The First Vision Series - Introduction

The Vision - JSB at BYU

During the month of December, I will be studying the First Vision and all the various accounts.  The Church has recently published a new essay on various accounts of the First Vision.  The Joseph Smith Papers project has allowed every member to directly access each of these accounts and now, we can see first-hand, the full picture of that first vision.

The first time I had heard that there was more than one account of the First Vision was when Elder Eyring made reference to the fact when the sculpture The Vision was unveiled on October 17, 1997.  At the time, his reference to "studying the various accounts of the First Vision" piqued my interest, but I never had a chance to investigate further.  So this month, I decided to do a bit more studying and comparing the various versions.

My study won't be rigorous; rather it will include simply reading the accounts, comparing them to the Joseph Smith-History version in our scriptures and then I'll add my personal impressions.

Each account will have it's own post and I'll begin with the 1832 account and then proceed to the 1835 account, then on to the 1838 account and then the 1842 account.  Lastly, I'll review the five secondhand accounts.