For this year’s Come, Follow Me course of personal and church study focusing on the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History, Book of Mormon Central is pleased to offer a new series of short videos discussing the history and significance of Joseph Smith’s First Vision. The goal of these videos is to help the viewer better understand and appreciate what the First Vision is, why it’s important,...

Slightly modified from the foreword to Insights into Joseph Smith’s First Vision Joseph Smith’s First Vision of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ occupies a foundationally important position in the lives and faith of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Successive generations of latter-day prophets and apostles have testified of the consummate significance...

To participate in the bicentennial commemoration of the Restoration, to heighten appreciation for Joseph Smith’s First Vision, and to help better inform Latter-day Saints of the founding event of their history, earlier this year Book of Mormon Central (BMC) began publishing a series of short online articles offering insights into the First Vision. These “Joseph Smith–History Insights” have...

The article for today goes farther than any other publication in analyzing the elements mentioned by Joseph Smith in his accounts of his First Vision. The chapter below builds on an article published in 1970 by Professor James B. Allen in the official Church magazine, The Improvement Era. This chapter discusses in detail how the differences in these accounts can be understood. A first...

How many accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision in 1820 are there? Their sheer number can make things confusing. But the below article by Dean C. Jessee can be very helpful in answering this question. Reading the full texts of this whole collection of First Vision accounts was for me a powerful spiritual experience. The impact of these original writings is immeasurable. I recommend reading them...

Twenty-five years ago, I was deeply struck, seeing up close many striking details present in the rise of Christianity two thousand years ago with parallels in the rise of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ two hundred years ago. At that time, I was teaching a course at BYU on Masada and the world of the New Testament. At the same, I was editing BYU Studies and Church history...

Joseph Smith claimed that in 1820 he beheld a vision of God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. This “First Vision” started Joseph Smith on a path that ultimately led to the Restoration of Jesus Christ’s church in the latter days. Four accounts of the First Vision were written or dictated by Joseph himself. Five other accounts come from what others remembered him saying about his vision...