The seer stone Joseph Smith used in the Book of Mormon translation effort. The stone is kept in a church vault not accessible to the public. Under license that permits educational, personal, or otherwise non-commercial use.
Where Science Meets the Doctrine and Covenants: Come Follow Me Lesson: January 20 - 26: Doctrine and Covenants 2; Joseph Smith History 1:27-65
Joseph Smith tells us in his History 1:30, 34-35, “While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor…He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants; Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted ‘seers’ in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.”
Joseph continued, in his History 1:51-53, “Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of 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. The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them. I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time; but he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates.”
Then, four years later, Joseph again recounts in his History 1:59-60, 62, “At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected. I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I had done what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight…By this timely aid was I enabled to reach the place of my destination in Pennsylvania; and immediately after my arrival there I commenced copying the characters off the plates. I copied a considerable number of them, and by means of the Urim and Thummim I translated some of them, which I did between the time I arrived at the house of my wife’s father, in the month of December, and the February following.”
Concerning descriptions of the Urim and Thummim, Richerd Turley et al. stated, “Joseph related that when he finally obtained the plates from Moroni in 1827, he also received two stones to be used in translating them. He and close acquaintances left accounts of these stones, describing them as white or clear in appearance, set in silver bows or rims like modern eyeglasses or spectacles, and connected to a large breastplate.1 As described, this seeric device would have been bulky. Joseph Smith’s mother said that he detached the stones from the breastplate for convenience while using them.”2
Turley et al. continued, “In fact, historical evidence shows that in addition to the two seer stones known as ‘interpreters,’ Joseph Smith used at least one other seer stone in translating the Book of Mormon, often placing it into a hat in order to block out light. According to Joseph’s contemporaries, he did this in order to better view the words on the stone.”3
“By 1833, Joseph Smith and his associates began using the biblical term ‘Urim and Thummim’ to refer to any stones used to receive divine revelations, including both the Nephite interpreters and the single seer stone.4 This imprecise terminology has complicated attempts to reconstruct the exact method by which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. In addition to using the interpreters, according to Martin Harris, Joseph also used one of his seer stones for convenience during the Book of Mormon translation. Other sources corroborate Joseph’s changing translation instruments.”5
Turley et al. said that, “Joseph’s history explains that ‘by the wisdom of God, [the plates and interpreters] remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day’ (Joseph Smith—History 1:60).”6
The Urim and Thummim are mentioned seven times in the Old Testament: twice in the context of Aaron’s attire, which included an ephod, breastplate and Urim and Thummim (Exodus 28:2-30; Leviticus 8:8); twice where the Urim and Thummim were mentioned in the context of a priest’s office (Ezra 2:63; Nehamiah 7:65); once it was described as a Thummim and Urim (Deuteronomy 33:8); and twice it was mentioned only as the Urim and associated with the priest’s office and judgement (Numbers 27:18-21; 1 Samuel 28:6). In none of the scriptures cited were the Urim and Thummim used to “see things” or receive revelation. Only in 1 Samuel 30: 7-8, did David use the ephod, and by association, presumably the breastplate and Urim and Thummim, to ask a yes-no question of God.
Where did the Urim and Thummim come from, which Joseph Smith used? According to Ether 3:23-24, 27, nearly 1000 years before Aaron was given the Urim and Thummim, “And behold, these two stones will I [God] give unto thee [the brother of Jared], 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 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.”
The terms “Urim and Thummim” do not appear in the Book of Mormon, however, two stones, the “interpreters,” are mentioned several times in the Book of Mormon, along with their function. The earliest we hear of them is in Mosiah 8:13-14, “Now Ammon said unto him [king Limhi]: I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man [king Mosiah] that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. 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. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer. And behold, the king of the people who are in the land of Zarahemla is the man that is commanded to do these things, and who has this high gift from God.”
Mosiah 28:11, 13-14, 20 “Therefore he [king Mosiah] took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, and also the plates of Nephi, and all the things which he had kept and preserved according to the commandments of God, after having translated and caused to be written the records which were on the plates of gold which had been found by the people of Limhi, which were delivered to him by the hand of Limhi…And now he translated them by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow. Now these things were prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages…And now, as I said unto you, that after king Mosiah had done these things, he 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.” So, Mosiah had a set of stones, set in a bow, different from those of the brother of Jared. After he was given the history of the Jaredites, on their 24 gold plates, along with their interpreters, Mosiah, and the Ancient-American prophets after him, apparently had two sets.
