Gazelam wrote:Maklelan, I've known Jersey for a few months now (6 i think?) and she is not really an Anti-mormon. She has her faith base, and shows interest in Mormon things, but she is not anti in my opinion. Its ok to give her the benefit of the doubt and answer the questions she poses without thinking that shes up to something.
In an 1885 interview, Whitmer said that Joseph used a seer stone "placed in a hat into which he buried his face, stating to me and others that the original Character[s] appeared upon parchment and under it the translation in English which [enabled him] to read it readily."51 It is not clear from the early accounts whether Smith used a single seer stone or, as in one tradition, a pair of stones or spectacles. In Smith's 1832 account he mentions there were spectacles "to read the Book. "52 Joseph Knight, who visited Smith in Harmony, wrote,
"Now the way he translated was he put the Urim and Thummin into his hat and Darkned his Eyes then he would take a sentance and it would appe[a]r in Brite Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away [and] 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."53 The biblical term "Urim and Thummim" in Knight's account seems to be a later term used to apply to the seer stone. Lucy Smith remarked, "Joseph kept the urim and thum[m]im constantly about his person," even having it with him while he was working down in a well.54 It was by the "Urim and Thummim," according to Lucy, that Joseph received a commandment that he should baptize Oliver Cowdery and that Cowdery should baptize him.55 At one time an intimation "was given though the urim and thum[m]im" as Joseph "one morning applied the latter to his eyes to look upon the record, instead of the words of the book [of Mormon] being given him, he was commanded to write a letter to one David Whitmore [Whitmer].56 Accounts also differ about what supposedly happened to the gold plates.57 David Whitmer told an interviewer in 1884 that the plates "were taken away by the angel to a cave, which we saw by the power of God while we were yet in the Spirit."58 William Smith said in 1841 that Joseph "was directed by a vision to bury the plates again in the same manner; which he accordingly did."59 Brigham Young, who joined the Mormon church in 1832, spoke of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery going to the Hill Cumorah and "the hill opened, and they walked into a cave." Orson Pratt referred to "the grand repository of all the numerous records of the ancient nations of the western continent," which "was located in another department of the hill."60
Taken together, these earliest accounts about the gold plates place the even within the larger context of buried treasure hunting. Smith reported that he obtained the gold plates from the ground where they had been hidden for 1,400 years. Like his earlier attempts to locate lost objects and valuable treasures in the earth, he located the plates by looking in the stone.61 He removed his find from its depository and laid it down. After laying it down, however, it suddenly disappeared and went back into the box. This is similar to another treasure dig he participated in, with the guardian standing by and protecting the item.
The guardian spirit is a consistent focus of these earliest stories. Whether the guardian of the plates was spirit or angel, its purpose was to watch over the buried box and its contents. Smith went to great lengths to obey the spirit's commands. He wore special clothes. He was given a simple command not to lay the plates down. When he did, the spirit, struck him and kept him from obtaining the treasure. Because he did not do as he was instructed, Joseph was told to come in another year and bring his brother Alvin with him. Later he looked into the stone and learned he was to bring Emma Hale.
Obviously the seer stone or stones were important. I assume they are now in the possession of the current LDS Prophet.
moksha wrote:Obviously the seer stone or stones were important. I assume they are now in the possession of the current LDS Prophet.
Missionaries love to speculate on stuff like that. You'll notice a lot of the presidents have worn the same black stone ring on their left hands. Does that mean anything? Who knows, but it's fun to speculate.