In 1835, Joseph Smith shared his second recorded account of his First Vision with an eccentric visitor to Kirtland, Ohio who claimed to be a Jewish minister. How did this fact that Joseph believed he was speaking with a Jewish man shape and influence the details he chose to share and the language he used to tell about his experience? Also, three years later in 1838, after moving to Far West, Missouri in the aftermath of sever persecution in Ohio, Joseph began to record his official history with the help of several scribes, which begins with the account of his First Vision. What are the unique details of this account and why does it make sense to be the only “official” account of Joseph’s vision canonized in LDS scripture? And what are we to make of perhaps the most controversial line of this 1838 account where Jesus said of the Christian sects of the day that “they were all wrong” and “that all their creeds were an abomination” to him. What did this mean? And what did this NOT mean?
