The Relationship of the Interpreters to the Record of the Brother of Jared

Appendix B. October 29, 2000

As an aid to understanding the chronology of Moroni’s writings, and geographical location from which they were written, if feel it is important to understand the relationship between the interpreters and the record of the brother of Jared. To this end is this paper written.

The Book of Mormon reader will find that Moroni, in his abridgment taken from the book of Ether, writes of the brother of Jared, the great patriarch of a group of families that departed from the great tower. Seeking answers in order to accomplish the tasks which lay before him, the brother of Jared went up into a high mountain to commune with the Lord. Because of his great faith, the Lord appeared to him as a premortal being and revealed to him many marvelous things having to do with all ages of time, both past and future. The Lord then commanded the brother of Jared to write what he had “seen and heard.”

‘And it came to pass that the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt not suffer these things which ye have seen and heard to go forth unto the world, until the time cometh that I shall glorify my name in the flesh; wherefore, ye shall treasure up the things which ye have seen and heard, and show it to no man. And behold, when ye shall come unto me, ye shall write them and shall seal them up, that no one can interpret them; for ye shall write them in a language that they cannot be read. And behold, these two stones will I give thee, and ye shall seal them up also with the things which ye shall write. For behold, the language which ye shall write I have confounded; wherefore I will cause in my own due time that these stones shall magnify to the eyes of men these things which ye shall write. And when the Lord had said these words, he showed unto the brother of Jared all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth. For he had said unto him in times before, that if he would believe in him that he could show unto him all things–it should be shown unto him; therefore the Lord could not withhold anything from him, for he knew that the Lord could show him all things. And the Lord said unto him: Write these things and seal them up; and I will show them in mine own due time unto the children of men. And it came to pass that the Lord commanded him that he should seal up the two stones which he had received, and show them not, until the Lord should show them unto the children of men.’ (Ether 3:21-28; emphasis added)

What the brother of Jared initially wrote is generally referred to as “the record of the brother of Jared.” Moroni notes in the middle of abridging the book of Ether that he had already written “the very things which the brother of Jared saw” and “sealed up the interpretation.”

Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared. Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to write them; and I have written them. And he commanded me that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpretation thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the interpreters, according to the commandment of the Lord. (Ether 4:4-5).

This implies that Moroni’s process for interpreting and writing the record of the brother of Jared was distinctly different in time and manner than his method for abridging the book of Ether. If the record of the brother of Jared is what constitutes the sealed portion of the set of plates which Moroni delivered to Joseph Smith, then they probably constituted a unit which would have been set apart on Moroni’s plates from Moroni’s abridgment of the book of Ether as Joseph Smith did not include the record of the brother of Jared as part of the Book of Mormon text. Whether that setting apart involved metal bands around a section of plates right in the middle of Moroni’s abridgment of the book of Ether, or physical repositioning of the record to be at the very end of Moroni’s set of plates is not known. It is not even clear what portion of the plates which Moroni delivered to Joseph Smith was sealed. Joseph Smith simply said: “The volume was something near six inches in thickness, a part of which was sealed” ¹ George Q. Cannon said that “about one-third” was sealed ², whereas Orson Pratt maintained that the sealed portion comprised “about two-thirds” of the plates ³. Neither of the last two brethren indicate where they obtained their information. Nevertheless, if this sealed portion comprised two-thirds of the plates delivered to Joseph, then the written text produced by the sealed portion alone could possibly total over a thousand printed pages (double the length of our present Book of Mormon) or even many more. Such a prodigious work would have required a good amount of time for Moroni to fabricate (or have fabricated) the required metal plates, translate the characters my means of the interpreters, and inscribe the necessary material onto those plates.

The “two stones” mentioned in connection with the record of the brother of Jared are referred to in other parts of the Book of Mormon text as the “interpreters” and were apparently what the Lord referred to in a revelation recorded in The Doctrine and Covenants as the ones used by Joseph Smith:

Behold, I say unto you, that you must rely upon my word, which if you do with full purpose of heart, you shall have a view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim, which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount, when he talked with the Lord face to face, and the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness, on the borders of the Red Sea.’ (D&C 17:1; see also D&C 10:1))

The interpreters, or Urim & Thummim, were initially found by Joseph Smith in a stone box with a breastplate and a set of plates which Moroni had deposited there. He writes:

Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario County, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated on any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth. Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger.” ⁴

