Evidence #12 | September 19, 2020

Book of Mormon Evidence: Shining Stones

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Scripture Central

Abstract

The shining stones reported in the book of Ether have parallels with several ancient accounts of stones that emit light, especially those believed to have been used in Noah’s ark.

After the Jaredites constructed ocean-faring barges, the brother of Jared expressed his concern to the Lord about their lack of light. The Lord replied, “What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?” (Ether 2:23). In response, the brother of Jared “did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones; and they were white and clear, even as transparent glass” (Ether 3:1).1 He then asked the Lord to “touch these stones … with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness” (v. 4). As petitioned, the Lord touched them “one by one” (v. 6), which caused them to “shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness” (Ether 6:3).  

The Brother of Jared holding shining stones. Image by Normandy Poulter.

Hugh Nibley asked, “But who gave the brother of Jared the idea about stones in the first place? It was not the Lord, who left him entirely on his own; and yet the man went right to work as if he knew exactly what he was doing. Who put him on to it?”2 While stones that emit light may seem like an absurdity to modern readers, legends of their existence and importance were widely spread throughout the ancient world.3 Drawing upon a substantial body of ancient texts, John A. Tvedtnes has connected the shining stones in Ether to such items as the Urim and Thummim, glowing idols, teraphim, sanctuary stones, and medieval glowing stones.4 Tvedtnes concluded, “The account of the stones used to provide light in the Jaredite barges fits rather well into a larger corpus of ancient and medieval literature.”5

Image via averdadesud.blogspot.com.

Of particular relevance is the way that shining stones were directly linked to Noah’s ark. In the Bablyonian Talmud, for example, one Jewish commentator reported that the Lord instructed Noah to “Set therein precious stones and jewels, so that they may give thee light, bright as the noon.”6 Another ancient rabbi explained, “During the whole twelve months that Noah was in the Ark he did not require the light of the sun by day or the light of the moon by night, but he had a polished gem which he hung up.”7

An Egyptian-style magur boat, what Hugh Nibley proposed could be the style for Noah’s ark and the Jaredite barges. Image from moriancumr2.blogspot.com.

These explanations are notable when considering that the text in Ether 6:7 explicitly draws a parallel between the Jaredite vessels and Noah’s ark: “there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah” (emphasis added).8 Considering that his people were already constructing barges after the manner of Noah’s ark, it is reasonable to assume that the brother of Jared may have known something of the stones which, according to tradition, illuminated Noah’s vessel.9 Nibley thus argued that the brother of Jared was simply “following the pattern of Noah’s ark, for in the oldest records of the human race the ark seems to have been illuminated by just such shining stones.”10

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Shining Stones
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