Recitation upon Examination

On Fast Sunday of September, 1984, I sat across from two elderly missionaries. They read to me the First Vision of Joseph Smith. Conviction and joy overcame me, and from that moment on I knew that Joseph Smith had seen both The Father and The Son, Both Holy Beings, and that the great work of the Restoration of the Gospel had begun. I felt blessed to live in a time when a knowledge of these events was made known.

Many years later I discovered that Joseph Smith had related his experience on two other occasions where his recitation of the event was recorded in writing. Now, some Latter-day Saints have taken not only the accounts but the explanation of their significance from sources who are antagonistic to our faith. These Saints believe the portrayal that essentially states that since Joseph Smith’s three recitations are not identical, Joseph Smith clearly lied. Since the second and third recitations got longer (as the antagonists claim), it is clear that Joseph Smith was embellishing the story as time went on until he produced a version powerful enough to dupe.

But here I wish to issue a call to reason and discernment. Question: Is it true that if a man (or woman) relates an event and does not relate the event in its entirety on, for example, three occasions, the variation in length and detail indicates dishonesty? Likewise, is it true that if the putative (supposed) witness’ length of recitation grows that the witness is embellishing?

I will be frank, most people will respond based on common sense. Clearly many Saints have rushed to the judgement that Joseph Smith lied about seeing God The Father and His Son…because Joseph dictated three recitations. I will be franker: In many instances our common sense is strongly influenced by naïve unfamiliarity.

So let us run an experiment. Rather than assuming that variations in length and detail in a recitation indicate mendacity (lying), let us examine recitations of the same event, told by the same witness, and then judge what actual behavior is when a witness to an event shares his (or her) experience with others on three occasions. And since Joseph Smith’s account is putative (alleged) Scripture, how about examining two examples from Scripture where the first-hand witness relates his event on three occasions to three different audiences? Let us begin with Paul on the road to Damascus.

You will recall that Saul (later renamed “Paul”) was on a mission to destroy Christians for their alleged heresy of believing that a Man whom the Sanhedrin condemned to death, Jesus Christ, was The Messiah, The Son of God. Saul had a vision, and Saul converted in this experience. For ease and convenience I have placed the recitations side by side, and I have grouped the verses so that we can view the way Paul related the similar points.

Acts 9:3-8	Acts 22:6-11	Acts 26:12-19
3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:	6 And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.	12 Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?	7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?	13 At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.
5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.	8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.	14 And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
	9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.	10 And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.	15 And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. 16 But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; 17 Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, 18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.		19 Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:
8 And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.	11 And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus.

Well, what do we have here? We may make the following observations:

1. It appears that the speaker, in this case Paul (Saul), conveys the sense of a message but not always the precise wording each time. Notice that Paul said that Jesus identified Himself saying “I am Jesus” but then “I am Jesus of Nazareth”. In the first recitation Paul states that he said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me do?”, but in the second recitation Paul states that he said, “What shall I do, Lord”. The sense is the same but the wording is not identical.

2. In his first and third recitations Paul mentions “kicking against the pricks”, but not in his second recitation. So the recitations may not always contain every detail.

3. The speaker may relate more details as time goes on. In the first recitation Paul states that he was told “It shall be told thee what thou shalt do.” In the second recitation Paul states that he was told “It shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.” And in the third recitation Paul reveals an entire directive he was given to take this message to the Gentiles, open their eyes to turn them from Satan to God, and to lead to their sanctification through faith in Jesus Christ.

