Were Joseph Smith’s Translation Instruments Like the Israelite Urim and Thummim?

When Joseph Smith was entrusted with the golden plates, he was also given a set of Nephite interpreters and a breastplate.¹ Over the course of the Book of Mormon’s translation, Joseph apparently made use of several different media—small stones or lenses—to enable his spiritual vision of the text. Initially, in 1828, he utilized the Nephite interpreters, which he described as “two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate.”²

In 1921, it was reported that William Smith, Joseph’s younger brother, said that the stones were connected to a rod that could be attached to the breastplate and used like a pair of spectacles.³ For convenience, however, Joseph may soon have removed one of these stones from its holder and placed it in a hat in order to shield it from ambient light as he looked upon it. On other occasions, he apparently used what has come to be called his seer stone.⁴

When the 116 pages of the book of Lehi were lost in July 1828, the plates and the interpreters were taken back by the angel Moroni. But then in September, 1828, Moroni returned them to Joseph.⁵ He commenced translating again in earnest two days after Oliver Cowdery arrived on April 5, 1829. After the translation was finished, the plates and interpreters were returned again to Moroni, who showed them to the Three Witnesses.

In 1848, Oliver testified, “I beheld with my eyes and handled with my hands the gold plates from which it was translated. I also beheld the Interpreters. That book is true.”⁶ On August 31, 1829, an article appeared in the Palmyra Freeman, reprinted in the Rochester Advertiser, apparently quoting Joseph himself: “By placing the spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters.”⁷ Joseph declined to explain the translation process except to say repeatedly that it was accomplished by the gift and power of God.⁸

Whatever the particular details may have been, it is clear that the breastplate and interpreters were linked artifacts and that they were prepared for the purpose of translation.⁹ Soon, the early Saints recognized that Joseph’s translation instruments were similar to the Urim and Thummim from the Old Testament, and they began to interchangeably refer to them by this biblical term.¹⁰ Joseph himself referred to them as the “Urim and Thummim” as early as 1836.¹¹ Some may wonder, though, how closely and in what ways Joseph’s New World artifacts were related to their Old World counterpart? 

As far as the Bible itself is concerned, there is clear evidence that the Urim and Thummim was associated with a ceremonial breastplate worn by the high priest in ancient Israel. From Exodus 28:30, we learn that the Urim and Thummim was supposed to be put “in the breastplate of judgment”¹² and that it would be “upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the Lord.”

Biblical scholar Cornelis Van Dam has argued that although the evidence isn’t conclusive, there are good reasons to suspect that the breastplate was “designed to provide a pouch in which the [Urim and Thummim] … could be kept.”¹³ This nicely corresponds with William’s description that a “pocket was prepared in the [Nephite] breastplate on the left side, immediately over the heart. When not in use the [interpreters were] placed in this pocket, the rod being of just the right length to allow it to be so deposited.”¹⁴

Most biblical scholars over the past few centuries have believed that the Urim and Thummim was “used merely to obtain a yes or no answer, similar to casting lots.”¹⁵ Yet Van Dam has argued that there “was something very lively and direct”¹⁶ about the Urim and Thummim’s revelatory process and that “[p]rophetic inspiration is the only revelatory means that is known that can adequately account for the complexity and subtlety of some of the answers received.”¹⁷ Similarly, Joseph Smith was able to receive detailed revelations from the Lord through the Nephite interpreters. Several early revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants were received in this manner.¹⁸

The terms Urim and Thummim possibly mean “light(s)” and “perfection(s).”¹⁹ A number of sources indicate that the divine object to which they referred was associated with a sacred name and that its revelatory power was facilitated by gemstones, light, and even illuminated letters.²⁰ For instance, in discussing Exodus 28:30, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan states that “you shall put into the breastplate the Urim, which illuminate their words and make manifest the hidden things of the House of Israel.”²¹

According to Van Dam,

Ramban suggested that certain letters of the breastpiece lit up, and that lighted letters would then need to be arranged correctly by the high priest. The Zohar took this notion a step further, mentioning that the face of the high priest shone if the luminous letters conveyed a favorable message. The interpretation of [Urim and Thummim] as shining protruding letters is also found in Christian interpretation.²²

These various understandings correspond well with accounts of Joseph’s translation method. When asked what appeared to Joseph Smith’s view during the translation process, David Whitmer explained that Joseph would see “what appeared like an oblong piece of parchment, on which the hieroglyphics would appear, and also the translation in the English language, all appearing in bright luminous letters.”²³ On other occasions he referred to them as “letters of fire”²⁴ and said that the “letters appeared on [the stone] in light.”²⁵ Joseph Knight said that words looked like “bright Roman letters.”26