According to the LDS scholar Todd Compton, only 11 of Joseph's 33 plural wives were married to other men at the time Smith took them in marriage.Re. And if the women committed adultery, then Joseph Smith committed adultery also ... was [Joseph] "destroyed" and if not, then why not???You can review the list of Smith's wives HERE.
None of the wives were stolen from their husbands. Rather, they were shared with their lawful husbands in adulterous relationships.
As a matter of fact, Smith was destroyed in what was essentially his only fulfilled prophesy.A VAIN PROPHET WILL BE THROWN DOWN: July 1828. D&C 3:4.
For although a man may have many revelations, and have power to do many mighty works, yet if he boasts in his own strength, and sets at naught the counsels of God, and follows after the dictates of his own will and carnal desires, he must fall and incur the vengeance of a just God upon him.NOTE: For some reason, this prophecy by Joseph Smith, although it was fulfilled quickly and literally, is rarely cited by Mormons.FULFILLED: On May 26, 1844, Joseph Smith made the following statement in a public sermon (Brodie p 374, HC 6:408-412):
Come on, ye persecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! For I will come out on the top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.At this time Smith was secretly married polygamously to over 30 women, some of them wives of men still living. Many who knew of these secret marriages accused him of changing the doctrine of the church to satisfy his own carnal desires, in violation of the Book of Mormon (Jacob 2:23-29, 3:5) and D&C 49:16.
Almost exactly one month after this boast, on June 27, 1844, Smith was killed by his enemies in a gun battle at Carthage Jail.
Well hecky dern!
I thought there wuz some kinda big deal about it!
It's not like he was calling prospective IU basketball players or nothin'.