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*From Joseph's 1835 diary entry:
a personage appeard in the midst of this pillar of flame which '''was spread all around, and yet nothing consumed''', another personage soon appeard like unto the first, he said unto me thy sins are forgiven thee, he testified unto me that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and I saw many angels in this vision I was about 14 years old when I received this first communication...
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&mdash;[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Diary_of_Joseph_Smith%2C_Jr._(1835-1836) Diary of Joseph Smith, Jr. (1835-1836)]
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Version du 8 avril 2009 à 03:54

The vision

Dating the First Vision

Main Article Citations and Notes Commentary

Smith said that his First Vision occurred in the early 1820s, when he was in his early teens

[1]

but his accounts mention different dates within that period. In 1832, Joseph wrote that the vision had occurred "in the 16th year of [his] age" (about 1821), after he became concerned about religious matters beginning in his "twelfth year" (about 1817).

[2]

  • From the 1832 account:

At about the age of twelve years my mind become seriously imprest with regard to the all importent concerns of for the wellfare of my immortal Soul which led me to searching the scriptures...the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness and while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord in the 16th year of my age a piller of fire light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come down from above and rested upon me...
—History of the Life of Joseph Smith (1832)

In a later account Smith said the vision took place "early in the spring of 1820" after an "unusual excitement on the subject of religion" ending during his 15th year (1820).

[3]

According to non-Mormon critics, H. Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters, there is no evidence that large multi-denominational revivals took place in the immediate Palmyra area between 1819 and 1820, the period specified by Smith in the canonized account of the First Vision. Joseph's statement that "great multitudes" joined the various religious denominations "in the neighborhood where I lived," is not borne out by the surviving documents. Neither the Presbyterian, Baptist, nor Methodist churches in Palmyra experienced any remarkable religious outpouring. The Methodist circuit in the area even showed net losses from 1819 to 1821. "Denominational magazines of that day were full of reports of revivals, some even devoting separate sections to them." While these magazines covered the 1816-17 and the 1824-25 revivals in the Palmyra area, there is "not a single mention of any revival taking place in the Palmyra area" in 1819-20.

[4]

Mormon apologists, such as Milton Backman, argue that religious outbreaks occurred within a larger fifty-mile radius of Joseph's home.

[5]

But these apologists for the Mormon position tend to treat Joseph words "whole district of country" as if they referred to "some kind of statewide revival, without notice of the fact that he is talking about a revival that commenced with the Methodists 'in the place where we lived' and then 'became general among all the sects in that region of country.'"

[6]

Others move backward in time and use local Methodist camp meetings as the spark that ignited Smith's religious quest in 1820. For instance, D. Michael Quinn notes a Methodist camp meeting in Palmyra in June 1818.

[7]

In 1819, a large Methodist conference was held in the town of Vienna (now Phelps), about fifteen miles from Palmyra, but there is no indication that there were any revival meetings held in conjunction with it.

[8]

In Smith's 1838 narrative, his family's decision to join the Presbyterian Church occurs prior to his First Vision.

[9]

But Lucy Mack Smith said that she and some of her children sought comfort in the church after the death of her oldest son, Alvin, in November 1823, which if her memory was correct, would place the date of the first vision no earlier than 1824.

[10]

In 1845, Lucy recalled that she tried to persuade her "husband to join with them as I wished to do so myself."

[11] Her three oldest children Hyrum, Samuel, and Sophronia also joined the Presbyterian church, but "the two Josephs resisted her enthusiasm."[12]

Wesley Walters argues that "Smith's family could not have joined the Presbyterian Church in 1820 as a result of revival in the area, and then joined the same church again in 1823 as a result of another revival."

[13]

D. Michael Quinn says that Smith's account is a conflation of events over several years, a typical biographical device for streamlining the narrative.

[14]

Local moves of the Smith family have also been used in attempts to identify the date of the vision. In 1838 Joseph Smith wrote that the First Vision occurred in "the second year after our removal to Manchester."

[15]

The evidence for the date of this move has been interpreted by believers as supporting 1820 and by non-believers as supporting 1824.

[16]

The LDS Church has canonized the 1838 account in which Joseph Smith said that this vision occurred "early in the spring of 1820."

[1]

Two LDS scholars, researching weather reports and maple sugar production records, argue that the most likely exact date for the First Vision was Sunday, March 26th, 1820.[17]

Smith's accounts of the vision

Main Article Citations and Notes Commentary

What Joseph Smith said he saw during the first vision is recorded in several accounts that he wrote or dictated, as well as in interviews and reminiscences of those who said they heard the story:

On a beautiful, clear spring day,

[18]

Smith went to a clearing in a forested area, to a stump where he had left his axe the day before, and there knelt to pray.

