Episode 178: D&C 77 – Section 102
NOT A REVELATION. Sidney Rigdon gets written out of history in a few decades, but for right now he’s one of the three most important people in the church. Joseph sets up a hierarchy and a quasi-basis for church organization that will eventually morph into the Quorum of the Twelve. You’re required to listen to this podcast three times to really get the full effect.
Drink count – 0
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My Book of Mormon 
October 16, 2017 at 1:41 am
If things weren’t confusing enough…
Keep in mind that the “high council” organized here in D&C 102 was NOT a precursor to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles that would be established in 1835. If you look at the Introduction to the current LDS D&C, which gives the testimony and names of the original Twelve from the 1835 edition, you’ll see the only names that group has in common with the twelve high priests of this section are Orson Hyde and Luke Johnson.
The High Council was an entirely separate body that existed concurrently with the “traveling high council composed of the twelve apostles”, for the rest of Joseph Smith’s life, at least. D&C 107 will get into this distinction more, so further details can wait until then, but the existence of this church-wide High Council would have at least some ramifications on the succession crisis in 1844.
In today’s LDS church, every stake has its own high council, with twelve high priests presided over by the Stake Presidency. From what the Church Handbook says about disciplinary courts conducted by stake high councils, the procedures outlined in D&C 102 are still prescribed, including having six high councilmen supposed to “stand up in behalf of the accused, and prevent insult and injustice.” Whether, in practice, they ever actually fulfill that role, well, ask John Dehlin, or Jeremy Runnels, or anyone else who’s been through that experience, and see what they tell you…
As for verses added to these council minutes by Joseph before they went to print in 1835, it was more than just verses 30-32. I tried following along in the original version from the Joseph Smith Papers, but it was just impossible, so much had been added, removed, or moved around. As for how it’s different, Joseph Smith apparently tried to make all this dry procedural junk more interesting, when he first articulated it, by claiming this was how things were done anciently, and explaining it in terms of the church seat at Jerusalem, where Peter was President of the High Council, and so on.
http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minutes-17-february-1834/1