Joseph Smith was given the Jaredite one, according to Doctrine and Covenants 17:1, “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.”
Wikipedia’s treatment of the topic “Urim and Thummim” is very interesting. The article begins by stating, “In the Hebrew Bible, the Urim (Hebrew: אוּרִים ʾŪrīm, "lights") and the Thummim (Hebrew: תֻּמִּים Tummīm, "perfection" or "truth") are elements of the hoshen, the breastplate worn by the High Priest attached to the ephod, a type of apron or garment.” The article discusses Old Testament uses of the Urim and Thummim under the headings: Name and meaning, Form and function, and History of use. Under the latter heading, we are informed, “Although Josephus argues that the Urim and Thummim continued to function until the era of the Maccabees, Talmudic sources are unanimous in agreeing that the Urim and Thummim stopped functioning much earlier, when Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians.” Furthermore, “Maimonides [1138-1204 AD, ‘a rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages’] states that in the Second Temple the Urim and Thummim actually existed but no longer functioned in the practical sense since the priests no longer possessed the Holy Spirit. Rabbi Abraham ben David disagrees and maintains that during that era, the Urim and Thummim were completely absent.” Such a statement is of great interest in light of what is stated about faith and the Holy Ghost in 2 Nephi 29:1-14; 32:1-9; and elsewhere in the Book of Mormon.
The Wikipedia article on the topic “Urim and Thummim” does not venture into any history after the Second Temple period. There is nothing about the Middle Ages. The next heading is, amazingly, “Latter Day Saint movement.” The last heading is, “In popular culture.” One of the topics there is: “In Paulo Coelho's 1988 novel The Alchemist, Urim and Thummim are black and white fortune-telling stones that Melchizedek [king of Salem] gives to Santiago, with their colors representing ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers to questions.” Coelho’s, The Alchemist, originally written in Portuguese and translated into English in 1993, is a very popular book, with over 150 million copies worldwide. It is one of the most positive, encouraging books I have ever read and I strongly recommend it to everyone.
I pray at least twice a day for Heavenly guidance in writing my blogs. I have felt the Spirit guiding me many times over the past three years — but no more strongly than the past two weeks. Our oldest daughter, Summer, was here over Christmas and through New Year’s. She left her copy of The Alchemist, when she went back home to California. My wife, Kathleen, picked it up and set it on our bathroom counter, where I do much of my reading. I was aware of the book, but thought it was much older, and I had never read it. It is a fairly short book, so I read it over a few days, and it worked perfectly with the topic of this week’s blog.
The Alchemist connects alchemy, the Urim and Thummim, and Melchizedek, king of Salem, in one book. I had read several books on alchemy back in the late 1970s, when I was a post-doc at the University of Washington, and had read of those connections at that time, but I had read of none sense. Genesis 14:18 lists Melchizedek as the king of Salem, and Hebrews 7:1-2 lists Melchizedek as King of righteousness, King of Salem, and King of peace.
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known simply as Paracelsus (1493-1541), a Swiss physician, lay theologian, philosopher, and one of the most famous alchemists; wrote a book entitled, Urim and Thummim shewed to be made by Art, and are the same with the Universal Spirit, corporate and fixed. It was translated into English by R. Turner in 1657.7
Paracelsus stated, “That Urim and Thummim, which were given in the Mount…the words signify Light and Perfection, Knowledge and Holiness, also Manifestation and Truth, even as Science and Essence make one Perfection. It is likely they were before the Law given; for the Almighty God commanded Noah to make a cleer Light in the Ark, which some take for a Window…it seemed to be a rare Light…the Creator commanded Noah to make by Art. Other Hebrew Doctors say, It was a precious Stone hanged in the Ark, which gave light to all living Creatures therein. This the greatest Carbuncle could not do, nor any precious Stone that is only natural… But the Universal Spirit, fixed in a transparent Body, shines like the Sun in glory, and gives sufficient Light to all the Room to read by: therefore it is most probable, this was the Light that God commanded to make, to give Light to all living Creatures: for it is of perpetual durance…”8
