This is a list of references to seer stones in the Latter Day Saint movement history. The role and understanding of seer stones in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has shifted throughout its history.[1] References to the Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints), spectacles, and interpreters are also included, as the term has been conflated at times with the term seer stones.[2]
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Transcription
References prior to 1830
| Person | Source | Date | Note | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnathon Hadley | Palmyra Freeman | 1829 August 11 | Earliest known reference to the Book of Mormon anywhere[3] | "In the fall of 1827, a person by the name of Joseph Smith, of Manchester Ontario county, reported that he had been visited in a dream by the spirit of the Almighty, and informed that in a certain hill in that town, was deposited this Golden Bible, containing an ancient record of a divine nature and origin. After having been thrice such visited, as he states, he proceeded to the spot, and after penetrating 'mother earth' a short distance, the Bible was found, together with a huge pair of Spectacles! He had been directed, however, not to let any mortal being examine them, 'under no less penalty' than instant death! They were therefore nicely wrapped up, and excluded from the 'vulgar gaze of poor wicked mortals!' It was said that the leaves of the Bible were plates of gold, about eight inches long, six wide, and one eighth of an inch thick, on which were engraved char[ac]ters or hieroglyphics. By placing the spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least) interpret these characters."[4] |
| Rochester Gem | 1829 September 5 | "A man by the name of Martin Harris was in this village a few days since endeavoring to make a contract for printing a large quantity of a work called the Golden Bible. He gave something like the following account of it. In the autumn of 1827, a man named Joseph Smith of Manchester, in Ontario County, said that he had been visited by the spirit of the Almighty in a dream, and informed that in a certain hill in that town was deposited a Golden Bible, containing an ancient record of divine origin. He states that after the third visit from the same spirit in a dream he proceeded to the spot, removed the earth, and there found the Bible, together with a large pair of spectacles. He had also been directed to let no mortal see them under the penalty of immediate death, which injunction he steadfastly adhered to. The treasure consisted of a number of gold plates, about eight inches long, six wide, and one-eighth of an inch thick, on which were engraved hieroglyphics. By placing the spectacles in a hat and looking into it, Smith interprets the characters into the English language."[5] |
References from 1830 through 1839
| Person | Source | Date | Note | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Advertiser and Ohio Phoenix | 1830 June 2 | "[Joseph Smith] pretended that he had been entrusted by God with a golden bible which had been always hidden from the world. Smith would put his face into a hat in which had a white stone, and pretend to read from it, while his coadjutor transcribed."[6] | ||
| John Sheerer | letter to Absalom Peters | 1830 November 18 | "[Joseph Smith] has been known, in these parts, for some time, as a kind of juggler, who has pretended, through a glass, to see money underground &c, &c."[7] | |
| W. W. Phelps | From letter to E. D. Howe | 1831 January 15 | "Martin Harris “is honest, and sincerely declares upon his soul’s salvation that the book is true, and was interpreted by Joseph Smith, through a pair of silver spectacles, found with the plates."[8] | |
| Anonymous Presbyterian letter | Worcester Independent Messenger | 1831 May 27 | "[Joseph Smith] has 10 years' translating to do; he looks in a small stone he has, and there reads the will of the Lord and writes it for the good of his fellow-men; he can read a person's heart by looking in his face."[9] | |
| Abram W. Benton, Oliver Cowdery | Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate | 1831 March | Recollection of Smith's June 1830 trial | "For several years preceding the appearance of his book, he was about the country in the character of a glass-looker: pretending, by means of a certain stone, or glass, which he put in a hat, to be able to discover lost goods, hidden treasures, mines of gold and silver, x. Although he constantly failed in his pretensions, still he had his dupes who put implicit confidence in all his words. In this town, a wealthy farmer, named Josiah Stowell, together with others, spent large sums of money in digging for hidden money, which this Smith pretended he could see, and told them where to dig; but they never found their treasure. ... During the trial it was shown that the Book of Mormon was brought to light by the same magic power by which he pretended to tell fortunes, discover hidden treasures, etc. Oliver Cowdery, one of the three witnesses to the book, testified under oath, that said Smith found with the plates, from which he translated his book, two transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows. That by looking through these, he was able to read in English, the reformed Egyptian characters, which were engraved on the plates. So much for the gift and power of God, by which Smith says he translated his book. Two transparent stones, undoubtedly of the same properties, and the gift of the same spirit as the one in which he looked to find his neighbor’s goods."[10] |
| Ezra Booth | Ravenna Ohio Star | 1831 October 24 | Booth had become antagonistic, and wrote a series of letters denouncing Smith. | "These treasures were discovered several years since, by means of the dark glass, the same with which Smith says he translated most of the Book of Mormon."[11] |
| Anonymous Preacher | New Hampshire Gazette | 1831 October 25 | "At the place appointed he found in the earth a box which contained a set of thin plates resembling gold, with Arabic characters inscribed on them. The plates were minutely described as being connected with rings in the shape of the letter D, which facilitated the opening and shutting of the book. The preacher said he found in the same place two stones with which he was enabled by placing them over his eyes and putting his head in a dark corner to decipher the hieroglyphics on the plates!"[12] | |
| Joseph Smith | 1832 History | 1832 | Written in Smith's own handwriting | "I am not learned but the Lord had prepared spectacles for to read the Book therefore I commenced translating the characters and thus the Prop[h]icy of Is<ia>ah was fulfilled."[13] |
| Nancy Towle | 1832 Book Vicissitudes | 1832 | She was a traveling preacher who passed through New York and visited the early church | "He accordingly went; and was directed by the angel to a certain spot of ground, where was deposited a 'Box'—and in that box contained 'Plates;' which resembled gold; also, a pair of 'interpreters;' (as he called them,) that resembled spectacles; by looking into which, he could read a writing engraven upon the plates, though to himself, in a tongue unknown."[14] |
| Alexander Campbell | Book Delusions: An Analysis of the Book of Mormon | 1832 | "It is a translation made through stone spectacles, in a dark room, and in the hat of the prophet Smith, from the reformed Egyptian!!"[15] | |
| W. W. Phelps | The Evening and Morning Star | 1833 January | "It was translated by the gift and power of God, by an unlearned man, through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles—(known, perhaps in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim)."[16] | |
| Joseph Knight Sr. | Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History | 1834 - 1847 (unknown exactly) | Written by Knight at an unknown time before his death. | "... [Joseph Smith] seamed to think more of the glasses or the urim and thummem [thummim] then [than] he did of the Plates for, says he, 'I can see any thing; they are Marvelus.' ... now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his eyes then he would take a sentance and it would apper [sic] in Brite Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away the next sentance would Come and so on. But if it was not Spelt rite it would not go away till it was rite, so we see it was marvelous thus was the hol [whole] translated."[17] |
| Peter Bauder | Book The Kingdom and Gospel of Jesus Christ | 1834 | From October 1830 interview with Smith | "He obtained a parcel of plate resembling gold, on which were engraved what he did not understand, only by the aid of a glass which he also obtained with the plate, by which means he was enabled to translate the characters on the plate into English."[18] |
| Charles Anthon | Mormonism Unvailed | 1834 | see Anthon Transcript | "A ‘gold book,’ consisting of a number of plates of gold, fastened together in the shape of a book by wires of the same metal, had been dug up in the northern part of the state of New York, and along with the book an enormous pair of ‘spectacles’! These spectacles were so large, that, if a person attempted to look through them, his two eyes would have to be turned towards one of the glasses merely, the spectacles in question being altogether too large for the breadth of the human face. Whoever examined the plates through the spectacles, was enabled not only to read them, but fully to understand their meaning. All this knowledge, however, was confined at that time to a young man, who had the trunk containing the book and spectacles in his sole possession. This young man was placed behind a curtain, in the garret of a farmhouse, and, being thus concealed from view, put on the spectacles occasionally, or rather, looked through one of the glasses, deciphered the characters in the book, and, having committed some of them to paper, handed copies from behind the curtain, to those who stood on the outside. Not a word, however, was said about the plates having been deciphered ‘by the gift of God.’ Everything, in this way, was effected by the large pair of spectacles."[19] |
| Willard Chase | Mormonism Unvailed | 1834 | "Joseph's neighbor Samuel Lawrence 'went with him to a singular looking hill, in Manchester, and shewed him where the treasure was. Lawrence asked him if he had ever discovered anything with the plates of gold; he said no: he then asked him to look in his stone, to see if there was anything with them. He looked, and said there was nothing; he told him to look again, and see if there was not a large pair of specks with the plates; he looked and soon saw a pair of spectacles, the same with which Joseph says he translated the Book of Mormon.' "[20] | |
| Alva Hale | Mormonism Unvailed | 1834 | Brother in law of Joseph Smith | "'ALVA HALE, son of Isaac Hale, states, that Joseph Smith Jr. told him that his (Smith’s) gift in seeing with a stone and hat, was a gift from God; but also states 'that Smith told him at another time that this 'peeping' was all d—d nonsense. He (Smith) was deceived himself but did not intend to deceive others;—that he intended to quit the business, (of peeping) and labor for his livelihood:' That afterwards, Smith told him, he should see the Plates from which he translated the book of Mormon;' and accordingly at the time specified by Smith, he (Hale) 'called to see the plates, but Smith did not show them, but appeared angry:'"[21] |
| Isaac Hale | Mormonism Unvailed | 1834 | Father-in-law of Joseph Smith | "The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret, was the same as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the Book of Plates were at the same time hid in the woods!"[22] |
| Henry Harris | Mormonism Unvailed | 1834 | "[Joseph Smith] had a stone which he used to put in his hat, by means of which he professed to tell people's fortunes. ... said he had a revelation from God that told him they [the plates] were hid in a certain hill and he looked in his stone and saw them in the place of deposit. ... By looking on the plates he said he could not understand the words, but it was made known to him that he was the person that must translate them, and on looking through the stone was enabled to translate."[23] | |
| Eber D. Howe | Mormonism Unvailed | 1834 | "Instead of looking at the characters inscribed upon the plates, the prophet was obliged to resort to the old 'peep stone,' which he formerly used in money-digging. This he placed in a hat, or box, into which he also thrust his face. Through the stone he could then discover a single word at a time, which he repeated aloud to his amanuensis, who committed it to paper, when another word would immediately appear, and thus the performance continued to the end of the book. Another account they give of the translation, is, that it was performed with the big spectacles before mentioned, and which were in fact, the identical Urim and Thummim mentioned in Exodus 28–30, and were brought away from Jerusalem by the heroes of the book, handed down from one generation to another, and finally buried up in Ontario county, some fifteen centuries since, to enable Smith to translate the plates without looking at them! ... Now, whether the two methods for translating, one by a pair of stone spectacles 'set in the rims of a bow;' and the other by one stone, were provided against accident, we cannot determine—perhaps they were limited in their appropriate uses—at all events the plan meets our approbation. We are informed that Smith used a stone in a hat, for the purpose of translating the plates. The spectacles and plates were found together, but were taken from him and hid up again before he had translated one word, and he has never seen them since ..."[24] | |
| Joshua McKune | Mormonism Unvailed | 1834 | Resident of Harmony Pennsylvania | "That they informed him that 'Smith had found a sword, breast-plate, and a pair of spectacles, at the time he found the gold plates'—that these were to be shewn to all the world as evidence of the truth of what was contained in those plates;' and that 'he (M'Kune) and others should see them at a specified time:'" [25] |
