There are multiple accounts of Joseph Smith’s “first vision”. This is a fact and today the church admits it. The church wants to dismiss these different accounts though by claiming that they really aren’t different because they tell the same consistent story. The details are in fact very different though. The earliest version of this vision is from Joseph Smith’s own journal and in his own handwriting. It is also the only version that mentions seeing a single personage, “the Lord”. This account was hidden in a private church vault by Joseph Fielding Smith for many years because it was so startlingly different and he himself called it “strange”. After this suppressed version was extracted by persistent faithful historians, it was first published by Ex-Mormon Christian historian Jerald Tanner in 1964, and finally, 6 years later the church published an article admitting to multiple first vision accounts. This article though started the tradition of apologetically stating that the accounts are different, yes, but they’re really not different, and you don’t need to read them because the church will summarize them all as being consistent with one another.
The Strange First Account of The First Vision
Today the Joseph Smith Papers Project shares this account in the original handwriting. The Joseph Smith Papers Project states “The first three leaves of the volume contain JS’s earliest extant attempt to write a history of his life.” It is also now included on the church curriculum Circa Summer 1832 History. At least they are no longer hiding the contents of this vision, but they do make sure to quote it sparingly. There was a time (discussed below) when the existence of this account was hidden from the public. It was even cut out of the journal or letter book where it is displayed today and sealed in a vault to keep it away from prying inquisitive eyes. Eventually, over thirty years later, it was taped back into this book (if you look closely you can even see the tape in the scans), the church admitted its existence and allowed a student access to it, then it was published and the church apologists have been dealing with the aftermath ever since. Here is the full strange account with a little cleanup for readability (though still minimal punctuation).
A History of the life of Joseph Smith Jr. an account of his marvilous experience and of all the mighty acts which he doeth in the name of Jesus Christ the son of the living God of whom he beareth record and also an account of the rise of the church of Christ in the eve of time according as the Lord brought forth and established by his hand firstly he receiving the testamony from on high seccondly the ministering of Angels thirdly the reception of the holy Priesthood by the ministring of Angels to adminster the letter of the Gospel—the Law and commandments as they were given unto him and the ordinencs, forthly a confirmation and reception of the high Priesthood after the holy order of the son of the living God power and ordinence from on high to preach the Gospel in the administration and demonstration of the spirit the Kees of the Kingdom of God confered upon him and the continuation of the blessings of God to him
I was born in the town of Sharon in the State of Vermont North America on the twenty third day of December AD 1805 of goodly Parents who spared no pains to instructing me in the christian religion. at the age of about ten years my Father Joseph Smith Seignior moved to Palmyra Ontario County in the State of New York and being in indigent circumstances were obliged to labour hard for the support of a large Family having nine chilldren and as it required their exertions of all that were able to render any assistance for the support of the Family therefore we were deprived of the bennifit of an education suffice it to say I was mearly instructtid in reading and writing and the ground rules of Arithmatic which constituted my whole literary acquirements.
At about the age of twelve years my mind become seriously imprest with regard to the all importent concerns of for the wellfare of my immortal Soul which led me to searching the scriptures believeing as I was taught, that they contained the word of God thus applying myself to them and my intimate acquaintance with those of differant denominations led me to marvel excedingly for I discovered that they did not adorn their profession by a holy walk and Godly conversation agreeable to what I found contained in that sacred depository this was a grief to my Soul thus from the age of twelve years to fifteen I pondered many things in my heart concerning the sittuation of the world of mankind the contentions and divisions the wickedness and abominations and the darkness which pervaded the minds of mankind my mind become excedingly distressed for I become convicted of my sins and by searching the scriptures I found that mankind did not come unto the Lord but that they had apostatised from the true and liveing faith and there was no society or denomination that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the new testament and I felt to mourn for my own sins and for the sins of the world for I learned in the scriptures that God was the same yesterday to day and forever that he was no respecter to persons for he was God for I looked upon the sun the glorious luminary of the earth and also the moon rolling in their magesty through the heavens and also the stars shining in their courses and the earth also upon which I stood and the beast of the field and the fowls of heaven and the fish of the waters and also man walking forth upon the face of the earth in magesty and in the strength of beauty whose power and intiligence in governing the things which are so exceding great and marvilous even in the likeness of him who created them and when I considered upon these things my heart exclaimed well hath the wise man said it is a fool that saith in his heart there is no God my heart exclaimed all these bear testimony and bespeak an omnipotant and omnipreasant power a being who makith Laws and decreeeth and bindeth all things in their bounds who filleth Eternity who was and is and will be from all Eternity to Eternity
and when I considered all these things and that being seeketh such to worshep him as worship him in spirit and in truth therefore I cried unto the Lord for mercy for there was none else to whom I could go and to obtain mercy and the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness and while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord in the 16th year of my age a piller of fire light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come 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 crucifyed for the world that all those who believe on my name may have Eternal life. behold the world lieth in sin and 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 acording to thir ungodliness and to bring to pass that which hath been spoken by the mouth of the prophets and Ap[o]stles 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 could find none that would believe the hevnly vision nevertheless I pondered these things in my heart.
