Keywords
Urim and Thummim, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon
Abstract
Two recent reviews of By Means of the Urim & Thummim: Restoring Translation to the Restoration by Jeff Lindsay and Brant Gardner seriously misrepresent the book’s argument. Perhaps most significantly, they largely sidestep the book’s central thesis that the statements by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery that the Book of Mormon was translated from the plates using the “Urim and Thummim” interpreters which God provided with the plates should be at the center of any account of the Book of Mormon’s production. Prioritizing problematic and unreliable seer stone accounts conflicts with the testimonies of these primary eyewitnesses, and thus is not a useful basis for formulating any faithful understanding of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.
Recommended Citation
Lucas, James W.
(2025)
"Joseph and Oliver Told the Truth about the Translation: A Response to Brant Gardner’s and Jeff Lindsay’s Reviews,"
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Vol. 64, Article 8.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/interpreter/vol64/iss1/8
