After interacting with Orson Hyde in 1843, Joseph Smith declared that God the Father has a body of flesh and bone. This was the first time Joseph Smith had clarified and made it clear that the Father God had a fleshly body (a core LDS doctrine today distinguishing Mormonism from other Christian sects). Joseph Smith said God has a body after interacting with Orson Hyde. In 1843, Joseph responded to a sermon by Orson Hyde, and Joseph saying that God the Father had a body, which was recorded by scribes and was later canonized in 1876 as D&C 130:22. So if it wasn’t for our 3rd cousin Orson Hyde, LDS members today may not believe in the Father God’s tangible fleshly embodiment: for we would not have D&C 130:22 as LDS scripture without Orson Hyde, for D&C 130:22 is a response from Joseph Smith to our 3rd cousin Orson Hyde.
To show how important an event this was in Mormon history, it is necessary to note that prior to Smith’s study of the Hebrew language in 1835 (with Orson Hyde and a few others), Smith had believed in traditional monotheism (that there is only one Deity) and he had not yet taught that God the Father was a separate deity from the Son (Christ), having a tangible fleshly body. The first First Vision version of 1832, did not mention two separate individual Gods but only mentioned an appearance of Christ. The doctrine of the second and fifth Lecture on Faith (published in 1835) also taught that there is only one Deity and the Father is a “personage of spirit” (rather than a body of flesh). LDS scholars are aware of this change in doctrine on the Godhead. On pages 25 to 26 of the online article, A Reply to Dick Baer, LDS scholar/apologist John A. Tvedtnes explains that:
… [Joseph] was perfectly willing (and able) to change direction when the Lord contradicted any of his preconceptions. An example of this is the nature of God.
Joseph Smith came from a traditional Protestant environment, in which there was firm belief in the trinity of the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which teaches that there are three persons in one god and that they are all made of the same substance (spirit). These beliefs are only slightly modified in the Lectures on Faith, prepared in 1834 for the School of the Prophets and published in the Doctrine & Covenants in 1835 (originally, the lectures were the "doctrine", while the "covenants" were the revelations received by Joseph Smith). Lecture 5 contains the following statements:
"There are two personages who constitute the great, matchless, governing and supreme power... They are the Father and the Son: The Father being a personage of spirit... The son... a personage of tabernacle... possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit..." (1835 D&C, pp. 52-53)
"Q. How many personages are there in the Godhead?
A. Two: the Father and the Son." (p. 55)
"Q. What is the son?
A. First, he is a personage of tabernacle." (p. 56; the previous page indicates that the Father is "a personage of glory and power")
"Q. Do the Father and the Son possess the same mind?
A. They do...
Q. What is this mind?
A. The Holy Spirit." (p. 57)
Joseph had already seen the Father and the Son during their visit in 1820, so he was aware that there were two "personages." He knew from the Bible (Luke 24) that the Son had a body of flesh and bones. But he evidently continued to believe - in the absence of revealed information to the contrary - that the Father was a spirit only and that the Holy Ghost was merely the "mind" which united the Father and the Son. All this was to change when new information was received. On April 2, 1843, Joseph declared that "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also: but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit." (D&C 130:22) With this statement, it was seen that the Father, like the Son, has a body, and that the Holy Ghost is a "personage."
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Note that Tvetedness knows that it was this “this statement” in 1843, when it was “seen that the Father … has a body.” This 1843 statement is a direct response to our 3rd cousin Orson Hyde! For as Tvetedness notes, “[Smith] evidently continued to believe - in the absence of revealed information to the contrary - that the Father was a spirit only ... All this was to change when new information was received [on April 2, 1843].” This “new information” or insight Smith received occurred after listening to Orson Hyde, as Smith is directly responding to Orson Hyde in saying the Father has a body. So if Hyde had not been there that day in 1843 and had not said something to cause Smith to respond to him with words that were later canonized as D&C 130:22, then we'd only have the Fifth Lecture on Faith that says the Father is only a spirit. In fact, the Lectures were later decanonized and removed from the Scriptures after D&C 130:22 had been canonized in 1876, which confused LDS members as Lecture 5 says the Father is only a spirit and D&C 130:22 says the Father is a body of flesh. To avoid confusion, the LDS Leaders decided to just remove the Lectures on Faith from the scripture canon in 1921.
Tvetednes is not the only LDS scholar who admits that Joseph didn’t claim to see the Father as a flesh and bone being right away in the 1820s and early 1830s. LDS scholars/apologists, Ari D. Bruening and David L. Paulsen, in trying to make sense of the Fifth Lecture of Faith also admit that Joseph Smith, as late as 1835, “did not yet understand that the Father, like the Son, has a body of flesh and bones” (see Footnote 44 of The Development of the Mormon Understanding of God: Early Mormon Modalism and Other Myths by Ari D. Bruening, and David L. Paulsen, 2008).
To put this into perspective further, in the years of 1830 to 1921, the official LDS doctrine bound in LDS Scriptures was the Fifth Lecture on Faith (published in 1835), that did not teach that God the Father had a body of flesh but that the Father was only a “personage of spirit.” So if this interaction between our 3rd cousin Orson Hyde and Joseph Smith had never occurred in 1843, D&C 130: 22 would not have been canonized later on in 1876 by Orson Pratt, who decided it was important to canonize as D&C 130:22 the response from Smith to our cousin Orson Hyde, that God the Father had a body.
Again, D&C 130: 22, led to the removal of the former official church doctrine of The Lectures on Faith from the LDS scriptural canon in 1921. The Lectures were removed because there was a clear contradiction between the Fifth Lecture and D&C 130:22. So without Orson Hyde we would not have D&C 130:22 (canonized in 1876), which is the only official scriptural source that teaches that God the Father has a body of flesh and bones.