But okay, I was told in graduate school that when you present evidence, if you have only one example, one example is as good as none. So let us see a second example of a man who had a vision, a man who relates that vision three times, and let us analyze the content of the three recitations. In this case I will refer the reader to The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, the story of Alma the younger’s conversion. Alma the younger was the son of a prophet, but Alma the younger rebelled. He not only forsook the faith of his father, he sought to destroy the entire Church of God. An angel appeared unto Alma the younger, and in this experience Alma the younger converted. Let us see his three recitations:

Mosiah 27:23-32	Alma 36:15-23	Alma 38:5-8
23 And it came to pass after they had fasted and prayed for the space of two days and two nights, the limbs of Alma received their strength, and he stood up and began to speak unto them, bidding them to be of good comfort: 24 For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit.	15 Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds.	5 And now my son, Shiblon, I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day.
		6 Now, my son, I would not that ye should think that I know these things of myself, but it is the Spirit of God which is in me which maketh these things known unto me; for if I had not been born of God I should not have known these things.
		7 But behold, the Lord in his great mercy sent his angel to declare unto me that I must stop the work of destruction among his people; yea, and I have seen an angel face to face, and he spake with me, and his voice was as thunder, and it shook the whole earth.
	16 And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul. 17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.	8 And it came to pass that I was three days and three nights in the most bitter pain and anguish of soul; and never, until I did cry out unto the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy, did I receive a remission of my sins. But behold, I did cry unto him and I did find peace to my soul.
	18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
25 And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; 26 And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.
27 I say unto you, unless this be the case, they must be cast off; and this I know, because I was like to be cast off. 28 Nevertheless, after wading through much tribulation, repenting nigh unto death, the Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God.	19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
29 My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more.	20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! 21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy. 22 Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there.
30 I rejected my Redeemer, and denied that which had been spoken of by our fathers; but now that they may foresee that he will come, and that he remembereth every creature of his creating, he will make himself manifest unto all. 31 Yea, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess before him. Yea, even at the last day, when all men shall stand to be judged of him, then shall they confess that he is God; then shall they confess, who live without God in the world, that the judgment of an everlasting punishment is just upon them; and they shall quake, and tremble, and shrink beneath the glance of his all-searching eye.	23 But behold, my limbs did receive their strength again, and I stood upon my feet, and did manifest unto the people that I had been born of God.	9 And now, my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness.
32 And now it came to pass that Alma began from this time forward to teach the people, and those who were with Alma at the time the angel appeared unto them, traveling round about through all the land, publishing to all the people the things which they had heard and seen, and preaching the word of God in much tribulation, being greatly persecuted by those who were unbelievers, being smitten by many of them.	24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

What do we see in the three recitations of Alma the younger? Let us make a small list.

1. Alma the younger does not reveal all details in every recitation. In fact, only in the first one does he relate that God The Father spoke to him and what God the Father told him. Only in the second recitation does Alma the younger relate what he said when he cried out to Jesus for mercy. Also critically important is that only in the second recitation does Alma the younger mention that he thought he saw God sitting on His throne, surrounded by angels, as Lehi saw. And only in the third recitation does Alma mention his “remission of sins”, though Alma did in effect describe that in each recitation.

2. Alma sometimes summarizes details rather than relaying them as a dialogue each time. In the first recitation Alma states what The Father told him about all mankind needing to be born again. In the second recitation Alma the younger summarizes the message without saying that The Father told him that very message, and in the third recitation Alma the younger counsels his son Shiblon apparently in a manner similar to how The Father counseled him in the vision.

So what have we seen in these two examples, one from Paul and the other from Alma the younger? We have seen that, contrary to common sense, witnesses of events do not reveal all the details during every recitation. Sometimes a witness reveals more details as time goes on, and sometimes a witness will summarize and thereby reveal less details as time goes on. We also learn that the witness may even quote others, for example, the witness may quote The Lord, but quote The Lord’s sense rather than precise wording every single time.