Joseph Smith was told by the angel Moroni that he should only show the contents of the box to certain people because they were extremely sacred:

Again he [Moroni] told me, that when I got these plates . . . I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed ⁵

This correlates with the warning words of Ammon in the book of Mosiah: “And the things are called interpreters, and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish.” (Mosiah 8:13)

Joseph Smith described the plates which Moroni entrusted him with as follows:

These records were engraven on plates which had the appearance of gold, each plate was six inches wide and eight inches long and not quite so thick as common tin. They were filled with engravings, in Egyptian characters and bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches in thickness, a part of which was sealed. The characters on the unsealed part were small, and beautifully engraved. ⁶

It appears that Joseph Smith’s mother was one of those allowed the privilege of viewing at least one of these sacred items–the breastplate–early on. She gives this account:

It [the breastplate] was wrapped in a thin muslin handkerchief [which in those days was large and much like a scarf], so thin that I could feel its proportions without any difficulty. It was concave on one side, and convex on the other, and extended from the neck downwards, as far as the center of the stomach of a man of extraordinary size. It had four straps of the same material, for the purpose of fastening it to the breast, two of which ran back to go over the shoulders, and the other two were designed to fasten to the hips. They were just the width of two of my fingers, (for I measured them) and they had holes in the end of them, to be convenient in fastening. After I had examined it, Joseph placed it in the chest with the Urim and Thummim. ⁷

Andrew Hedges writes⁸ that the material of this thin muslin handkerchief was apparently so fine that Lucy could reportedly “see the glistening metal,⁹

and ascertain its proportions without any difficulty.” Hedges also notes that following Lucy’s examination of the breastplate, Joseph placed it “in the chest with the Urim and Thummim.”¹⁰      I have yet to find any statement concerning the origin of the breastplate, i. e. whether it originated with the brother of Jared, Mosiah, Mormon, or Moroni. Because Limhi’s party brought back “breastplates, which are large, and they are of brass and of copper,” one might want to associate the breastplate with the Jaredites, however, one should also realize that the breastplate was associated with the interpreters and that at the time the Limhi party returned, the king of the land of Zarahemla already had the interpreters (see Mosiah 8:13-14).

Joseph Smith describes the Urim & Thummim as follows:

With the records was a curious instrument, the Urim & Thummim, which consisted of two transparent stones, set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate. Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift and power of God” ¹

William Smith, the brother of Joseph Smith, gives a more detailed description of these instruments, although he does not give any details as to the source of his knowledge:

The Urim and Thummim were set in a double silver bow which was twisted into the shape of a figure 8, and the two stones were placed literally between the two rims of the bow. At one end was attached a rod which was connected with the outer edge of the right shoulder of the breast-plate. By pressing the head a little forward, the rod held the Urim and Thummim before the eyes much like a pair of spectacles. A pocket was prepared in the breast-plate on the left side immediately over the heart. When not in use the Urim and Thummim was placed in the pocket, the rod being of just the right length to allow it to be deposited. This instrument could, however, be detached from the breast-plate when away from home, but Joseph always used it in connection with the breast-plate when translating, as it permitted him to have both hands free to touch the plates. The instrument was too large for Joseph’s eyes: they must have been used by larger men. ¹¹

Concerning the function of the Urim & Thummim, Cleon Skousen notes that the words “Urim” and “Thummim” appear to be individual names assigned to each of two transparent stones which were used by the servants of God from Adam on down, (1) to facilitate revelation (Numbers 27:21). The “interpreters” were used for revelation of all kinds (see Alma 37:21-25); (2) to give righteous judgments (Exodus 28:30); and (3) to translate ancient records written in an unknown tongue (D & C 10:1; Ether 3:23-24). ¹²

Paul Hoskisson writes that “Urim and Thummim is the transliteration of two Hebrew words meaning, respectively, ‘light(s)’ and ‘wholeness(es)’ or ‘perfection(s).’ While it is usually assumed that the –im ending on both words represents the Hebrew masculine plural suffix, other explanations are possible.” ¹³

According to Randall Spackman:

One of the most attractive, recent suggestions is that Urim is derived from the Assyrian u’uru, meaning “to send forth” and related to the noun urtu, meaning “a divine decision,” Thummim may be related to the Assyrian noun tamatu, meaning “an oracle.” Therefore the two terms might constitute a Hebrew hendiadys, a combination of “two formally co-ordinate terms — verbs, nouns, or adjectives — by “and” which “express a single concept in which one of the components defines the other.” The order of the terms is immaterial. Given the foregoing approach, the phrase “Urim and Thummim” could read as meaning “a divine decision in answer to a question” or “sacred answer,” denoting the use to which the object was put. ¹⁴

