"And it came to pass that the brother of Jared...did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones... and cried again unto the Lord, saying....suffer not that they shall go forth across this raging deep in darkness...therefore touch these stones, O Lord...that they may shine forth in darkness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea." (Ether 3:1-4) & Ether 6:2-3
"And...their vessels...were...like unto the ark of Noah...." (Ether 6:7)
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<< The Brother of Jared and the Stones
I have always wondered why the Brother of Jared would even think that he could even ask the Lord to make stones shine for them in their eight boats?
Where did the brother of Jared get such an idea?
It seems to me, that the Borther of Jared, was kind of taking it for granted, forthright or assertive to think that the Lord could or would do something like that? I have always thought that that was kind of strange thing for the Brother of Jared to ask.
The Book of Mormon states that there were two written records that were brought to the Americas from the eastern hemisphere. One was brought over by the Jaredites and the other was the Brass plates brought over by Lehi and his family.
We know that the Brass plates had information about Noah and the Ark. Note: (Alma 10:22)
We also know that “records”, (Ether 8:9) were brought over by the Jaredites.
These early Jaredite records contained information about the flood, Noah and the Ark. There is no reason why the brother of Jared, who was a Prophet of God, wouldn’t have a knowledge about Noah and the specific construction of the Ark. And information on how the Lord instructed Noah to design the Ark so as to provide a livable condition in side the Ark.
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"A window shalt thou make to the ark. The Holy One, blessed be He, instructed Noah, 'Set therein precious stones...so that they may give thee light, bright as the noon.' And in a cubit shalt thou finish it above: for thus would it stand firm. With lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it." (Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Sanhedrin, Folio 108a)
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"Rabbi Meir said: One pearl was suspended in the ark, and shed light upon all the creatures in the ark, like a lamp which gives light inside the house, and like the sun yonder which shines in his might, as it is said, "A light shalt thou make to the ark."" (Pirke de Rabbi Eliezere, p. 166-167)
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"A light...shalt thou make to the Ark...a precious stone."
"During the whole twelve months that Noah was in the Ark he did not require the light of the sun by day or the light of the moon by night, but he had a polished gem which he hung up: when it was dim he knew that it was day, and when it shone he knew that it was night." (Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 31:11, p. 244)
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"A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above..." (Genesis 6:16)
The word window is translated in the King James Verson of the Bible in Hebrew is tsohar צֹהַר, which means "noon, midday."
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<< Footnote for (Genesis 6:16)
The footnote to the LDS version of the Bible, states that "some rabbis believed it was a precious stone that shone in the ark," (Ether 2:23-24)
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Tsohar
Noah's ark is described in detail in the Torah as an enclosed four sided structure with only one opening to the outside, on the very top, as the verse says, "make a window for the ark." (Gen. 6:16) The Hebrew word that the Torah uses for 'window/tzohar' refers to something that shines. Some of the commentaries suggest that it was a skylight; others describe it as a type of precious stone that emitted light. How was it possible that one small opening, either a single window or a precious stone was able to light up the entire ark, especially since each type of animal had its own compartment (Rashi on 6:14) and each floor was separate from the next? Also, we know that the light of the sun and the moon did not penetrate during the Flood (see Rashi 8:22) so how could a window have helped anyway?
Additional Information:
The Shining Stone of Noah's Ark
The Jaredite Scriptures and Tsohar, LDS Studies, A Pre-Mosaic Bible