It’s one of history’s more intriguing coincidences: long before he ever received gold plates or angelic visitations, young Joseph Smith was already familiar with the idea of using stones to seek hidden things. Like many early Americans steeped in folk beliefs, he occasionally used a small seer stone to help neighbors search for lost objects or supposed buried treasure.

Critics have long seized on this fact, calling it evidence of “magic” or superstition. But Joseph himself later left such youthful “treasure digging” behind, describing it as folly. As he matured spiritually, those same instincts for seeking hidden truth were refined, sanctified, and redirected toward divine purposes. The boy who once peered into a stone for earthly treasure would one day use sacred instruments—the Urim and Thummim—to bring forth ancient scripture, long buried and forgotten.

What some see as a contradiction is, in fact, a story of spiritual transformation: from curiosity to calling, from folk practice to prophetic mantle.

Ancient Parallels: The Biblical Urim and Thummim

In the Old Testament, God commanded that Israel’s high priest wear a sacred breastplate “of judgment,” containing two mysterious objects called the Urim and Thummim (Exodus 28:30).

Their Hebrew names literally mean “lights” and “perfections.” No clear description survives, but they were likely stones or objects used to receive divine guidance. Through them, the high priest could “inquire of the Lord” for yes-or-no answers or divine direction (Numbers 27:21).

Later Jewish and Christian writers filled in the blanks:

• Josephus (1st century A.D.) claimed the stones would shine with light when God approved of a decision.
• Philo of Alexandria viewed them symbolically—as instruments of light and truth.
• The Talmud said certain letters on the high priest’s breastplate glowed to spell out answers when the Spirit of God rested upon him.

In all these traditions, the Urim and Thummim represented a sacred way of discerning God’s will—a tangible bridge between heavenly light and mortal understanding.

Joseph’s Smith’s Urim and Thummim

When the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith in 1823, he revealed that the gold plates were accompanied by “two stones in silver bows” fastened to a breastplate. These instruments, said Moroni, were “prepared for the purpose of translating the book.”

Joseph later learned they were ancient “interpreters” used by former prophets and sealed up with the plates by Moroni himself (Joseph Smith—History 1:35). Early Latter-day Saints called these sacred tools the Urim and Thummim—borrowing the biblical term to describe instruments that fulfilled the same purpose: revelation through divine light.

Joseph used these interpreters to translate some of the ancient plates, later also using a smaller seer stone by the same divine gift and power. Over time, he used the term “Urim and Thummim” more broadly to describe any God-sanctioned instrument of revelation—even the “white stone” promised to the faithful in Revelation 2:17 (see Doctrine and Covenants 130:10).

In Joseph’s hands, the Urim and Thummim were not relics of superstition but symbols of purified seership—the restoration of an ancient priestly power to receive revelation directly from God.

The Book of Mormon’s Own Line of Sacred Interpreters

Long before Joseph Smith’s day, the Book of Mormon itself records that sacred interpreters were used by earlier prophets to translate and reveal divine truths.

1. The Brother of Jared

In the Book of Ether, the Lord personally gives the Brother of Jared “two stones” to help future generations translate his writings:

“These two stones will I give unto thee… that they shall magnify to the eyes of men these things which ye shall write.”

— Ether 3:23–24

These “interpreters,” sealed up with the Jaredite record, were meant for a future prophet to reveal in God’s due time.

2. Mosiah the Seer

Centuries later, the Nephite king Mosiah II possessed the same instruments:

“Now Ammon said unto him… he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.”

— Mosiah 8:13–17

Here, the term seer is explicitly defined. A seer, said Ammon, “can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come.”

The power was divine, not magical—God’s light revealing truth through a consecrated instrument.

3. Moroni and the Restoration

The final Nephite prophet, Moroni, sealed up the plates “with the interpreters, according to the commandment of the Lord” (Ether 4:5).

Those were the very stones Moroni later delivered to Joseph Smith—literally connecting ancient and modern revelation through a single, sacred lineage of instruments.

Continuity of Revelation

When we step back, the pattern across dispensations becomes clear:

Era	Instrument	Purpose	Recipient
Jaredite	Interpreters (two stones)	Reveal sealed record	Brother of Jared
Nephite	Same interpreters	Translate ancient writings	King Mosiah
Israelite	Urim and Thummim	Receive divine judgment	Aaronic high priest
Restoration	Urim and Thummim / seer stones	Translate and reveal scripture	Joseph Smith

Across time, the Lord has consistently provided physical symbols through which divine light and truth could flow. Whether glowing on a priest’s breastplate or revealing words to a modern prophet.

From Stone to Spirit

Joseph Smith’s early fascination with stones and treasure hunting might seem like a strange beginning for a prophet. Yet it foreshadowed his lifelong role as one who sought what was hidden—not gold or silver, but truth itself.

By the time he received the Urim and Thummim, Joseph had abandoned youthful superstition for sacred purpose. What began as curiosity matured into consecrated revelation, just as crude ore becomes pure gold through refinement.

In that transformation lies a powerful message: God often works through familiar things—stones, words, people—and sanctifies them for His higher purposes. The same God who once spoke to Israel’s high priests through the Urim and Thummim spoke again through a humble young man in 19th-century America, restoring light and truth for a new dispensation.

Conclusion

The story of the Urim and Thummim—biblical, Nephite, and modern—is not about magic or mystery. It is about continuity and redemption: how God repeatedly reveals His will through light, how seers receive that light through faith, and how even the most ordinary instruments can become sacred when dedicated to divine service.

Even the Son of God is called light, the light we are to follow:

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” -John 8:12

The darkness that covered the dead language of the Book of Mormon became light through the gift and power of God.

 

Bibliography

Primary Latter-day Saint Sources

•Joseph Smith—History 1:35. History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1902–1932.

•Doctrine and Covenants 130:10. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

•The Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981.

Bible References – King James Version.

•Exodus 28:30

•Numbers 27:21

•John 8:12

•Revelation 2:17

Classical and Jewish Sources

•Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews. Translated by William Whiston. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1987.

•Philo of Alexandria. On the Life of Moses. Translated by F.H. Colson, Loeb Classical Library 123. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1939.

•Babylonian Talmud. Tractate Yoma. London: Soncino Press, 1938.

Secondary Sources / Scholarly Context (optional but recommended)

•Bushman, Richard Lyman. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.

•Marquardt, H. Michael, and Wesley P. Walters. Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994.

•Hardy, Grant. Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

•Sorenson, John L. An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985.