[Scoutmaster]

And the same smith that wrote nearly a dozen varying and contradictaory accounts of this event.

Godzilla? I think Joseph Smith, Jr. wrote only four of the accounts:

• The 1832 version, in his own handwriting (from Joseph Smith Letterbook 1, pp.2,3);
• The 1835 version (a November 9, 1835 entry in his diary);
• The 1838 version, first published in Times and Season, March 15, 1842, vol. 3, no. 10, pp. 727-728, 748-749, 753, and adopted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as the Official Version; and
• The 1844 version, in the chapter on Mormonism written by Joseph Smith for the book, An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States (edited by Daniel Rupp).

The other accounts weren't written by Joseph Smith:

• 1827, told by Joseph Smith, Sr. and Joseph Smith, Jr. to Willard Chase, and contained in Chase's 1833 affidavit;
• 1827, told by Martin Harris to given to Rev. John Clark, and published in his book Gleanings by the Way, printed in 1842, pp. 222-229;
• 1830, recounted by Joseph Smith to Peter Bauder in an interview, and then published in The Kingdom and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, printed in 1834, pp. 36-38;
• 1834/35, written by Oliver Cowery with Joseph Smith's help in the LDS periodical, LDS periodical Messenger and Advocate, Kirtland, Ohio, Dec. 1834, vol.1, no.3, as the first history of Mormonism;1835, as told by Smith to Erastus Holmes on November 14, 1835, originally published in the Deseret News of Saturday May 29, 1852; and
• 1859, by Martin Harris, in Tiffany’s Monthly, 1859, New York: Published by Joel Tiffany, vol. v.—12, pp. 163-170.

I don't consider pointing this out as "anti-Mormon." The LDS church recognizes that that Joseph Smith wrote or dictated four accounts and that they differ. Joseph Smith's Recitals of the First Vision, which is the LDS church's official reconciliation of differences in Smith's four accounts, comes straight from the www.lds.org website. There are plenty of articles in Brigham Young University Studies and Dialogue: A journal of Mormon Thought on the multiple accounts. The multiple accounts are simply a fact. How one interprets the contradictions (or I guess whether one considers the inconsistencies as contradictions) is the theological issue, and I'm not touching that.

[Godzilla]

Personally penned. Actually the “official” version wasn’t written by smith’s hand, but that of his scribe and though written in 1838, it was not published until 1842 in Times and Seasons.

The other accounts smith had direct oversight on and probably contributed to the writing, such as interviews and publications in lds periodicals. Excluding Harris’ 1827 acct, that makes 9 - that is why off the top of my head I said NEARLY a dozen.

In a detailed accounting of the versions found here:

http://www.irr.org/mit/first-vision/fvision-accounts.html

They conclude:

First, Joseph did not relate his story consistently, but changed key elements over the years. He changed:

The date / his age — from 1823 (age 16), to 1821 (age 15), to 1820 (age 14)

The reason or motive for seeking divine help — from no motive (a spirit appears with the news of gold plates), Bible reading and conviction of sins, a revival, a desire to know if God exists.

Who appears to him — a spirit, an angel, two angels, Jesus, many angels, the Father and the Son.

Second, common elements from early accounts raise questions about what appears to be a gradual evolution of Joseph Smith’s first vision story. Did Joseph begin to include a “Christian experience” in the telling of his story because Bauder noticed it was lacking? The earliest accounts given to Chase and Harris do not include this. There is a noticeable shift in the context of finding the gold plates, from 17 year-old money-digger to 14 year-old spiritual seeker. Is this an attempt to put his story into a more socially acceptable context? It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that as time went on, Joseph omitted uncomfortable but true parts of his history and replaced them with fictitious elements in order to make his story more socially acceptable and spiritually compelling.

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