Editing First Vision (section)

===1838 Smith account===
[[File:Young Joseph Smith reading Bible.PNG|thumb|upright|1912 artistic depiction of Joseph Smith reading James 1:5 as described in the 1838 account of the First Vision]]
In 1838, Smith began dictating a history, introduced as "I have been induced to write this history ... in relation both to myself and the Church."<ref>The original 1838 manuscript has been lost, but the account was copied to manuscripts dating from 1839, which indicates that the year of writing was 1838, a fact also confirmed by Smith's journal entries. See {{Harvtxt|Jessee|1969|pp=6–7}}.</ref> This history included a new account of the First Vision, later published in three issues of ''[[Times and Seasons]]''.<ref>''[[Times and Seasons]]'', March and April, vol. 3 nos. 9, 11.</ref> This version was later incorporated into the [[Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)|Pearl of Great Price]], which was canonized by the LDS Church in 1880, as [[Joseph Smith–History]]. Thus, it is often called the [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng "canonized version"] of the First Vision story.

This version differs from the 1840 version because it includes the proclamation, "This is My Beloved Son, hear Him" from one of the personages, whereas the 1840 version does not. The canonized version says that in the spring of 1820, during a period of "confusion and strife among the different denominations" following an "unusual excitement on the subject of religion", Smith had debated which of the various Christian groups he should join. While in turmoil, he read from the [[Epistle of James]]: "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."<ref>James 1:5; [[Joseph Smith–History]].</ref>

One morning, deeply impressed by this scripture, the fourteen-year-old Smith went to the woods near his home, knelt, and began his first vocal prayer. Almost immediately he was confronted by an evil power that prevented speech. A darkness gathered around him, and Smith believed that he would be destroyed. He continued the prayer silently, asking for God's assistance though still resigned to destruction. At this moment a light brighter than the sun descended towards him, and he was delivered from the evil power.

In the light, Smith "saw two personages standing in the air". One pointed to the other and said, "This is My Beloved Son, hear Him." Smith asked which religious sect he should join and was told to join none of them because all existing religions had corrupted the teachings of Jesus Christ.<ref>''See'' [[Great Apostasy]].</ref>

In his 1838 account, Smith wrote that he made an oblique reference to the vision to his mother in 1820, telling her the day it happened that he had "learned for [him]self that [[Presbyterian]]ism is not true."{{sfnp|Roberts|1902|loc=vol. 1, ch. 1, p. 6}} Lucy did not mention this conversation in her memoirs in her own words, but included the narrative from Joseph's 1838 account directly.{{sfnp|Smith|1853|p=78}}<ref>{{citation |url= http://woodlandinstitute.com/joseph/first-vision/pubSeerPg5JosephSmith1838.php |title=The First Vision: 1838 Joseph Smith History Account |work=Woodland Institute |publisher=Richard N. Holzapfel |url-status= usurped |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120825180610/http://www.woodlandinstitute.com/joseph/first-vision/pubSeerPg5JosephSmith1838.php |archive-date=2012-08-25}}</ref>

Smith wrote he "could find none that would believe" his experience.<ref name="Letterbook 1 p.2"/> He said that shortly after the experience, he told the story of his revelation to a Methodist minister<ref>According to Mormon apologist Larry C. Porter, the Methodist minister, George Lane, may have passed very near the Smith home and preached at a camp meeting along the way in July 1820. "In the pursuit of his ministerial duties Rev. Lane was in the geographical proximity of Joseph Smith on a number of occasions between the years 1819-1825. The nature degree or indeed the actuality of their acquaintanceship during this interval poses a number of interesting possibilities .... In July 1820 Lane would have had to pass through the greater Palmyra-Manchester vicinity..unless he went by an extremely circuitous route. Present records do not specify Lane's itinerary or exact route ... but they do for Lane's friend, Rev. George Peck .... [Peck's] conference route took him north to Ithaca, then on to a camp meeting in the Holland Purchase, subsequently passing along the Ridge Road to Rochester .... As Rev. Peck, [Lane] may even have stopped at a camp meeting somewhere along the way. A preacher of his standing would always be a welcome guest." {{harv|Porter|1969|p=335}}. Smith never mentions the name of the minister.</ref> who responded "with great contempt, saying it was all of the devil, that there was no such thing as visions or revelations in these days; that all such things had ceased with the apostles, and that there never would be any more of them."{{sfnp|Smith|1842c|p=748}}{{sfnp|Roberts|1902|loc=vol. 1, ch. 1, p. 6}} He also said that the telling of his vision story "excited a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to increase."{{sfnp|Roberts|1902|loc=vol. 1, ch. 1, p. 7}} There is no extant evidence from the 1830s for this persecution beyond Smith's own testimony.<ref>{{harvp|Allen|1966|p=30}}: "According to Joseph Smith, he told the story of the vision immediately after it happened in the early spring of 1820. As a result, he said, he received immediate criticism in the community. There is little if any evidence, however, that by the early 1830s Joseph Smith was telling the story in public. At least if he were telling it, no one seemed to consider it important enough to have recorded it ''at the time'', and no one was criticizing him for it."</ref> None of the earliest [[anti-Mormonism|anti-Mormon]] literature mentioned the First Vision.<ref>{{harvp|Allen|1966|p=31}}: "Apparently not until 1843, when the ''New York Spectator'' printed a reporter's account of an interview with Joseph Smith, did a ''non-Mormon'' source publish any reference to the story of the first vision."</ref> Smith also said he told others about the vision during the 1820s, and some family members said that they had heard him mention it, but none prior to 1823, when Smith said he had his second vision.<ref>{{harvp|Palmer|2002|p=245}}: "There is no evidence of prejudice resulting from this first vision.  If his report that 'all the sects...united to persecute me' were accurate, one would expect to find some hint of this in the local newspapers, narratives by ardent critics, and in the affidavits D. P. Hurlbut gathered in 1833. The record is nevertheless silent on this issue. No one, friend or foe, in New York or Pennsylvania remember either that there was 'great persecution' or even that Joseph claimed to have had a vision. Not even his family remembers it."</ref> Joseph's mother recorded the 1820-23 persecution of Joseph in her memoir, stating "From this time until the 21st of Sep. 1823, Joseph continued as usual to labor with his father; and nothing during this interval occurred of very great importance; though he suffered, as one would naturally suppose every kind of opposition and persecution from the different orders of religion."{{sfnp|Smith|1845|p=78}}

[[File:First Vision 1912.PNG|thumb|upright|right|First Vision by L. A. Ramsey, 1912.]]