first vision (multiple accounts)
Recently the LDS church published one of their essays on the 4 main different versions of the First Vision that Joseph Smith received. I want to touch briefly on all 4. I learned that there are actually more than 4 main accounts, but they are secondhand accounts. You can read the other alternate accounts HERE on the Joseph Smith Papers website.
LDS.org states that all 4 of these accounts go hand in hand and complement each other, or add to one another. Yet, to me, any of them could be true, or false. I’m not sure which one to believe, if any. Why would each account differ, depending on who Joseph was telling? I understand that over time, people tend to forget memories and experiences, and things change, but if Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ together in a vision, wouldn’t he have written it down? Or at least if it made such a huge impression on him, wouldn’t he remember it?
For more detailed analysis of the multiple first visions see...
- 1832 Account: The earliest known account, the only one written in Joseph Smith’s own hand. Joseph Smith described his consciousness of his own sins and his frustration at being unable to find a church that matched the one he had read about in the New Testament and that would lead him to redemption. He emphasized Jesus Christ’s Atonement and the personal redemption it offered. He wrote that “the Lord” appeared and forgave him of his sins. As a result of the vision, Joseph experienced joy and love, though, as he noted, he could find no one who believed his account. Read the actual account HERE.
- Smith started serious study of the scriptures at age 12
- Felt convicted of sins
- Determined all churches were wrong
- No mention of a revival
- Omits money-digging context
- Age 15 (in his 16th year)
- Location not clear
- Vision of the Savior – Jesus Christ (has a “Christian experience”)
- Told his sins were forgiven. Fell back into transgression.
- At age 17 he again prayed and an angel appeared telling him about the plates and announced again he was forgiven of his sins
- About this time Smith dictated Sec. 84 of the D.&C. stating that no man can see the face of God without the priesthood and live
- 1835 Account: In the fall of 1835, Joseph Smith recounted his First Vision to Robert Matthews, a visitor to Kirtland, Ohio. The retelling, recorded in Joseph’s journal by his scribe Warren Parrish, emphasizes his attempt to discover which church was right, the opposition he felt as he prayed, and the appearance of one divine personage who was followed shortly by another. This account also notes the appearance of angels in the vision. Read the actual account HERE.
- “Wrought up” in his mind about religion
- Age 14 (1820)
- In a grove
- Had a vision of one personage and then another
- One personage testifies about Jesus, but neither is identified as Jesus
- Saw many angels in this first visitation
- Was told sins were forgiven
- Later (age 17) has another vision of angels
- No mention of revival
- 1835 Account: (as told to a different person)
- Age 14 (1820)
- Had a vision of angels
- Later had revelations about the Book of Mormon
- This account parallels the one given to Joshua
- 1838 Account: The narration of the First Vision best known to Latter-day Saints today is the 1838 account. First published in 1842 in the Times and Seasons, the Church’s newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois, the account was part of a longer history dictated by Joseph Smith between periods of intense opposition. Whereas the 1832 account emphasizes the more personal story of Joseph Smith as a young man seeking forgiveness, the 1838 account focuses on the vision as the beginning of the “rise and progress of the Church.” Like the 1835 account, the central question of the narrative is which church is right. Read the actual account HERE.
- A local revival caused him to wonder which church was right, it had never occurred to him all were wrong
- Age 14 (1820)
- He was in a grove
- Had a vision of two personages
- One identifies the other as his son (by implication God the Father and Jesus, but not explicitly stated)
- Was told all churches are wrong and is to join none of them
- Claimed to come under great persecution
- Fell into all kinds of temptations
- Three years later has vision of an angel
- THIS is the account that the LDS church accepted as the OFFICIAL vision.
- 1842 Account: Written in response to Chicago Democrat editor John Wentworth’s request for information about the Latter-day Saints, this account was printed in the Times and Seasons in 1842. (The “Wentworth letter,” as it is commonly known, is also the source for the Articles of Faith.) The account, intended for publication to an audience unfamiliar with Mormon beliefs, is concise and straightforward. As with earlier accounts, Joseph Smith noted the confusion he experienced and the appearance of two personages in answer to his prayer. The following year, Joseph Smith sent this account with minor modifications to a historian named Israel Daniel Rupp, who published it as a chapter in his book, He Pasa Ekklesia [The Whole Church]: An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States. Read the actual account HERE.
- Began reflecting on the importance of being prepared for the future state, but upon inquiring found a great conflict of religious opinion
- No mention of a revival
- Age 14 (1820)
- He was in a grove
- Had a vision of two personages - unidentified
- Was told all churches are wrong and is to join none of them
- Was told a future revelation would teach him of the fullness of the gospel
- Three years later has vision of a single personage (same description as previous personages) which is identified as an angel
LDS.org states that all 4 of these accounts go hand in hand and complement each other, or add to one another. Yet, to me, any of them could be true, or false. I’m not sure which one to believe, if any. Why would each account differ, depending on who Joseph was telling? I understand that over time, people tend to forget memories and experiences, and things change, but if Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ together in a vision, wouldn’t he have written it down? Or at least if it made such a huge impression on him, wouldn’t he remember it?
For more detailed analysis of the multiple first visions see...
REFERENCES:
- https://www.lds.org/topics/first-vision-accounts?lang=eng
- http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/site/accounts-of-the-first-vision
- http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/history-circa-summer-1832?p=1
- http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/journal-1835-1836?p=24
- http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2?p=2
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Vision
- http://cesletter.com/debunking-fairmormon/first-vision.html
- http://www.mormonthink.com/firstvisionweb.htm
- http://mit.irr.org/joseph-smiths-changing-first-vision-accounts
- http://en.fairmormon.org/Joseph_Smith%27s_First_Vision