Alma Had All the Nephite Records and the Interpreters

John W. Welch

After King Mosiah had translated the plates of the Jaredites, and had read them to the people of Zarahemla, he "conferred them upon Alma, who was the son of Alma; yea, all the records, and also the interpreters … 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."

We know then that Alma had the interpreters, but we do not know whether or not he used them, or for what kind of enquiry he considered them to be an appropriate tool. Whether the words "inquired of the Lord" meant that Alma used the seer stones or not is open to debate. Cornelis Van Dam indicates that the phrase "inquired of the Lord" meant used the Urim and Thummim in the Old Testament (Van Dam, The Urim and Thummim, 3). In Alma 16:6, and 43:23–24, Alma was asked to "inquire of the Lord" for specific directions by military leaders, but how he sought the guidance and answers was not specified.

Further Reading

Jasmin Gimenez, "4 Fascinating Insights about Seers, Seer Stones, and Interpreters," Book of Mormon Central Blog, April 30, 2020, online at bookofmormoncentral.org.

Book of Mormon Central, "Were Joseph Smith’s Translation Instruments Like the Israelite Urim and Thummim?" KnoWhy 417 (March 20, 2018).

Matthew Roper, "Revelation and the Urim and Thummim," in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, ed. John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorn (Provo, UT, FARMS, 1999), 280–282.

Cornelis Van Dam, The Urim and Thummim: A Means of Revelation in Ancient Israel (Winona Lake, IN, Eisenbrauns, 1997).

John W. Welch Notes

References