| Isaac Hale | Susquehanna Register Interview | 1834 May 1 | Joseph translated the Book of Mormon "with a stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the Book of Plates were at the same time hid in the woods."[26] | |
| Oliver Cowdery | Messenger and Advocate | 1834 October | "Near the time of the setting of the Sun, Sabbath evening, April 5th, 1829, my natural eyes, for the first time beheld this brother. He then resided in Harmony, Susquehanna county Penn. On Monday the 6th, I assisted him in arranging some business of a temporal nature, and on Tuesday the 7th, commenced to write the book of Mormon. These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated, with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites whould [would] have said, "Interpreters," the history, or record, called 'The book of Mormon.' "[27] | |
| Elijah Shaw | Exeter Christian Journal | 1835 May 28 | "Smith pretended that he had found some golden or brass plates, like the leaves of a book, hid in a box in the earth, to which he was directed by an Angel, in 1827,—that the writing on them was in the 'Reformed Egyptian language;'—that he was inspired to interpret the writing, or engraving, by putting a plate in his hat, putting two smooth flat stones, which he found in the box, in the hat, and putting his face therein—that he could not write, but as he translated, one Oliver Cowdery wrote it down."[28] | |
| Patriarchal Blessing Book | 1835 October 7 | "The Following blessing was given by president Joseph Smith, Jr. through the Urim and Thummim, according to the spirit of prophecy and revelation, on Wednesday, the 7th of October, 1835, and written by president Frederick G. Williams, who acted as Clerk."[29] | ||
| Edward Partridge | Journal | 1835 December 27 | "...In the evening between 8 and 9 o'clock I was told by a young girl that she saw my wife and five children, apparently well, the little boy lying on the floor or hearth, she also said that she saw a little dark haired girl at and with Peter Whitmer's family. The description answered for my Eliza very well as to size, etc. This girl sees by the help of a stone. She told me she saw a seer's stone for me. It was a small blue stone with a hole in one corner, that it was 6 or 8 feet in the ground, not far from the lake shore, a little west of Buffalo on a hill, a tree growing near the spot. I think she said it was near the point of a hill."[30] | |
| Cleveland Whig | 1835 August 5 | Oliver Cowdery wrote a rebuttal to this article in the Messenger and Advocate | "We are credibly informed that the Mormons have purchased of Mr. Chandler, three of the mummies, which he recently exhibited in this village; and that the prophet Joe has ascertained, by examining the papyrus through his spectacles, that they are the bodies of Joseph (the son of Abraham,) and King Abimeleck, and his daughter."[31] | |
| Joseph Smith | Journal | 1835 November 9 | "Also that the Urim and Thummim, was hid up with the record, and that God would give me power to translate it, with the assistance of this instrument he then gradually vanished out of my sight, or the vision closed."[32] | |
| Truman Coe | Hudson Ohio Observer | 1836 August 11 | Letter to the Editor, from interview with Joseph Smith | "An angel descended and warned him that God was about to make an astonishing revelation to the world, and then directed him to go to such a place, and after prying up a stone he should find a number of plates of the color of gold inscribed with hieroglyphics, and under them a breastplate, and under that a transparent stone or stones which was the Urim and Thummin mentioned by Moses. ...The manner of translation was as wonderful as the discovery. By putting his finger on one of the characters and imploring divine aid, then looking through the Urim and Thummin, he would see the import written in plain English on a screen placed before him. After delivering this to his amanuensis, he would again proceed in the same manner and obtain the meaning of the next character, and so on till he came to a part of the plates which were sealed up, and there was commanded to desist: and he says he has a promise from God that in due time he will enable him to translate the remainder."[33] |
| Joseph Smith | History, Vol. A-1 | 1838 | Version is canonized by the LDS Church in the Pearl of Great Price | "Also that there were two stones in silver bows and these (put in <stones fastened> to a breast plate) which constituted what is called the Urim & Thummin deposited with the plates, and <the possession and use of these stones> that was what constituted seers in ancient or former times and that God <had> prepared them for the purpose of translating the book. ...Immediately after my arrival there I commenced copying the characters of all the plates. I copyed a considerable number of them and by means of the Urim and Thummin I translated some of them which I did between the time I arrived at the house of my wife's father in the month of December, and the February following. ...We mutually agreed to settle <it> by the Urim and Thummin, and the following is the word which we received; ...having desired with much earnestness that I should enquire of the Lord concerning them, I did so, through the means of the Urim and Thummin and obtained for them in succession the following Revelations."[34] |
| Joseph Smith | Elders' Journal | 1838 July | "I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them; by the means of which, I translated the plates; and thus came the book of Mormon."[35] | |
| John Corrill | A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints Commonly Called Mormons | 1839 | "Through much difficulty, on account of persecution and poverty, he translated it by degrees, with the assistance of Oliver Cowdery and others, who wrote as he dictated. If I remember right, the language in which it was written on the plates, was the reformed Egyptian. And Martin Harris, who contributed much towards the publication of the Book, drew off several of the characters on paper, took them to the learned in New York, to see if they could be translated, but was requested to bring them the plates, which Smith was forbidden to do of the Lord, but was commanded to translate them himself, which he did, by the help of what he calls the Urim and Thummim, two stones set in a bow, and furnished by an Angel for that purpose. 'After finishing the translation, the plates and stones of Urim and Thummim were again taken and concealed by the Angel for a wise purpose, and the translation published to the world in the winter of A. D. 1829 and '30.' "[36] |
References between 1840 and 1859
| Person | Source | Date | Note | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orson Pratt | Book | 1840 | "With the records was found 'a curious instrument, called by the ancients the Urim and Thummim, which consisted of two transparent stones, clear as crystal, set in the two rims of a bow. This was in use, in ancient times, by persons called seers. It was an instrument, by the use of which, they received revelation of things distant, or of things past or future.'"[37] | |
| Martin Harris | Antagonistic interview in The Episcopal Recorder | 1840 September 5 | "There had been a revelation made to [Joseph Smith] by which he had discovered this sacred deposit, and two transparent stones, through which, as a sort of spectacles, he could read the Bible, although the box or ark that contained it, had not yet been opened; and that by looking through those mysterious stones, he had transcribed from one of the leaves of this book. ...He was already in possession of the two transparent stones laid up with the GOLDEN BIBLE, by looking through which he was enabled to read the golden letters on the plates in the box. How he obtained these spectacles without opening the chest, Harris could not tell. ...Pretended to look through his spectacles, or transparent stones, and would then write down or repeat what he saw, when repeated aloud, was written down by Harris."[38] | |
| Charles Anthon | Gleanings by the Way | 1841 April 3 | As told to Reverend T.W. Coit | "On my asking him by whom the copy was made, he gravely stated, that along with the golden book there had been dug up a very large pair of spectacles! so large in fact that if a man were to hold them in front of his face, his two eyes would merely look through one of the glasses, and the remaining part of the spectacles would project a considerable distance sideways! These spectacles possessed, it seems a very valuable property, of enabling anyone who looked through them, (or rather through one of the lenses,) not only to decipher the characters on the plates, but also to comprehend their exact meaning, and be able to translate them!! My informant assured me that this curious property of the spectacles had been actually tested, and found to be true. A young man, it seems, had been placed in the garret of a farm-house, with a curtain before him, and having fastened the spectacles to his head, had read several pages in the golden book, and communicated their contents in writing to certain persons stationed on the outside of the curtain. He had also copied off one page of the book in the original character, which he had in like manner handed over to those who were separated from him by the curtain, and this copy was the paper which the countryman had brought with him."[39] |
| Josiah Jones | Article in Evangalist magazine | 1841 June 1 (published) | 1831 writing of an 1830 event | "In the last part of October, 1830, four men appeared here by the names of [Oliver] Cowdery, [Parley P.] Pratt, [Peter] Whitmer and [Ziba] Peterson; they stated they were from Palmyra, Ontario County, N.Y. with a book, which they said contained what was engraven on gold plates found in a stone box in the ground in the town of Manchester, Ontario County, N.Y., and was found about three years ago by a man named Joseph Smith, Jr. who had translated it by looking into a stone or two stones, when put into a dark place, which stones he said were found in the box with the plates. They affirmed while he looked through the stone spectacles another sat by and wrote what he told them, and thus the book was all written. ... [Oliver] Cowdery was requested to state how the plates were found, which he did. He stated that Smith looked into or through the transparent stones to translate what was on the plates. I then asked him if he had ever looked through the stones to see what he could see in them; his reply was that he was not permitted to look into them. I asked him who debarred him from looking into them; he remained sometime in silence, then said that he had so much confidence in his friend Smith, who told him that he must not look into them, that he did not presume to do so lest he should tempt God and be struck dead."[40] |
| William Smith | James Murdock's "The Mormons and Their Prophet" | 1841 July 2, 3 | "After this Joseph Smith was supernaturally assisted to read and to understand the inscription; and he was directed to translate a great part of it. The pages which he was not to translate were found to be sealed together, so that he did not even read them and learn their contents. With an assistant to correct his English, he translated so much of the inscription as now makes the book of Mormon."[41] | |
| Lucy Mack Smith | Book, The City of Mormons, or, Three Days at Nauvoo | 1842 | As quoted by Henry Caswell, an English Reverend who visited Nauvoo | "The angel of the Lord appeared to him fifteen years since, and shewed him the cave where the original golden plates of the book of Mormon were deposited. He shewed him also the Urim and Thummim, by which he might understand the meaning of the inscriptions on the plates, and he shewed him the golden breastplate of the high priesthood. My son received these precious gifts, he interpreted the holy record, and now the believers in that revelation are more than a hundred thousand in number. I have myself seen and handled the golden plates; they are about eight inches long, and six wide; some of them are sealed together and are not to be opened, and some of them are loose. They are all connected by a ring which passes through a hole at the end of each plate, and are covered with letters beautifully engraved. I have seen and felt also the Urim and Thummim. They resemble two large bright diamonds set in a bow like a pair of spectacles. My son puts these over his eyes when he reads unknown languages, and they enable him to interpret them in English. I have likewise carried in my hands the sacred breastplate. It is composed of pure gold, and is made to fit the breast very exactly."[42] |
| Joseph Smith | Times and Seasons | 1842 March 1 | "With the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called 'Urim and Thummim;' which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate. Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift, and power of God."[43] | |
| Parley P. Pratt | Millennial Star | 1842 July 3 | "The record is now in course of translation by the means of the Urim and Thummim, and proves to be a record written partly by the father of the faithful, Abraham, and finished by Joseph when in Egypt."[44] | |
| Priddy Meeks | Journal | 1842 October | "[Joseph Smith] said in time of war the Nephites had the advantage of their enemies by looking in the seer stone which would reveal whatever they wished to know. I believe a peepstone is one of the same piece with the Urim and Thummim, if we understood it."[45] | |
| Lucy Mack Smith | History | 1844-1845 | Revised and printed in 1853 as History of Joseph Smith by His Mother | "Joseph saw this and followed me Mother said he do not be uneasy all is right see here Said he I have got the key I knew not what he meant but took the article in my hands and examing it <*> <(*with no covering but a silk handkerchief)> <found> that it consisted of 2 smooth <3 cornered diamonds set in glass and the glass was set in silver bows> con[n]ected with each other in the same way that old fashioned spectacles are made ..."