Concerning the origins of the Urim & Thummim, Bruce R. McConkie writes:

Undoubtedly the Urim & Thummim were in use before the Flood, but the first scriptural reference to them is in connection with the revelations given to the Brother of Jared. (Ether 3:21-28) Abraham had them in his day (Abraham 3:1-4), and Aaron and the priests in Israel had them from generation to generation (Exodus 28:30; Leviticus 8:8; Numbers 27:21; Deuteronomy 33:8; 1 Samuel 28:6; Ezra 2:63; Nehemiah 7:65). There is no record that Lehi brought a Urim and Thummim to this continent, but king Mosiah had one prior to the discovery of the Book of Ether, and it was handed down from prophet to prophet. (Omni 1:20-21; Mosiah 8:13-19; 21:26-28; 28:11-20; Alma 63:12; Ether 4:1-7). ¹⁵

A passage in the Book of Mormon speaks about the beginnings of these “stones” or Urim & Thummim and reads as follows:

And now he [Mosiah II] translated them [the 24 plates of Ether] by means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow. Now these things [the interpreters or Urim & Thummim] were prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages . . . and whosoever has these things is called seer, after the manner of old times. (Mosiah 28:13-16)

The Book of Abraham also speaks concerning the history of the Urim & Thummim:

“And I, Abraham, had the Urim and Thummim, which the Lord my God had given unto me, in Ur of the Chaldees. . . . And the Lord said unto me: Now, Abraham . . . it is given unto thee to know the times of reckoning and the set time, yea, the set time of the earth upon which thou standest, and the set time of the greater light which is set to rule the day, and the set time of the lesser light which is set to rule the night . . . And it is given unto thee to know the set time of all the stars that are set to give light, until thou come near unto the throne of God. Thus I, Abraham, talked with the lord, face to face, as one man talketh with another; and he told me of the works which his hands had made; . . . (Abraham 3:1-11)

But the records of the fathers, even the patriarchs, concerning the right of the Priesthood, the Lord my God preserved in mine own hands; therefore a knowledge of the beginning of the creation, and also of the planets, and of the stars, as they were made known unto the fathers, have I kept even unto this day. . . (Abraham 1:31)

Abraham’s comments touch on the association of the Urim and Thummim with (1) a knowledge of all God’s works related to the earth; (2) the idea that this knowledge was made known unto “the fathers”; and (3) the idea that the fathers made records which have been kept. If, according to Mosiah, the interpreters were “prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation,” and they were given to the brother of Jared, who apparently took them to the New World, then how did they get into the hands of Abraham in the Old World? And conversely, if Abraham had them, how did they get back into the hands of Benjamin (or Mosiah)?

We have been taught that the gospel has revealed to man in each dispensation, and in each dispensation the people have become so wicked that the restored gospel has been taken from them. We also know that although it is always “the Lord” who directs the transfer of knowledge, sometimes He has angels who represent Him and speak for Him. We can assume that the Lord could make whatever number of Urim & Thummims He wanted to, however as we have seen take place in the restoration of the fullness of the gospel to Joseph Smith, the Lord works within the covenant order of the Priesthood wherever possible to restore powers from chosen individual to chosen individual. Thus, from Adam to Abraham and then to Jacob and Joseph and Moses in the Old World we have a connected line of Patriarchs. (See the illustration below) However, the fact that the potential for covenant gifts of God are restored in their fullness does not always mean that the people live in such a way as to receive of that fullness, or to even understand what that fullness could be. As has been mentioned before, in each succeeding dispensation after Adam, a restoration of covenant gospel knowledge was necessary, and apparently a record to verify that covenant and a Urim & Thummim to understand the previous convenant records.      In the case of Ether and Abraham, we have the patriarchs of two different, but simultaneous dispensations: one in the Old World and one in the New World. Thus there was a need for two different covenant records, but the question is, was there a need for two different sets of interpreters also? Two general theories have been proposed.