This description sounds remarkably like the lights made by the brother of Jared and touched by the Lord’s finger to light the Jaredite barges, and which were likely the source of his Urim and Thummim. (Ether 2:22-25; 3:1-4)
Paracelsus continued, “… But the work cannot be manifest without the destruction of the exterior form, and the restitution of a better; which is the glorious substances of Urim and Thummim, which in their being, and Physical use, preserves the Temple of Man’s Body incorruptible…The making of Urim and Thummim, and the perfection of the Elixir is aptly compared to the fourfold Creation of Mankinde: Adam from Earth, Eve from Adam, Abel from both, and Jesus Christ from a Virgin: so man called a living stone, produceth that eternally stony and fiery conquering Spirit called the Elixir, from their proper Earth only, their Adam from their Eve; from both their Virgo, from her only the soveraign and universal Spirit, which doth vivifie and preserve all living Creatures, and raiseth the Artist from the dust to fit among Princes…Life without sin, is wisdom manifest in the flesh: a Body without shadow, is the universal Spirit corporate. Urim and Thummim were holy Signs within the brest-plate to enquire of God in the Temple. Natural Urim and Thummim is a visible quality in a cleer Body, which preserveth the Temple of Man’s Body incorruptible.”9
In this discussion, I did not find that Paracelsus ever mentioned the Philosopher’s Stone, but his description of the Urim and Thummim seems to me to be describing just such stone. Furthermore, I did not find any reference to Melchizedek or Salem in this discussion. When I ran a Google search for Melchizedek and alchemy, among other sources, I found, “Ascended Master Melchizedek is a great spiritual master of alchemy and sacred geometry, and was a Canaanite priest-king and teacher of the patriarch Abraham. He is often associated also with Jesus and Archangel Michael. He helps us with our own alchemy – manifesting things, and comprehending esoteric wisdom. He also helps us to raise our frequency, and the frequency of situations. You can call upon him to shield you or purify the energy around something, someone or yourself.”10
In an attempt to discover the origin of seer-stones in early 19th century New England, I searched Google for the question: Was alchemy practiced in early new England? One of the responses I found was this article: “Alchemical Errand into the Wilderness,” by Ralph Bauer.11
Bauer wrote, “Neither natural magic nor the occult sciences such as alchemy and astrology (excepting only judicial astrology) were seen as incompatible with Reformed religion in the seventeenth century…In fact, [Walter] Woodward [in his book Prospero’s America] suggests, Protestantism may have energized the practice of what he calls the “Christian alchemy” elaborated by such Reformers as John Winthrop, Jr., Samuel Hartlib, Johann Moraien, and Robert Child, who ‘viewed God as an active agent in the alchemical quest’ and believed that ‘God intended alchemical knowledge to be the province of pious practitioners who would be dedicated to using the fruits of their quest for godly ends.’”12
Bauer continued, “With regard specifically to the central figure of his account, John Winthrop, Jr [1606 – 1676]…Woodward argues, not only did Winthrop’s practice of the occult sciences fundamentally inform his most prominent public endeavors and politics—as founder of New London, as physician of New England, as governor of Connecticut, a fellow of the Royal Society of London—but he publicly and deliberately cultivated his persona as New England’s alchemical magus.” However, “Despite the richness of information contained in the voluminous correspondence, account books, manuscripts, images, maps, and books that Winthrop left behind and that now constitute the collection housed at the Massachusetts Historical Society collectively referred to as the Winthrop Papers, seventeenth-century alchemists such as Winthrop were committed to a tradition of alchemical secrecy that keeps specific alchemical information hidden from the modern historian behind a veil of ciphers, textual lacunas, and oblique references to information too valuable to be put in writing.”13 I found no reference to any stones in Bauer’s article, but given that John Winthrop, Jr. was deeply involved in alchemy, inclusion of stones and elixirs seems highly likely.
