Multiple accounts of the First Vision


Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

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|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}

I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision anymore than I am worried that there are four different writers of the gospels in the New Testament, each with his own perceptions, each telling the events to meet his own purpose for writing at the time. I am more concerned with the fact that God has revealed in this dispensation a great and marvelous and beautiful plan that motivates men and women to love their Creator and their Redeemer, to appreciate and serve one another, to walk in faith on the road that leads to immortality and eternal life.

—Gordon B. Hinckley, “God Hath Not Given Us the Spirit of Fear,” Ensign, Oct 1984, 2 off-site

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Critics of Mormonism have delighted in the discrepancies between the canonical [1838 PGP] account and earlier renditions, especially one written in Smith's own hand in 1832. For example, in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing. Any good lawyer (or historian) would expect to find contradictions or competing narratives written down years apart and decades after the event. And despite the contradictions, key elements abide. In each case, Jesus appears to Smith in a vision. In each case, Smith is blessed with a revelation. In each case, God tells him to remain aloof from all Christian denominations, as something better is in store.

—Stephen Prothero, American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), 171.

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Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

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|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}


Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

Jump to Subtopic:

|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}


Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

Jump to Subtopic:

|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}


Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

Jump to Subtopic:

|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}


Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

Jump to Subtopic:

|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}


Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

Jump to Subtopic:

|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}


Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

Jump to Subtopic:

|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}


Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

Jump to Subtopic:

|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}


Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

Jump to Subtopic:

|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}


Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

Jump to Subtopic:

|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}

See FAIR Evidence:
More evidence related to the First Vision accounts


Specific criticisms of the 1832 account of the First Vision

Summary: Articles that address specific criticisms of the 1832 account of Joseph Smith's First Vision

Specific criticisms of the 1835 accounts of the First Vision

Summary: Articles that address specific criticisms of the 1835 accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision

Steven C. Harper, "Four Accounts and Three Critiques of Joseph Smith’s First Vision"

Steven C. Harper,  Proceedings of the 2011 FAIR Conference, (August 2011)

There are essentially three arguments against the first vision. The minister to whom Joseph reported the event announced that there were no such things these days. More than a century later Fawn Brodie wrote with literary grace to mask historical deficiencies that Joseph concocted the vision years after he said it happened. Then a generation later Wesley Walters charged Joseph with inventing revivalism when a lack of historical evidence proved that there was none, and therefore no subsequent vision as a result. So by now it has become a foregone conclusion for some there are no such things as visions, and Joseph failed to mention his experience for years and then gave conflicting accounts that didn’t match historical facts.

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Joseph Smith's different accounts of the First Vision

Jump to Subtopic:

|sublink3=Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story |sublink4=Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts |sublink5=Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts |sublink6=Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death |sublink7=Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration |sublink8=Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision |sublink9=Prothero:American Jesus:2003:in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing |sublink10=Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages? }}


Notes (click to expand)
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