Editing First Vision (section)

==Context==

===Background===
{{Main|Early life of Joseph Smith}}
Smith was born on December 23, 1805, in [[Vermont]], and in 1816, his family moved to a farm just outside the [[Palmyra (town), New York|town of Palmyra]], New York.{{sfnp|Shipps|1985|p=4}} In the first several decades of American society in the 1800s, there was a proliferation of religious options.<ref>Hatch, Nathan O. Democratization of American Christianity. Yale University Press, 1991. e-book location 2307 of 7374</ref>  During the [[Second Great Awakening]], revivals occurred in many communities in the [[northeastern United States]]. The religious environment in the region where the Smith family lived was so intense it is referred to today as the [[burned-over district]].<ref name="Shipps 1985 7">{{Harvnb|Shipps|1985|p=7}}</ref> In the Palmyra area itself, large multi-denominational revivals occurred in 1816–17 and 1824–25.{{sfnp|Bushman|2005|pp=36, 46}}<ref>{{harvp|Vogel|2004|pp=26, 58–60}}: "Indeed, it was the revival of 1824–25, his family's conversion, and his mother's pressure that caused [Smith] so much pain and suffering rather than the revival of 1817 or the one he 'remembered' for 1820." Bushman does not argue for an 1820 revival in Palmyra, stating only that the "great revival of 1816 and 1817, which nearly doubled the number of Palmyra Presbyterians, was in progress when the Smiths arrived." (36)</ref>  Within eight miles of the Smith family farm, at least four [[Methodist]], three [[Presbyterian]], two [[Baptist]], and several [[Quaker]] groups held regular meetings.<ref>[https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/effusions-enthusiastic-brain-joseph-smiths-first-vision-and-limits-experiential-religion Talmage, Jeremy ''Effusions of an Enthusiastic Brain: Joseph Smith's First Vision and the Limits of Experiential Religion'' BYU Studies Quarterly 59, no. 1 (2020) pg. 29-30]</ref>  Despite the large number of congregations however, only about 11% of Palmyra residents belonged to any organized religion in 1820, which was in line with the national average.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/membership-of-certain-of-joseph-smiths-family-in-the-western-presbyterian-church-of-palmyra/|title=Membership of Certain of Joseph Smith's Family in the Western Presbyterian Church of Palmyra|date=August 6, 2019|website=byustudies.byu.edu}}</ref>

Besides organized religion, the Smith family was exposed to a number of other belief systems.{{sfnp|Shipps|1985|p=6}} A large ill-defined group of early Americans have been lumped into the term "seekers".  This group held a heterogeneous set of beliefs; including that religion with creeds were unnecessary and the apostolic church no longer was on the earth.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://signaturebookslibrary.org/religious-seekers-01/|title=Religious Seekers and the Advent of Mormonism – 01 &#124;}}</ref> [[Cunning Folk Traditions and the Latter Day Saint Movement|Cunning folk traditions or folk magic]] was also prevalent in Palmyra; intertwined and considered congruous with Christianity.<ref name="Shipps 1985 7"/> [[Deism#Deism in the United States|Deism]], the belief that God exists but does not intervene in earth, also had a growing hold in American culture with the publication of [[Thomas Paine]]'s popular book ''[[The Age of Reason]]''.{{sfnp|Shipps|1985|p=8}}

[[File:Joseph Smith family farm in Manchester.jpg|left|thumb|[[George Edward Anderson]]'s photograph of the [[Smith Family Farm]] in [[Manchester, New York]], c. 1907. (LDS Archives)]]
[[Richard Bushman]] has called the spiritual tradition of the Smith family "a religious melee."{{sfnp|Bushman|2005|pp=25–27}} Like many other Americans living on the frontier at the beginning of the 19th century, Smith and his family believed in visions, dreams, and other [[Christian mysticism|communications with God]].{{sfnp|Quinn|1998}} In 1811, Smith's maternal grandfather, [[Solomon Mack]], described a series of visions and voices from God that resulted in his conversion to Christianity at the age of seventy-six.<ref>"About midnight I saw a light about a foot from my face as bright as fire; the doors were all shut and no one stirring in the house. I thought by this that I had but a few moments to live, and oh what distress I was in .... Another night soon after, I saw another light as bright as the first, at a small distance from my face, and I thought I had but a few moments to live. And not sleeping nights and reading, all day I was in misery; well you may think I was in distress, soul and body. At another time in the dead of the night I was called by my Christian name; I arise up to answer to my name. The doors all being shut and the house still, I thought the Lord called, and I had but a moment to live." {{Harv|Mack|1811|p=25}}</ref>

