The breastplate and the Urim and Thummim

I just read Exodus 28:30

And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually.

Aaron and his sons, the priests of the tabernacle, wore a breastplate in which they put the Urim and Thummim. Some scholars believe that there was some sort of pouch on the breastplate that could fit the two stones. We know that Joseph Smith also had a breastplate and a Urim and Thummim. According to his younger brother, William, the breastplate had a

pocket [that] was prepared in the [Nephite] breastplate on the left side, immediately over the heart. When not in use the [interpreters were] placed in this pocket, the rod being of just the right length to allow it to be so deposited.

Admittedly this is a late account. But if William remembers correctly, the similarities to Exodus and the way Aaron and his sons anciently used the breastplate and Urim and Thummim, are striking. More information on this topic is given in this article. What the article does not mention, is that Joseph Smith did not seem to know about the Urim and Thummim at the time when he translated the Book of Mormon. Otherwise, critics could claim that Joseph simply read Exodus 28:30 and imitated that as he fabricated a story (except the witnesses actually saw the breastplate and interpreters too). But Joseph Smith never once mentioned the Urim and Thummim before, during or shortly after the Book of Mormon translation. They are not mentioned in the Book of Mormon either. Joseph consistently referred to the stones as “the Nephite interpreters”. In the Book of Mormon itself, they are described as “interpreters” (Mosiah 8:13), “two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow” (Mosiah 28:13) or simply “two stones” (Ether 3:23).

Not until 1833, the name Urim and Thummim starts being used. Someone, and it does not even seem to be Joseph Smith, made the connection between the Nephite interpreters and the ancient Urim and Thummim mentioned in the Bible. The earliest account that we have where this name is being used and this connection is being made is found in the January edition of the Evening and Morning Star

It was translated by the gift and power of God, by an unlearned man, through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles-(known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim)

This was written by W. W. Phelps. The “perhaps” seems to indicate personal speculation rather than information from Joseph Smith. But this seemed to gain traction since numerous accounts after this use “Urim and Thummim” as names for both the Nephite Interpreters and Joseph Smith’s seer stone. I don’t know how critics would explain the fact that the Nephite Interpreters seem to be carrying on an ancient Israelite tradition and knowledge of the Urim and Thummim. Joseph just copying the Bible does not hold up to scrutiny, unless we believe that he purposely did not say anything and hoped that someone else like W.W.Phelps would make the connection later on. Seems far fetched to me.