How the church began
The First Vision
Joseph Smith said he saw God and Jesus in 1820. His earliest written account, from 1832, describes it differently from the official 1838 account.
What the accounts say
The account in the Pearl of Great Price, written in 1838, describes two Personages, the Father introducing the Son. The Church's essay explains that the earliest known account, written in Joseph Smith's own hand in 1832, speaks of the Lord, and that later accounts add detail.
The earliest known account of the First Vision, the only account written in Joseph Smith’s own hand, is found in a short, unpublished autobiography Joseph Smith produced in the second half of 1832.
The Church's own words Gospel Topics essay, "First Vision Accounts" · source
17It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
Joseph Smith—History 1:17 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org
Why it matters
The Church's doctrine of the Father and the Son as two embodied beings is often taught from the First Vision. The earliest account does not clearly teach it; the essay itself says the 1832 account can be read to refer to one or two personages. A foundation that becomes clearer only with retelling is not the kind of witness the Bible asks for.
15One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.
Deuteronomy 19:15 (WEB) · context
16For we didn’t follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
2 Peter 1:16 (WEB) · context
Sources
- Joseph Smith—History 1:17; Gospel Topics essay "First Vision Accounts" (churchofjesuschrist.org).