School of the Prophets

In the early Latter Day Saint movement, the School of the Prophets (also called the "school of the elders" or "school for the Prophets") was a select group of early leaders who began meeting on January 23, 1833 in Kirtland, Ohio under the direction of Joseph Smith for both theological and secular learning.

The phrase "the School of the Prophets" has been identified as the naioath or "dwellings" in Ramah in 1 Samuel 19:18-24 where the fellowship or "school of the prophets" assembled to worship, pray, and ask God for wisdom. It was also applied to Harvard University in 1655 when the Reverend Thomas Shepard asked the United Colonies Commissioners to find "some way of comfortable maintenance for that School of the Prophets that now is" and suggested that each family in New England give one-quarter bushel of wheat to the college. It was more commonly applied in the 18th century to Yale University, and it was the title of a history of Yale from 1701 to 1740 by Richard Warch.

Historian Joseph F. Darowski has called attention to earlier Old Testament and Protestant precedents, stating that Harvard and Yale were both once commonly called schools of the prophets.

A revelation in the "Doctrine and Covenants" begins by commanding that a house be prepared for the Presidency of the School of the Prophets. (D&C 88:127-141) The School is to instruct all the officers of the Church in all things expedient. This revelation goes on to describe how the meetings of the School are to begin—including a special salutation and the washing of the feet of all members of the School. Another D&C revelation (D&C 90) reveals that the "keys" of the School of the Prophets have been given to the church Presidency "That thereby they [the church] may be perfected in their ministry for the salvation of Zion, and of the nations of Israel, and of the Gentiles, as many as will believe. That through your administration they may receive the word, and through their administration the word may go forth unto the ends of the earth, unto the Gentiles first, and then, behold, and lo, they shall turn unto the Jews. And then cometh the day when the arm of the Lord shall be revealed in power in convincing the nations, the heathen nations, the house of Joseph, of the gospel of their salvation."

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