According to Richard Bushman, in his book, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, in 1822, 146 years after John Winthrop, Jr.’s death, “Joseph had discovered two stones, one in 1822 while digging a well with Willard Chase a half mile from the Smith farm. The source of the other stone is uncertain.” Apparently, Chase either found the stone or it was found on his property, because “Chase let Joseph take the stone home, but as soon as it became known ‘what wonders he could discover by looking in it,’ Chase wanted it back. As late as 1830, Chase was still trying to get his hands on the stone.” Sally Chase, Willard’s sister, apparently also had a stone of “‘green glass’ through which she could see many very wonderful things.’”14 Joseph would have been sixteen at the time — this would have been two years after the First Vision, and around a year before Moroni’s visit wherein the idea of the Urim and Thummim was first introduced.15
Bushman said that in the fall of 1825, Josiah Stowell Sr. hired Joseph Smith Sr. and Jr. to help him find the location of an ancient gold or silver Spanish mine on Stowell’s property. Bushman quoted Lucy Smith as saying about Joseph J., “‘on account of having heard that he possessed certain keys by which he could discern things invisible to the natural eye.’”16 Bushman stated, “Emma Smith described one of [the stones]…as ‘a small stone, not exactly black, but was rather a dark color.’ In 1841 Joseph showed his other, whitish stone to the Council of the Twelve in Nauvoo and told them, Brigham Young reported, ‘that every man who lived on the earth was entitled to a seer stone and should have one, but they were kept from them in consequence of their wickedness.’”17
Bushman referred to “…a culture of magic in which they and many others in nineteenth-century New York were involved.”18 I have been unable to find any 146-year-connection between John Winthrop, Jr.’s high society alchemy of the late 17th century and the stones of poor rural farmers of upstate New York in the early 19th century, but I believe there is one. Bushman stated, “Money digging was epidemic in upstate New York. Stories of spirits guarding buried treasure were deeply enmeshed in the region’s rural culture. In Vermont too, buried treasure and lost mines were detected through dreams, divining rods, or stones…Buried treasure was tied into a great stock of magical practices extending back many centuries. Eighteenth-century rationalism had failed to stamp out belief in preternatural powers aiding and opposing human enterprise…Christian belief in angels and devils blended with belief in guardian spirits and magical powers…Magical parchments handed down in the Hyrum Smith family may have originally belonged to Joseph Sr.”19 Bushman also noted that, “…Joseph apparently felt that ‘seeing’ with a stone was the work of a ‘seer,’ a religious term, while ‘peeping’ or ‘glass-looking’ was fraudulent.”20 I will not continue on this part of the discussion, but refer to anyone interested, to read the whole section in Bushman pp 48-52.
Bushman continued with a discussion of Joseph’s translation of the Book of Mormon plates, “When [Oliver] Cowdrey took up the job of scribe, he and Joseph translated in the same room where Emma was working. Joseph looked in the seerstone, and the platees lay covered on the table…Neither joseph nor Oliver explained how translation worked, but Joseph did not pretend to look at the ‘reformed Egyptian’ words…”21 Bushman further noted, “Neither his education nor his Christian upbringing prepared Joseph to translate a book, but the magic culture may have. Treasure-seeking taught Joseph to look for the unseen in a stone. His first reaction when he brought home the Urim and Thummim was delight with its divining powers. ‘I can see any thing,’ he told his friend Joseph Knight. H knew from working with his own seerstone what to expect from the Urim and Thummim: he would ‘see.’ Practice with his scrying stones carried over to translation of the gold plates. In fact, as work on the Book of Mormon proceeded, a seerstone took the place of the Urim and Thummim as an aid in the work, blending magic [alchemy?] with inspired translation.”22
Translating the Book of Mormon by blending magic, alchemy, and inspiration seems strange to us in the twenty-first century, but I spent all of last year testifying of the reality of the Book of Mormon — and I still testify today that no matter how strange the story of Joseph Smith obtaining the gold palates and translating them into the Book of Mormon may seem — the end-product, I believe to be the word of God to us in these latter days.
It is also my opinion that alchemy was the forerunner to modern chemistry. This spring semester (2025), I am teaching a Biochemistry course to the IDEP (Idaho Dental Education Program) students at ISU. I just recently taught a lecture on the amazing nature of water. It is composed of hydrogen, a highly flammable gas, and water, a life-giving gas. This combination of gasses does not seem, at face value, to be capable of making water. Simply by placing two electrodes, attached to a battery, into water, you can observe the magic of hydrogen and oxygen bubbling up from the electrodes. This process is called electrolysis — splitting, in this case water, by electricity.
Henry Cavendish (1731-1810) discovered hydrogen and found that when combusted in the presence of oxygen, it forms water. William Nicholson (1752-1815), a natural philosopher, writer, and scientist; and Anthony Carlisle (1768-1840), a surgeon and Professor of Anatomy (my profession); were the first to perform water electrolysis in 1800; confirming Cavendish’s discovery that water is comprised of hydrogen and oxygen. Those three men were contemporaries of Joseph Smith Sr., and emerged from the transition of alchemy into chemistry.
Alchemists believed that there is “life” in all matter and that one form of matter, say lead, can be transmuted into another form of matter, say gold. It turns out that, although their practices were limited by the knowledge and technology of their time, they were on the right track philosophically.