"Joseph kept the urim and thumim constantly about his person an[d] he could by this means ascertain at any moment if> the plates were in danger or having just looked into them before Emma got there he perceived her coming and came up out of the well and met her. ..." "The thing which spoke of that Joseph termed a Key was indeed nothing more nor less than a urim and Thummim by which the angel manifested those things to <him> that were shown him in vision by the which also he could at any time ascertain the approach of danger Either to himself or the record and for this cause he kept these things constantly about his person ..." "I continued <said> Joseph my suplications to God without cessation that his mercy might again be exercised towards me and on the 22 of september I had the Joy and satisfaction of again receiving the <urim and Thummin> into my possession and I have commenced translating and Emma writes for me now but the angel said that the Lord woul[d] send some one to write for me and I trust that if it will be so. he also said that the <he> angel seemed <was> rejoiced when he gave him <me> back the plates <urim and Thummim> and that <God> was pleased with <my> faithfulness and humility and loved <me> for <my> penitence and dilligence in prayer in the which <I> had performed his duty so well as to receive the <urim and Thummin> and <was> able to enter upon the work of translation again. ... " "They <were> soon deeply engaged in the work of writing and translation, and progressed rapidly; one morning however they sat down to their usual work when the first thing that presented itself to Joseph was a commandment from God that he and Oliver should repair to the water each of them be baptized they immediately went down to the susquehanah river and obeyed the mandate given them through the urim and Thumim ... In the meantime, Joseph was 150 miles distant and knew naught of the matter except an intimation that was given through the urim and thummin."[46] |
| Joseph Smith | In Book An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States | 1844 | Compiled by I. Daniel Rump | "With the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called 'Urim and Thummim;' which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim on a bow fastened to a breastplate. Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record, by the gift and power of God."[47] |
| Hosea Stout | Diary | 1845 September 9 | "...went with Brother Harmon and Horr to see a boy look in a "peep stone," for some money which he said he could see hid up in the ground. He would look and we would dig but he found no money; he said it would move as we approached it."[48] | |
| Oliver Cowdery | Diary of Reuben Miller | 1848 October 21 | Miller wrote what Cowdery said in his journal | "I wrote with my own pen, the entire Book of Mormon [save a few pages], as it fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as he translated it by the gift and power of God, by means of the Urim and Thummim, or as it is called by that book, 'holy interpreters'."[49] |
| Philo Dibble | Millennial Star | 1849 January | "At the time of the martyrdom, [Philo Dibble] rescued a small seer stone, at the Nauvoo Mansion House, from falling into the hands of the apostates. He brought this seer stone across the plains. Later, as curator of church history, he showed the death masks, the seer stone, and other items of historical value on his lecture tours throughout the territory of Utah."[50] | |
| Orsamus Turner | History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase | 1851 | Turner was a resident of Palmyra and acquaintance of Smith and Harris | Martin Harris said "that on the top of the box containing the plates, 'a pair of large spectacles were found, the stones or glass set in which were opaque to all but the prophet;' that 'these belonged to Mormon, the engraver of the plates, arid without them the plates could not be read.' Harris assumed that himself and Cowdery were the chosen amanuenses, and that the prophet Joseph, curtained from the world and them, with his spectacles read from the gold plates what they committed to paper." ... "They showed him such a pebble as may any day be picked up on the shore of Lake Ontario -- the common hornblende -- carefully wrapped in cotton and kept in a mysterious box. They said it was by looking at this stone, in a hat, the light excluded, that Joseph discovered the plates. This, it will be observed, differs materially from Joseph's story of the angel. It was the same stone the Smiths had used in money-digging, and in some pretended discoveries of stolen property." ... "Long before the Gold Bible demonstration, the Smith family had, with some sinister object in view, whispered another fraud in the ears of the credulous. They pretended that, in digging for money at Mormon lull, they came across a chest, three by two feet in size, covered with a dark-colored stone. In the centre of the stone was a white spot about the size of a sixpence. Enlarging, the spot increased to the size of a twenty-four pound shot, and then exploded with a terrible noise. The chest vanished and all was utter darkness."[51] |
| Heber C. Kimball | Journal of Discourses | 1853 August 13 | "The question is asked many times, 'Has brother Brigham got the Urim and Thummim?' Yes, he has got everything; everything that is necessary for him to receive the will and mind of God to this people."[52] | |
| Hosea Stout | Diary | 1856 February 25 | "Monday, 25 Feb. 1856: President Young exhibited the seer's stone with which the Prophet Joseph discovered the plates of the Book of Mormon, to the Regents this evening. It is said to be a silecious granite dark color almost black with light colored stripes somewhat resembling petrified poplar or cotton wood bark. It was about the size but not the shape of a hen's egg."[53] | |
| Martin Harris | Tiffany's Monthly | 1859 June | "Joseph had a stone which was dug from the well of Mason Chase twenty-four feet from the surface. In this stone he could see many things to my certain knowledge. ...In the first place, he told me of this stone, and proposed to bind it on his eyes, and run a race with me in the woods. ...The two stones set in a bow of silver were about two inches in diameter, perfectly round, and about five-eighths of an inch thick at the centre; but not so thick at the edges where they came into the bow. They were joined by a round bar of silver, about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and about four inches long, which, with the two stones, would make eight inches. The stones were white, like polished marble, with a few gray streaks. I never dared to look into them by placing them in the hat, because Moses said that 'no man could see God and live; and we could see anything we wished by looking into them; and I could not keep the desire to see God out of my mind. And besides, we had a command to let no man look into them, except by the command of God, lest he should 'look aught and perish.'"[54] |
References between 1860 and 1879
| Person | Source | Date | Note | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pomeroy Tucker | Book titled "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism" | 1867 | "With the book was also found, or so pretended, a huge pair of spectacles in a perfect state of preservation, or the Urim and Thummim, as afterward interpreted, whereby the mystic record was to be translated and the wonderful dealings of God revealed to man, by the superhuman power of Joe Smith. This spectacle pretension, however, is believed to have been purely an after-thought." page 33
"The Urim and Thummim, found with the records, were two transparent crystals set in the rims of a bow, in the form of spectacles of enormous size. The is constituted the seer's instrument whereby the records were to be translated and the mysteries of hidden things revealed, and it was to supersede the further use of the magic stone." "The manuscripts were in the handwriting of one Oliver Cowdery, which had been written down by him, as he and Smith declared, from the translations, word for word, as made by the latter with the aid of the mammoth spectacles or Urim and Thummim, and verbally announced by him from behind a blanket–screen drawn across a dark corner of a room at his residence—for at this time the original revelation, limiting to the prophet the right of seeing the sacred plates, had not yet been changed, and the view with the instrument used was even too brilliant for his own spiritualized eyes in the light! This was the story of the first series of translations, which was always persisted in by the few persons connected with the business at this early period of its progress. The single significance of this theory will doubtless be manifest, when the facts are stated in explanation, that Smith could not write in a legible hand, and hence an amanuensis or scribe was necessary. Cowdery had been a schoolmaster, and was the only man in the band who could make a copy for the printer. ... Here, by the power of God, and with the aid of two crystals set in a bow (the Urim and Thummim), he translated the unsealed portion of the records into the English tongue, in obedience to the divine command." [55] | |
| Elizabeth Whitmer Cowdery | "My Dear Friends" | 1870 February | Wife of Oliver Cowdery | "He translated the most of it at my Father’s house. And I often sat by and saw and heard them translate and write for hours together. Joseph never had a curtain drawn between him and his scribe while he was translating. He would place the director in his hat, and then place his face in his hat, so as to exclude the light, and then read the words as they appeared before him."[56] |
| Emma Smith | Letter to Emma Pilgrim | 1870 March 27 | "Now the first that my husband translated was translated by the use of the Urim and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost. After that he used a small stone, not exactly black, but it was rather a dark color. I cannot tell whether that account in the 'Times and Seasons' is correct or not because someone stole all my books and I have none to refer to at present. If I can find one that has that account I will tell you what is true and what is not."[57] | |
| Fayette Lapham | The Historical Magazine | 1870 May | Based on a recollected interview with Joseph Smith Sr. | "His son Joseph, whom he called the illiterate, when about fourteen years of age, happened to be where a man was looking into a dark stone and telling people, therefrom, where to dig for money and other things. Joseph requested the privilege of looking into the stone, which he did by putting his face into the hat where the stone was. It proved to be not the right stone for him; but he could see some things, and, among them, he saw the stone, and where it was, in which he could see whatever he wished to see. Smith claims and believes that there is a stone of this quality, somewhere, for every one. The place where he saw the stone was not far from their house; and, under pretence of digging a well, they found water and the stone at a depth of twenty or twenty-two feet. After this, Joseph spent about two years looking into this stone, telling fortunes, where to find lost things, and where to dig for money and other hidden treasure. ...During that year, Joseph went to the town of Harmony, in the State of Pennsylvania, at the request of some one who wanted the assistance of his divining rod and stone in finding hidden treasure, supposed to have been deposited there by the Indians or others. ...Under the first plate, or lid, he found a pair of spectacles, about one and a half inches longer than those used at the present day, the eyes not of glass, but of diamond. ...Returning home, he one day tried the spectacles, and found that, by looking through them, he could see everything—past, present, and future—and could also read and understand the characters written on the plates. ...Joseph, with spectacles on, translated the characters on the gold plates, and Harris recorded the result. ...Joseph and Harris returned to Harmony, and found the plates missing—the Lord had taken them also. Then Joseph put on the spectacles, and saw where the Lord had hid them, among the rocks, in the mountains. Though not allowed to get them, he could, by the help of the spectacles, read them where they were, as well as if they were before him. ...[relating a story from the Book of Mormon] They also found something of which they did not know the use, but when they went into the tabernacle, a voice said, 'What have you got in your hand, there?' They replied that they did not know, but had come to inquire; when the voice said, 'Put it on your face, and put your face in a skin, and you will see what it is.' They did so, and could see everything of the past, present, and future; and it was the same spectacles that Joseph found with the gold plates."[58] |
