According to this site, “Orson Hyde wrote a treatise on the faith, doctrine, and history of the Church which he then translated and published in German. Hyde’s work was titled Ein Ruf aus der Wuste, which was the first time an account of the First Vision was published in a foreign language.” In his description of Joseph Smith First Vision, in 1842 Orson Hyde clarifies and integrates the 1832 and 1838 First Vision versions thus:
At this sacred moment, the natural world around him was excluded from his view, so that he would be open to the presentation of heavenly and spiritual things. Two glorious heavenly personages stood before him, resembling each other exactly in features and stature. They told him that his prayer had been answered and that the Lord had decided to grant him a special blessing. He was also told that he should not join any of the religious sects or denominations, because all of them erred in doctrine and none were recognized by God as his church and kingdom. …
The 1832 First Vision emphasizes Jesus only as Lord and Joseph Smith receives a forgiveness of sins. We see no contradiction with the 1838 account based on Hyde saying “They told him that his prayer had been answered and that the Lord had decided to grant him a special blessing.” This could be the blessing of a forgiveness of sins. Then Hyde says, “He [Christ] also told …” In Hyde’s version we then see what Joseph Smith may have meant by the 1832 account that only mentions Jesus, which is that because Jesus and God the Father “[resemble] each other exactly in features and stature” (as Hyde puts it). it is understandable that Joseph Smith would only mention Christ in the 1832 version, as seeing Christ was in his mind the same as seeing the Father, which is corroborated in John 14:8-9 (NKJV):
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
In other words, the Father and Son were nearly “identical twins” as a duplicate genome basically, which I discuss in my blog series here.