Joseph Smith's mother, [[Lucy Mack Smith]], had a "believers baptism" early in her marriage, but did not formally join to any denomination early in her marriage.<ref name="Vogel 2004 7">{{Harv|Vogel|2004|p=7}}</ref>  [[Joseph Smith Sr.]] was a combination of deist and seeker, who was skeptical of organized religion, but not irreligious.<ref>Shipps writes, "[Smith Senior's] father had given him a copy of Thomas Paine's ''Age of Reason'', that he seems to have read with great interest."{{Harvnb|Shipps|1985|p=8}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Bushman|2005|pp=25–27}}: "If there was a personal motive for Joseph Smith Jr.'s revelations, it was to satisfy his family's religious want and, above all, to meet the need of his oft-defeated, unmoored father."</ref>  Before Smith was born, Lucy went to a grove near her home in [[Vermont]] and prayed about her husband's repudiation of evangelical religion.{{sfnp|Smith|1853|p=54}}{{sfnp|Bushman|2005|p=26}} That night she said she had a dream which she interpreted as a [[prophecy]] that Joseph Sr. would later accept the "pure and undefiled Gospel of the Son of God."{{sfnp|Smith|1853|pp=55–56}}{{sfnp|Quinn|1998}} She also stated that Smith Sr. had a number of dreams or visions between 1811 and 1819,<ref>{{harvp|Smith|1853|pp=56–59, 70–74}}. Smith Sr.'s first vision was around 1811 (id. at 56–57), and his "seventh and last vision" was in 1819 (''id.'' at 73–74). {{harvp|Bushman|2005|p=36}}: "The best barometer of the household's religious climate are seven dreams Joseph Sr. had in the years before and after his son's first vision. Lucy wrote down five of them, calling them visions. Since no other member of the family gave an account of the dreams or even referred to them, and Lucy recorded them thirty years later, there is no way of testing the accuracy of her memory."</ref> the first of which occurring when his mind was "much excited upon the subject of religion."{{sfnp|Smith|1853|pp=56–57}} The first of Joseph Sr.'s visions confirmed to him the correctness of his refusal to join any organized religious group.<ref>{{harvp|Smith|1853|pp=57–58}}. Joseph Smith Sr.'s second vision as reported by Lucy Mack Smith exhibits many similarities to the [[tree of life vision]] which Joseph Smith Jr. would later dictate as part of the [[Book of Mormon]] {{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=36}}.</ref>  Smith's father additionally joined the local masonic lodge, with Smith's older brother Hyrum sometime shortly after arriving in Palmyra.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://signaturebookslibrary.org/mormons-and-freemasonry/|title=Freemasonry and Mormons &#124;}}</ref>

Smith's older brother Alvin did not join any organized religion.  Lucy said that after Alvin died in late 1823, she sought comfort in religion, and formally joined the Presbyterian church in either 1824 or 1825 along with her children Hyrum, Samuel and Sophronia.<ref name="Vogel 2004 7"/><ref>As discussed below, the date of Lucy's conversion has been contested by some LDS Church scholars as it contradicts Smith's 1838 First Vision account. See {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005}} footnote 30</ref>

===Dating the First Vision===
[[File:Sacred Grove (1907).jpg|thumb|right|upright|Photograph of the [[Sacred Grove (Latter Day Saints)|Sacred Grove]] by [[George Edward Anderson]], circa 1907]]

Smith never gave a specific date of his reported vision, but said it occurred in the early 1820s, when he was in his early teens.<ref name="Joseph Smith–History 1:5">[[Joseph Smith–History]] [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1.5?lang=eng 1:5].</ref>  In the 1832 account Smith says that from age twelve to fifteen he was pondering the situation of the world in his heart, placing the vision in 1821.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/2|title=History, circa Summer 1832, Page 2|website=www.josephsmithpapers.org}}</ref>  Smith's scribe Frederick G. Williams inserted into the 1832 account that it had occurred "in the 16th year of [his] age" or 1821.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/3|title=History, circa Summer 1832, Page 3|website=www.josephsmithpapers.org}}</ref> In the 1838 account, Smith said the vision took place "early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty."<ref>[https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2/3 "History, circa June 1839–circa 1841 &#91;Draft 2&#93;," p. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 5, 2020]—</ref>  In both his 1835 and 1842 account, Smith wrote that it occurred when "about fourteen years of age."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/25|title=Journal, 1835–1836, Page 24|website=www.josephsmithpapers.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/1|title="Church History," 1 March 1842, Page 706|website=www.josephsmithpapers.org}}</ref>

Historians have looked at contextual clues from the accounts to further narrow down the date. In the 1838 account Smith noted the following events:

* "Sometime in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion"
* "(The unusual excitement) commenced with the Methodist"
* "(The unusual excitement) soon became general among all the sects in that region of country, ... and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division among the people"
* "My Fathers family was proselyted to the Presbyterian faith and four of them joined that Church, Namely, My Mother Lucy, My Brothers Hyrum, Samuel Harrison, and my Sister Sophronia."
* "It was on the morning of a beautiful clear day early in the spring"<ref>[https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2/1 "History, circa June 1839–circa 1841] [Draft 2]," p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 9, 2020</ref>

