Facts Surrounding Joseph Smith, Peep Stones and Treasure Digging That Cause Some Mormons to Struggle
Supporting Facts Derived 100% from Church-Friendly Sources
by John P. Dehlin of Mormon Stories podcast
The basic facts are as follows:
- Joseph Smith pursued “treasure seeking” as a hobby/profession between the first vision (1820) and forming the church (1830).
- The basic scenario: people would come to Joseph and ask him to help them find buried treasure because of his talent of having”certain keys, by which he could discern things invisible to the natural eye .” He did this in both the New York and Pennsylvania areas.
- To locate the treasure, Joseph would look into a “peep stone”–which was a stone with a hole in the middle.
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1. Seer stone apparently used by Joseph Smith. Smith’s widow Emma passed it on to relatives of her second husband, Lewis Bidamon. (Wilford Woodruff Museum)
2. Green seer stone owned by Utah pioneer Philo Dibble. Matches description of stone given to Joseph Smith by Jack Belcher in Pennsylvania in the 1820′
3. Stone of David Whitmer, who was a special witness to the Book of Mormon (LDS Photo Archives).
- While Joseph was never actually able to successfully help anyone locate any treasure, he was still able to maintain a reputation by some as one with powers to do so.
- Joseph was taken to court at least once or twice due to his involvement in these activities. Even though it’s true that these magic-related activities were common, it’s also fair to say that gold-digging and glass-looking were also viewed as fraudulent by many.
- Joseph met Emma and Emma’s father on a silver mine excursion (this is what led to the Susquehanna years of the early church). Because Joseph was never able to help them obtain any silver, Emma’s father concluded that Joseph was fraudulent in his treasure seeking abilities.
- As a result of Emma’s father’s low opinion of Joseph, Joseph and Emma fled Pennsylvania, eloped, and moved in with Joseph’s family for the first year of their marriage.
- Joseph used this same peep stone, or one like it, in his translation of the Book of Mormon. According to Elder Russell M. Nelson:“Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. ” (David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, Richmond, Mo.: n.p., 1887, p. 12.)
- To this day, the church prefers not to depict the Book of Mormon translation process in a manner that is consistent with the quote above. Instead, the traditional “literal translation” images are conveyed.
- This leaves programs like Southpark, to be the place where many Mormons first learn about the historically-supported mechanics of the Book of Mormon translation process (according to the quote above).
Additional references:
LDS Church
- Richard E. Turley, “Seer Stones,” Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow (New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 1293
- LDS FAQ (BYU), “Magic”
- Brad Wilcox, “H.O.G.M.E.T. — What to Do When They Say It’s Not True,” New Era, Apr. 1986, 36
- Dallin H. Oaks. “Recent Events Involving Church History and Forged Documents,” Ensign, Oct. 1987, 63
- Dean Jessee, “Joseph Smith’s Reputation,” Ensign, Sept. 1979, 57
- William G. Hartley, “The Knight Family: Ever Faithful to the Prophet,” Ensign, Jan. 1989, 43
- Church artistic depictions of how Joseph translated the Book of Mormon
Scholarly
- Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, Michael Quinn
Ex-Mormon
- Utah Lighthouse Ministry section on Money-digging and magic
- LDS-Mormon on seer stones
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