The one account of the first vision that
every latter-day saint knows and that
most scholars would be familiar with is
the 1838 account
it's the fullest and best developed of
all of Joseph's accounts clearly he
designed this one to be his history the
history that he was going to tell and
have published to the world he published
this one for example in his lifetime
whereas he didn't publish the earlier
ones. Joseph Smith was aware from the day
the church was organized that he had a
responsibility to help provide a history
of the unfolding of this work he's tried
several times to get various history
initiatives underway but by 1838 there
is no ongoing history project and the
history of the church is still basically
in Joseph Smith's life and heart and
that of his associates so when he moves
at a time of crisis from Ohio to
Missouri one of the very first things he
does as soon as he settled in is get
together with a clerk
George Robinson and Sidney Rigdon and
Joseph Smith said about producing a
history within a few weeks there are
difficulties of Missouri within a few
months Joseph Smith is imprisoned the
Saints are driven out and all of this of
course grinds to a stop and there's no
way it could be a priority until they
get reestablished in commerce which
becomes Nauvoo in 1839 one of the first
things he does once he's out of prison
once they re-established at a home
beginning to settle he starts working
with his clerk James Mulholland to
produce the history one of the things we
notice is that Joseph Smith and his
helpers the people he dictated it to and
those he he worked on it with are really
determined to make this the the full
story but this time instead of writing a
short account as he did in 1832 he
envisioned this as being part of a much
larger project a foundation of his
personal experiences that became the
corporate story of the Latter day Saints
a history of a people of which he was a
leader and so from the beginning he
intended this to be an account to be
published he intended it to be account
that would
be red and meaningful to too many people
latter-day saints and others he frames
it as an opportunity to tell his own
story after so many false reports a
story he wants in print and he wants
people to know and therefore he's very
careful to give the most detailed most
complete account he can give he
emphasizes that there's competing
churches in his neighborhood this is the
problem as well as the blessing of
pluralism or multitude of churches and
Joseph Smith's time and place and as he
shops around among them he's the more
confused and so the passage about his
crisis's in all of the accounts very
rich and emotional and it's especially
so in the 1838 account I had great
anxiety I reflected on it again and
again knowing that if anyone needed
wisdom from God I did how to act I did
not know and unless I could get more
wisdom from God than I then had I would
never know the crisis of not knowing is
just so pronounced this great
storytelling among other things and it's
Joseph Smith really tapping in to the
feelings of what it was like to be his
teenage self and revealing that to us
the 1838 then was from the beginning
conceived of as a more elaborate or more
detailed account which would be for
publication and for sharing beyond any
inner circle it's clearly his fullest
effort to keep a history as he'd been
commanded to do