| Martin Harris | Des Moines Iowa State Register | 1870 August 28 | "By means of the urim and thummim 'a pair of large spectacles;' as Mr. Harris termed them, the translation was made, and Mr. Harris claims to have written, of the translations as they were given by Smith, '116 solid pages of [fools]cap: The remainder was written by others.'"[59] | |
| Martin Harris | The Historical Record | 1870 September 4 | As published by Andrew Jenson, editor, in 1887 | "On Sunday, Sept. 4, 1870, Martin Harris addressed a congregation of Saints in Salt Lake City. He related an incident which occurred during the time that he wrote that portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone. Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say, “Written,” and if correctly written, that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place; but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used. Martin said that after continued translation they would become weary, and would go down to the river and exercise by throwing stones out on the river, etc. While so doing, on one occasion, Martin Harris found a stone very much resembling the one used for translating, and on resuming their labor of translation, he put in place the stone that he had found. He said that the Prophet remained silent, unusually and intently gazing in darkness, no traces of the usual sentences appearing. Much surprised, Joseph exclaimed, “Martin! What is the matter! All is as dark as Egypt!” Martin’s countenance betrayed him, and the Prophet asked Martin why he had done so. Martin said, to stop the mouths of fools, who had told him that the Prophet had learned those sentences and was merely repeating them, etc.
"Martin said further that the seer stones differed in appearance entirely from the Urim and Thummim obtained with the plates, which were two clear stones set in two rims, very much resembling spectacles, only they were larger. Martin said, there were not many pages translated while he wrote, after which Oliver Cowdery and others did the writing." [60] |
| Emily C. Blackman | History of Susquehanna County Pennsylvania | 1873 | " 'Joseph, can anybody else translate strange languages by the help of them spectacles?' 'O, yes!' was the answer. ... 'now if you will let me try the spectacles, and if, by looking through them, I can translate these strange languages into English, then I’ll be one of your disciples.' "[61] | |
| Orson Pratt | Journal of Discourses | 1873 May 18 | "Noah, after having preached the Gospel and published glad tidings among the nations, was commanded to build an ark. He had a Urim and Thummim by which he was enabled to discern all things pertaining to the ark and its pattern."[62] | |
| Orson Pratt | Journal of Discourses | 1873 October 7 | "The Most High says: 'I deign to reveal unto you hidden things, things that have been kept hid from the foundation of the world.' Among these hidden things that are to be revealed are the books of genealogy, tracing individuals and nations among all people, back to ancient times. It may be inquired: 'How can all this be done?' We answer, by the Urim and Thummim, which the Lord God has ordained to be used in the midst of his holy house, in his Temple. Just as fast as we are able to administer for them, so will the Lord God make manifest, by the manifestation of holy angels in his house, and by the Urim and Thummim, those names that are necessary, of our ancient kindred and friends, that they may be traced back to the time when the Priesthood was on the earth in ancient days."[63] | |
| David Whitmer | Chicago Times | 1875 August 7 | The interpreters were "shaped like a pair of ordinary spectacles, though much larger, and at least half an inch in thickness, and perfectly opaque save to the prophetic vision of Joseph Smith."[1] | |
| Sidney Rigdon | Pittsburgh Telegraph | 1876 August 24 | First printed decades after the fact, from a report on a sermon given in 1836 in Meadville, Pennsylvania | "When the box was once safe upon deck every one then was anxious to hear what was in it, when we were told that it contained fourteen gold plates, covered with mysterious characters, together with the sword of Gideon and the spectacles of Samuel the prophet! Joe, he said, was a very illiterate man, was unable either to read or write; but when he put on his nose the prophet's spectacles, and took the gold plates one by one, letter by letter and word by word presented themselves, and with the aid of an amanuensis the Bible that he held in his hand was a literal translation of the writing upon the gold plates.[64] |
| William D. Purple | Joseph Smith, The Originator of Mormonism | 1877 May 2 | "[Joseph Smith] said when he was a lad, he heard of a neighboring girl some three miles from him, who could look into a glass and see anything however hidden from others; that he was seized with a strong desire to see her and her glass; that after much effort he induced his parents to let him visit her. He did so, and was permitted to look in the glass, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light. He was greatly surprised to see but one thing, which was a small stone, a great way off. It soon became luminous, and dazzeled his eyes, and after a short time it became as intense as the mid-day sun. He said that the stone was under the roots of a tree or shrub as large as his arm, situated about a mile up a small stream that puts in on the South side of Lake Erie, not far from the New York and Pennsylvania line. He often had an opportunity to look in the glass, and with the same result. The luminous stone alone attracted his attention. This singular circumstance occupied his mind for some years, when he left his father's house, and with his youthful zeal traveled west in search of this luminous stone. He took a few shillings in money and some provisions with him. He stopped on the road with a farmer, and worked three days, and replenished his means of support. After traveling some one hundred and fifty miles he found himself at the mouth of the creek. He did not have the glass with him, but he knew its exact location. He borrowed an old ax and a hoe, and repaired to the tree With some labor and exertion he found the stone, carried it to the creek, washed and wiped it dry, sat down on the bank, placed it in his hat, and discovered that time, place and distance were annihilated; that all intervening obstacles were removed, and that he possessed one of the attributes of Deity, an All-Seeing-Eye. He arose with a thankful heart, carried his tools to their owner, turned his feet towards the rising sun, and sought with wearing limbs his long desired home. On the request of the Court, he exhibited the stone. It was about the size of a small hen's egg, in the shape of a high-instepped shape. It was composed of layers of different colors passing diagonally through it. It was very hard and smooth, perhaps by being carried in the pocket."[65] | |
| John H. Gilbert | Detroit Post and Tribune | 1877 December 3 | Gilbert was the chief compositor of the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon (see E. B. Grandin) | "This change was rendered necessary to carry out the theory afterward adopted that Smith dug up these writings and translated them from 'reformed Egyptian' by means of a pair of supernatural spectacles. ...But nobody but Joe himself ever saw the golden tablets or the far-seeing spectacles. He dictated the book, concealed behind a curtain, and it was written down by Cowdery. This course seemed to be rendered necessary by the fact that Joe did not know how to write."[66] |
| Orson Pratt | Journal of Discourses | 1877 December 9 | "...we have every reason to believe that the time is not far distinct, and that there are some living among the young now upon the earth, that will live to behold great numbers of revelations given, and will behold other books come forth and other records translated by the Urim and Thummim, that same instrument that Joseph Smith used in the translation of the 'Book of Mormon', which will again come forth and be revealed to the seer and revelator that God will raise up by which these ancient records will be brought to light."[67] | |
| James R.B. Van Cleave | Letter to Joseph Smith III | 1878 | Speaking in reference to Joseph Smith receiving D&C 34[68] | "On arriving there Joseph produced a small stone called a seer stone, and putting it into a Hat soon commenced speaking and asked Elder Pratt to write as he would speak."[69] |
| Oliver Cowdery | Millennial Star | 1878 | Cowdery had been dead decades when this was published | "Joseph received several revelations to which I was witness by means of the seer stone, but he could receive also without any instrument."[70] |
| David Whitmer | Deseret News | 1878 August 16 | Cowdery had been dead decades when this was published | "Did Joseph use the Urim and Thummim when he translated? "The Urim and Thummim were two white stones, each of them cased in as spectacles are, in a kind of silver casing, but the bow between the stones was more heavy, and longer apart between the stones, than we usually find it in spectacles. Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, Emma and my brother John each at different times wrote for Joseph as he translated."[1] |
| Orson Pratt | Journal of Discourses | 1878 August 25 | "The Prophet translated the part of these writings which, as I have said is contained in the Pearl of Great Price, and known as the Book of Abraham. Thus you see one of the first gifts bestowed by the Lord for the benefit of His people, was that of revelation, the gift to translate, by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, the gift of bringing to light old and ancient records. Have any of the other denominations got this gift among them? Go and inquire through all of Christendom and do not miss one denomination."[71] | |
| Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith | Millennial Star | 1878 December 16 | "At such times Joseph used the 'seer stone' when inquiring of the Lord, and receiving revelations, but that he was so thoroughly endowed with the inspiration of the Almighty and the spirit of revelation that he often received them without any instrument or other means than the operation of the spirit upon his mind."[72] | |