Theory #1

According to Cleon Skousen, the fact that Abraham had a record from “the beginning” (Abraham 1:31) and at the same time had the Urim and Thummim (Abraham 3:1-4) implies that those instruments might have been in the possession of Noah (as Orson Pratt has stated–see Journal of Discourses, Vol. 16, p. 50) and also in the possession of all the patriarchs back to Adam. This seems rather strongly supported by the Book of Mormon which says that “these things (the interpreters) were prepared “from the beginning.” (Mosiah 28:13-16) ¹⁶

In the chronology of the patriarchs, after the flood of Noah’s time which came as a punishment for the wickedness of the people, Seem the son of Noah started anew by settling in the land of Mesopotamia. The brother of Jared lived some years after Seem at the time of the great tower when the Lord was cursing and scattering his people for their wickedness. The great tower has also been associated with the land of Mesopotamia. Abraham also came from the land of Mesopotamia and was a descendant of Seem.

Sidney Sperry writes that it is possible that during a period of apostasy, early in Jaredite history, the Lord may have taken the Urim and Thummim from the Jaredites (the descendants of Shem?) and delivered them to Abraham, another descendant of Seem, who received them while still residing in Ur of the Chaldees. (Abraham 3:10) ¹⁷

However, Skousen notes that we do not know exactly what happened to these two transparent stones between Abraham and Moses. They may have been handed down continuously through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph but it is more likely that they were given and then taken back at times into divine custody. Between Abraham and Moses no mention is made of them until Moses is told to put them in the jeweled linen container (called a “breastplate”) which Aaron wore on the front of his Priesthood vestment, called the ephod. The ephod was a multi-colored waistcoat with two large onyx stones on the shoulders. The names of six tribes were carved on each stone. From these stones hung woven golden chains which were attached to the linen container called the “breastplate of judgment.” Concerning it the Lord said: “thou [Moses] shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the Lord; and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually.” (Exodus 28:30)

Later, these instruments were turned over to Aaron’s son, Eleazar, and Joshua was told to get the word of the Lord through this means. The Lord said: “And he [Joshua] shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord: at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.” (Numbers 27:21) There is another lapse of around 400 years and then we are told, “when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.” (I Samuel 28:6) This implies that these sacred instruments were available but would not function during a period of apostasy.

Following the return of the Jews from Babylon (538 B.C.) the sacred instruments appear to have been lost from among them. “And the Tirshatha [Governor] said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, til there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.” (Nehemiah 7:65; Ezra 2:63) However, they appear to have been very familiar with these instruments so their disappearance may have been just before the captivity. ¹⁸

According to Sperry, there is a Jewish tradition found in the Babylonian Talmud, Sota, 48, a, to the effect that the Urim and Thummim were lost at the time of the destruction of the Temple. Since this is about the time that the Nephites left Jerusalem, we suggest the possibility that Father Lehi took them with him or that Nephi secured them along with the Brass Plates. If one of them did secure the instruments, we see that the Nephites had the sacred “interpreters” during all the years of their long history. Though this theory requires the Lord to transfer of only one Urim and Thummim from this continent, where the Jaredites were located, to Abraham in the Near East at Ur of the Chaldees, it is very attractive and fits very nicely into Nephite history. For according to Sperry, what happened to the Urim and Thummim among the Jaredite people after the death of the brother of Jared is not known. Nothing is said either about their use or about the names of the prophets to whom they were handed down. All we know is that the Urim and Thummim or “interpreters,” as they were called by the Nephites (Mosiah 8:13; 28:20), eventually found their way into the hands of Nephite prophets and “were handed down from generation to generation” until they came into the possession of Moroni. Moroni hid them in the hill, where, about 1400 years later, they were acquired by the Prophet Joseph Smith (Ether 4:5). ¹⁹.

Theory #2

Paul Hoskisson writes that “in antiquity at least two different Urim and Thummim existed, and possibly three. ²⁰ Joseph Fielding Smith believes that the Urim and Thummim had by Abraham were “separate and distinct” from those had by the brother of Jared and brought by him to this continent ²¹ If he is right, we are left with the possibility that one of the last of the Jaredite prophets managed to transmit the Urim and Thummim to an unnamed Nephite prophet.²³

Additionally, the last words of Ether are intriguing: “Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not, if it so be that I am saved in the kingdom of God. Amen” (Ether 15:34) If Ether turned over the Urim and Thummim as a “translated” being, then it is easy to reconcile the bestowal of these instruments on any of the Nephite prophets from the time of his translation (approximately from the time of Mosiah₁ forward to Mosiah₂.

