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KANE - A person must be baptized in order to be eligible for ordination to the Priesthood. Yet John the Baptist ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to the Aaronic Priesthood and then asked the two men to baptize each other. I've never been able to figure out why this order was reversed?
JOEL - This is kind of like the question. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
The ordinance had to start somehow and a baptism can not be performed without proper priesthod authority, so the priesthood had to be confered first before they could perform the baptism.
"Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of the Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the Gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins:"(D&C 13)
“I [Joseph] baptized him first, and afterwards he baptized me, after which I laid my hands upon his head and ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood, and afterwards he laid his hands on me and ordained me to the same Priesthood – for so were commanded.” (Joseph Smith History 1:71)
Power and authority was confered on them first, they were baptized, then they were ordained into the Aaronic priesthood office which established and followed the proper order that would continue in the restored church.
The way I see it, John the Baptist did not ordain Joseph and Oliver, he simply confered the authority upon them so that they could baptize each other. And then they ordained each other into the Aaronic Priesthood. This assumes that the words confer and ordain are two different things. This is just my opinion.
Here's another explaination from President Joseph Fielding Smith:
"This messenger, after conferring the Priesthood, instructed Joseph and Oliver to go down into the water and baptize each other. After which they were to lay hands upon each other and re-confer the Priesthood which he had bestowed upon them. There are two reasons why they should be commanded to do this thing. First, to confer the Priesthood before baptism, is contrary to the order of the organized Church, therefore they were commanded to confer the Priesthood upon each other in the regular way; after they were baptized. Second, the angel did for them that which they could not do for themselves. There was no one living in mortality who held the keys of this Priesthood, therefore it was necessary that this messenger, who held the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood in the Dispensation of the Meridian of Time, should be sent to confer this power. It is contrary to the order of heaven for those who have passed beyond the veil to officiate and labor for the living on the earth, only wherein mortal man cannot act, and thereby it becomes necessary for those who have passed through the resurrection to act for them. Otherwise John would have followed the regular order, which is practiced in the Church, and would have first baptized Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and then conferred upon them the Aaronic Priesthood.
As the angel had commanded them, they repaired to the water where Joseph first baptized Oliver and then Oliver baptized Joseph. Immediately after coming out of the water they experienced great and glorious blessings, and being filled with the Holy Spirit, began to prophesy of the coming forth of the Church and the establishment of the great work of the Lord in the latter days. (Essentials in Church History)"
So president Smith is saying that the priesthood was confered/ordained on them twice; first to have the authority to baptize each other; second, to follow the proper order of doing things.
The main thing to remember is that they "were commanded" by the angel to do it this way.
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