But after many days I fell into transgressions and sinned in many things which brought a wound upon my soul and there were many things which transpired that cannot be writen and my Fathers family have suffered many persicutions and afflictions and it came to pass when I was seventeen years of age I called again upon the Lord and he shewed unto me a heavenly vision for behold an angel of the Lord came and stood before me and it was by night and he called me by name and he said the Lord had forgiven me my sins and he revealed unto me that in the Town of Manchester Ontario County N.Y. there was plates of gold upon which there was engravings which was engraven by Maroni & his fathers the servants of the living God in ancient days and deposited by the commandments of God and kept by the power thereof and that I should go and get them and he revealed unto me many things concerning the inhabitents of of the earth which since have been revealed in commandments & revelations
and it was on the 22d day of Sept. AD 1822 and thus he appeared unto me three times in one night and once on the next day and then I immediately went to the place and found where the plates was deposited as the angel of the Lord had commanded me and straightway made three attempts to get them and then being excedingly frightened I supposed it had been a dreem of Vision but when I considred I knew that it was not therefore I cried unto the Lord in the agony of my soul why can I not obtain them behold the angel appeared unto me again and said unto me you have not kept the commandments of the Lord which I gave unto you therefore you cannot now obtain them for the time is not yet fulfilled therefore thou wast left unto temptation that thou mightest be made accquainted with the power of the advisary therefore repent and call on the Lord thou shalt be forgiven and in his own due time thou shalt obtain them for now I had been tempted of the advisary and saught the Plates to obtain riches and kept not the commandment that I should have an eye single to the Glory of God therefore I was chastened and saught diligently to obtain the plates and obtained them not untill I was twenty one years of age
and in this year I was married to Emma Hale Daughtr of Isaac Hale who lived in Harmony Susquehanna County Pensylvania on the 18th January AD, 1827, on the 22d day of Sept of this same year I obtained the plates—and in December following we mooved to Susquehana by the assistence of a man by the name of Martin Harris who became convinced of the vision and gave me fifty Dollars to bare my expences and because of his faith and this rightheous deed the Lord appeared unto him in a vision and shewed unto him his marvilous work which he was about to do and he imediately came to Suquehannah and said the Lord had shown him that he must go to new York City with some of the characters so we proceeded to coppy some of them and he took his Journy to the Eastern Cittys and to the Learned saying read this I pray thee and the learned said I cannot but if he would bring the plates they would read it but the Lord had forbid it and he returned to me and gave them to me to translate and I said I cannot for I am not learned but the Lord had prepared spectacles for to read the Book therefore I commenced translating the characters and thus the prophecy of Isiaah was fulfilled which is writen in the 29 chaptr concerning the book.
