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First Vision Accounts

Joseph Smith recorded that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in a grove of trees
near his parents’ home in western New York State when he was about 14 years old. Concerned by
his sins and unsure which spiritual path to follow, Joseph sought guidance by attending
meetings, reading scripture, and praying. In answer, he received a heavenly manifestation. Joseph
shared and documented the First Vision, as it came to be known, on multiple occasions; he wrote
or assigned scribes to write four different accounts of the vision.

Joseph Smith published two accounts of the First Vision during his lifetime. The first of these,
known today as Joseph Smith—History, was canonized in the Pearl of Great Price and thus
became the best known account. The two unpublished accounts, recorded in Joseph Smith’s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. 1 In addition to the firsthand accounts, there are also five descriptions of Joseph
Smith’s vision recorded by his contemporaries. 2

The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story, though naturally they differ in
emphasis and detail. Historians expect that when an individual retells an experience in multiple
settings to different audiences over many years, each account will emphasize various aspects of
the experience and contain unique details. Indeed, differences similar to those in the First Vision
accounts exist in the multiple scriptural accounts of Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus and
the Apostles’ experience on the Mount of Transfiguration. 3 Yet despite the differences, a basic
consistency remains across all the accounts of the First Vision. Some have mistakenly argued that
any variation in the retelling of the story is evidence of fabrication. To the contrary, the rich
historical record enables us to learn more about this remarkable event than we could if it were
less well documented.

Accounts of the First Vision

Each account of the First Vision by Joseph Smith and his contemporaries has its own history and
context that influenced how the event was recalled, communicated, and recorded. These
accounts are discussed below.

1832 Account. The earliest known account of the First Vision, the only account written in Joseph
Smith’s own hand, is found in a short, unpublished autobiography Joseph Smith produced in
the second half of 1832. In the account, Joseph Smith described his consciousness of his own sins
and his frustration at being unable to find a church that matched the one he had read about in
the New Testament and that would lead him to redemption. He emphasized Jesus Christ’s
Atonement and the personal redemption it offered. He wrote that “the Lord” appeared and
forgave him of his sins. As a result of the vision, Joseph experienced joy and love, though, as he
noted, he could find no one who believed his account. Read the 1832 account here.

1835 Account. In the fall of 1835, Joseph Smith recounted his First Vision to Robert Matthews, a
visitor to Kirtland, Ohio. The retelling, recorded in Joseph’s journal by his scribe Warren
Parrish, emphasizes his attempt to discover which church was right, the opposition he felt as he
prayed, and the appearance of one divine personage who was followed shortly by another. This
account also notes the appearance of angels in the vision. Read the 1835 account here.

1838 Account. The narration of the First Vision best known to Latter-day Saints today is the
1838 account. First published in 1842 in the Times and Seasons, the Church’s newspaper in
Nauvoo, Illinois, the account was part of a longer history dictated by Joseph Smith between
periods of intense opposition. Whereas the 1832 account emphasizes the more personal story of
Joseph Smith as a young man seeking forgiveness, the 1838 account focuses on the vision as the
beginning of the “rise and progress of the Church.” Like the 1835 account, the central question
of the narrative is which church is right. Read the 1838 account here.

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1842 Account. Written in response to Chicago Democrat editor John Wentworth’s request for
information about the Latter-day Saints, this account was printed in the Times and Seasons in
1842. (The “Wentworth letter,” as it is commonly known, is also the source for the Articles of
Faith.) 4 The account, intended for publication to an audience unfamiliar with beliefs of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is concise and straightforward. As with earlier
accounts, Joseph Smith noted the confusion he experienced and the appearance of two
personages in answer to his prayer. The following year, Joseph Smith sent this account with
minor modifications to a historian named Israel Daniel Rupp, who published it as a chapter in
his book, He Pasa Ekklesia [The Whole Church]: An Original History of the Religious Denominations
at Present Existing in the United States. 5 Read the 1842 account here.

Secondhand Accounts. Besides these accounts from Joseph Smith himself, five accounts were
written by contemporaries who heard Joseph Smith speak about the vision. Read these accounts
here.

Arguments Regarding the Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First

Vision
The variety and number of accounts of the First Vision have led some critics to question whether
Joseph Smith’s descriptions match the reality of his experience. Two arguments are frequently
made against his credibility: the first questions Joseph Smith’s memory of the events; the second
questions whether he embellished elements of the story over time.

Memory. One argument regarding the accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision alleges that
historical evidence does not support Joseph Smith’s description of religious revival in Palmyra,
New York, and its vicinity in 1820. Some argue that this undermines both Joseph’s claim of
unusual religious fervor and the account of the vision itself.

Documentary evidence, however, supports Joseph Smith’s statements regarding the revivals. The
region where he lived became famous for its religious fervor and was unquestionably one of the
hotbeds of religious revivals. Historians refer to the region as “the burned-over district” because
preachers wore out the land holding camp revivals and seeking converts during the early 1800s. 6
In June 1818, for example, a Methodist camp meeting took place in Palmyra, and the following
summer, Methodists assembled again at Vienna (now Phelps), New York, 15 miles from the
Smith family farm. The journals of an itinerant Methodist preacher document much religious
excitement in Joseph’s geographic area in 1819 and 1820. They report that Reverend George
Lane, a revivalist Methodist minister, was in that region in both years, speaking “on Gods
method in bringing about Reformations.” 7 This historical evidence is consistent with Joseph’s
description. He said that the unusual religious excitement in his district or region “commenced
with the Methodists.” Indeed, Joseph stated that he became “somewhat partial” to Methodism. 8