There are a few evidences that might point to not only an early transfer of the interpreters to the Nephite prophets, but a simultaneous transfer of the record of the brother of Jared, which was “sealed up” with it–Ether 3:23):

1. The record of the brother of Jared was not only written in a language that no one could read without the aid of the interpreters (Ether 3:22-24). The brother of Jared was also commanded to seal up the interpreters with the things which he wrote (Ether 3:23), and “show them not, until the Lord should show them unto the children of men” (Ether 3:27-28) Thus, there is some question as to whether any subsequent record keeper among the “Jaredites” was even allowed to read the details of this account, let alone write them. As is stated, “Nobody could look in the interpreters without being commanded. If he did so, he should perish. (Mosiah 8:13) The book of Ether gives only a brief synopsis or overview of what took place with the brother of Jared’s encounter with the Lord on the mountain. Such information could easily have been passed down without the “sealed up” details. Although Moroni mentions that he “could not make a full account of the things which are written [concerning the brother of Jared]” (Ether 3:17), Moroni was living after the time of the Savior’s appearance to the Nephites which fulfilled the time period he himself stipulated before the record would be made manifest (see Ether 4:1).²⁴ Appropriately, Moroni notes that “Jesus showed himself unto this man in the spirit, even after the manner and in the likeness of the same body even as he showed himself unto the Nephites” (Ether 3:17). Thus it is unclear whether Ether ever read the original account of the brother of Jared with the aid of the two stones that were sealed up for its translation, or whether he just included a summary of what the brother of Jared had told to the descendants of Jared. It is also unclear to what extent Moroni embellished Ether’s account. Although Mormon was forbidden to pass on all the information recorded on the Large Plates concerning the teachings of the Savior among the Nephites (see 3 Nephi 26:1-12), that material would have been available to Moroni. Thus, if Jesus expounded “all things unto them, both great and small,” and if the Savior “commanded that they [the writings of the brother of Jared] be made manifest” (Ether 4:2), then Moroni had access to that record, and could have used the information to embellish his abridgment.

2. There is no mention of the “interpreters” or the record of the brother of Jared being passed along to other “Jaredite” prophets after the time when it was written. The book of Ether, which is Moroni’s abridgment of the people who came out from the great tower, was originally written by Ether. Ether witnessed the destruction of his people in about 250 B.C, and apparently took great care to list his genealogy back to Jared (Ether 1:6-32), and his record seems to be told from the perspective of Jared’s royal line. From his record, we find that one of Jared’s sons chose to become the first king of the people when all the sons of the brother of Jared declined the opportunity (Ether 6:19-27). While kings tend to keep records, the brother of Jared was commanded by the Lord to “seal up” his record with “the two stones” and “show them not, until the Lord should show them unto the children of men” (Ether 3:28). Thus there is a possibility that the record of the brother of Jared and the interpreters might have been passed down through the brother of Jared’s lineage rather than the kingship lineage of Jared.     

3. Possibly 50 years after the destruction of the Jaredites (proposed to be about 250 B.C.), or at about 200 B.C., we find the first recorded allusion to the interpreters among the Nephites. Mosiah₁ interpreted the engravings on a stone by “the gift and power of God” (Omni 1:20), a phrase used in reference to the interpreters (see Mosiah 8:13,14; 21:28) Intriguingly, Joseph Smith also linked the interpreters with the same phrase: “Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by “the gift and power of God” ²⁵. Interestingly, the engravings on the stone dealt with the history “of one Coriantumr, and the slain of his people” (Omni 1:21). Coriantumr was the only survivor in an apparently ongoing kingship feud with (or among) the “Jaredite” people. Significantly, Coriantumr was a descendant of the brother of Jared, not of Jared. Thus we have an association of someone translating “by the gift of God” a record dealing with the “people” of a descendant of the brother of Jared.

 4. Limhi’s search party, which found the 24 plates, represented a people without any authority from God, even to baptize (see Mosiah 21:33). One might wonder how such a non-authorized body of men could obtain a “sealed” record of the brother of Jared and the interpreters when “nobody could look in the interpreters without being commanded. (Mosiah 8:13) Apparently Ammon apparently chose to speak with king Limhi in private about the interpreters possibly to avoid discussing a sacred matter openly among people who had not made any true covenants with the Lord. This also gives the reader one possibility as to why the interpreters had not been mentioned previously in the Nephite record. In other words, it is possible that because of their sacred nature and sacred use, “interpreters” were not mentioned by name in Mormon’s abridgment nor in the small plates of Nephi until the distinct power and nature of such an instrument was made reference to by Ammon. (Of course another reason is the loss of the 116 pages of Manuscript) Cleon Skousen writes that “just as ancient prophets very seldom refer to the Urim and Thummim because of their sacred character, so also the modern custodians neither discuss them nor display them. Concerning this, Joseph Smith said: “Again he [Moroni] told me, that when I got those plates . . . I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed.” ²⁶