and it came to pass that after we had translated 116 pages that he desired to carry them to read to his friends that peradventur he might convince them of the truth therefore I inquired of the Lord and the Lord said unto me that he must not take them and I spake unto him (Martin) the word of the Lord and he said inquire again and I inquired again and also the third time and the Lord said unto me let him go with them only he shall covenant with me that he will not shew them to only but four persons and he covenented withe Lord that he would do according to the word of the Lord therefore he took them and took his journey unto his friends to Palmyra Wayne County & State of N York and he brake the covenent which he made before the Lord and the Lord suffered the writings to fall into the hands of wicked men and Martin was Chastened for his transgression and I also was chastened for my transgression for asking the Lord the third time wherefore the Plates was taken from me by the power of God and I was not able to obtain them for a season
and it came to pass after much humility and affliction of Soul I obtained them again when Lord appeared unto a young man by the name of Oliver Cowdery and shewed unto him the plates in a vision and also the truth of the work and what the Lord was about to do through me his unworthy Servant therefore he was desiorous to come and write for me to translate now my wife had writen some for me to translate and also my Brothr Samuel H Smith but we had become reduced in property and my wives father was about to turn me out of doors I had not where to go and I cried unto the Lord that he would provide for me to accomplish the work whereunto he had commanded me [END]
Joseph Smith Jr Journal, JS Letterbook 1, [ca. 27 Nov. 1832–ca. 4 Aug. 1835]
First recorded account of the first vision
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letterbook-1/7
This is very different than the canonized much-celebrated version we have in official church history accounts. How was this version exposed? Was it really suppressed by church leaders? Is it really damning to the credibility of the whole first vision?
Major Startling Differences
The biggest differences that jump out immediately are two facts that contradict the official narrative which has been canonized.
All Churches Wrong
Joseph has already made up his mind that all churches had apostatized from the true faith, while the official version clearly states a direct turnaround by stating “it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong.”
In this earlier account, God tells Joseph the world “they draw near to me with their lips while their hearts are far from me” after he’d already studied the scriptures and come to the conclusion that there was no true church on the earth.
Later on (in the canonized version), he attributes this knowledge to the vision and claims that it had never occurred to him that they would all be wrong, since his intention was to ask which one was true.
One Single Personage Mentioned
In this original version of the first vision, the largest difference is what Joseph says about this vision, or rather what he doesn’t say. He mentions “I saw the Lord and he spake unto me”. One of the principle claims of the official first vision is that Joseph saw God the Father, and His Son in the vision. But this first version does not even mention this grand claim. He only mentions seeing “The Lord” and this Lord identifies as Jesus who “was crucified for the world”.
Anyone who has ever heard anyone talk about the first vision in the past 150 years would know the church doctrine is that in Joseph’s vision “appeared two heav’nly beings, God the Father and the Son.” This isn’t the result of creating artistic license in church art and songs, but the doctrine of the church. Joseph states, “when the light rested upon me, I saw two Personages”. This is different than what we find in the 1832 account and is likely what made it so strange. Joseph doesn’t mention God the Father at all in his earliest account. Apologists will suggest that not mentioning the two personages, doesn’t mean there weren’t two there, it was a simple oversight of Joseph’s when writing this account. But leaving out such a huge detail doesn’t bode well for these various accounts of the vision telling a consistent story. Who would “forget” to mention that two heavenly beings visited and spoke to you versus having one heavenly being visit and speak to you?
Exposing the Suppressed Version
On top of these differences, what else do we know about this account of the first vision? How was it found, or better question, why wasn’t it publicized earlier? It was in fact found by church leaders much earlier, but because it was deemed “strange,” it was hidden and kept secret. No doubt, it was hidden because it challenged the dominant narrative and doesn’t tell a consistent story.
Joseph Fielding Smith was in possession of the 1832 First Vision account sometime in the 1930s or 1940s and kept it suppressed by tearing it out of the letterbook it was written in. The only reason it was released in the 1960s was because word had leaked out that it existed, and early LDS critics such as former Mormons Sandra and Jerald Tanner began asking for a copy of the account. The church quietly gave the account to a BYU student to write a paper about, and then taped the pages back in the letterbook. You can actually see the tape marks on the Joseph Smith Papers project. There is a huge reason this account was suppressed for decades, which as noted above is due to Joseph Smith’s changing theology at the time.
https://www.ldsdiscussions.com/firstvision
This story involves LaMar Petersen (faithful amateur historian), Levi E Young (of the Seventy), Jerald & Sandra Tanner (Ex-Mormon Historians), Paul R. Cheeseman (LDS Graduate Student at BYU), and Joseph Fielding Smith (President of the Church from 1970-1972 and Church Historian from 1921-1970).
1943
First off we can state that Joseph Fielding Smith knew of this version of the first vision and had it safely concealed in the vault of the church. He personally refused Fawn M. Brodie access to it in 1943, while she was doing research for her No Man Knows My History book. Joseph Fielding Smith remarked at the time that “There are things in this library we don’t let anyone see.”