But if the recitations will vary in length and amount of details, how can we know whether the witness testimony is true? Well, what did Jesus say about witnesses? I can share a beautiful Scripture on this concept, but one key detail was lost in translation. I will compensate for that. Did you know that in Hebrew and in Aramaic, unlike in Greek or English, the word for “spirit” and “wind” are one and the same, they are identical? So in Hebrew and Aramaic, you only know whether you are speaking of the wind or the Spirit based on the context because the word “spirit” also means “wind” (and “breath”, for that matter). Now I share John 3:8:

The spirit/wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

What is the application of this verse? It is clear. That just as the wind (Spirit) comes on us and we feel it’s presence, and we understand it’s voice, but we cannot see the Spirit descending from the Presence of God, nor can we see the Spirit ascending to return to the Presence of God, (therefore we cannot know let alone prove the past or know and prove the future), we still know what we felt and we know what we understood. THAT is what being born of The Spirit is. That rebirth, that witness is not based on anything we saw or could show to the world any more than we can see where the wind blows from. Nor is that witness based on any future event we saw and could show the world any more than we saw where the wind blows to. But we do feel the Spirit and we do understand what the Spirit tells us, its voice--THAT is the witness of the Spirit. We felt it and we understood it in the present, in the now.

With a sense now more grounded in truth rather than naïve unfamiliarity, let us see Joseph Smith’s recitations side by side:

1832 Recital	1835 Recital	1838 Recital, JS History 1:14-20, 25
Therefore, I cried unto the Lord for mercy, for there was none else to whom I could go and obtain mercy, and the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness.	Being thus perplexed in mind I retired to the silent grove, and there bowed down before the Lord, under a realizing sense, (if the Bible be true), ask, and you shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened; seek, and you shall find. And again, if any man lack wisdom, let of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.	14 So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.
And while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord, in the sixteenth year of my age, a pillar of light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come down from above and rested upon me, and I was filled with the Spirit of God.	Information was what I most desired at this time, and with a fixed determination to obtain it, I called on the Lord for the first time in the place stated.
	Or in other words, I made a fruitless attempt to pray—my tongue seemed to be swollen in my mouth, so that I could not utter. I heard a noise behind me like someone walking towards me. I strove again to pray, but could not. The noise of walking seemed to draw nearer, and I sprang upon my feet and looked around, but saw no person or thing that was calculated to produce the noise of walking. I kneeled again, my mouth was opened and my tongue loosed. I called on the Lord in might prayer.	15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.
And the Lord opened the heavens upon me, and I saw the Lord, and he spake unto me saying, Joseph, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee. Go thy way, walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments.  Behold, I am the Lord of glory. I was crucified for the world, that all those who believe on my name may have eternal life. Behold, the world lieth in sin at this time and none doeth good, no not one. They have turned aside from the gospel, and keep not my commandments; they draw near to me with their lips while their hearts are far from me. And mine anger is kindling against the inhabitants of the earth to visit them according to this ungodliness, and to bring to pass that which hath been spoken by the mouth of the prophets and Apostles. Behold and lo, I come quickly, as it is written of me, in the cloud clothed in the glory of my Father.	A pillar of fire appeared above my head, which presently rested down upon me, and filled me with unspeakable joy. A personage appeared in the midst of this pillar of flame, which was spread all around, and yet nothing consumed. Another personage soon appeared like unto the first; he said unto me, Thy sins are forgiven thee. He testified also unto me that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I saw many angels in this vision.	16 But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. 17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! 18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join. 19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”
And my soul was filled with love, and for many days I could rejoice with great joy. And the Lord was with me, but [I] could find none that would believe the heavenly vision.	I was about 14 years old when I received this first communication…	20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home… 25 So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation.

We see that like Alma the younger, Joseph Smith shared a direct message from The Lord to him only in his first recitation. We also see that like Paul before King Agrippa, Joseph Smith relayed instructions from The Lord to him regarding his future mission, but relayed those details only in the third recitation. As with both Paul and Alma the younger, the length and amount of details varied, but, interestingly enough, all three men—Paul, Alma the younger and Joseph Smith—gave their richest details in that occasion that they perceived to be the most formal setting: In the case of Alma the younger, before the High Priest of the Church (his father) and other leaders; in the case of Paul before King Agrippa, and in the case of Joseph Smith, for publication to all the world.

Now, the reader may contend for alternative interpretations. You are certainly at liberty so to do. I ask always only one thing—that you remember that the passages quoted, at least, are actually textual.