5. Ammon had to explain what interpreters were to king Limhi. There is no mention in the text that the “interpreters” were in the possession of Limhi, only that king Mosiah [Benjamin] had them (Mosiah 8:9-14) In a related verse, the name “king Benjamin” appears in the Printers Manuscript for what is now “king Mosiah” (Mosiah 21:28) as the person who had “a gift from God, whereby he could interpret such engravings.” Ammon also said concerning the king²⁷ of the land of Zarahemla: “for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God” (Mosiah 8:13-14).²⁸ Previously, Amaleki had recorded that Mosiah (1) interpreted the engravings on a stone by “the gift and power of God” (Omni 1:20) Thus, if the interpreters are associated with the phrase “gift of God,” and king Mosiah(1) translated the stone by the “gift of God,” and “king Benjamin” had “a gift from God,” there is reason to believe that the interpreters (and the record of the brother of Jared) were separate from the 24 plates found by the people of Limhi.

6. Previous to Ammon’s group being sent to find Zeniff’s people (over which Limhi was now king), king Benjamin talked about the premortal Christ, which is part of the message of the record of Jared (see Ether 3)

7. Although there is no mention of Lehi or Nephi carrying the Urim & Thummim away from Jerusalem, or the passing on of such an instrument to subsequent kings or prophets in the land of Nephi, one should bear in mind that the interpreters were not listed among the sacred items such as the sword of Laban, the records, and the Liahona, which Mosiah₂ received from his father Benjamin (see Mosiah 1:16). However, when Mosiah (2) gave Alma the younger charge of the sacred items, the text states that Mosiah, “took the plates of brass, and all the things which he had kept, and conferred them upon Alma, who was the son of Alma; yea, all the records and also the interpreters, and conferred them upon him, and commanded him that he should keep and preserve them, and also keep a record of the people, handing them down from one generation to another, even as they had been handed down from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem” (Mosiah 28:20).

8. In Alma 37:21, Alma₂ counsels his son Helaman “concerning those twenty-four plates, that [1] ye keep them . . . and that [2] ye preserve these interpreters . . . For behold, the Lord saw that his people began to work in darkness . . . And the Lord said:

 I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people who serve me, . . . the works of darkness. . . And now, my son, these interpreters were prepared that the word of God might be fulfilled, which he spake, saying, I will bring forth out of darkness unto light all their secret works; and except they repent I will destroy them from off the face of the earth; and I will bring to light all their secrets and abominations, unto every nation that shall hereafter possess the land. And now, my son, we see that they did not repent; therefore they have been destroyed. . . (Alma 37:23-25)

The reader should note that the “words of God” which were to be fulfilled by the interpreters were linked by Alma to the 24 plates which Mosiah translated for the people. These words are not part of Moroni’s abridgment. However, the same concept of destruction because of secret works can possibly be linked to a sermon by Jacob (see 2 Nephi 10:15-17). Secret works were also a subject Jeremiah touched on as related to the impending destruction of Jerusalem. Could the Urim & Thummim been the means of discovering such secret works among the people at the time of Jeremiah?.

9. At the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, the Urim & Thummim disappeared. Lehi and Nephi were “the fathers” of the Nephite civilization who left Jerusalem at this time. Accordingly, we have Lehi’s and Nephi’s record and we have some knowledge of their visions. However, Nephi never specifically mentions anything about receiving a Urim & Thummim. In fact, we don’t come across any mention of “interpreters” until the book of Mosiah, approximately four centuries after Nephi’s death. Yet very intriguingly, Tradition has it that a period of 400 years passed between scriptural mentions of the Urim & Thummim in the Old Testament (see Numbers 27:21; 1 Samuel 28:6).

10. Moroni seems to be consistent in saying that he “took” his account from the twenty and four plates. One might wonder about the implication of the word “took.” Just how loosely or tightly did Moroni make his abridgment? And how could “twenty and four plates” have ever captured the detailed history of this people for over 2000 years as Moroni seems to allude to? Moroni says that he only recorded the “one hundredth part” of the history recorded on the 24 plates (Ether 15:33). If that “one hundredth part” covers 31 1/2 printed pages of our current edition, then the 24 plates of Ether’s writings would translate to somewhere near 3,150 pages of written text.

