Help, I need references about JS sharing the FV

[MalcolmVillager]

I mentioned to DW that JS didn't share his First Vision with anyone for at least 12 years. She shy back that she didn't believe me since all those people and mobs persecuted him for it.

I am trying to find any resources, faithful if possible, that state the earliest documented sharing of the FV.

[wtfluff]

Mormonthink has quite a few references.

http://www.mormonthink.com/firstvisionweb.htm#ref6

Don't know any of them are "faitfhul" enough for your wife.

The Dialoge article, written by: JAMES B. ALLEN, Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University looks great if that will work though.

http://www.mormonismi.net/pdf/significa ... _allen.pdf

[Hagoth]

Here's a list of all of the evidence that Joseph was telling everyone about the first vision from the beginning:

(this space left intentionally blank by some smartass)

[MalcolmVillager]

Hagoth, this should work I am pretty sure that is the complete list of those who heard of it before 1831!

[el-asherah]

I mentioned to DW that JS didn't share his First Vision with anyone for at least 12 years. She shy back that she didn't believe me since all those people and mobs persecuted him for it.

I am trying to find any resources, faithful if possible, that state the earliest documented sharing of the FV.

There of course is the "Null Version" of the First Vision told by Oliver Cowdery in 1834. You can't get more faithful than Oliver Cowdery. See this prior thread viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1591&hilit=el+asherah

In Oliver Cowdery's testimony in 1834, Oliver states that at the time of the Book of Mormon Gold Plate vision in 1823 Joseph Smith did not know if a Supreme Being existed. This was 3-4 years AFTER the First Vision in the grove was suppose to have occurred.

AND all the things we now associated with the First Vision, were in 1834 associated with the Book of Mormon Gold plate vision, i.e. the revivals, the persecution, the family joining the Methodists, Joseph having his sins forgiven, and desiring to know if God exists and which church to join.

It appears in 1834 Joseph Smith did read the Oliver Cowdery account in the Messenger and Advocate and did cause a editorial correction to be made in a later edition to correct the year of the Gold Plate vision to be in his 17th year. Yet Joseph Smith never corrected the fact that he did not know if God existed when he was 17 nor any of the other facts that we know associated with the First Vision which at the time were associated with the Book of Mormon Vision

[el-asherah]

I mentioned to DW that JS didn't share his First Vision with anyone for at least 12 years.

There is no evidence he shared publicly the First Vision account with anyone until 1835 (15 years later).

The commonly accepted 12 year number comes from the church's dating of the Joseph Smith "Letter Book Account" to 1832. There is no evidence this account was ever shared publicly with anyone.

The church's 1832 Joseph Smith Letter Book Account's dating is based on very flimsy evidence. The dating can actually range from 1832 to 1837, with the most likely date being 1835. See this prior thread for details viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1614.

[2bizE]

Richard Bushman gave a talk at BYU-H this year and he spoke the the first visions and that nobody knew about it for the first 10 years of the church. He wondered what their testimony was built on as they did not know or think of JS as a prophet at that time.
This is a good source for your TBM wife.

https://devotional.byuh.edu/media161115



Forgiveness then is the first lesson I derive from the 1832 First Vision account. The second has to do with a peculiar fact about its usage. Joseph did not publish this story once it was written. He did not print the account in the church newspaper or add it to the Book of Commandments which was about to appear. So far as we know the 1832 account was never read in a church meeting. It was buried away in church records until discovered by a historian in the 1960s.

This withholding of the 1832 account was typical of the first decade of the Church. Very little was made of the First Vision in Church teachings until 1839 when for the first time the story of the vision appeared in print, in an account by Orson Pratt. The familiar 1838 account was not published until 1842. Joseph mentioned his experience to a visitor to Kirtland in 1835, but did not tell the story in any sermon we know about. Likely no more than a handful of Latter-day Saints had even heard of the First Vision before 1839.

Its notable absence from Church writings until 1839 is quite surprising. Parley Pratt published the most influential early Mormon tract, The Voice of Warning, in 1837. It summed up the Mormon message at that time without mentioning Joseph Smith’s name, much less his First Vision. Pratt emphasized the return of revelation without seeing a need to name the revelator, or describe the vision that launched the Restoration.

This puzzling absence moves us to ask: What was the message in that first decade? If Joseph Smith was not seeking to promote himself as a prophet, what was he promoting? What was the message if not a new prophet?

[el-asherah]

Forgiveness then is the first lesson I derive from the 1832 First Vision account. The second has to do with a peculiar fact about its usage. Joseph did not publish this story once it was written. He did not print the account in the church newspaper or add it to the Book of Commandments which was about to appear. So far as we know the 1832 account was never read in a church meeting. It was buried away in church records until discovered by a historian in the 1960s.

This withholding of the 1832 account was typical of the first decade of the Church. Very little was made of the First Vision in Church teachings until 1839 when for the first time the story of the vision appeared in print, in an account by Orson Pratt.

Could it be because the 1832 Letter Book First Vision Account was not written in 1832? but maybe later in 1835 - 1837? Frederick Williams produced a index of the letter book contents with the last entry dated Jan 1833, the 1832 Joseph Smith First Vision account is entirely missing from the index.