| John H. Gilbert | Letter to James T. Cobb | 1879 February 10 | "Late in 1827 or early in '28, was the first I heard Harris speak of Jo's finding the plates, and with the plates a pair of large spectacles, by looking through which Jo could translate the hieroglyphics on the plates into English."[73] | |
| Hiel Lewis and Joseph Lewis | Amboy Journal | 1879 April 30 | Cousins of Emma Smith | "Our recollections of the precise language may be faulty, but as to the substance, the following is correct: ... That in the same box with the plates were spectacles; the bows were of gold, and the eyes were stone, and by looking through these spectacles all the characters on the plates were translated into English.[74] |
| Hiel Lewis | Amboy Journal | 1879 June 4 | A follow up to the 1879 April 30 letter | "Smith translated his book of Mormon mostly with this same peep stone and hat—he, sitting in his house, and the plates hid far away. ...Smith translated the book of Mormon by means of the same peep stone, and under the same inspiration that directed his enchantments and dog sacrifices; it was all by the same spirit."[75] |
| William W. Blair | Saints Herald | 1879 June 15 | "The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph’s placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating, word after word, while the scribe—Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery, or some other, wrote it down. ... He had thought that Joseph might have found the writings of some good man and, committing them to memory, recited them to his scribes from time to time."[76] | |
| Michael Morse | Saints' Herald | 1879 June 15 | Morse was Joseph Smith's brother in law (married to Trial Hale, sister of Emma) | "When Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon, [Morse] had occasion more than once to go into his immediate presence, and saw him engaged at his work of translation. 'The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating word after word, while the scribes—Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery, or some other wrote it down."[77] |
| Emma Smith | Interview with her son, Joseph Smith III | 1879 October 1 | "In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us. ...The plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table-cloth, which I had given him to fold them in."[78] | |
| David Whitmer | Saints' Herald | 1879 November 15 | According to Edward Traughber | "With the sanction of David Whitmer, and by his authority, I now state that he does not say that Joseph Smith ever translated in his presence by aid of Urim and Thummim; but by means of one dark colored, opaque stone, called a 'Seer Stone,' which was placed in the crown of a hat, into which Joseph put his face, so as to exclude the external light. Then, a spiritual light would shine forth, and parchment would appear before Joseph, upon which was a line of characters from the plates, and under it, the translation in English; at least, so Joseph said."[1] |
| David Whitmer | Saints' Herald | 1879 November 15 | Thomas Wood Smith, "Letter to the Editor." | "<David Whitmer> said that Joseph possessed, and used the Urim and Thummim in the translation of the inscriptions referred to, and I remember being much pleased with that statement, as I had heard of the "Seer stone" being used. And unless I dreamed the interview, or very soon after failed to recollect the occasion, he described the form and size of the said Urim and Thummim. The nearest approach to a retraction of my testimony as given in the Fall River Herald and that given publicly in many places from the stand from January, 1876, till now, is, that unless I altogether misunderstood 'Father Whitmer' on this point, he said the translation was done by the aid of the Urim and Thummim. If he says he did not intend to convey such an impression to my mind, then I say I regret that I misunderstood him, and unintentionally have misrepresented him. But that I understood him as represented by me frequently I still affirm. If Father Whitmer will say over his own signature, that he never said, or at least never intended to say, that Joseph possessed or used in translating the Book of Mormon, the Urim and Thummim, I will agree to not repeat my testimony as seen in the Fall River Herald on that point."[1] |
References from 1880 through 1889
| Person | Source | Date | Note | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Smith, as remembered by Lorenzo Brown | "Sayings of Joseph, by Those Who Heard Him at Different Times" | 1880 | remembering of an 1832 event | "After I got through translating the Book of Mormon, I took up the Bible to read with the Urim and Thummim. I read the first chapter of Genesis and saw the things as they were done. I turned over the next and the next, and the whole passed before me like a grand panorama; and so on chapter after chapter until I read the whole of it. I saw it all!"[79] |
| David Whitmer | Saints' Herald | 1880 January 1 | As remembered by Eri B. Mullin, "Letter to the Editor." | "I for my part know <David Whitmer> said that Joseph had the instrument Urim and Thummim. I asked him how they looked. He said they looked like spectacles, and he (Joseph) would put them on and look in a hat, or put his face in the hat and read. Says I, 'Did he have the plates in there.' 'No, the words would appear, and if he failed to spell the word right, it would stay till it was spelled right, then pass away; another come, and so on.'"[1] |
| Samuel Brush | Lippincott's Magazine | 1880 August | "At the time of the translation he often called Reuben Hale away from his work, and the pair went for a walk. Reuben also explained the phenomenon of the peek-stone on the theory of 'deflected light,' Mr. Brush declares that Martin Harris was a believer in 'second sight,' and that 'Smith was a good and kind neighbor,'—testimony which is also given by Mrs. McKune, Mrs. Squires and Mr. Skinner."[80] | |
| Frederic G. Mather | Lippincott's Magazine | 1880 August | Mather was a writer who interviewed early acquaintances of Joseph Smith | "With these plates would be found the only means by which they could be read, the wonderful spectacles known as the 'Urim and Thummim.' Joe was not averse to such a revelation, for his hazel rod and his 'peek-stone' had already failed him."[81] |
| Martin Harris | Interview with Simon Smith, in letter to Joseph Smith III | 1880 December 29 | "He said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone. ...Martin said further that the seer stone differed in appearance entirely from the Urim and Thummim that was obtained with the plates, which were two clear stones set in two rims, very much resembled spectacles, only they were larger. Martin said there were not many pages translated while he wrote; after which Oliver Cowdery and others did the writing."[82] | |
| Anna Ruth Eaton | The Origin of Mormonism | 1881 | "Accompanying the plates is a pair of huge spectacles, the Urim and Thummim, by the aid of which the tablets are to become available. He soon finds it convenient to visit relatives in Pennsylvania, in which state, Rigdon was then sojourning. After a while he returns with an accurate translation."[83] | |
| Joseph Curtis | Journal | 1881 | "[Joseph Smith]saw an angel with a view of the hill Cumorah & the plates of gold had certain instructions got the plates & by the assistance of the Urim & Thumin translated them by the gift & power of God."[84] | |
| Orlando Saunders | Quoted in Saints Herald | 1881 June 1 | Born in 1803, Saunders was a neighbor of Smith in Palmyra[85] | "The Chase children claimed the curiosity [stone], but Joe seized and retained it."[86] |
| David Whitmer | Kansas City Journal-Post | 1881 June 5 | "I, as well as all of my father's family, Smith's wife, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris were present during the translation. The translation was by Smith, and the manner as follows: He had two small stones of a chocolate color, nearly egg shaped and perfectly smooth, but not transparent, called interpreters, which were given him with the plates. He did not use the plates in translation, but would hold the interpreters to his eyes and cover his face with a hat, excluding all light, and before him would appear what seemed to be parchment on which would appear the characters of the plates on a line at the top, and immediately below would appear the translation in English."[1] | |
| David Whitmer | Kansas City Journal-Post Letter to the Editor | 1881 June 19 | "I did not wish to be understood as saying that those referred to as being present were all of the time in the immediate presence of the translator, but were at the place and saw how the translation was conducted. I did not say that Smith used 'two small stones;' as stated nor did I call the stone 'interpreters:' I stated that 'he used one stone (not two) and called it a sun stone:' The 'interpreters' were as I understood taken from Smith and were not used by him after losing the first 116 pages as stated. It is my understanding that the stone referred to was furnished him when he commenced translating again after losing the 116 pages. "My statement was and now is that in translating he put the stone in his hat and putting his face in his hat so as to exclude the light and that then the light and characters appeared in the hat together with the interpretation which he uttered and was written by the scribe and which was tested at the time as stated."[1] | |
| Jans Christian Anderson Weibye | Daybooks, no. 6 | 1881 September 22 | "James Wareham said to me after Eliza R. Snow Smith that the Prophet Joseph Smith had a Peepstone (caled in the Book of Doc & Covenant Gaselum) that he got by digging in the Ladies Garden 25 feet down in the Ground. The Lord Reviled [revealed] to Joseph Smith that such a Stone was 25 feet down in the Ground but he [J. Smith] did not know how to get but; but he went to the Lady there owned the Garden and asked her if she did not wish to have a Well dug in her Garden, she said yes, he could find no plase where there was Watter only in the Center of the Garden, she did not like it so well to have the Well in the Center, but rather than not have the Well she concluded to have the Well in the Centre of the Garden and Joseph Smith the Prophet found the Peepstone 25 feet down he could see many things in that Stone, but Oliver Cowdery stol the Stone from Joseph Smith, and years afterwards gave it to Phinehas Young who was there on visit for him to give it to Prst Brigham Young, but he did not do it, but kept it till after Prst Brigham Young was dead, but before Phinahas Young died he gave the Peepstone to Prst John Taylor"[1] | |
| David Whitmer | Interview in Chicago Times | 1881 October 17 | "The tablets or plates were translated by Smith, who used a small oval kidney-shaped stone, called Urim and Thummin, that seemed endowed with the marvelous power of converting the characters on the plates, when used by Smith, into English, who would then dictate to Cowdery what to write. Frequently, one character would make two lines of manuscript, while others made but a word or two words. Mr. Whitmer emphatically asserts as did Harris and Cowdery, that while Smith was dictating the translation he had no manuscript notes or other means of knowledge save the seer stone and the characters as shown on the plates, he being present and cognizant how it was done."[1] | |
| Edward Stevenson | Deseret News | 1881 November 30 | "The Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he used the seer stone. ...By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say, 'Written,' and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used."[87] | |