Each of these details have been the subject of significant research and debated widely among historians, critics, [[apologist]]s and [[polemicist]]s, sparking a variety of historical and theological interpretations.{{sfnp|Hill|2001}} In the fall of 1967 the Reverend [[Wesley P. Walters]] published a pamphlet asserting that the "unusual excitement" Joseph Smith wrote of matched the Palmyra revival of 1824, and was anachronistic to the 1820 setting.<ref>Walters, Wesley P., and Dale L. Morgan. New Light on Mormon Origins from Palmyra (N.Y.) Revival. 1967</ref><ref name="First Vision 2012">{{Cite web|url=https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bets/vol10/10-4_walters.pdf|title=Exploring the First Vision, ed. Samuel Alonzo Dodge and Steven C. Harper (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, 2012), 1–40}}</ref>  Walters' pamphlet created a stir, and provoked a strong response from scholars at [[Brigham Young University]] (BYU).  By spring of 1968 BYU Professor [[Truman G. Madsen]] organized around three dozen scholars to respond to Walters, and wrote to the First Presidency of the LDS Church that the "first vision has come under severe historical attack."<ref>Harper, Steven C. First Vision: Memory and Mormon Origins. Oxford University Press, 2019. page 220</ref>  Walters's thesis and the subsequent response has framed the historical debate.<ref name="First Vision 2012"/>

====Dating the move to Manchester====
Local moves of the Smith family have been used in attempts to identify the date of the vision. Smith wrote that the First Vision occurred in "the second year after our removal to Manchester."<ref name="Joseph Smith–History 1:5"/> The evidence for the date of this move has been interpreted by many believers as supporting 1820 and by non-believers as supporting 1824.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://signaturebookslibrary.org/inventing-mormonism-01/|title=Inventing Mormonism – 01 &#124;}}</ref> Manchester land assessment records show an increase in assessed value of the Smith property in 1823. Because the tax assessment of the Smiths' Manchester land rose in 1823, critics argue that the Smiths completed their Manchester cabin in 1822, which suggests an approximate date of 1824 for the First Vision. Joseph Smith Sr. was first taxed for Manchester land in 1820. In 1821 and 1822, the land was valued at $700, but in 1823, the property was assessed at $1000, which may indicate "that the Smiths had completed construction of their cabin and cleared a significant portion of their land".{{sfnp|Vogel|2000|pp=443–44}} In response, some Mormon apologists argue that in 1818, the Smiths mistakenly constructed a cabin 59 feet north of the actual property line (which would have been in Palmyra rather than Manchester) and the 1823 increase in the property assessment was related to the completion of a wood frame home on the Manchester side of the Palmyra–Manchester township line. The latter interpretation would lend support for dating the First Vision to 1820.{{sfnp|Ray|2002|pp=4–5}}<ref>For a counter argument—that there was a second cabin on the Smith property in Manchester—see {{harvp|Vogel|2000|pp=416–419}}. Vogel argues that based on archaeological and documentary evidence, the Manchester cabin was constructed prior to the Smiths' building of their frame home. "To argue for the existence of only the Jennings cabin, which the Smiths inadvertently built on the Palmyra side of the township line, one must assume that the error was perpetuated not only by the Smiths but also by authorities in both counties. However, the existence of the names of Joseph Sr., Alvin, and Hyrum on the Palmyra road lists for 1820–22 strongly argues that both the Smiths and village authorities understood that the cabin was in Palmyra township." (p. 419)</ref>

====Dating the revival====
[[File:Camp meeting of the Methodists in N. America J. Milbert del M. Dubourg sculp (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Typical scene from a Methodist camp meeting]]
[[Richard Bushman]] wrote that Smith "began to be concerned about religion in late 1817 or early 1818, when the aftereffects of the revival of 1816 and 1817 were still being felt."{{sfnp|Bushman|2005|p=37}} [[Milton V. Backman]] wrote that religious outbreaks occurred in 1819–20 within a fifty-mile radius of Smith's home: "Church records, newspapers, religious journals, and other contemporary sources clearly reveal that great awakenings occurred in more than fifty western New York towns or villages during the revival of 1819–1820 .... Primary sources also specify that great multitudes joined the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Calvinist Baptist societies in the region of country where Joseph Smith lived."{{sfnp|Backman|1969|p=11}} [[Richard Lloyd Anderson]] has pointed out that there was a Methodist Camp Meeting in Palmyra in 1818, with about 400 in attendance, that is verified by a contemporary journal. This agrees with the three-year time frame of his pondering on religion mentioned in Smith's 1832 account.<ref>Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Probing the Lives of Christ and Joseph Smith", ''FARMS Review'', Vol. 21, Issue 2.</ref>  Backman cited evidence of a Methodist Camp Meeting in Palmyra in June 1820.<ref>Backman, "Awakenings in the Burned-Over District: New Light on the Historical Setting of the First Vision," ''BYU Studies'' 9/3 (1969): 309</ref>