That Joseph Fielding Smith knew of this account is established by the fact that he personally refused Fawn M. Brodie access to it in 1943, remarking at the time that “There are things in this library we don’t let anyone see.”
Ronald Huggins, Jerald Tanner’s Quest for Truth – Part 1
http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no108.htm#Letterto
1953
Ten years later, LaMar Petersen a faithful yet amateur LDS historian, met with Levi Young (at the time the Senior President of the First Council of the Seventy) on February 3, 1953. LaMar took notes detailing a conversation about a “strange” account of the first vision that was contained in a vault.
LaMar Petersen, although he had never seen it himself, was told by Apostle Levi Edgar Young in 1953 of “a ‘strange account’ (Young’s own term) of the First Vision, which he [Young] thought was written in Joseph’s own hand and which had been concealed for 120 years in a locked vault.” Young declined to give details, “but stated that it did not agree entirely with the official version. Jesus was the center of the vision, but God was not mentioned.” Petersen goes on, however, to say that he “respected Young’s wish that the information be withheld until after his death.” So even though LaMar might have helped with the question, he was not telling what he knew at that point.
Ronald Huggins, Jerald Tanner’s Quest for Truth – Part 1
http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no108.htm#Letterto
Although the editors of the Histories volume of the Joseph Smith Papers do not discuss why the 1832 history was excised, we can speculate about who might have removed the leaves, and why. Because we know that the missing pages were kept in the office safe of Joseph Fielding Smith, it is unlikely that the leaves were removed simply in accordance with the archival practice of separating collections based on content. We can also surmise that one of the senior members of the Church Historian’s Office would have been responsible for the decision to keep the pages separate; it was probably Joseph Fielding Smith himself, but could possibly have been Earl E. Olson or A. William Lund. There are no available records of the reasoning behind the decision to keep the 1832 account from becoming widely known, but the history of denying researchers access to the account suggests some uneasiness about its contents. Some time during the 1940s or early 1950s, Joseph Fielding Smith showed Levi Edgar Young (who was then the senior president of the First Council of the Seventy) this 1832 account of the First Vision. LaMar Petersen, an organist and music teacher by profession but an amateur Mormon historian by avocation, had a meeting with Young on February 3, 1953, and took the following notes:
“A list of 5 questions was presented. Bro. Young indicated some surprise at the nature of the questions but said he heartily approved of them being asked. Sa[i]d they were important, fundamental, were being asked more by members of the Church, and should be asked. Said the Church should have a committee available where answers to such questions could be obtained. He has quit going down with his own questions to Brother Joseph Fielding (Smith) because he was laughed at and put off. His curiosity was excited when reading in Roberts’ Doc. History reference to “documents from which these writings were compiled.” Asked to see them. told to get higher permission. Obtained that permission. Examined documents. Written, he thought, about 1837 or 1838. Was told not to copy or tell what they contained. Said it was a “strange” account of the First Vision. Was put back in vault. remains unused, unknown.
Joseph Smith’s Strange Account of the First Vision; Also a Critical Study of the First Vision
Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner
In 1953, LaMar Petersen was given access to the 1832 account (which is quoted above) and later he recounts:
The most noteworthy [meetings with LDS General Authorities] were six sessions in which my wife and I spent with Levi Edgar Young in 1952. He was forthright in discussing Mormon problems in history and theology, but always in loyal church terms. He told us that he had been defended before the First Presidency by his “buffers”—Apostles [Joseph F.] Merrill, [Charles A.] Callis, and [John A.] Widtsoe. He told us of a “strange account” (Young’s own term) of the First Vision, which he thought was written in Joseph’s own hand and which had been concealed for 120 years in a locked vault. He declined to tell us details, but stated that it did not agree entirely with the official version. Jesus was the center of the vision, but God was not mentioned. I respected Young’s wish that the information be withheld until after his death.
The Creation of the Book of Mormon: A Historical Inquiry By LaMar Petersen (Salt Lake City: Freethinker Press, 2000)
1963
LaMar Petersen kept his promise to not speak of it until after Young’s death. After Levi Young’s death, however, in December 1963, Petersen mentioned the account to Jerald and Sandra Tanner.