Embellishment. The second argument frequently made regarding the accounts of Joseph
Smith’s First Vision is that he embellished his story over time. This argument focuses on two
details: the number and identity of the heavenly beings Joseph Smith stated that he saw. Joseph’s
First Vision accounts describe the heavenly beings with greater detail over time. The 1832
account says, “The Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord.” His 1838 account
states, “I saw two Personages,” one of whom introduced the other as “My Beloved Son.” As a
result, critics have argued that Joseph Smith started out reporting to have seen one being—“the
Lord”—and ended up claiming to have seen both the Father and the Son. 9

There are other, more consistent ways of seeing the evidence. A basic harmony in the narrative
across time must be acknowledged at the outset: three of the four accounts clearly state that two
personages appeared to Joseph Smith in the First Vision. The outlier is Joseph Smith’s 1832
account, which can be read to refer to one or two personages. If read to refer to one heavenly
being, it would likely be to the personage who forgave his sins. According to later accounts, the
first divine personage told Joseph Smith to “hear” the second, Jesus Christ, who then delivered
the main message, which included the message of forgiveness. 10 Joseph Smith’s 1832 account,
then, may have concentrated on Jesus Christ, the bearer of forgiveness.

Another way of reading the 1832 account is that Joseph Smith referred to two beings, both of
whom he called “Lord.” The embellishment argument hinges on the assumption that the 1832
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account describes the appearance of only one divine being. But the 1832 account does not say
that only one being appeared. Note that the two references to “Lord” are separated in time: first
“the Lord” opens the heavens; then Joseph Smith sees “the Lord.” This reading of the account is
consistent with Joseph’s 1835 account, which has one personage appearing first, followed by
another soon afterwards. The 1832 account, then, can reasonably be read to mean that Joseph
Smith saw one being who then revealed another and that he referred to both of them as “the
Lord”: “the Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord.” 11

Joseph’s increasingly specific descriptions can thus be compellingly read as evidence of

increasing insight, accumulating over time, based on experience. In part, the differences between
the 1832 account and the later accounts may have something to do with the differences between
the written and the spoken word. The 1832 account represents the first time Joseph Smith
attempted to write down his history. That same year, he wrote a friend that he felt imprisoned by
“paper pen and Ink and a crooked broken scattered and imperfect Language.” He called the
written word a “little narrow prison.” 12 The expansiveness of the later accounts is more easily
understood and even expected when we recognize that they were likely dictated accounts—an
easy, comfortable medium for Joseph Smith and one that allowed the words to flow more easily.

Conclusion
Joseph Smith testified repeatedly that he experienced a remarkable vision of God the Father and
His Son, Jesus Christ. Neither the truth of the First Vision nor the arguments against it can be
proven by historical research alone. Knowing the truth of Joseph Smith’s testimony requires
each earnest seeker of truth to study the record and then exercise sufficient faith in Christ to ask
God in sincere, humble prayer whether the record is true. If the seeker asks with the real intent
to act upon the answer revealed by the Holy Ghost, the truthfulness of Joseph Smith’s vision will
be manifest. In this way, every person can know that Joseph Smith spoke honestly when he
declared, “I had seen a vision, I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny
it.” 13

The Church acknowledges the contribution of scholars to the historical content presented in this article;
their work is used with permission.

1. See, for example, James B. Allen, “Eight Contemporary Accounts of the First Vision—
What Do We Learn from Them?” Improvement Era, 73 (1970): 4–13; Richard L.
Anderson, “Joseph Smith’s Testimony of the First Vision,” Ensign, Apr. 1996, 10–21;
Milton V. Backman, Joseph Smith’s First Vision: The First Vision in Its Historical Context
(Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1971; 2nd ed., 1980); Steven C. Harper, Joseph Smith’s First
Vision: A Guide to the Historical Accounts (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012).

2. All of these accounts were reproduced in Dean C. Jessee, “The Earliest Documented
Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” in John W. Welch, ed., with Erick B.
Carlson, Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 (Provo and
Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University Press and Deseret Book, 2005), 1–33.

3. Acts 9:3–9; 22:6–21; 26:12–18; Matthew 17:1–13; Mark 9:2–13; Luke 9:28–36.

4. The full letter can be found in Joseph Smith, “Church History,” Times and Seasons 3
(Mar. 1, 1842): 706–10.

5. Joseph Smith, “Latter Day Saints,” in I. Daniel Rupp, He Pasa Ekklesia: An Original
History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States
(Philadelphia: J. Y. Humphreys, 1844), 404–10.

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6. Whitney R. Cross, The Burned-Over District: The Social and Intellectual History of
Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800–1850 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press, 1950); Paul E. Johnson, A Shopkeeper’s Millennium: Society and Revivals in
Rochester, New York, 1815–1837 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1983); Nathan O. Hatch,
The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).

7. Benajah Williams diary, July 15, 1820, copy in Church History Library, Salt Lake City;
spelling regularized.

8. 1838 account ( Joseph Smith—History 1:5, 8).

9. 1832 account ( Joseph Smith History, ca. Summer 1832, 3, in Joseph Smith, “Letter
Book A,” Joseph Smith Collection, Church History Library, Salt Lake City); 1838
account ( Joseph Smith—History 1:17).

10. 1838 account ( Joseph Smith—History 1:17); 1835 account ( Joseph Smith, “Sketch
Book of the use of Joseph Smith, jr.,” Journal, Nov. 9–11, 1835, Joseph Smith
Collection, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

11. 1832 account ( Joseph Smith History, ca. Summer 1832, 3, in Joseph Smith, “Letter
Book A,” Joseph Smith Collection, Church History Library, Salt Lake City).

12. Joseph Smith to William W. Phelps, Nov. 27, 1832, Joseph Smith Collection, Church
History Library, Salt Lake City; available at www.josephsmithpapers.org.

13. 1838 account ( Joseph Smith—History 1:25).

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