The first time the story of Joseph Smith's first vision was ever printed was in a pamphlet written by Apostle Orson Pratt and published in Scotland while Pratt was on a mission there in 1840.

Two years later, in 1842, a non-Latterday Saint newspaper editor named John Wentworth solicited Joseph Smith to

write his own story about the rise in progress of the Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-day Saints. Joseph's response became known as the Wentworth letter and contained his fourth and final firsthand

telling of his first vision experience.

What's especially intriguing about this 1842 account is how much Joseph drew upon the language of Orson Pratt's original 1840 pamphlet

to tell about his own experience, which includes personal details not found in his previous

tellings of the vision. And in addition to influencing the language of Joseph's 1842 account,

Pratt's pamphlet also heavily influenced another insightful telling of Joseph's vision,

written by his fellow apostle Orson Hyde, which was published in Germany in

1842.

Today on Church History Matters, we explore each of these three accounts and their unique

contributions to our understanding of Joseph's first visionary experience.

I'm Scott Woodward, a managing director at Scripture Central,

and my co-host is Casey Griffiths, also a managing director at Scripture Central.

Thanks for joining us today.

Let's get into it. Hello and welcome to Church History Matters.

I'm Casey Paul Griffiths.

With me as always as the intrepid Scott Woodward,

Scott, say hi.

Hello, hello.

This is the third in a series we've been doing on the first vision.

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