What does this mean? How many people knew about the urim and thummim? Mosiah 28:15

What does this mean? How many people knew about the urim and thummim? Mosiah 28:15

Until earlier this year I had always thought that the urim and thummim were some kind of super-weird Latter-day Saint thing. You know. Just another one of those things that make us peculiar people. Like the modern day practice of polygamy. Or seer stones. Or temple garments.

But no. Turns out, this is an Old Testament object, one that Jews know about and believe in. It's this weird physical object that assists a Seer to, well, see.

It was even named the urim and thummim in the Old Testament, and most of the references to it are NOT in latter-day scripture.

Joseph Smith used one to translate the Book of Mormon, at least at first. I kind of view this device as a divine crutch of sorts. Fun fact: Joseph Smith used the same one that the brother of Jared used. Apparently there were multiple of them. Or still are?

Also, supposedly they look sort of like a pair of glasses. National Treasure comes to mind.

Hence why I always just shrugged and thought, "okay, another one for the list."

But like, wrong list. Should have been on the shared Judeo-Christian Weirdness List.

Cool.

Answer:
A lot of people used to know about it. Less people know about it now. Maybe it's the branding.