New and Everlasting Covenant

In Joseph Smith — Rough Stone Rolling, the New and Everlasting Covenant is the framework through which Joseph Smith’s marriage revelation operated. As Bushman recounts, to Joseph’s mind revelation functioned like law — the early revelations were “commandments” requiring obedience — and the marriage revelation laid down covenant-bound rules: if a woman “be not in the new and everlasting covenant, and she be with another man, she has committed adultery,” with the same standard applied to men. The rules under plural marriage were as strict as under monogamy; revelation simply set the standard. The book frames this as preparing the Saints “less for wedded bliss than for heavenly rule.” Kyle’s note on the page wrestles with what this implies for marriages outside the covenant: whether a civil (non-temple) marriage is “lesser,” given that the New and Everlasting Covenant includes ordinances sealed by the Priesthood — a question he files under Covenants vs. Commandments.

Context: In Latter-day Saint theology, the New and Everlasting Covenant is the fulness of the gospel — and, more specifically, the covenant of eternal (celestial) marriage sealed by priesthood authority, as set out in Doctrine and Covenants section 132. It is “everlasting” because such covenants and sealings are meant to extend beyond death.

Where this appears

• Joseph Smith — Rough Stone Rolling — the covenant framing of Joseph’s marriage revelation (adultery defined relative to the covenant; marriage as preparation for heavenly rule); prompts Kyle’s question about temple vs. civil marriage.