Snow served as a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles from 1849 until his death in 1888. He was known as a skilled orator, debater, and student of the Bible. He served as a missionary for much of his adult life and opened the Scandinavian Mission in 1850. While presiding over missions in the eastern states (1860-51) and Midwest (1854-56), he also supervised emigration to Utah. Several tracts, pamphlets, and newspapers were published under his direction. He supervised the publication of the Book of Mormon in Danish, which was the first foreign language edition of that book.

A polygamist like most of the early apostles, Snow had at least four wives and thirty-six children. He spent time in Mexico to protest and evade federal laws regarding plural marriage. Erastus Snow died in Salt Lake City on 27 May 1888.

See: A. Karl Larson, Erastus Snow (1971); Moroni Snow, ed., "From Nauvoo to Salt Lake in the Van of the Pioneers: The Original Diary of Erastus Snow," Improvement Era (1912).

Sharon Snow Carver