If Emma Smith had the right to interpret Joseph’s teachings in the same way Eve interpreted Adam’s prophecy, then perhaps we ought to take seriously Emma’s comments about the Church after the death of Joseph Smith, and perhaps any other statements from her about Mormonism that we can dig up.
The Lord said that the “scriptures are acceptable to me for this time” but also that they “yet lack many of my words, have errors throughout, and contain things that are not of me” and “you need not think they contain all my words….” It may be that one of the failures of the project to recover the scriptures was the failure to canonize Emma Smith’s words.
If, as has been taught, the role of the man is knowledge and the role of the woman is wisdom, the lack of Emma Smith’s words in the new scriptures may indicate an additional meaning to the statement in the Answer to the Prayer for Covenant that “mankind refuses to take counsel from Wisdom.”
If the failure to include Emma’s words is among the imperfections that the Lord mentioned exist in the recovered scriptures, then I assume we can begin to repent by taking Emma’s words seriously, much like I hope we have begun to do with Joseph’s words.
Jeremiah Stoddard 