Updating "personage"?

[AnthonyB]

I often see LDS using the term "personage", now I realise that Joseph Smith choose to use it to describe his vision of the Father and Jesus. Now the rest of the english speaking world uses "person" whilst describing the persons that are God. Now outside the LDS folk on this board, I have never heard "personage" used in modern english.

So can I ask, what precisely do LDS have in mind when they use it? Is it just a synonym (equivalent) word for person? if it is equivalent then why not use the modern word?

If I was to describe the trinity as 3 personages in one God, what would be your response?

[inthearmsofsleep]

I view the word "personage" as more of an entity, a living being with a mind and spirit... whereas a "person" being the same but with flesh. This is strictly my opinion and the way I use the word... for example, I would say that the Holy Ghost is a personage, while you and I are persons/people.

[VisionOfLehi]

Personages is used, in my mind, for dual reasons:

One: It implies the importance of the 3 Personages we refer to. The Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost.

Two: It clarifies that we mean the Godhead consists of three separate entities. They're each personages, not "aspects" or different "forms" of the same person.

[a-train]

I think the use of the term 'Personage' is to demonstrate that They are physical beings who are human in form. However, Their appearance is infinitely greater than common persons.

-a-train

[VisionOfLehi]

Do we not use personage for the Holy Ghost, too? I may be having a brain fart on that.

I know the First Vision it talks about the 2, the Father and the Son...

I may have added the Holy Ghost on my own. o.o

[the_jason]

per·son·age

1.a person of distinction or importance.www.dictionary.com

I think a-train defined it best.

[NateHowe]

We call the Holy Ghost a "personage of spirit." The actual person of the Holy Ghost can only be in one place at one time, but His influence can be felt by anybody, according to their preparation to receive that influence.

[Mahonri]

Here you will find different uses and different descriptions.

]

Must have been an early 1800's term.

D&C 130:22

22 The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.

Joseph Smith History 1:19

19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof."

Joseph Smith History 1:30

30 While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor.

Joseph Smith History - Oliver Cowdery Footnote "I shall not attempt to paint to you the feelings of this heart, nor the majestic beauty and glory which surrounded us on this occasion; but you will believe me when I say, that earth, nor men, with the eloquence of time, cannot begin to clothe language in as interesting and sublime a manner as this holy personage. No; nor has this earth power to give the joy, to bestow the peace, or comprehend the wisdom which was contained in each sentence as they were delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit! Man may deceive his fellow-men, deception may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one may have power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction feeds the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to the grave; but one touch with the finger of his love, yes, one ray of glory from the upper world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom of eternity, strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind. The assurance that we were in the presence of an angel, the certainty that we heard the voice of Jesus, and the truth unsullied as it flowed from a pure personage, dictated by the will of God, is to me past description, and I shall ever look upon this expression of the Savior's goodness with wonder and thanksgiving while I am permitted to tarry; and in those mansions where perfection dwells and sin never comes, I hope to adore in that day which shall never cease."--Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1 (October 1834), pp. 14-16.

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Three 1838–39, p.150

Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and this is the sum and substance of the whole matter; that when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even He will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; and this is the state and place the ancient Saints arrived at when they had such glorious visions—Isaiah, Ezekiel, John upon the Isle of Patmos, St. Paul in the three heavens, and all the Saints who held communion with the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn.

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Four 1839–42, p.190

The angel that appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos was a translated or resurrected body [i.e., personage]. Jesus Christ went in body after His resurrection, to minister to resurrected bodies. There has been a chain of authority and power from Adam down to the present time.

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Four 1839–42, p.214

There have also been ministering angels in the Church which were of Satan appearing as an angel of light. A sister in the state of New York had a vision, who said it was told her that if she would go to a certain place in the woods, and angel would appear to her. She went at the appointed time, and saw a glorious personage descending, arrayed in white, with sandy colored hair; he commenced and told her to fear God, and said that her husband was called to do great things, but that he must not go more than one hundred miles from home, or he would not return; whereas God had called him to go to the ends of the earth, and he has since been more than one thousand miles from home, and is yet alive. Many true things were spoken by this personage, and many things that were false. How, it may be asked, was this known to be a bad angel? By the color of his hair; that is one of the signs that he can be known by, and by his contradicting a former revelation.

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Five 1842–43, p.275

Secondly. He was entrusted with the important mission, and it was required at his hands, to baptize the Son of Man. Whoever had the honor of doing that? Whoever had so great a privilege and glory? Whoever led the Son of God into the waters of baptism, and had the privilege of beholding the Holy Ghost descend in the form of a dove, or rather in the sign of the dove, in witness of that administration? The sign of the dove was instituted before the creation of the world, a witness for the Holy Ghost, and the devil cannot come in the sign of a dove. The Holy Ghost is a personage, and is in the form of a personage. It does not confine itself to the form of the dove, but in sign of the dove. The Holy Ghost cannot be transformed into a dove; but the sign of a dove was given to John to signify the truth of the deed, as the dove is an emblem or token of truth and innocence.

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Six 1843–44, p.370

I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods. If this is in accordance with the New Testament, lo and behold! we have three Gods anyhow, and they are plural; and who can contradict it?

[WillowTheWhisp]

In my mind a personage is the whole personality and essence and everything which goes to make up a person. It's definitely not the same thing as a person but hard to explain. I suppose I think of a person as being a physical body but a personage as being a great deal more.