Item Detail
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32064
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1
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16
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English
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What Did the Interpreters (Urim and Thummim) Look Like?
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Interpreter : A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
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2019
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33
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Provo, UT
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Interpreter Foundation
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223-256
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"The interpreters were a pair of seer stones used by Book of Mormon prophets and provided to Joseph Smith for translating the Nephite record. Martin Harris described them as two white, marble-like stones that could be looked into when placed in a hat. Joseph Smith described them as spectacles with which he could read the record and later as two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow. Others described them as smooth stones, diamonds, or glasses. Reconciling these various descriptions and determining the actual appearance of the interpreters requires an assessment of the credibility of each source and an understanding of how the interpreters were used in translating. It also requires an understanding of how words such as glasses, transparent, and diamonds were used in Joseph Smith’s day, particularly in reference to seer stones. An assessment of the various descriptions of the interpreters in light of these factors lends support to both Martin Harris’s and Joseph Smith’s accounts. By these accounts, the interpreters were smooth, mostly white, perhaps translucent stones set in a long metal frame. Although they superficially resembled eyeglasses, the stones were set much too far apart to be worn as such. They were not clear like eyeglasses but were transparent in the sense that they, like other seer stones, could be 'looked into' by a person gifted as a seer of visions." [Abstract from Article]
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An Address to All Believers in Christ. By a Witness to the Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon
A Pathway to Prophethood : Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet
Early Mormon Documents : Volume I
Early Mormon Documents : Volume II
Early Mormon Documents : Volume IV
Early Mormon Documents : Volume V
From Darkness unto Light : Joseph Smith's Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon
History of the Prophet Joseph Smith by His Mother Lucy Smith
Joseph Smith's Seer Stones
Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1847-1850
Masterful Discourses and Writings of Orson Pratt
Opening the Heavens : Accounts of Divine Manifestations 1820-1844
Seers and Stones : The Translation of the Book of Mormon as Divine Visions of an Old-Time Seer
The Faith to See : Burning in the Bosom and Translating the Book of Mormon in Doctrine and Covenants 9
The Gift and Power : Translating the Book of Mormon
The Miraculous Translation of the Book of Mormon