"A SEER" by Alan C. Miner


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Excerpts from “Step by Step through the Book of Mormon by Alan C. Miner with quotes by Brant Gardner and Garth Norman.

[Ancient America Foundation e-mail]

In response to Limhi's query pertaining to the contents of the 24 plates retrieved from the Jaredites, Ammon says the following:

“I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man 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 8:13-14)

So what is a seer? Before you answer that question, let's focus on a key word here; that word is "ancient". You see, ancient history was not written as just a chronicle of facts. Ancient History was written as a series of cycles, patterns, types and shadows. So what is a seer? A seer is one who can read historical facts and see these patterns. Notice how apparently king Limhi immediately picks up on this: "And the king said that a seer is greater than a prophet" (Mosiah 8:15) So Ammon expands on what a seer is:

“And Ammon said that a seer is a revelator and a prophet also; and a gift which is greater can no man have, except he should possess the power of God, which no man can; yet a man may have great power given him from God. But a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or, rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them, and also things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known.” (Mosiah 8:16-17)

Now why is a seer greater than a prophet? It is because a seer gets his understanding from the past and then prophesies of the future. The understanding of why things happen is seen in the cycles, parallels, types and shadows of past, present, and future.

After giving a brief history concerning the circumstances surrounding the discovery of twenty-four gold plates filled with engravings, King Limhi asserts that "there is no one in the land that is able to interpret the language or engravings that are on the plates [the 24 plates of Ether]" (Mosiah 8:11) Moreover, he asks Ammon if he knows anyone that can translate these records. Ammon replies,

“I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man 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, . . . 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.). and the same is called a seer" (Mosiah 8:13).

According to Brant Gardner, the key to understanding what Ammon is saying here is the word "ancient." That is, we are dealing with "ancient" records. To understand the importance of the ancient text, we need to understand the way the past was conceived in ancient Israel and in ancient Mesoamerica (and likely in many other parts of the ancient world). History was not simply something that had happened, but a glimpse at cycles that had occurred and will occur again.

For Israel, "the unifying principle [acted] like a magnet in evoking a pattern amongst iron filings. It created a pattern of history out of all its complexities, a pattern which disclosed the previously hidden purpose of God." Thus for Israel, the past revealed the form of the future. One of the manifestations of this patterning of life and history can be seen in the numerous ways in which the Exodus became the model for subsequent events, including Lehi and his family.

In Mesoamerica, all time ran in repeating cycles. The creation myth that was shared among the Maya and Nahua told of recurring cycles of destruction and new creations in which the destruction/renewal of the sun was the principle event. The serendipitous arrival of the Spanish in a Mesoamerican cyclical year which symbolized change and renewal allowed them to be seen as a predicted return of the god, Quetzalcoatl. Sadly, however, the greatest repetition of the past was not Cortez' arrival becoming the triumphal return of Quetzalcoatl, but the eerie way that the destruction of the Aztec kingdom repeated the destruction of ancient Tula--an event also linked indelibly to Quetzalcoatl in Nahua mythology.

A seer, therefore, was one who could not simply read about the past, but have the past revealed to him--to have the "real truth" of the past revealed, not simply the record of the past. With a conception of the past that linked it to the future, a seer was then one who could see the future because he could see the past, whereas a prophet saw only the future that was revealed to him. As a seer would have the larger patterns available to his prophecy.

Notice how king Limhi immediately understands this concept by his response to Ammon: "a seer is greater than a prophet" (Mosiah 8:15). [brant Gardner, "Book of Mormon Commentary," Mosiah 8, pp. 14-15]

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SEER STONE

Note by Garth Norman

A Seer Stone was a divine instrument of a prophet-seer, and functioned like the Urum & Thumum and Liahona. The memory of Nephite prophet seers like Mosiah may have been preserved in Maya tradition. The first Quiche Maya ancestor Balam-Quitze before he died passed on the emblem of his being: "This is a remembrance which I leave for you. This shall be your power." It was called Pizom-Gagal, and remained hidden in a bundle, which was guarded by servants of the temple.

According to the Titles of the Lords of Totonicapan, Balam-Quitze was given a gift called Giron-Gagal by the great father Nacxit (Quetzalcoatl) when the Quiche left Tulan-Civan (Bountiful homeland). Giron is derived from quira, "unfasten," "unroll," "to preserve." The gift was "the stone of Nacxit, which was used for incantations." The Totonicapan document also states that when Balam-Quitze departed he pronounced these words: "Keep the precious gift which our father Nacxit gave us; it will be useful to us, because we have not yet found the place in which we are going to settle." (Popol Vuh 1950. page 205, note 3)

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