Changes in Joseph Smiths First Vision Account

#Changes in Joseph Smith’s Accounts of his First Vision Experience

Some who are critical of the Church have noted that as Joseph Smith recounted the story of his first vision, it changed with each retelling. They wonder, “How do you explain that?”

The purpose of this chapter is to track the evolution of our present-day account of Joseph’s First Vision. I will utilize sequential accounts taken from Dean C. Jessee’s article, “The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision (1831-39).” I will not provide complete reproductions of these. Rather, I will extract pertinent features that allow us to view clearly the way in which they have evolved. For clarity, I will also correct spelling errors and add appropriate punctuation. We will learn that Joseph’s re-tellings of his experience did indeed evolve over the years of his life.

#Kirtland Letter Book Account (1831-32)

The earliest known account of Joseph’s First Vision is recorded in the Kirtland Letter Book in the handwriting of Frederick G. Williams. It is dated 1831-32. Keep in mind that this earliest account is reported more than ten years after the event:

At about the age of twelve years my mind became seriously impressed with regard to the all-important concerns for the welfare of my immortal soul which led me to searching the scriptures, believing, as I was taught, that they contained the word of God. . . . From the age of twelve years to fifteen I pondered many things in my heart concerning the situation of the world of mankind, the contentions and divisions, the wickedness and abominations, and the darkness which pervaded the minds of mankind. My mind became exceedingly distressed, for I became convicted of my sins. By searching the scriptures I found that mankind [had] not come unto the Lord, but that they had apostatized from the true and living faith, and there was no society or denomination that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament.

Joseph makes no mention of the specific scriptural verse James 1:5. His account of the vision experience itself is as follows:

I cried unto the Lord for mercy, for there was none else to whom I could go and obtain mercy, and the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness. And while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord, in the sixteenth year of my age, a pillar of light above the brightness of the sun at noon-day came down from above and rested upon me. And I was filled with the Spirit of God, and the Lord opened the heavens upon me. And I saw the Lord and he spake unto me saying, Joseph, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee. Go thy way, walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments. Behold I am the Lord of glory. I was crucified for the world that all those who believe on my name may have eternal life. Behold the world lieth in sin at this time, and none doeth good. No, not one. They have turned aside from the gospel and keep not my commandments. They draw near to me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me and mine anger is kindling against the inhabitants of the earth to visit them according to this ungodliness and to bring to pass that which hath been spoken by the mouth of the prophets and apostles. Behold and lo, I come quickly, as it is written of me in the cloud clothed in the glory of my Father. And my soul was filled with love, and for many days I could rejoice with great joy, and the Lord was with me, but [I] could find none that would believe the heavenly vision.

Joseph reports seeing only one personage, “the Lord.” There is no mention of his struggle with satanic forces. He does not record his specific question to the Lord as to which church he should join. Nor does he tell of the Lord’s instructions to join none of them. He makes no mention of the Savior’s specific intentions to restore the completeness of the gospel to the earth. It is also of interest that he misremembered his age. At the time of the First Vision he was fourteen years old, and therefore in his fifteenth year.

#1834-35 Account

In October 1834 Oliver Cowdery, the editor of the Messenger and Advocate, introduced the first published history of the Church. It was written in the form of letters written between Oliver Cowdery and William W. Phelps and contained some of the highlights of the history of the Church to that time. Cowdery and Phelps maintained they had “authentic documents” in their possession which they used as resources, apparently including some of the prophet’s personal journals.

Under the date of November 9, 1835, an interview with a Jewish minister is recorded in which Joseph Smith relates again the account of his First Vision:

Being wrought up in my mind respecting the subject of religion . . . I retired to the silent grove and there bowed down before the Lord, under a realizing sense (if the Bible be true) ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened, seek and you shall find, and again, if any man lack wisdom, let [him ask] of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. Information was what I most desired at this time, and with a fixed determination to obtain it, I called on the Lord for the first time in the place above stated, or in other words, I made a fruitless attempt to pray. My tongue seemed to be swollen in my mouth, so that I could not utter. I heard a noise behind me like someone walking towards me. I strove again to pray, but could not; the noise of walking seemed to draw nearer.

