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Category:Book of Mormon/Translation/Method/Seer stone
Seer Stone Used to Translate the Book of Mormon
Parent page: Book of Mormon/Translation/Method
John Quincy Adams (1916): "it was instant death for any one but Joe to use them. Even when he put them on, the light became so dazzling that he was obliged to look through his hat"
John Quincy Adams:
The process of translating the “reformed Egyptian” plates was simple though peculiar. It was all done with the Urim and Thummim spectacles, but it was instant death for any one but Joe to use them. Even when he put them on, the light became so dazzling that he was obliged to look through his hat. Moreover, when so engaged, no profane eyes were allowed to see him or the hat. Alone, behind a blanket stretched across the room, Joe looked into his hat and read the mystic words.[1]
Whitmer: "he used a stone called a 'Seers stone,' the 'Interpreters' having been taken away from him because of transgression
David Whitmer:
[H]e used a stone called a “Seers stone,” the “Interpreters” having been taken away from him because of transgression. The “Interpreters” were taken from Joseph after he allowed Martin Harris to carry away the 116 pages of Ms [manuscript] of the Book of Mormon as a punishment, but he was allowed to go on and translate by use of a “Seers stone” which he had, and which he placed in a hat into which he buried his face, stating to me and others that the original character appeared upon parchment and under it the translation in English.[2]
Notes
Pages in category "Book of Mormon/Translation/Method/Seer stone"
The following 35 pages are in this category, out of 35 total.
S
- Source:A Letter to Those Who Have Attended Mormonite Preaching:1840:two large jewels resembling diamonds were given to him, which, being applied to the eyes, like spectacles
- Source:A Peaceful Heart:Friend:September 1974:Joseph also used an egg-shaped, brown rock for translating called a seer stone
- Source:B.H. Roberts:Defense of the Faith and the Saints 1:257:1907:The seer stone...possessed the qualities of Urim and Thummim
- Source:Charles Anthon:to E. D. Howe:1834:the spectacles in question being altogether too large for the breadth of the human face
- Source:Cincinnati Advertiser:2 June 1830:Smith would put his face into a hat in which he had a white stone, and pretend to read from it
- Source:Corrill:A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints:12:1839:the plates and stones of Urim and Thummim were again taken and concealed by the angel for a wise purpose
- Source:Daily Albany Argus:15 October 1831: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
- Source:David Whitmer:Quoted by Zena H. Gurley:Dialogue:he used a stone called a 'Seers stone,' the 'Interpreters' having been taken away from him because of transgression
- Source:Dirkmaat:Ensign:January 2013:He...referred to it using an Old Testament term, Urim and Thummim...He also sometimes applied the term to other stones he possessed
- Source:Edward Stevenson:Deseret News:28 December 1881:the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim
- Source:Emma Smith Bidamon:to Emma Pilgrim:1870:was translated by use of the Urim, and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost, after that he used a small stone
- Source:John Quincy Adams:The Birth of Mormonism:Even when he put them on, the light became so dazzling that he was obliged to look through his hat
- Source:Joseph Fielding Smith:DOS 3:225–26:It hardly seems reasonable to suppose that the Prophet would substitute something evidently inferior under these circumstances
- Source:Joseph Knight Sr.:Reminiscence, Circa 1835–1847:Now the way he translated was he put the Urim and Thummim into his hat and darkened his eyes
- Source:Joseph Knight Sr.:Reminiscence:1835-1847:he seemed to think more of the glasses or the Urim and Thummim than he did of the plates
- Source:Kenneth W. Godfrey:A New Prophet and a New Scripture:Ensign:January 1988:Once Martin found a rock closely resembling the seerstone Joseph sometimes used in place of the interpreters
- Source:Martin Harris:Interview with Joel Tiffany:1859:The stones were white, like polished marble, with a few gray streaks.
- Source:Matthew Brown:Plates of Gold:167:when he first obtained his personal seerstone he placed it in his hat, and discovered that time, place, and distance were annihilated
- Source:Morning Star:7 March 1833:an angel gave him a pair of spectacles which he put in a hat and thus read and translated
- Source:Nelson:A Treasured Testament:Ensign:July 1993:The details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known. Yet we do have a few precious insights
- Source:New York Weekly Messenger:1835:by putting a plate in his hat, putting two smooth flat stones, which he found in the box, in the hat
- Source:New-York Telescope:20 February 1830:he proceeded to the spot, and found the bible, with a huge pair of spectacles
- Source:Oliver Cowdery:MA 1:14:Days never to be forgotten
- Source:Personal Statement of S. W. Richards:1907:This was done by holding the ‘translators’ over the hieroglyphics, the translation appearing distinctly on the instrument
- Source:Phelps:The Evening and The Morning Star 1:58:through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles—(known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim)
- Source:Protestant Sentinel:4 June 1834:Joseph Smith, an illiterate young man, unable to read his own name...was reported to have found several golden plates, together with a pair of spectacles
- Source:Rochester Advertiser:31 August 1829:the Golden Bible was found, together with a huge pair of spectacles
- Source:The Gem:5 September 1829:By placing the spectacles in a hat and looking into it, Smith interprets the characters into the English language
- Source:The True Latter Day Saints’ Herald:15 November 1879: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
- Source:The True Latter Day Saints’ Herald:1879:the story of the Urim and Thummim Translation does not date back, for its origin further than 1833
- Source:Truman Coe:Ohio Observer:1836:looking through the Urim and Thummim, he would see the import written in plain English
- Source:Whitmer:Mormon Relics:The Sunday Inter-Ocean:17 Oct. 1886:a strange oval-shaped, chocolate-colored stone...should serve the same purpose as the missing urim and thummim
- Source:William Smith:interview by J. W. Peterson and W. S. Pender:1890:By putting his head in a hat or some dark object it was not necessary to close one eye while looking through the stone with the other
- Source:William Smith:On Mormonism:1883:The manner in which this was done was by looking into the Urim and Thummim, which was placed in a hat
- Source:Zenas H. Gurley:Autumn Leaves:1892:Elder David Whitmer’s idea was that the translation was made by the seers’ stone, as he calls it, not the Interpreters