Different "First Vision" Accounts

[nutshell]

Fellow LDS Posters:

Are you aware of the different First Vision accounts Joseph Smith gave over the years? If so, how do you account for the discrepancies? Why the variations?

I look forward to your answers.

Thanks,
nutshell

 

[SoyLeche]

Fellow LDS Posters:

Are you aware of the different First Vision accounts Joseph Smith gave over the years? If so, how do you account for the discrepancies? Why the variations?

I look forward to your answers.

Thanks,
nutshell

On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts of his sacred experience of 1820. Possibly he penned or dictated other histories of the First Vision; if so, they have not been located. The four surviving recitals of this theophany were prepared or rendered through different scribes, at different times, from a different perspective, for different purposes and to different audiences. It is not surprising, therefore, that each of them emphasizes different aspects of his experience. When Latter-day Saints today explain this remarkable vision to others, their descriptions often vary according to the audience or circumstances that prompt such reports. If one were relating the incident to a group of high priests, for example, he would undoubtedly tell it somewhat differently than he would to individuals who had never heard of the restoration of the gospel or of Joseph Smith.

I found this in the January 1985 Ensign. I have bad luck linking to the Ensign, so I'll let you find it. The article is called "Joseph Smith's Recitals of the First Vision. It will probably answer your questions much better than I could.

 

[nutshell]

I found this in the January 1985 Ensign. I have bad luck linking to the Ensign, so I'll let you find it. The article is called "Joseph Smith's Recitals of the First Vision. It will probably answer your questions much better than I could.

OK. Thanks. I'll take a look at it.