| Franklin D. Richards | Journal | 1882 March 9 | "Saw the seer stone that Oliver Cowdery gave Phineas Young and Phineas gave it to Prest. Taylor, The pouch containing made by Emma."[88] | |
| Josiah Quincy Jr. | Figures of the Past | 1883 | "I have quoted enough to show what really good material Smith managed to draw into his net. Were such fish to be caught with Spaulding's tedious romance and a puerile fable of undecipherable gold plates and gigantic spectacles?"[89] | |
| William Smith | William Smith on Mormonism | 1883 | "In consequence of his vision, and his having the golden plates and refusing to show them, a great persecution arose against the whole family, and he was compelled to remove into Pennsylvania with the plates, where he translated them by means of the Urim and Thummim, (which he obtained with the plates), and the power of God. The manner in which this was done was by looking into the Urim and Thummim, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light, (the plates lying near by covered up), and reading off the translation, which appeared in the stone by the power of God."[90] | |
| Thurlow Weed | Autobiography | 1884 | "About 1829 a stout, round, smooth-faced young man, between twenty-five and thirty, with the air and manners of a person without occupation, came into the 'Rochester Telegraph' office and said he wanted a book printed, and added that he had been directed in a vision to a place in the woods ... and that he found a 'golden Bible,' from which he was directed to copy the book which he wanted published. He then placed what he called a 'tablet' in his hat, from which he read a chapter of the 'Book of Mormon,' a chapter which seemed so senseless that I thought the man either crazed or a very shallow impostor, and therefore declined to become a publisher."[91] | |
| Samuel W. Richards | Deseret Evening News | 1884 March 22 | Conversation with Oliver Cowdery remembered by Samuel W. Richards decades after Cowdery died | "I was surprised to see the bright recollection he seemed to have of his early experience with the prophet Joseph, especially as relating to the translation of the Book of Mormon, some of which I will here relate. He represents Joseph as sitting by a table with the plates before him, and he reading the record with the Urim & Thummim. Oliver, his scribe, sits close beside to hear and write every word as translated. This is done by holding the translators over the words of the written record, and the translation appears distinctly in the instrument, which had been touched by the finger of God and dedicated and consecrated for the express purpose of translating languages."[92] |
| Martin Harris | Saints' Herald | 1884 May 24 | "I was Joseph Smith's scribe, and wrote for him a great deal; for he was such a poor writer, and could not even draw up a note of hand as his education was so limited. I also wrote for him about one third of the first part of the translation of the plates as he interpreted them by the Urim and Thummim."[93] | |
| David Whitmer | Quoted in Edmund C. Briggs letter to the editor in Saints' Herald | 1884 June 21 | "The boys, Joseph and Oliver, worked hard, early and late, while translating the plates. It was slow work, and they could write only a few pages a day: "Of Joseph he continued: 'He could not do a thing except he was humble, and just right before the Lord: "I said, 'Why not?' "He replied: 'The Urim and Thummim would look dark; he could not see a thing in them:' "'How did it appear in them?' we asked. "His answer was: 'The letters appeared on them in light, and would not go off until they were written correctly by Oliver. When Joseph could not pronounce the words he spelled them out letter by letter:'"[1] | |
| William Smith | Saints' Herald | 1884 October 4 | "When Joseph received the plates he a[l]so received the Urim and Thummim, which he would place in a hat to exclude all light, and with the plates by his side he translated the characters, which were cut into the plates with some sharp instrument, into English. And thus, letter by letter, word by word, sentence by sentence, the whole book was translated."[94] | |
| Ellen E. Dickenson | New Light on Mormonism | 1885 | The niece of Solomon Spaulding, who wrote to her book to argue for a connection between the Book of Mormon and Manuscript Found. A resident of upstate New York. | " 'While he was watching the digging of a well, or himself digging it, he found, or pretended to find, a peculiarly shaped stone that resembled a child's foot in its outlines. It has been said that this little stone, afterward known as the 'peek stone' and the 'Palmyra seer stone,' had been in the possession of Mrs. Smith's family for generations, and that she merely presented it to Joseph when he was old enough to work miracles with it; and that he hid it in the earth to find it again when it was convenient.' As has been written, the 'seer stone' was 'the acorn of the Mormon oak.' " [95] |
| S. F. Whitney | Naked Truths About Mormonism | 1885 March 6 | Brother of Newel K. Whitney | "Jo's peep stone was called the Urim and Thummi[m]. Mormon elders and women often searched to bed of the river for stones with holes caused by the sand washing out, to peep into. N. K. Whitney's wife had one. I took it to search for a cot I had lost from my injured finger. She said it was wicked to trifle with sacred things."[96] |
| C. M. Stafford | Naked Truths About Mormonism | 1885 March 23 | Stafford was a resident of Palmyra in the 1820s and an inlaw of Porter Rockwell | "Jo Smith told me there was a peep-stone for me and many others if we could only find them. Jo claimed to have revelations and tell fortunes. He told mine by looking in the palm of my hand and said among other things that I would not live to be very old."[97] |
| M. C. R. SMITH | Naked Truths About Mormonism | 1885 March 25 | Early resident of Manchester New York and sister of Porter Rockwell | "I saw Joshua
Stafford's peep-stone which looked like white marble and had a hole through the center. Sallie Chase, a Methodist, had one and people would go for her to find lost and hidden or stolen things."[98] |
| Abel Chase | Joseph Smith, the Prophet, His Family and His Friends | 1886 | Younger brother of Willard Chase | "The PEEPSTONE, in which he was accustomed to look, he got of my elder brother Willard while at work for us digging a well."[99] |
| Martin Harris | Millennial Star | 1886 June 21 | "The Prophet translated a portion of the Book of Mormon, with the seer stone in his possession. The stone was placed in a hat that was used for that purpose, and with the aid of this seer stone the Prophet would read sentence by sentence as Martin wrote, and if he made any mistake the sentence would remain before the Prophet until corrected, when another sentence would appear. When they became weary, as it was confining work to translate from the plates of gold, they would go down to the river and throw stones into the water for exercise. Martin on one occasion picked up a stone resembling the one with which they were translating, and on resuming their work Martin placed the false stone in the hat. He said that the Prophet looked quietly for a long time, when he raised his head and said: 'Martin, what on earth is the matter, all is dark as Egypt:' Martin smiled and the seer discovered that the wrong stone was placed in the hat. When he asked Martin why he had done so he replied, to stop the mouths of fools who had declared that the Prophet knew by heart all that he told him to write, and did not see by the seer stone; when the true stone was placed in the hat, the translation was resumed, as usual."[100] | |
| Rhamanthus M. Stocker | Centennial History of Susquehanna County | 1887 | "Smith was engaged in translating the Bible, and was quite often in Smith's house. Mr. McCune states that Reuben Hale acted as scribe a part of the time. He says Smith's hat was a very large one, and what is commonly called a 'stove-pipe.' The hat was on the table by the window and the stone in the bottom or rather in the top of the hat. Smith would bend over the hat with his face buried in it so that no light could enter it, and thus dictate to the scribe what he should write."[101] | |
| Maria Louise Cowdery Johnson | Letter to David Whitmer | 1887 January 24 | Daughter of Oliver Cowdery | Phineas Young "came in to Grand Father's House while my Father [Oliver Cowdery] lay dead—and asked my mother to let him see His stone—she got it—& let him take it then he kept it—we felt so bad and troubled at the time did not think what we were about."[102] |
| Martin Harris | The Historical Record | 1887 May | Sermon given in 1870 by Martin Harris | "On Sunday, Sept. 4, 1870, Martin Harris addressed a congregation of Saints ... and said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone. Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the stone, sentences would appear and were read by the prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say, ‘Written’ and if correctly written, that sentence would disappear another appear in its place: but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used. Martin said that after continued translation they would become weary, and would go down to the river and exercise by throwing stones out on the river, etc. While so doing, on one occasion, Martin Harris found a stone very much resembling the one used for translating, and on resuming their labor of translation, he put in place the stone that he had found. He said that the Prophet remained silent, unusually and intently gazing in darkness, no traces of the usual sentences appearing. Much surprised, Joseph exclaimed, 'Martin! What is the matter! All is as dark as Egypt!' Martin's countenance betrayed him, and the Prophet asked Martin why he had done so. Martin said, to stop the mouths of fools, who had told him that the Prophet had learned those sentences and was merely repeating them, etc. "Martin said further that the seer stones differed in appearance entirely from the Urim and Thummim obtained with the plates, which were two clear stones set in two rims, very much resembling spectacles, only they were larger. Martin said, there were not many pages translated while he wrote, after which Oliver Cowdery and others did the writing."[103] |
| Samuel Bateman | Diary | 1887 August 17 | "On Sunday last I saw and handled the seer stone that the Prophet Joseph Smith had. It was dark, color, not round on one side. It was shaped like the top of a baby’s shoe, one end like the toe of the shoe, and the other round."[104] | |
| Martin Harris | Naked Truths About Mormonism | 1888 January | As related by R. W. Alderman | "In February, 1852, I was snowbound in a hotel in Mentor, Ohio, all day. Martin Harris was there, and in conversation told me he saw Jo Smith translate the 'Book of Mormon;' with his peep-stone in his hat. Oliver Cowdery, who had been a school-teacher, wrote it down."[105] |