[19]

He said this was the first time he had ever tried to pray out loud.

[20]

An 1832 account said that he "cried unto the Lord for mercy" for his sins.

[21]

According to later accounts, he prayed, "O Lord, what church shall I join?"

[22]

His prayer was interrupted by an encounter with an evil spirit. According to an account from his diary, Smith stopped praying because his tongue became swollen in his mouth and because he heard a noise behind him like someone walking towards him. He tried to pray once more, and when he heard the noise grow louder, he sprang to his feet and looked around but saw no one. The third time he knelt to pray, his tongue was loosed and he received the vision.

[23]

  • Joseph's diary entry 9 November 1835 (Monday) does not mention an "evil spirit":

I called upon the Lord for the first time, in the place above stated or in other words I made a fruitless attempt to p[r]ay, my toung seemed to be swolen in my mouth, so that I could not utter, I heard a noise behind me like some person walking towards me, I strove again to pray, but could not, the noise of walking seemed to draw nearer, I sprung up on my feet, and page 23 and looked around, but saw no person or thing that was calculated to produce the noise of walking, I kneeled again my mouth was opened and my toung liberated, and I called on the Lord in mighty prayer, a pillar of fire appeared above my head...
—Diary of Joseph Smith, Jr. (1835-1836)

In a later description of his encounter with the evil spirit, Smith said that when he first began to pray, he was immediately overcome by an evil "being from the unseen world" whose power was greater than that of any being he had previously felt.

[24]

The spirit bound his tongue and covered him with a thick darkness, and he thought he would be destroyed.[25]

Nevertheless, at his darkest moment, he summoned all his power to pray, and, as he felt ready to sink into oblivion, the vision rescued him.

[26]

Smith said he saw a pillar of "fire light," brighter than the noon-day sun, that slowly descended on him from above,

[27]

  • Note that the wiki author says "fire light." When looking at the original source, one sees that Joseph originally wrote the word "fire," then crossed it out and wrote the word "light." He did not say "fire light." From the 1832 account:

At about the age of twelve years my mind become seriously imprest with regard to the all importent concerns of for the wellfare of my immortal Soul which led me to searching the scriptures...the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness and while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord in the 16th year of my age a piller of fire light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come down from above and rested upon me...
—History of the Life of Joseph Smith (1832)

growing in brightness as it descended, and lighting the entire area for some distance.

[28]

When the light reached the tops of the trees, Smith worried that the trees would catch fire, but they were not consumed, thus easing his fear that he too would be burned.

[29]

  • From Joseph's 1835 diary entry:

a personage appeard in the midst of this pillar of flame which was spread all around, and yet nothing consumed, another personage soon appeard like unto the first, he said unto me thy sins are forgiven thee, he testified unto me that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and I saw many angels in this vision I was about 14 years old when I received this first communication...
—Diary of Joseph Smith, Jr. (1835-1836)

The light reached the ground and enveloped him, causing a "peculiar sensation."

[30]

Then "his mind was caught away from the natural objects with which he was surrounded; and he was enwrapped in a heavenly vision."

[31]

While in the vision, he said he saw one or more "personages", who are described differently in Smith's various accounts. In one account, Smith said he "saw the Lord."

[32]

In diary entries, he said he saw a "visitation of Angels"

[33]

or a "vision of angels" that included "a personage," and then "another personage" who testified that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God," as well as "many angels".

[34]

In later accounts, Smith consistently said that he had seen two personages who appeared one after the other.

[35]

These personages "exactly resembled each other in their features or likeness."

[36]

The first personage had "light complexion, blue eyes, a piece of white cloth drawn over his shoulders, his right arm bare."

[37]

One of the personages called Smith by name "and said, (pointing to the other), 'This is my beloved Son, hear him.'"

[38]

Most Latter Day Saints believe that these personages were God the Father and Jesus.

[39]

In one account, Smith said that the Lord told him his sins were forgiven, that he should obey the commandments, that the world was corrupt, and that the Second Coming was approaching.

[40]

  • The wiki author says "in one account," implying that it was only one account.
  • From Joseph's 1835 diary entry:

a personage appeard in the midst of this pillar of flame which was spread all around, and yet nothing consumed, another personage soon appeard like unto the first, he said unto me thy sins are forgiven thee, he testified unto me that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and I saw many angels in this vision I was about 14 years old when I received this first communication...
—Diary of Joseph Smith, Jr. (1835-1836)

Later accounts say that when the personages appeared, Smith asked them "O Lord, what church shall I join?"[41]

or "Must I join the Methodist Church?"

[37]

In answer, he was told that "all religious denominations were believing in incorrect doctrines, and that none of them was acknowledged of God as his church and kingdom."