====Dating the Smith family conversions to Presbyterianism====
In the 1838 version of the First Vision (first published in 1842) that has been canonized by the LDS Church, his family's decision to join the Presbyterian Church occurs in the same year as his First Vision.<ref>[[Joseph Smith–History]] [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1.5-7?lang=eng 1:5–7].</ref>

The draft copy of Lucy Mack Smith's history does not mention the first vision at all.<ref>{{harvp|Smith|1844–1845|loc=[https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/49 bk. 4, p. 7]}}</ref> However, the [[fair copy]], penned by the same scribe as the draft copy, and which was in the possession of Lucy and on which she registered a copyright, includes in the narrative a copy of the 1838 version of the first vision, beginning with Joseph's words "I was at this time in my fifteenth year."{{sfnp|Smith|1845|p=73}} After the first vision account, Lucy continues with "From this time until the 21st of Sep. 1823, Joseph continued as usual to labor with his father; and nothing during this interval {{sic|occur|ed|nolink=y}} of very great importance..."{{sfnp|Smith|1845|p=78}} At this point Lucy describes the visitations of Moroni and the promise of the golden plates, followed by the death of [[Alvin Smith (brother of Joseph Smith)|Alvin]], in November 1823.

Lucy then states that she and some of her children sought comfort in the religious revival after Alvin's death. This statement has been taken to refer to her and three of the children ([[Hyrum Smith|Hyrum]], [[Samuel H. Smith (Latter Day Saints)|Samuel]], and Sophronia) joining the Presbyterian church.<ref>"Lucy said that soon after Alvin's death, Palmyra experienced 'a great revival in religion, and the whole neighborhood was very much aroused to the subject, and we among the rest flocked to meeting house to see if there was a word of comfort for us that might relieve our over charged feelings.' She eventually decided to join the Presbyterian church."{{Harv|Vogel|2004|p=58}}.</ref> If so, and if Joseph's statement that they joined this church in the same year as his first vision is accurate, then the first vision would have taken place in 1824.<ref>{{Harvp|Hill|1982|p=39}}. "I am inclined to agree that the religious turmoil that Smith described which led to some family members joining the Presbyterians and to much sectarian bitterness does not fit well into the 1820 context detailed by Backman. ... Indicating that the angel had told Smith of the plates prior to the revival, Lucy added that for a long time after Alvin's death the family could not bear any talk about the golden plates, for the subject had been one of great interest to him and any reference to the plates stirred sorrowful memories. She said she attended the revival with hope of gaining solace for Alvin's loss. That kind of detail is just the sort that gives validity to Lucy's chronology. She would not have been likely to make up such a reaction for herself or the family nor mistake the time when it happened. I am persuaded that it was 1824 when Lucy joined the Presbyterians."</ref> However, this conclusion requires ignoring both Joseph's statement that the first vision occurred during his fifteenth year and Lucy's chronology in the fair copy. Alternatively, [[D. Michael Quinn]] says that Joseph Smith's account is a conflation of events over several years, a typical biographical device for streamlining the narrative.{{sfnp|Quinn|2006|p=12}}

====Dating the "beautiful, clear day"====
In the 1838 account Smith said that this vision occurred "on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty."<ref>[[Joseph Smith–History]] [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1.14?lang=eng 1:14].</ref> Two LDS Church members collaborated and detailed a claim on their website that the date was March 26, 1820 relying on an interpretation of the [[Enoch calendar]] to calculate the date along with weather reports and maple sugar production records.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Pratt |first1=John |last2=Lefgren |first2=John |date=2021 |title=Sunday Morning March 26th, 1820 |url=https://march26th1820.com |access-date=1 Feb 2024}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Oh, How Lovely Was the Morning: Sun 26 Mar 1820? |work=[[Meridian Magazine]] |date=October 9, 2002 |first1=John C. |last1=Lefgren }}. [http://johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2002/vision.html Online reprint] The article's authors reject many other dates that fit the weather and maple sugar constraints, including April 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 30. The authors appear to favor March 26 based on their theory of this date's significance in the [[Enoch calendar]], dismissing any date after April 14 as not being "early spring".</ref> Mark Staker, an expert on the sacred grove site, states that early spring would be "sometime in most likely March, April, or the beginning weeks of May."<ref>{{citation |title=Joseph Smith Papers Podcast |page=3 |url=https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/articles/the-first-vision-podcast-episode-3-transcript }}</ref>