| W. R. Hine | Naked Truths About Mormonism | 1888 January | Hine was an upstate resident of upstate New York and an acquaintance of Smith in the 1820s | "Jo Smith claimed to be a seer. He had a very clear stone about the size and shape of a duck's egg, and claimed that he could see lost or hidden things through it. He said he saw Captain Kidd sailing on the Susquehanna River during a freshet, and that he buried two pots of gold and silver. He claimed he saw writing cut on the rocks in an unknown language telling where Kidd buried it, and he translated it through his peep-stone. I have had it many times and could see in it whatever I imagined. Jo claimed it was found in digging a well in Palmyra, N.Y. He said he borrowed it. He claimed to receive revelations from the Lord through prayer, and would pray with his men, mornings and at other times. ... About the spring of 1828, Jo came in front of my house. ... I said, 'Peeker, what have you found?' He said he had found some metal plates which would be of great use to the world. ... Soon I learned that Jo claimed to be translating the plates in Badger's Tavern, in Colesville, three miles from my house. I went there and saw Jo Smith sit by a table and put a handkerchief to his forehead and peek into his hat and call out a word to Cowdery, who sat at the same table and wrote it down. Several persons sat near the same table and there was no curtain between them. Martin Harris introduced himself to me, and said they were going to bring the world from darkness into light."[106] |
| William Hyde | Chicago Times | 1888 October | "Rectifying the misunderstanding with Mr. Smith I was again his right bower, and he said the possession consisted of two stones called Urim and Thummin Which enabled the boy to seek treasures in the earth and surpass Daniel as a prophet, ...although the congregation believed that it was translated from the golden plates by Joseph Smith by means of Urim and Thummim. ...He said that by means of the Urim and Thummim, which were in the possession of his son Joseph, the secrets of all arts and sciences would be revealed, and that these would be carefully guarded and kept within the society, and that there was no doubt that great wealth would be the result, and if I would join them and contribute some money to the funds of the society, I would be sure to become rich. Well, now I have come to think, if I had done so, I would be better off today than I am, even if the great wealth the senior Smith talked so much about did not materialize."[107] |
References from 1890 through 1899
| Person | Source | Date | Note | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John H. Gilbert | Memorandum | 1892 September 8 | "Joseph Smith 'found with the plates a large pair of 'spectacles,' by putting which on his nose and looking at the plates, the spectacles turned the hieroglyphics into good English. The question might be asked here whether Jo or the spectacles was the translator?"[108] | |
| The New York Herald | 1893 June 25 | Narrative compiled from interviews with Smith family acquaintances | "The elder Smith was digging a well for Clark Chase, two miles south of Palmyra. The Chase children were playing about the well, when one of the Smith boys shoveled out a clear white stone shaped like a human foot. It was quite transparent, something like a "peep stone" which the Chase children had used as a plaything. One of the girls said that when she peeped into the stone she saw things that had been lost. She was quite joyous over the treasure until young Joe, who was idling about the well, seized the agate and carried it away. Joe was quiet for several days. Presently it was whispered that he had discovered a charm in which he could see wonders. With an air of mystery he would look at the stone shaded in his hat and see visions and any amount of lost property. Each day he had new revelations for his open mouthed followers. In a few weeks people were paying money for his oracles. Many a man was sent over the hills in search of lost cattle, on a fool's errand, of course, but Joe made money and the public apparently fancied humbugging, and that made him a great success."[109] | |
| Katharine Smith Salisbury | Kansas City Times | 1895 April 11 | Sister of Joseph Smith | "The earth was rounding on top, and he got a stick and pried the dirt away from the edges, and got a lever and raised the lid, and there beheld the records that were to be translated, and the Urim and Thummim, and the sword and the breast-plate of Laban, and the brass plates Lehi brought from Jerusalem. ... Joseph said: 'I am not learned,' and the angel said: 'There is the Urim and
Thummim, and they will show you how to interpret them.'... The angel came and took the Urim and Thummim from him. He fasted and prayed several days, and the angel returned them again, and told him that his sins were forgiven, and for him to go ahead and translate, but not to translate that that was lost, but to begin where he had left off. He commenced, and when he had got the record partly translated, persecution rose there, and he wrote for David Whitmer to come and take him to his house. David came, and he asked how he should carry the plates and he was told that they would be there when he got there, in the garden."[110] |
| Zina Young Card | Letter to Franklin D. Richards (LDS apostle) | 1896 July 31 | "There is a matter that I wish to lay before you, that weighs upon my mind, and seems very important to me. I refer to some very sacred articles I bought at the sale of my father's personal effects—articles that never should have been given up to the idle gaze; but being brought out, my mother and myself felt it a wish of our hearts to get them, that their sacredness might not be sullied. They are: two sear-stones and an arrow point. They are in the possession of President Woodruff now, and very properly too, but I feel dear cousin, that they should ever be the property of the President of the Church, and not of individuals; that at his demise, they are not retained as they were before among 'personal effects,' but considered ever the legitimate property of God’s mouth-piece."[111] | |
| E.F.P. | Millennial Star | 1897 August 26 | "With these plates other things were buried and among them were what he describes as two stones set in silver bows, and fastened to a breastplate. These instruments he calls the Urim and Thummim. They are similarly described in the Book of Mormon, in which they are called interpreters. In translating the ancient record engraven upon the gold plates the Prophet used these interpreters. By the power of the Lord he was enabled to look upon these stones and read the English translation of the ancient writings as it appeared upon them sentence by sentence. ...But the stones of the Urim and Thummim were prepared by the Lord for certain sacred purposes, and it was through a gift from Him that the record contained in the Book of Mormon was translated."[112] | |
| Sara Melissa Ingersoll | Mormonism Unveiled | 1899 November 27 | "He had a pair of great big eye glasses made from the glass they used to use in the back of carriages. He put two of them together in the form of spectacles and called them 'God’s spectacles.' When he wished to translate he would put them on and look and act as wise and debate as a judge claiming to translate by the 'Urim and Thummim.'"[113] | |
| Frederick Kesler | Diary | 1899 February 1 | "Its color was mahogony: & was verry smoothe."[114] |
References after 1900
| Person | Source | Date | Note | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albert Chandler | Letter to William A. Linn | 1902 | "Martin Harris was permitted to be in the room with the scribe, and would try the knowledge of Smith, as he told me, saying that Smith could not spell the word February, when his eyes were off the spectacles through which he pretended to work. This ignorance of Smith was proof positive to him that Smith was dependent on the spectacles for the contents of the Bible. Smith and the plates containing the original of the Mormon Bible were hid from view of the scribe and Martin Harris by a screen."[115] | |
| John Spalding | Book | 1907 | "In September, 1819, a trifling and apparently unimportant eve occurred which, however, had much to do in establishing the Mormon Church. This was the discovery of the celebrated Peek Stone. It was unearthed by the Prophet's father and elder sons while engaged in digging a well near Palmyra for Mr. Clark Chase. It first attracted the attention of Mr. Chase's children by the peculiarity of its shape, which nearly resembled the foot of a young child. When washed it was whitish, glossy, and opaque in appearance. Joseph, Jr., who was an idle looker-on at the labors of his father and brethren, at once possessed himself of this geological oddity, but not without strenuous protest on the part of the children, who claimed it by right of discovery, and because it was found upon their father's premises. Joseph, however, took it, and though frequent demands were made, after it became famous, for its restoration, it was never returned to the claimants. Very soon it became noised abroad that by means of this stone the inchoate prophet could locate buried treasure and discover the whereabouts of stolen property. In the latter case he might not have had to look—a great way. People from far and near who had lost valuables consulted Joseph. With his eyes bandaged and his Peek Stone at the bottom of a tall white hat he satisfied all inquirers for a fee of seventy-five cents. My grandfather paid that sum to learn what had become of a valuable mare stolen from his stable, and he was a tolerably shrewd and prosperous Dutchman for those days."[116] | |
| Samuel W. Richards | Book | 1907 May 21 | Recollection of an earlier interview | "He [Oliver Cowdery] represents Joseph as sitting by a table with the plates before him. and he reading the record with the Urim & Thummim. Oliver, his scribe, sits close beside to hear and write every word as translated. This is done by holding the translators over the words of the written record, and the translation appears distinctly in the instrument, which had been touched by the finger of God and dedicated and consecrated for the express purpose of translating languages. This instrument now used fully performed its Mission. Every word was made distinctly visible even to every letter, and if Oliver did not in writing spell the word correctly it remained in the translator until it was written correctly. This was the Mystery to Oliver, how Joseph being comparatively ignorant could correct him in spelling, without seeing the word written, and he would not be satisfied until he should be permitted or have the gift to translate as well as Joseph."[117] |
| Emma Smith | Saints' Herald | 1907 June 19 | "I asked if she ever had seen those plates, or the miraculous pair of spectacles, known in Mormon history as 'Urim and Thummim,' She had not; but they veritably existed."[118] | |
| T.W.B. | Millennial Star | 1914 | "Reader, keeping in mind the fact that with the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jewish history of these instruments ceases, and remember that it is with the descendants of that second colony which left that city just at that time and went to America, that the purposes of the ancient Jewish Urim and Thummim again begins, as we learn from Mosiah 8:13–19, and what stronger circumstantial evidence can be desired to prove that the 'interpreters' of the Nephites were identical with the Urim and Thummim of the Israelites? From the period in Nephite history when that chapter of Mosiah was written, until those sacred things were delivered into the hands of Joseph Smith, the record as to how they were guarded and preserved is without a break. There is a consistency in all these matters that is too striking to have been conceived in the brain of an unschooled youth who wrote the Book of Mormon as an alleged imposture, and we commend them to the consideration of those who mock at our claim that Joseph Smith had 'seer stones,' by calling them 'wonderful spectacles,' 'peepstones,' etc. The probability that he had the Israelitish Urim and Thummim can be denied only by a denial of the whole 'Mormon' system."[119] | |