The physicist, Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940) was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906 for his discovery of the electron. He discovered electrons by studying cathode rays in a vacuum tube. Cathode rays were first observed in 1869 by the physicist Johann Hittorf and the vacuum tube was invented in 1904 by John Fleming. It turns out that electrons orbit, move around, the nucleus of every atom in the entire universe. That movement may be considered the “life” alchemists were seeking in all matter. Alchemists were seeking for magic, invisible rays and better ways of sealing tubes Hermetically. Both were discovered shortly after alchemy came into the mainstream of science as chemistry. Quantum physics teaches us that the world is much stranger than even the alchemists imagined. Even though electrons orbit nuclei, in 1927, Werner Heisenberg advanced the uncertainty principle, which states that we cannot know both the position and speed of a particle, such as an electron, at any given time; we can only estimate its position as an orbital probability cloud around the nucleus.
Furthermore, a 2014 article in Scientific American by John Matson stated, “But what of the fabled transmutation of lead to gold? It is indeed possible—all you need is a particle accelerator, a vast supply of energy and an extremely low expectation of how much gold you will end up with. More than 30 years ago nuclear scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California succeeded in producing very small amounts of gold from bismuth, a metallic element adjacent to lead on the periodic table. The same process would work for lead, but isolating the gold at the end of the reaction would prove much more difficult, says David J. Morrissey, now of Michigan State University, one of the scientists who conducted the research. ‘We could have used lead in the experiments, but we used bismuth because it has only one stable isotope,’ Morrissey says. The element’s homogeneous nature means it is easier to separate gold from bismuth than it is to separate gold from lead, which has four stable isotopic identities.”23 The cost of extracting gold from lead is far more expensive than the value of the tiny amount of gold retrieved at the end of the transmutation.
Today, as the result of modern science’s development of amazing high-energy, high-priced technologies, we can do what alchemists could only dream of three hundred years ago and tried, without success, to accomplish. But what about their fabled Philosopher’s Stone, their Seer-stones, their Urim and Thummim? Will we ever discover that there is also something that the alchemists, and apparently Joseph Smith, saw in those stones that we fail to see today? Maybe part of Joseph’s preparation for translating the gold plates was his earlier work with seer stones. I know of no one, except for a few eccentrics who call themselves modern alchemists, who is working on this issue today.
Trent Dee Stephens, PhD
References
1. Joseph Smith—History 1:35; Joseph Smith, “Church History,” in Histories, Volume 1: 1832–1844, 495; Martin Harris, in “Mormonism—No. II,” 165–66; “Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845,” book 5, pages 7–8, josephsmithpapers.org.
2. see, for instance, “Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845,” book 5, josephsmithpapers.org.; Turley, Richard E. Jr., Assistant Church Historian and Recorder, Robin S. Jensen and Mark Ashurst-McGee, Church History Department; Ensign, October 2015; churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2015/10/joseph-the-seer?lang=eng#p19
3. Turley et al, 2015; For more information on the translation, see “Book of Mormon Translation,” available at lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-translation. See also Russell M. Nelson, “A Treasured Testament,” Ensign, July 1993, 61–65; Neal A. Maxwell, “By the Gift and Power of God,” Ensign, Jan. 1997, 36–41.
4. Wilford Woodruff, for instance, called a seer stone he saw in Nauvoo a Urim and Thummim (Wilford Woodruff journal, Dec. 27, 1841, Church History Library). See also Revelations and Translations, Volume 3: Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, xix.
5. Turley et al. 2015; See Revelations and Translations, Volume 3: Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, xviii–xix.
6. Turley et al., 2015
7. glorian.org/learn/scriptures/alchemy/urim-and-thummim-shewed-to-be-made-by-art-and-are-the-same-with-the-universal-spirit-corporate-and-fixed; retrieved 17 January 2025
8. Ibid
9. Ibid
10. angeleft.com/raising-your-frequency-with-melchizedek; maagikko.com/blogi/who-is-melkisedek-why-is-he-often-present-on-energy-healing-sessions#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAscended%20Master%20Melchizedek%20is%20a,things%2C%20and%20comprehending%20esoteric%20wisdom, retrieved 19 January 2025
11. commonplace.online/article/alchemical-errand-wilderness/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20products%20of%20Winthrop's%20pansophical,as%20a%20visionary%20center%20for%20his%20alchemical; retrieved 17 January 2025
12. Ibid
13. Ibid
14. Bushman, Richard Lyman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, Vintage Books, Random House, New York, 2007, p. 48-49
15. Joseph Smith – History 1:27, 35
16. Bushman, 2007, p. 48
17. Ibid, p. 49
18. Ibid
19. Ibid, p. 50
20. Ibid, p. 51
21. Ibid, p. 71
22. Ibid, p. 131
23. scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-lead-can-be-turned-into-gold; retrieved 19 January 2025
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