I sprang upon my feet and looked round, but saw no person or thing that was calculated to produce the noise of walking. I kneeled again. My mouth was opened, and my tongue loosed. I called on the Lord in mighty prayer. A pillar of fire appeared above my head; which presently rested down upon me and filled me with unspeakable joy. A personage appeared in the midst of this pillar of flame, which was spread all around and yet nothing [was] consumed. Another personage soon appeared like unto the first. He said unto me, thy sins are forgiven thee. He testified also unto me that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I saw many angels in this vision. I was about fourteen years old when I received this first communication.

This time Joseph reports the presence of two personages though neither is identified. He also records the presence of “many angels.” He refers to James 1:5, and he reports his struggle with satanic forces. Flame and fire in this verse have replaced light. Again there is no specific conversation about which church he should join. Nor is there any account of the Lord’s intentions to restore the gospel in its fulness.

#1838-39 Account

On April 27, 1838, Joseph records in his journal that he spent the day “writing a history of this church from the earliest period of its existence up to this date” (HC, 3:25). Just over one year later James Mulholland began writing the manuscript of Joseph Smith’s History of the Church. He apparently utilized Joseph’s journal of the year prior to create yet another account of the First Vision, this time the official account. We will pick up the account in midstream:

While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, 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.” Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did, for how to act I did not know. . . . So in accordance with this my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful clear day early in the spring of 1820. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

The next excerpt begins as Joseph had just reported being by harassed by the forces of darkness:

Just at this moment of great alarm I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me calling me by name and said, pointing to the other, “This is my beloved Son, hear him.” My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner therefore did I get possession of myself so as to be able to speak, than I asked the personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right, for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong, and which I should join. I was answered that I must join none of them for they were all wrong, and the personage who addressed me said that all the creeds were an abomination in his sight, that those professors were all corrupt, that they draw near to me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. They teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness but they deny the power thereof. He again forbade me to join with any of them, and many other things did he say unto me which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back looking up into heaven.

#Evolution of Joseph’s Accounts

The fact of the evolution of the account of Joseph’s First Vision until it has finally reached its present state has been disquieting to some in the Church who are bothered by the fact that all of his accounts are not virtually identical. There are simple and plausible explanations for this evolution.

It seems likely the experiences of the First Vision were overwhelming to an academically unsophisticated fourteen-year-old boy. His early attempts to relate the experiences to those outside his own family were aggressively rebuffed and derided, and they resulted in his being persecuted. He had received no formal directive to remember or write his experience. He thus failed to preserve a written account between 1820 and 1830.

He made no serious attempt to recall or record his vision until after he was directed by an 1830 revelation to keep a history (see D&C 21:1). Subsequently, he eventually undertook in earnest the project of chronicling the events of his life, including his First Vision experience. His recollections and understandings of the particulars and significance of what he had witnessed, and what was said during the experience, likely deepened and clarified themselves as he repeatedly wrote his recollections between 1831 and 1839. Obviously, his incrementally growing insights were enabled by the Spirit of God and revelation.

There are no contradictions in the early accounts of the experience, though they were incomplete. The differences in Joseph’s accounts are actually a testimony of Joseph’s truthfulness. His accounts were simply his honest efforts at the time to provide an account of his experience. It is clear he did not memorize a story and pass it along in exact detail.

An interesting parallel to help us understand how difficult it is to accurately report an observed experience is the Bible itself. There we find several inconsistencies in the accounts of well-intentioned observers. For example, the gospel writers were each eyewitnesses of Jesus’s expressions and miracles, yet each recorded those events differently. The accounts about the experience in Gethsemane and the resurrection are recorded by these apostles, but each account disagrees on such details as the number of angels present and whether they were standing or sitting, and on the number of women present at the tomb. Consider also the account of Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. Peter writes in Acts 9:7: “And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.” Acts 22:9, on the other hand says, “They that were with me saw indeed the light . . . but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.” In another example of inconsistency in the Bible, the description in Matthew 27:5 of Judas Iscariot’s death is different from that in Acts 1:18. The Matthew account reports, “And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.” The account in Acts was different: “Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.” All four gospel writers report a different superscription written on the sign placed over the Savior’s head on the cross. These vary from “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Matthew 27:37), to “THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Mark 15:26), to “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Luke 23:38), and to “JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS” (John 19:19). We read in Matthew 27:9-10 where Matthew quotes Jeremiah’s prophecy of the thirty pieces of silver, and yet the Old Testament makes it clear that it was not Jeremiah but Zechariah who made that prophecy (Zechariah 11).

Latter-day Saints, in general, and your author in particular, regard Joseph’s experience in the sacred grove as literally true in every respect. It is the sacred foundation of my religious convictions.