[42]

All churches and their professors were "corrupt",

[43]

and "all their creeds were an abomination in his sight."

[44]

Smith was told not to join any of the churches, but that the "fulness of the gospel" would be known to him at a later time.

[45]

After the vision withdrew, Smith said he "came to myself" and found himself sprawled on his back.

[46]

  1. ↑ 1,0 et 1,1 Joseph Smith-History 1: 5.
  2. ↑ Smith (1832) , p. 3
  3. ↑ Roberts (1902)
  4. ↑ H. Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters, Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and Historical Record (San Francisco: Smith Research Associates, 1994), 15-41. The quotations are from an earlier version of this study, Wesley P. Walters, "New Light on Mormon Origins from the Palmyra Revival," Dialogue 4 (Spring 1969), 66-67.
  5. ↑ "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..." Milton V. Backman, Jr., Awakenings in the Burned - over District: New Light on the Historical Setting of the First Vision (BYU Studies, 1969), 11.
  6. ↑ Walters, 68.
  7. ↑ E. Latimer, The Three Brothers: Sketches of the Lives of Rev. Aurora Seager, Rev. Micah Seager, Rev. Schuyler Seager, D.D. (New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1880), pp 21-22 as quoted in Joseph Smith's Experience of a Methodist "Camp-Meeting" in 1820, by D. Michael Quinn, 20 December 2006
  8. ↑ Porter (1969) , p. 330; Walters, 68.
  9. ↑ Joseph Smith-History 1: 5-6
  10. ↑ After Alvin died, Lucy, "who was especially vulnerable, was aroused by the revival that invaded and fragmented Palmyra Village in the spring of 1824. 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."Vogel (2004) , p. 58 Marvin Hill has written, "I am inclined to agree that the religious turmoil that Joseph 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 Joseph of the plates prior to the revival, Lucy added that for a long time after Alvin's death the family could not bear nay 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." Hill (1982) , p. 39
  11. ↑ EMD, 1: 307 (1845).
  12. ↑ Vogel (2004) , p. 58.
  13. ↑ Walters, 62.
  14. ↑ Michael Quinn, "Joseph Smith's Experience of a Methodist 'Camp-Meeting' in 1820, Dialogue Paperless, 20 December 2006.
  15. ↑ "Extracts from the History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet": History of the Church, Vol. 1, Chapter 1, verse 5.
  16. ↑ 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" (Vogel, EMD, 3: 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 1820Ray (2002) , p. 4-5 For a counter argument—that there was a second cabin on the Smith property in Manchester—see Dan Vogel, EMD, 3: 416-19. 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."(419)
  17. ↑ Meridian Magazine.
  18. ↑ Smith (1842b) , p. 728.
  19. ↑ Waite (1843) .
  20. ↑ Smith (1842b) , p. 727.
  21. ↑ Smith (1832) , p. 3.
  22. ↑ Waite (1843) .
  23. ↑ Smith (1835) , p. 23.
  24. ↑ Smith (1842c) , p. 748; Pratt (1840) , p. 5.
  25. ↑ Smith (1842c) , p. 748.
  26. ↑ Smith (1842c) , p. 748.
  27. ↑ Smith (1832) , p. 3;Smith (1842c) , p. 748.
  28. ↑ Pratt (1840) , p. 5.
  29. ↑ Pratt (1840) , p. 5; 1835 , p. 24.
  30. ↑ Pratt (1840) , p. 5
  31. ↑ Pratt (1840) , p. 5; Smith (1842a) , p. 706.
  32. ↑ Smith (1832) , p. 3.
  33. ↑ Smith (1835) , p. 37.
  34. ↑ Smith (1835) , p. 24.
  35. ↑ Neibaur (1844) ; Waite (1843) .
  36. ↑ Pratt (1840) , p. 5; Smith (1842a) , p. 707.
  37. ↑ 37,0 et 37,1 Neibaur (1844) .
  38. ↑ Smith (1842c) , p. 748.
  39. ↑ Taylor (1879) , p. 161. Taylor, who stated he had heard the story from Smith himself, said the personages were "the Lord" and "his Son Jesus."
  40. ↑ 1832 , p. 3.
  41. ↑ Waite (1843) .
  42. ↑ Smith (1842a) , p. 707; Pratt (1840) , p. 5.
  43. ↑ Waite (1843) Smith (1842c) , p. 748.
  44. ↑ Smith (1842c) , p. 748.
  45. ↑ Smith (1842a) , p. 707; Pratt (1840) , p. 5. One account also said that "many other things did [the personage] say unto me which I cannot write at this time." Smith (1842c) , p. 748.
  46. ↑ Waite (1843) ; Smith (1842c) , p. 748.
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