Further complicating this idea of the content of the twenty and four plates is the idea that they contained the record of the brother of Jared. The vision of the brother of Jared is referred to in the book of Ether, but was apparently sealed up. We find the following statement by Moroni in the text:

Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared.

Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpretation thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the interpreters, according to the commandment of the Lord. (Ether 4:4-5)

Thus there was a sealed portion to the plates which were given to Joseph Smith by Moroni, and this sealed portion presumably represented the writings of the brother of Jared. Joseph Smith was commanded not to translate this sealed portion. This seems to correlate with the Lord’s words to Moroni in the text regarding the writings of the brother of Jared:

Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared. Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to write them; and I have written them. And he commanded me that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpretation thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the interpreters, according to the commandment of the Lord. For the Lord said unto me: They shall not go forth unto the Gentiles until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord. And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are. (Ether 4:4-7)

Although it is not absolutely clear what portion of the plates of Mormon was sealed (see previous discussion), if the sealed portion comprised two-thirds of the plates delivered to Joseph, then the written text produced by this portion could possibly total over a thousand printed pages (double the length of our present Book of Mormon).

     A final complicating factor regarding the content of the twenty and four plates runs as follows:

     (a) If Moroni only wrote “the hundredth part” of the record of Ether (Ether 15:33), and

     (b) the record of the brother of Jared was part of that twenty and four plates, and

     (c) if the sealed portion of the plates (the record of the brother of Jared) represented two-thirds of the plates which Moroni gave to Joseph Smith, and

     (d) if two-thirds of those plates represents double the one-third which Joseph Smith translated, and if what Joseph translated amounts to approximately 500 pages, then the sealed portion might approximate 1000 pages of translated text.

     (e) If 1000 pages of text represent only “the hundredth part” of what Moroni wrote,” then the total text of the twenty and four plates would come to approximately 100,000 pages.

One might wonder, How could this be? In saying that he only recorded the “one hundredth part” of the history, was Moroni perhaps referring to other additional Jaredite records he had access to? That is, was Moroni lamenting the fact that Ether had written such an abbreviated history in view of all the rest of the Jaredite records which were at Moroni’s disposal? Ether 13:13 says that Ether “hid himself in the cavity of a rock by day, and by night he went forth viewing the things which should come upon the people.” Did Ether have a record repository in a cave much like Mormon and Moroni had the hill Shim and the hill Ramah? Were there other Jaredite records? Or were the twenty and four plates a “set” of 24 volumes? At present the information available is not sufficient to answer these questions.

11. In Ether 4:2 we find that “after Christ truly had showed himself unto his people (on the American continent) he commanded thatthey (the writings of the brother of Jared just mentioned in Ether 4:1) be made manifest.” However, in Mormon’s abridgment of Nephi’s record (Third Nephi) concerning the appearance of the Savior to the Nephites, nothing is specifically mentioned about the record of the brother of Jared being manifest to the people. However, Mormon does note the following:

And now there cannot be written in this book even a hundredth part of the things which Jesus did truly teach unto the people; But behold the plates of Nephi do contain the more part of the things which he taught the people. And these things have I written which are a lesser part of the things which he taught the people; and I have written them to the intent that they may be brought again unto the people, from the Gentiles, according to the words which Jesus hath spoken. . . . And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from them, unto their condemnation. Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people. Therefore I, Mormon, do write the things which have been commanded me of the Lord. And now I, Mormon, make an end of my sayings, and proceed to write the things which have been commanded me. (3 Nephi 26:6-12)

One might ask, Just how were the words of the brother of Jared “made manifest“? Did Christ tell the people from his point of view (from memory) of the experiences of the brother of Jared, or did Christ translate for them (in an oral manner) the actual writings of the brother of Jared, or did Christ use a possible translation by king Mosiah? Did Christ cause that an exact written translation be made of the writings of the brother of Jared, or did the Nephites just receive what Nephi₃ recorded? If the things of the brother of Jared were “made manifest” at the time Christ came to the New World, and if Nephi₃ recorded in detail the experiences of the brother of Jared in the book of Third Nephi, were they sealed up? Did Mormon purposely edit them out of his abridgment because of a commandment of the Lord similar to that given to Moroni and Joseph Smith (see Ether 4:5-7; 5:1) that the words of the brother of Jared would not come forth unto the Gentiles until they repented and showed the same faith as the brother of Jared? Did Moroni use Third Nephi on the Large Plates as a source for what he wrote in the book of Ether about the experiences of the brother of Jared? It seems plausible. Did Moroni use Third Nephi on the Large Plates as a source for the writings of the brother of Jared? That also seems a possibility. How could Moroni improve on the interpretation of the writings of the brother of Jared by the Savior himself?

