House of Joseph (LDS Church)

These modern Josephites claim, however, that many in their ranks are also of the tribe of Manasseh, Joseph's eldest son and a joint-recipient of the 'double portion' of Jacob's birthright blessing upon the heads of his grandsons.

Young people within the church are often referred to as 'youth of the noble birthright' — a designation inspired by lyrics from one of the faith's time-honored hymns.

Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, as a shepherd doth his flock ... (Jer 31:9-10)

Jacob was the last[dubious – discuss] of a line of ancient biblical patriarchs who held the full power of the 'blessings of the firstborn,' of bechor.

But Israel refused and said: I know it, my son, I know it: he [Manasseh] also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother [Ephraim] shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.

That critical breach — which widened again later with divisions between Levi and the sons of Aaron — would only be healed in a far-distant, future day, after Israel's 'scattering' (722-586 BC) and centuries-long apostate captivity among Gentile nations.

Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved ... (Psalm 80:1-2, 8-11, 14-15, 17, 19) In the latter days, according to LDS interpretation, the tribes of Israel were to be gathered again into one fold (the elect family of God) in the 'second' promised land of Joseph's 'double portioned' inheritance — which Latter-day Saints believe is the entire American continent of North and South America (with North America serving as the latter-day 'Zion') — which God has consecrated to house, at a future day, His holy city of the 'New Jerusalem'.

And they also of the tribe of Judah [the Jews], after their pain [from the captivity, exile, and persecutions of millennia], shall be sanctified in holiness before the Lord [they will participate anew in His covenant ordinances], to dwell in his presence [in a third Jerusalem temple] day and night, forever and ever" (D&C 133:32-35; see also vv.

The Book of Mormon prophet Ether taught that a remnant of the house of Joseph would build a holy city in the Americas.

[19] Early Latter Day Saints interpreted these scriptures to mean that there would be a sudden and dramatic conversion of the American Indians to Mormonism.

[22]: 42  Instead of building New Jerusalem together with the Native Americans, they began seeing it as two different places, with Zion being built upon the hills and the Lamanites in the wilderness.

[20]: 82  Bruce R. McConkie, an LDS apostle taught: "An occasional whiff of nonsense goes around the Church acclaiming that the Lamanites will build the temple in the New Jerusalem and that Ephraim and others will come to their assistance.

The Church teaches that the gathering of the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh in the Americas fulfills the prophecy of Jacob that "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall" (Gen 49:22), wherein the enclosed "wall" of the water-filled "well" is understood to be an ocean-barrier of safety that separates lands.

The Church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and claims through inspired patriarchal blessings to its members throughout the world that many of these are descendants of Josephite Ephraim and Manasseh, with the tribe of Ephraim holding a responsibility of ecclesiastical leadership, but also of spearheading the Church's worldwide missionary program in what it considers to be 'the last days'.

[3] But this 'leadership' calling with respect to the 'gathering', as they believe, extends far beyond this fundamental Ephraimite mandate to reclaim the family of Israel, for they are to seek, as commanded by the Lord in modern revelation, the conversion of all who seek salvation in the celestial kingdom of God, who will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, repent, and accept His 'true' gospel (D&C 1:30) that was, after a long 'night' of apostasy, restored through 'the Prophet of the Restoration,' Joseph Smith, Jr.[7][28] Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who believe themselves predominantly to be of the Ephraimite branch of the House of Joseph, assert that revelations given of God to the Prophet Joseph Smith (JST Gen 50), and as contained in the Book of Mormon (2 Ne 3), bear witness that the Patriarch Jacob's firstborn 'double portion' of both progeny and lands with which he blessed his son, Joseph of Egypt (and his 'double portion'-inheriting grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh), included the additional 'land' portion of the whole of the American continent — to which (c. 588 BC), from the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, a "fruitful branch" of Joseph's posterity (the 'Lehite Colony', composed of descendants of both Ephraim and Manasseh) traveled by sea.

[7] The Book of Mormon frequently identifies itself as a record of Joseph's children,[29] with the ancient prophet Lehi (Hebrew לחי Léḥî / Lāḥî "jawbone") being an Israelite of the Josephite tribe of Manasseh (Alma 10:3) and the wives of his sons, as the Prophet Joseph Smith later explained, being of the Josephite tribe of Ephraim.

Lehi had six sons: Laman, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph; and at least two daughters, who were not named in the Book of Mormon.

The Lamanites, together with the Nephites, are described as descending from the family of Lehi, a wealthy Jewish merchant, who traveled from the Middle East c. 588 BC to the Americas by boat.

Some time after AD 400, the Nephite culture and most if not all of its people were destroyed in a series of great wars between the Lamanites, Nephites, and the Gadianton Robbers — a renegade organization of murderous conspirators who, like the ancient Watchers, giants, and Cainites, employed a network of "secret combinations" and oath-bound pacts for personal and collective gain.

The introduction to the Latter Day Saint (LDS) edition of The Book of Mormon states, "[T]he Lamanites ... are among the ancestors of the American Indians.

[32] An alternate belief would be that they are fictional characters intended to portray an allegory (a similar debate concerns the Old Testament Book of Job).

The Book of Mormon prophesied of great pillage and destruction by those who would find the Lamanite descendants and dominate them before a final period of "carrying them upon their shoulders," implied as bringing them the "fulness of the gospel" and a pattern of free government.