After Young died in December 1963 LaMar told Jerald and Sandra what he knew. They in turn sent a request for a copy of it along with some money to Joseph Fielding Smith, who never responded. Eventually the Tanners would publish the account for the first time in 1965 under the title Joseph Smith’s Strange Account of the First Vision.
Ronald Huggins, Jerald Tanner’s Quest for Truth – Part 1
http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no108.htm#Letterto
The Tanners then write a letter to Joseph Fielding Smith asking to see the “strange account”.
Joseph Fielding Smith refuses to let the Tanners see it. But about that time, the removed pages are returned to the journal.
This six-page history was at some point excised from the letterbook. Fortuitously, one can actually date the time period when these leaves were removed, because the tearing of the last of the three leaves was done with such little care that a small triangular fragment (containing four words of the text) was initially left in the gutter of the letterbook and then removed and taped back onto the last leaf. The clear cellophane tape that was used for this repair was not invented until 1930, which supplies a terminus a quo. Furthermore, “the cut and tear marks, as well as the inscriptions in the gutters of the three excised leaves, match those of the remaining leaf stubs, confirming their original location” in the Joseph Smith letterbook. By 1965 these three leaves of the 1832 account were again “archived together with the letterbook.” Thus, the period when these three leaves were separated was approximately 1930 to 1965—or allowing a five-year period for the cellophane tape to come into common usage in America, the three decades from 1935 to 1965.
Dialogue, Volume 47, No. 2. Another Look at Joseph Smith’s First Vision by Stan Larson
As public pressure escalated, Joseph Fielding Smith taped the pages back into the journal before reluctantly making the archive available to BYU student Paul Cheesman, who included it in his 1965 master’s thesis.
https://www.mormonstories.org/truth-claims/joseph-smith/first-vision/
JS evidently wrote his history on the first three leaves of the book in summer 1832. (Footnote: These three leaves were later cut from the volume but have since been reattached.)
Joseph Smith Papers Project Notes
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letterbook-1/9#source-note
An LDS graduate student, Paul R. Cheeseman, is granted access to the journal. He includes a transcript of the account in his dissertation paper titled An Analysis of the Accounts Relating Joseph Smith’s Early Visions. This paper even references Jerald Tanner as “one critic” who “complained that Brigham Young never mentioned the First Vision in his discourses.” but it does not mention how the new first vision account was discovered or obtained.
Joseph Smith, prophet and founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stated that when he was fourteen years old he had received a visitation from two members of the Godhead: the Father and the Son. He was alone when he went into the woods to pray, and was therefore the only witness to the manifestation of these personages. He also declared that when he was seventeen years old he was visited by an angel named Moroni. Again he was without witnesses. For a first-hand account of these two experiences we must rely on a single source, Joseph Smith. All other sources of the story of his visions of Moroni and the Father and Son are secondary since they have been retold after the authors had hear Joseph’s story.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rely upon the story of Joseph Smith as a foundation of their faith. Details left by Joseph himself, however, are only sketchy in nature, making a historical analysis of the events highly difficult. Further problems arise when accounts by other writers who knew Joseph Smith not only fill in a few missing details, but also sometimes present some conflicting details. A survey of these sources and problems, together with an analysis of Joseph Smith’s several efforts to re-tell the story, would be helpful to “Mormons” and “non-Mormons” alike in determining what consistent “threads” might run through all the stories, as well as pin-pointing what historical problems may still remain in correlating various accounts. This thesis is not an effort to prove beyond all doubt that Joseph Smith was telling the truth, for this cannot be done by empirical methods. It is simply an effort to analyze as objectively as possible the various sources and to suggest possible reasons for some of the problems and conflicts. It also shows that Joseph Smith was consistent in his recitation of the major aspects of his story over the years.
Paul R. Cheeseman, “An Analysis of the Accounts Relating Joseph Smith’s Early Visions” (1965). Theses and Dissertation..
The transcript is found and then published by the Tanners in 1964 and Cheeseman in 1965.
1970
The church publishes a single article in the New Era magazine by a BYU scholar admitting to the multiple first vision accounts. The article does not include the full source of the multiple accounts but apologetically dismisses the differences and reconstructs a cohesive and familiar narrative pulling bits from each account that support the dominant narrative. The article also omits the hidden nature of the 1832 account and simply states that this “new discovery” was a “gentle surprise to Mormon scholars”.
