Question: Why did the Book of
Commandments published in 1833 not include the First Vision or restoration of
the priesthood?
One thing we have to understand
in order this is how the term in the title “Book of Commandments” was originally
understood. While we now commonly refer to Joseph Smith’s divine communication
as “revelations,” in the early Restoration these were referred to as “commandments.”
So, for instance, when Martin Harris was wondering whether he should actually
sell his farm in order to pay for the printing of the Book of Mormon, he came
to Joseph Smith and said, “I must have a commandment”—meaning a revelation
advising him on this question. Thus, the Book of Commandments was intended just
to be a publication of Joseph Smith’s “thus saith the Lord”-style revelations. It
was not intended to include accounts of early events of the Restoration,
such as the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the establishment of the
church, the First Vision, or the restoration of the priesthood.
It should be noted that many of
these sacred events, such as the First Vision and the priesthood restoration
events, were originally regarded as esoteric, and thus initially shared with
only a very limited inner circle. This is demonstrably the case with the
delivery of priesthood keys by Moses, Elias, Elijah, and the Savior on April 3,
1836. While Joseph’s journal records the event under that date, the event is
not otherwise mentioned in contemporaneous sources. And Joseph Smith appears to
have even deliberately obscured the event’s occurrence by speaking several
years later as if Elijah’s coming were yet future, when in fact it had already
occurred in 1836.
That Joseph would have kept this experience
esoteric is perhaps natural given that the experience itself echoes an esoteric
experience in the Bible, at the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus was there
visited by Moses and Elias (the Greek word for Elijah) and transfigured in the
presence of the apostles Peter, James, and John, whom Jesus then told to keep
the experience secret until the proper time (Matthew 17:9). Joseph Smith once
offered the understanding that the “Elias” in that event was John the Baptist
(JST John 1:21-28).
It is thus natural that when
Joseph Smith was visited by John the Baptist and by Peter, James, and John—all of
whom he understood to be participants in the New Testament esoteric event of
the Transfiguration—he would view these sacred visits as themselves esoteric in
character, and therefore share them only at the appropriate time. Similarly, Joseph’s
First Vision, which began with the same divine announcement as the
Transfiguration—“This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him” (Luke 9:35)—was naturally
understood by Joseph as another such esoteric event.
Given that we know Joseph Smith
and Oliver Cowdery kept secret for many years the angelic delivery of
priesthood keys at the Kirtland Temple, although the event was recorded in Joseph’s
journal, it is no surprise that they would have similarly kept under wraps for
some time the First Vision and their earlier priesthood restoration
experiences. (Donald Patrick Bradley Sr., “Proleptic Exaltation: Joseph Smith’s
First Vision as Seer Initiation and Ritual Endowment,” in The Temple: Seer
Ship, Craftsmanship, and Fellowship—Proceedings of the Seventh Interpreter
Foundation Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference “The Temple on Mount Zion”
September 28, 2024, ed. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and Stephen D. Ricks [Temple on
Mount Zion Series 8; Orem, Utah: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City:
Eborn Books, 2025], 15-16)
On a contemporary account of the visions as recorded in what
is now D&C 110, see here
from The Joseph Smith Papers website.
Do note that I think the questioner is wrong in claiming
that the First Vision is absent in the 1833 A Book of Commandments.
Section XXIV:6-7 (= D&C 20:5-6) reads:
6. For, after that it truly was
manifested unto this first elder, that he had received a remission of his sins;
he was entangled again in the vanities of the world;
7. But after truly repenting, God
ministered unto him by an holy angel, whose countenance was as lightning, and
whose garments were pure and white above all whiteness, and gave unto him
commandments which inspired him from on high, and gave unto him power, by the
means which were before prepared, that he should translate a book; . .
On this, see:
"Manifested"
in D&C 20:5-6: Further Evidence that D&C 20 Contains an Early Allusion
to the First Vision (cf. Frederik
S. Kleiner on the use of "manifest" and "manifestation" in
the Book of Mormon)
