The First Vision is officially portrayed as a physical visitation of God the Father and Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith in 1820. At no other time in history, before or since, has this happened, making the First Vision a singularity. Yet this “official account,” written in 1838, materially differs from an account written by Joseph Smith himself in 1`832. As well, Joseph Smith’s understanding of the nature of the Godhead did not encompass a physical Father in Heaven until at least 1838.
This Gospel Topics Essay provides a reconciliation of the various accounts of the First Vision.