| J.W. Peterson | Recalled Interview | 1921 May 1 | Peterson interviewed William Smith (Joseph Smith's brother) in July 1891. This third-hand, late remembrance is the only description of the Urim and Thummim being attached by a rod to the breastplate, with a pocket in front of the breastplate, and became highly influential in artwork. | "Most of the two or three days that followed was spent asking the old man questions concerning his father's family and his brother Joseph in particular, being at that time especially interested in the Urim and Thummim with which his brother translated the Book of Mormon. He told us many incidents of his youth and childhood and that of his father's family. One thing in particular impressed me forceably at that time and was that Joseph had a natural gift of prophecy and revelation in his youthful days and often prophesied many things concerning the rise of the church and its development as well as the inhabitants of ancient America. Without stopping to mention the questions we asked I will relate very briefly what he said on two or three important points. He said he had hefted the plates as they lay on the table wrapped in an old frock or jacket in which Joseph had brought them home. That he had thumbed them through the cloth and ascertained that they were thin sheets of some kind of metal. When asked why he had not uncovered them he said they were told not to do so unless the Lord would give permission, that they were the property of an angel and had received strict command with regard to that matter. Bro. Pender remarked that most people would have examined them any way. The old man suddenly straightened up and looked intently at him and said. The Lord knew he could trust Joseph and as for the rest of the family we had no desire to transgress the commandment of the Lord but on the other hand was exceeding anxious to do all we were commanded to do. Explaining the expression as to the stones in the Urim and Thummim being set in two rims of a bow he said: A silver bow ran over one stone, under the other, around over that one and under the first in the shape of a horizontal figure 8 much like a pair of spectacles. That they were much too large for Joseph and he could only see through one at a time using sometimes one and sometimes the other. By putting his head in a hat or some ark object it was not necessary to close one eye while looking through the tone with the other. In that way sometimes when his eyes grew tired he relieved them of the strain. He also said the Urim and Thummim was attached to the breastplate by a rod which was fastened at the outer shoulder edge of the breastplate and to the end of the silver bow. This rod was just the right length so that when the Urim and thummim was removed from before his eyes it would reach to a pocket on the left side of the breastplate where the instrument was kept when not in use by the Seer. I was not informed whether it was detachable from the breastplate or not. From the fact that Joseph often had it with him and sometimes when at work I am of the opinion that it could be detached. He also informed us that the rod served to hold it before the eyes of the Seer."[120][121] |
| Lockwood R. Doty | History of the Genesee County | 1925 | "Soon after locating here the Smiths, father and son, were employed by Clark Chase to dig a well. While engaged in this work, a white, glossy pebble, resembling a human foot in shape, was found. The future prophet kept the pebble and soon pretended to have discovered that it possessed supernatural powers. In the pebble he claimed to discern happenings in distant places and to read the course of future events. This pebble became known as the 'peek stone.'" [122] | |
| B. H. Roberts | Letter | 1933 March 30 | "While handling it—it is a small stone of chocolate color with milkish white strata running through it and apparently specks of gold here and there."[123] | |
| Martin Harris | Quoted in an affidavit by William Pilkington | 1934 April 3 | As a boy, Pilkington lived with Harris from October 1874 till his death in July 1875. He related Harris' words in 1934. | "I commenced to write for the Prophet from this time on until the 14th day of June 1828. Joseph dictated to me from the Plates of Gold as the characters thereon assumed through the Urim and Thummim the forms of Equivalent modern words, which were familiar to the understanding of the Prophet and Seer, from the 12th day of April until the 14th day of June he said he had written One Hundred and Sixteen pages Foolscap of the translation he said at this period of the Translation a circumstance happened that he was the cause of the One Hundred and Sixteen pages that he had written being lost."[124] |
| Richard M. Robinson | Memorandum | 1934 December 30 | Recalled an experience in 1899 | "[Lorenzo Snow] went and got the money purse or leather bag that President Young had brought to the Rocky Mountains with him, also the Seer Stone and said, 'This is the Seer Stone that the Prophet Joseph used. There are very few worthy to view this, but you are.' He handed the Seer Stone to me and I couldn't express the joy that came to me as I took that stone in my hands. Words are not equal to the task of expressing such a sublime joy! He then told me to hand the Seer Stone to my wife and I handed it to her. He then blessed us with the greatest blessing I have ever heard fall from the mouth of man! The Seer Stone was the shape of an egg though not quite so large, of a gray cast something like granite but with white stripes running around it. It was transparent but had no holes, neither in the end or in the sides. I looked into the stone, but could see nothing, as I had not the gift and power of God that must accompany such a manifestation."[125] |
| Cecil McGavin | Historical Background of the Doctrine and Covenants | 1949 | "The Page 'peepstone' however, has been preserved as a souvenir in the Archives of the Reorganized Church. The writer was permitted to examine it. It is a flat stone about seven inches long, four wide and one quarter inch in thickness. It is dark gray in color with waves of brown and purple across the surface. A small hole has been drilled through the end of it as if a string had been threaded through it. It is simply impressive enough to make a good paper weight."[126] | |
| Joseph Fielding Smith | Doctrines of Salvation | 1956 | "The statement has been made that the Urim and Thummim was on the altar in the Manti Temple when that building was dedicated. The Urim and Thummim so spoken of, however, was the seer stone which was in the possession of the Prophet Joseph Smith in early days. This seer stone is now in the possession of the Church."[127] | |
| David C. Martin | Restoration Reporter | 1971 June | "It is seldom that one is permitted to possess a direct link with one of the early crucial events in the history of the Latter Day Saint movement. My chance came last spring during my annual 'safari' into Missouri. The year before, while reading Alvin R. Dyer's book, The Refiner's Fire, second edition, I was most interested in a picture and information on the Page stone, then in the possession of one of the Page-Whitmer (John Page, brother of Hiram, married a Whitmer daughter) descendants. A polite inquiry in Richmond, Mo., located the family, who graciously brought out the stone, portraits, and a copy of the Book of Commandments. You can imagine my nervousness at being able to examine these artifacts! And of course, I attempted to purchase them! Mr. Dyer also had tried, as have numbers of others. It seems, though, none had offered a set price, but asked the family to name the price. After returning home, I wrote offering a sum, and received a letter in return, asking twice the amount. After some more dickering, both the Book of Commandments and the stone became mine."[128] | |
| Joseph Anderson | Restoration Reporter | 1971 June | "As an added note, Dean Hooper, Rockford, Illinois, in a conversation with Joseph Anderson, Assistant to the council of the Twelve of the ‘Utah’ Church, at a Chicago Stake Conference, January, 1971, quotes Anderson as saying that the ‘Seer’ Stone that Joseph Smith used in the early days of the Church is in possession of the Church and is kept in a safe in Joseph Fielding Smith's office. Anderson has seen it a number of times there. Slightly smaller than a chicken egg, oval, chocolate in color."[129] | |
| Einar Erickson | Lecture | 1976 December 7 | "Brother Ludlow took it in to President Joseph Fielding Smith and said, 'Look what I've got.' And President Joseph Fielding Smith said, 'Thank you for returning stolen property.' He took it, put it in his drawer, and kept it. They couldn't find out what had happened until after his death; then they went to Bruce McConkie who was the executor of the estate and asked him if they couldn't look in the safe and see if the rest of it was there, because they got word somehow that a man called Miller, a Jewish convert to the church in the 20's, had translated the Book of Mormon into Hebrew. Harold B. Lee gave them a letter to take to Bruce McConkie, because Bruce McConkie says, 'No, I can’t open the safe without a letter from the First Presidency because it has been left to the First Presidency. It has been willed to them.' So they got the letter, opened up the safe, and there was the seer stone and a number of other various secret things, and the whole Book of Mormon in Hebrew."[130] |
See also
The first known published account of the Urim and Thummim is in "Questions proposed to the Mormonite Preachers and their answers obtained before the whole assembly at Julian Hall, Sunday Evening, August 5, 1832," in the Boston Investigator 2 (August 10, 1832).
Q.-In what manner was the interpretation, or translation made known, and by whom was it written?
A.-It was made known by the spirit of the Lord through the medium of the Urim and Thummim; and was written partly by Oliver Cowdery, and partly by Martin Harris.
Q.-What do you mean by Urim and Thummim?
A.-The same as were used by the prophets of old, which were two crystal stones, placed in bows something in the form of spectacles, which were found with the plates.
See https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/urim-and-thummim
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k MacKay, M. H. (2016). Joseph Smiths seer stones. Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center. e-book location 181 of 4471
- ^ Stapley, J. A. (2018). The power of godliness: mormon liturgy and cosmology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. page 118
- ^ Lancaster, James E. “The Method of Translation of the Book of Mormon.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, vol. 3, 1983, pp. 51–61. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43200719. Accessed 25 Jan. 2020.
- ^ Hadley, Jonathan. “Golden Bible.” Palmyra Freeman, 18 August 1829, 2. transcription found at: https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/BOMP/id/161, photocopy at http://www.olivercowdery.com/smithhome/Phelps/1829_0811PF-pg2.gif. See reprinting in Rochester Advertiser and Telegraph, 31 August 1829, 2, and Rochester Gem, 5 September 1829, 70.
- ^ Rochester Gem, 5 September 1829, 70.
- ^ “Book of Mormon.” Cincinnati Advertiser and Ohio Phoenix 8 (2 June 1830): 1.
- ^ Sheerer, John, to Absalom Peters, 18 November 1830. American Home Missionary Society Archives, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.
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