12. In Ether 12:23-24 Moroni makes the following comment:

And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;

And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them. (Ether 12:23-24)

By saying “thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared,” is this verse saying that Moroni had read the writings of the brother of Jared in their original language and found them to be “overpowering“? Or is this verse saying that Moroni found the possible translation made by Mosiah II of those writings to be “overpowering?” Or did Moroni find the words of Christ expounding the writings of the brother of Jared to be exceptionally praiseworthy of the man’s written effort? Whatever the case, one would have to think that if Moroni found the writings of the brother of Jared to be “overpowering,” then he had somehow read from a source which revealed the power of those writings.

In summary, I hope I have added to the perspective given by those articles which have already been written concerning the relationship of Moroni’s writings to the interpreters and the twenty four plates of Ether. In elucidating this understanding, I hope I not only have paved the way for a discussion of the chronology and geographical setting of Moroni’s writings, but motivated the reader to search out even more and better perspectives so that future Book of Mormon students might profit from our efforts.

Line of Succession for the Urim and Thummim

Adam

     Seth

           Enos

                 Cainan

                       Mahalaleal

                             Jared

                                   Enoch

                                         Methuselah

                                               Lamech

                                                     Noah

Noah

     Shem

           Arphaxed

                 Salah

                       Eber

                             Peleg

                                   Reu

                                         Serug

                                               Nahor

                                                     Terah

                                                           Abraham

Abraham

     Isaac

           Jacob

                 Joseph

                       Moses

                        Aaron

                       Eleazer

     Adam ———- Noah (Flood) —> [Lord]?

     Shem ———— (Tower) —> [Lord]

     Brother of Jared ———- (Rebellion) —> [Lord]

     Abraham ———- Joseph? (Captivity) —> [Lord]?

     Moses ———- (Dispersion) —> [Lord]?

     Lehi (Nephi)? — [Benjamin]Mosiah—- Moroni (Destruction) —> [Lord]

     Joseph Smith ———-> [Lord]

Question: Were the “interpreters” or “Urim and Thummim” always associated with some kind of symbolical breastplate, whether it was from the Old World or from the New World?

Sources for the Compilation of the Book of Ether

Sources Available to Ether

     There are a number of passages in the book of Ether which evidence that Ether used a number of sources in order to compile his record. They are as follows:

     The record of the Brother of Jared? (Ether 3:22)

     The record which contained the account of the creation down to the tower. (Ether 1:3)

     The record which contained the “secret works” (Ether 8:9,15)

     A genealogical record of Ether to Jared (Ether 1:6-33)

     A collection of Ether’s own “great and marvelous prophecies” (Ether 12:5; 13:13)

Sources Available to Moroni

In Ether 12:24, Moroni comments that the Lord had not made the Nephites mighty in writing “like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them.” This seems to say that Moroni had read the writings of the brother of Jared in their original language and found them to be overpowering. It also suggests that Moroni had access to multiple sources from which to compile the book of Ether. Those sources might have been:

     The twenty and four plates of Ether (Ether 1:2)

     The record of the Brother of Jared (Ether 3:22)

     The record compiled by Nephi III of the Savior’s words about the brother of Jared. (Ether 4:2)

     The record which contained the account of the creation down to the tower. (Ether 1:3)

     The record which contained the “secret works” (Ether 8:9,15)

     Mosiah₂‘s translation of the twenty and four plates of Ether (Mosiah 28:11-13)

     Moroni’s own memory (Ether 5:1)

     The genealogical record of Ether to Jared (Ether 1:6-33)

     Mosiah₁‘s translation of the stone brought to him by the people of Zarahemla which contained a record

           of Coriantumr, the last king and a descendant of the brother of Jared

     The “great and marvelous prophecies” of Ether (Ether 12:5; 13:13)

     An oral history given to Mosiah₁ by Zarahemla which might have had some reflection on the Jaredite

           people.

     Moroni’s own writings which drew from all sources.