed of Ephraim and of the bloodline of Boaz and Judah. Thus Christ also was both descendant of Jesse and Joseph and his rights of the covenant come to him by his right in Ephraim as well as being the Son of God. And when one considers whether the covenant promises where fulfilled by right in Joseph and Ephriam or by right in Judah, they must conclude that they did come by right in Joseph, Ephraim, Elimelech, Mahlon, Obed, and Jesse, as they are all the rightful line from Joseph to the fulfilling of the fulness of the Covenant of Abraham and the promises of the fathers.