Joseph Smith and the Use of Seer Stones

LDS Perspective

Yes. The Church affirms that Joseph Smith used a seer stone in translating the Book of Mormon, alongside the instrument known as the "interpreters." The Church's Gospel Topics essay "Book of Mormon Translation" and the Church History Topics article on the subject state that Joseph translated an ancient text "by the gift and power of God." Joseph and his scribes described two instruments. The first, called the "interpreters" in the Book of Mormon and better known to Latter-day Saints as the Urim and Thummim, was found buried with the plates (Joseph Smith—History 1:35; Mosiah 8:13; Ether 3:23–24). The second was a small oval seer stone that Joseph had found in the ground years before he retrieved the plates. According to the accounts of scribes and others who observed the work, Joseph place

Historical Perspective

Yes. The historical record is consistent and extensive that Joseph Smith used a seer stone, often placed in a hat, to produce the Book of Mormon text. The most important testimony comes from Emma Smith, who told her son Joseph Smith III in 1879 that she wrote while Joseph sat with "his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it," and that the plates lay covered on the table nearby. David Whitmer, in *An Address to All Believers in Christ* (1887), said that words appeared on the stone, that they remained until the scribe had written them correctly, and that new words then appeared. Martin Harris and Joseph Knight Sr. gave similar accounts. Michael Morse, Emma's brother-in-law, also described the hat-and-stone method. As the FAIR/Muhlestein article notes, Smith never claimed to know the la