It should again be acknowledged that since Joseph and Sidney were working on “the translation of the Scriptures” when this vision was given, this knowledge could have once been in the Bible and was being restored through Joseph (see the preface to section 76). Note also that Paul was forbidden to reveal his revelation. Paul’s treatise of the three different types of resurrection, recorded in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, was undoubtedly based on his vision. “And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth ) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Corinthians 12:3–4).Īlthough Paul mentions a third heaven, the Prophet Joseph’s explanation does much to clarify what he intended. Paul’s account is not much fuller, and although it sounds as if he is speaking of someone else, a careful reading of verses 5 through 7 reveals this man to be himself. Although Jacob saw a vision of the degrees of glory, the present text of Genesis provides only this meager account: “And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it” (Genesis 28:12). Although the brother of Jared also recorded his vision of the beginning of the world to the end thereof (see 2 Nephi 27:6–11), his record is apparently reserved for the Millennium, when only those of a terrestrial or celestial nature will be living on the earth. It is also possible that Joseph Smith was the one privileged to record this vision for the inhabitants of this telestial world just as John the Revelator was the one ordained to record the vision to the end of the world (see 1 Nephi 14:25, 27). While several men have seen a vision of the beginning of the world to the end thereof (for example, see 1 Nephi 14:26), Joseph Smith’s vision went beyond the scope of this world and into the eternal worlds of varying degrees of glory. “Paul ascended into the third heavens, and he could understand the three principal rounds of Jacob’s ladder-the telestial, the terrestrial, and the celestial glories or kingdoms, where Paul saw and heard things which were not lawful for him to utter.”

And even our knowledge of these two men having seen such a vision is dependent upon a statement by the Prophet Joseph Smith. Perhaps others have seen the same or similar vision, but there are only two other men recorded in our present-day scriptures to whom this great revelation was revealed: Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel (see Genesis 28:10–12), and Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles (see 2 Corinthians 12:1–7).

Perhaps the most comprehensive vision of this dispensation, as well as others, was given to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon on February 16, 1832, at Hiram, Ohio, in the upper story of the Johnson home.

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