Reading Joseph Smith’s account of Mormon priesthood authority reveals several serious inconsistencies. In Mormon teaching, the laying on of hands by someone holding the priesthood supposedly allows others to become priests as well. In the Pearl of Great Price (Joseph Smith—History 1:69), Joseph Smith says, “Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron.” He then baptized Oliver Cowdery (verse 70), and Oliver reportedly baptized Joseph in return.
Here’s the problem: for a baptism to be valid, the person performing it must already be baptized themselves (Acts 2:38; Matthew 28:19). Since Joseph Smith had not yet been baptized, Oliver’s baptism of him was irregular, making both of their baptisms questionable and calling into serious doubt any authority they claimed to confer.
The Bible also describes the true priesthood, particularly the Melchizedek Priesthood, as eternal and divinely established, not something that can be self-conferred or newly created. Hebrews 7:1–3 emphasizes the unique, unbroken authority of Melchizedek: “Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life… he remains a priest continually.” Verse 11 further shows that any change in priesthood requires God’s direct appointment, not human invention.
Taken together, these passages highlight that Joseph Smith’s claims of priesthood authority are inconsistent with biblical standards, showing that the Mormon priesthood does not reflect the authority God established through Christ. As Scripture affirms: “There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5), and all spiritual authority flows through Him, not through human innovation.
