This group of Nephites, Limhi’s people, had kept a record of their history during the three generations (the eighty years between 200 and 121 b.c.) they had been away from the land of Zarahemla. After Ammon had read their record, Limhi recounted to him the adventures of an expedition of forty-three of his citizens who had set out to renew contact with the land of Zarahemla but had gotten lost and journeyed beyond Zarahemla to discover instead the remains of the Jaredite civilization. From that more northern land they had returned with various artifacts and objects, including twenty-four inscribed gold plates. Limhi wondered if Ammon could interpret the language on those plates.
Ammon responded that King Mosiah II in Zarahemla had a set of interpreters, a Urim and Thummim, and the gift and power to use them to decipher and translate other-language records (compare Mosiah 28:11–19). He was a seer, one who could manifest hidden things of the past as well as reveal unknown things of the future. Such a seer could, with the means God provided and with mighty faith, perform mighty miracles, thus becoming “a great benefit to his fellow beings.”
To be a seer is to possess a great gift, greater than the offices of prophet or revelator. A prophet (from the Hebrew word meaning “to call”) is one called to speak for God, as in the phrase “Thus said the Lord.” A prophet is a “forthteller” more than a “foreteller”; that is, he is one who tells what the consequences of actions and events will be. A seer (from the Hebrew word meaning “to see”) is given visions of what will be. The role of a seer was described by the Lord to Enoch: “And the Lord spake unto Enoch, and said unto him: Anoint thine eyes with clay, and wash them, and thou shalt see. And he did so. And he beheld the spirits that God had created; and he beheld also things which were not visible to the natural eye; and from thenceforth came the saying abroad in the land: A seer hath the Lord raised up unto his people” (Moses 6:35–36; emphasis added).
A revelator is one who uncovers and restores truth to the Lord’s people.
Ammon’s doctrinal exposition here is one of the best and most helpful scriptural descriptions of these important roles.