In the Latter Day Saint movement, the Quorum of the Twelve (also known as the Council of the Twelve, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Council of the Twelve Apostles, or the Twelve) was one of the governing bodies (quorums) of the church hierarchy organized by the movement's founder Joseph Smith, Jr., and patterned after the twelve apostles of Christ (see Mark 3). Members are considered to be apostles, with a special calling to be evangelical ambassadors to the world.
The Twelve were designated to be a body of "traveling councillors" with jurisdiction outside areas where the church was formally organized (areas of the world outside of Zion or its outlying Stakes), equal in authority to the First Presidency as well as to the Seventy, the standing Presiding High Council and the High Councils of the various Stakes (Doctrine & Covenants 107:25-27, 36-37).
After the death of Joseph Smith, Jr. on June 27, 1844, permanent schisms formed in the movement, resulting in the formation of various churches, many of which retained some version of this high council of twelve apostles.
Read more about Quorum Of The Twelve: Members of The Original Quorum, Prior To 1844, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Community of Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), Church of Christ (Temple Lot), Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Famous quotes containing the word twelve:
“I’m 65 and I guess that puts me in with the geriatrics. But if there were fifteen months in every year, I’d only be 48. That’s the trouble with us. We number everything. Take women, for example. I think they deserve to have more than twelve years between the ages of 28 and 40.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)