The definition of a seer given by Ammon is unique to the Book of Mormon. It must be noted that the statement made by King Limhi, “a seer is greater than a prophet” (v. 15) was corrected by Ammon. He said, “ a seer is a revelator and a prophet also” (v. 16). Thus, each word designates a different role. A seer is a one who is commanded of God to look into the interpreters or Urim and Thummim. When the records were taken back to Zarahemla they were translated by King Mosiah. It is apparently Mormon, who comments as he abridges, that the interpreters were prepared from the beginning, “For the purposes of interpreting languages, and whosoever has these things is called seer, after the manner of old time” (Mosiah 28:14–16). An editorial insert from the book of Samuel in the Bible states: “(Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer)” (1 Samuel 9:9).
There is ample evidence of the Urim and Thummim or the interpreters being used in the days of Aaron through Samuel, which had been lost by the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Those who polluted the priesthood were not to “eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim” (Ezra 2:62–63; Nehemiah 7:64–65). Therefore, the interpreters had been lost, and the editorial insert in Samuel 9:9 was made many years after the time of Samuel. It does imply that Ammon and Mormon’s definition of a seer as one who possessed or used the interpreters was correct. The interpreters, or Urim and Thummim, were used to translate languages by the power of God. A seer has “this high gift from God” (Mosiah 8:14). Joseph Smith was given “power from on high, by the means which were before prepared, to translate the Book of Mormon” (D&C 20:8). Joseph Smith was to “be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle” in a revelation given on 6 April 1830, the day the Church was organized (D&C 21:1). Being called a seer and a translator suggests a further role of a seer than that of translator. Ammon said that “a gift that 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” (Mosiah 8:16). He then said that “a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come” (v. 17). This statement suggests there is an additional power granted to a seer besides the translation or interpreting languages. Therefore, it is suggested that a seer is also a revelator; one who receives revelation about things that otherwise could not be known (v. 17). He is also a prophet, one who foretells of things that are to come (v. 17). Thus, God provides miracles to benefit the fellow beings of the seer, revelator and prophet (v. 18).
Ammon says that no man can look into the interpreters unless he is commanded, lest he perish (v. 13). The Urim and Thummim was in ancient Israel kept in the Ark of the Covenant. Those who were to bear it “shall not touch any holy thing [in the ark] lest they die”“(Numbers 4:15). When the ark was captured by the Philistines, but later returned because of the plagues that came upon them (see 1 Samuel 4–6), the Lord “smote the men of Beth-Shemesh, because they had looked into the Ark of the Covenant” (1 Samuel 6:19). There seems to be a connection between Ammon’s statement and this incident. The person without the gift of God [a seer] could not endure the power of it.