All 4 of Joseph Smith’s firsthand accounts of the First Vision are now available in 10 languages. The Joseph Smith Papers and the Church History Department have translated these accounts and placed them online.

The best known account is the canonized version produced by Joseph in 1838 that is published with his personal history in the Pearl of Great Price. It has long been translated into many languages and distributed throughout the world in the church’s standard works.

The other firsthand accounts were produced in English in 1832, 1835, and 1842. Now, non-English speakers can read these essential records of Mormon history for the first time in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. To see images of the documents, along with English transcripts, visit JosephSmithPapers.org.

Each of these firsthand accounts was related by Joseph Smith at different times in his life, under different circumstances, and for different audiences. The accounts vary in detail, offering different perspectives of the same event, but relate a consistent story overall.

A detailed explanation of each of the accounts can be found on the Gospel Topics essay page “First Vision Accounts” on LDS.org.

The Joseph Smith Papers team has also created several short videos that provide additional insight about each firsthand account.

Video “Firsthand Accounts of the First Vision:”

Video “Joseph Smith and the First Vision:”