Question: Did Joseph Smith revise his account of the First Vision in 1838 to respond to a leadership crisis?
Joseph Smith was telling the same First Vision story in 1835, three years before the leadership crisis
It is claimed that in 1838 Joseph Smith revised his personal history to say that his original call came from God the Father and Jesus Christ rather than an angel. It is also claimed that his motive for doing this was to give himself a stronger leadership role because an authority crisis had recently taken place and large-scale apostasy was the result.
The idea that Joseph Smith modified the First Vision story in 1838 in order to quell a leadership crisis is a convenient mythology crafted by critics who seem to be woefully unfamiliar with the records of the past and were unaware that Joseph told the same story in 1835.
Warren Parrish was the "ringleader" of the Kirtland leadership crisis in 1839, and yet he was also the scribe for the 1835 First Vision account
This argument is a reference to the Kirtland crisis of 1837–38. Warren Parrish was considered by some of the Saints to be the ringleader of the Kirtland crisis. It is, therefore, all the more interesting that it was this same Warren Parrish who acted as scribe in recording a First Vision recital given by the Prophet Joseph Smith on 9 November 1835. When Parrish's 1835 account of the theophany is compared to the 1838 account it becomes glaringly obvious that the story did NOT change over time, as the critics would like everyone to believe.
There is no shift in historical content between the 1835 and 1838 First Vision accounts, since both are followed immediately thereafter by the Book of Mormon angel story
It should also be noted that both the 1835 and 1838 First Vision accounts are followed immediately thereafter by the Book of Mormon angel story. Thus, it is impossible for critics to claim a shift in historical content by the Prophet. Before the Kirtland crisis took place Joseph Smith spoke in the 1835 retelling of events about an 1820 vision of two personages followed by an 1823 visitation by an angel. After the Kirtland crisis took place Joseph Smith said the exact same thing in the 1838 retelling of events.
- 9 November 1835 – “was about 14 years old”
- 2 May 1838 – “a little over fourteen years of age”
- 9 November 1835 – “looking at the different systems [of religion] taught [to] the children of men”
- 2 May 1838 – “Some crying, ‘Lo here’ and some ‘Lo there’”
- 9 November 1835 – “being wrought up in my mind, respecting the subject of religion”; “being thus perplexed in mind”
- 2 May 1838 – “my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness”
- 9 November 1835 – “I knew not who was right or who was wrong”
- 2 May 1838 – “it was impossible for a person young as I was and so unacquainted with men and things to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong”
- 9 November 1835 – “the Lord . . . had said . . . if any man lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not”
- 2 May 1838 – “I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse which reads, ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him’”
- 9 November 1835 – “I retired to the silent grove”
- 2 May 1838 – “I retired to the woods”
- 9 November 1835 – “[I] bowed down before the Lord”; “I called upon the Lord for the first time”
- 2 May 1838 – “I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God . . . It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt”
- 9 November 1835 – “I made a fruitless attempt to pray, my tongue seemed to be swollen in my mouth, so that I could not utter . . . looked around, but saw no person”
- 2 May 1838 – “I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me and had such astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue . . . the power of some actual being from the unseen world”
- 9 November 1835 – “a pillar of fire appeared above my head, it presently rested down upon my head”
- 2 May 1838 – “I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me”
- 9 November 1835 – “a personage appeared . . . another personage soon appeared”
- 2 May 1838 – “I saw two personages”
- 9 November 1835 – “he testified unto me that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”
- 2 May 1838 – “This is my beloved Son”
Notes