Marquardt argues that the accounts developed from personal forgiveness and an angelic calling into a narrative of two divine personages and the rejection of existing churches. He treats the later account as a theological explanation of Church origins rather than a reliable chronology of the Palmyra revival, while allowing that Smith may have had a religious experience.
- H. Michael Marquardt, “The First Vision Stories: Their History and Development,” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 41, no. 1 (2021): 54–62.
This final account is thus more theological than historical