In 1965 a graduate student at Brigham Young University presented a gentle surprise to Mormon scholars when he included in his master’s thesis a heretofore unknown description of Joseph Smith’s First Vision. What made the new discovery significant was the fact that most writers had supposed that the Manuscript History of Joseph Smith, formally begun in 1838, was the place where the Prophet first committed his remarkable experience to writing. Paul Cheesman’s find demonstrated that the story of the First Vision had been dictated as early as 1831-32…
Not long after the 1831-32 narrative was discovered, a second version that also predated the Manuscript History was brought to light.
Eight Contemporary Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision, By Dr James B Allen
The Improvement Era, 1970 April (No. 4)
Misleading Mormon Thoughts On The First Vision Since 1970
This admission by the church in 1970, states that the “1832 narrative was discovered” and that another version was “brought to light”. But it doesn’t explain that church leaders had actively sought to conceal the strange account, that the Tanners had been involved in it being “discovered”. It doesn’t include the content of this “discovered” account, though it does mention some issues as it simultaneously sweeps them under the rug with contradicting apologetics.
The Aftermath
As for LaMar Petersen, he became interested in “researching discrepancies in the doctrine of the LDS Church, and in the life of Joseph Smith.” In 1957 he published a pamphlet called Problems in Mormon Text. The pamphlet claims to be a brief study of certain changes in important Latter-day Saint publications including the Book of Mormon, Book of Commandments, Doctrine and Covenants, and History of the Church; with references to controversial aspects of the Restoration of the Priesthood and Mormon concepts of Deity. Publishing this pamphlet contributes to his ex-communication later in 1969.
As for the Tanners, they continued to dedicate their lives to investigating and publishing materials critical of the church. Jerald Tanner (1938-2006) and Sandra Tanner (born 1941) operated a publishing company called Utah Lighthouse Ministry, which they founded in 1964. Their ministry extensively researched and wrote about various aspects of church history, doctrine, and practices. They examined original church documents, early Mormon publications, and other historical sources to provide critical analysis and documentation. Their publications covered topics such as the origins of the Book of Mormon, the history of polygamy in the church, changes in LDS Church doctrine, and contradictions between church teachings and historical evidence. Jerald Tanner passed away in 2006, and in 2023 Sandra Tanner retired, closing the Utah Lighthouse Ministry. Their work has had a significant impact on discussions about the history and teachings of the LDS Church, and they are considered influential figures in the field of Mormon studies and have been extremely influential voices within the ex-Mormon community.
The multiple first vision accounts are still available today and the church continues to dismiss the differences. The church also ignores the previous story about hiding the strange first vision account of 1832. In the gospel topic essay, it states the unpublished accounts were “generally forgotten” until historians working for the church rediscovered and published them! They are claiming credit for rediscovering something they first hid for decades and were forced to reveal.
The two unpublished accounts [of the First Vision], recorded in Joseph Smith’s earliest autobiography and a later journal, were generally forgotten until historians working for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rediscovered and published them in the 1960s. Since that time, these documents have been discussed repeatedly in Church magazines, in works printed by Church-owned and Church-affiliated presses, and by Latter-day Saint scholars in other venues.
First Vision Accounts, Gospel Topic Essay
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/first-vision-accounts
Why do you think the 1832 account was hidden for at least three decades? Do you think it differs significantly from the dominant narrative that is the canonized First Vision account? Is it strange to read this account? Tell your story and let the world know or feel free to simply comment below.
More reading:
- https://faenrandir.github.io/a_careful_examination/1832-first-vision-account-suppressed/
- https://prophetsseersandrevelators.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/the-1832-account-of-the-first-vision-joseph-smiths-born-again-account/comment-page-1/
- https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Question:_Did_Joseph_Fielding_Smith_remove_the_1832_account_of_Joseph_Smith%27s_First_Vision_from_its_original_letterbook_and_hide_it_in_his_safe%3F
- https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4590/ – https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5589&context=etd
- https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/the-early-accounts-of-joseph-smiths-first-vision/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Vision
- http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/firstvision.htm
- https://www.google.com/books/edition/Problems_in_Mormon_Text/NxvXJABiF28C?hl=en
- http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no108.htm
- Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? – Book that first published the 1832 first vision account. Digital version available at: http://www.utlm.org/booklist/titles/mormonismshadoworreality_ub001.htm