Did Joseph Smith purposefully play down the significance...

[johnbatibas]

Did Joseph Smith purposefully play down the significance of the First Vision so as to not bring unwanted attention to himself or his family? I could only imagine the potential ramifications of making this kind of thing public during his young impressionable years. I have been a devoted LDS member for about 20yrs and have fully accepted Joseph Smith's version of events as he described. I can't help but wonder though, owing to the various forms the experience of the First Vision has taken, if he was doing this to keep the darkness at bay, if you will, until there was sufficient support from the wider community??

[mattctr]

Did Joseph Smith purposefully play down the significance of the First Vision so as to not bring unwanted attention to himself or his family? I could only imagine the potential ramifications of making this kind of thing public during his young impressionable years. I have been a devoted LDS member for about 20yrs and have fully accepted Joseph Smith's version of events as he described. I can't help but wonder though, owing to the various forms the experience of the First Vision has taken, if he was doing this to keep the darkness at bay, if you will, until there was sufficient support from the wider community??

Different accounts were given at different times to different audiences. I assume he had reasons for doing it that way.

Edit: My reply, above, seemed rather flippant upon re-reading. I've heard and read a pretty broad range of theories as to why Joseph did things this way, and the above reply was the simplest way I could summarize my own thoughts. I'm sure I'll enjoy reading everyone's thoughts on the matter, and I didn't mean to make light of an interesting question.

[firend]

There were different versions of Paul's vision as well. Even Jacob wrestled with an angel and most bible scholars admit the angel was God. So I believe that Joseph could be creative in his telling of the vision and all the versions he could tell are all true.

[BMC]

Did Joseph Smith purposefully play down the significance of the First Vision so as to not bring unwanted attention to himself or his family? I could only imagine the potential ramifications of making this kind of thing public during his young impressionable years. I have been a devoted LDS member for about 20yrs and have fully accepted Joseph Smith's version of events as he described. I can't help but wonder though, owing to the various forms the experience of the First Vision has taken, if he was doing this to keep the darkness at bay, if you will, until there was sufficient support from the wider community??

It could also be that he was overwhelmed with everything that was conveyed to him. Naturally certain details where left out in the beginning because of his maturity and spiritually undeveloped mind. As he recalled his experience over and over again, pondering the message received I have no doubt that certain aspects of the vision were impressed upon his mind greater than before, which I believed is how it developed overtime until he recalled the event and message in its entirety to the best of his capacity. Certain details to the experience would have been recalled later in greater detail than previously possibly. Maybe, he even doubted his own experience and in attempting to be humble about it, he played it down.

If we think about the whole experience, from wrestling with an unimaginable force, a being of absolute power and complete darkness and only being 14 years old, his thoughts and words truly cannot convey the sense of feeling that he had, and from darkness into the light until he became fully enveloped in the light and love of the Eternal Father and His Son, his head had to be swimming full of confusion, his heart pounding, adrenalin pumping until a complete peace settled upon him. It certainly would be a lot to take in for anyone, even to comprehend the magnitude of this experience and for sometime he most likely struggled to find all the words how best to convey this. His understanding and perspective was from a young mind, undeveloped not only spiritually but also of his physical mental capacity to fully comprehend all that had happened. As he grew spiritually and in maturity of age the ability to understand and comprehend the experiences also most likely grew with him. This is how I believe his experience was for him.

Most of the accounts were written by others upon hearing JS experience, it is also most likely that in recording his statement that their own perception and understanding of what was said was included and not necessarily verbatim. If we all listen to a person give a speech and we all took notes, some details would be different naturally some things would corroborate what was said and other things may fiercely contradict each other.

All interesting thoughts.

[ajax]

An amalgamated first vision has been put together by a guy named Kevin Hinckley.

When the different versions are all put together, they seem to fit pretty nicely.

http://kevinhinckley.com/uploads/Combin ... Vision.doc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[e-eye]

With my calling I end up speaking in church often. I will use the same experience with different talks and apply it to difference messages to go along with my topic. When I share a story like this I will share the details that best applys to the principal that I am teaching. Although, it is one experience I often will share multiple persepctives and parts of the story. I think this is also the case for the prophet Joseph. I have heard the brethren use the same story multiple times in their talks doing a similar thing where they add or leave out parts.

[Silas]

I have always been intrigued by the simple statement "...many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time." I don't believe that we've ever gotten all of the details about what happened there. The Lord must have given him a tremendous amount of information pertaining to his calling at that time.