The Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a book written by Joseph Smith. Adherents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints consider it to be as equally valid as The Bible.

History

Smith claimed he translated it from golden plates that he found in upstate New York. He claimed that an angel led him to the plates, which were written by ancient prophets and then buried in what is now upstate New York.

Errors

This book contains errors. There are Historical Errors and Geographical Errors.

Historical Errors

The most flagrant errors in The Book of Mormon are its anachronisms. The events in the book are said to have occurred in the Americas from about 2500 BCE to 400 CE, but many things are mentioned which did not exist in the Americas at that time.

Horses

Horses are mentioned numerous times throughout The Book of Mormon.

• 1 Nephi 18:25 - And it came to pass that we did find upon the land of promise, as we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat...
• 2 Nephi 12:7 - Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.
• Alma 18:9 - And they said unto him: Behold, he is feeding thy horses. Now the king had commanded his servants, previous to the time of the watering of their flocks, that they should prepare his horses and chariots, and conduct him forth to the land of Nephi...
• Alma 20:6 - Now when Lamoni had heard this he caused that his servants should make ready his horses and his chariots.
• 3 Nephi 3:22 - And it came to pass in the seventeenth year, in the latter end of the year, the proclamation of Lachoneus had gone forth throughout all the face of the land, and they had taken their horses, and their chariots, and their cattle, and all their flocks, and their herds, and their grain, and all their substance, and did march forth by thousands and by tens of thousands...
• 3 Nephi 21:14 - Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they repent; for it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots;

There is no evidence that horses existed on the American continent during the timeframe of the Book of Mormon. Horses evolved in North America, but became extinct on there at the end of the Pleistocene. Horses did not reappear in the Americas until the Spaniards brought them from Europe. They were brought to the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus in 1493, and to the American continent by Hernán Cortés in 1519, over a thousand years after the events depicted in the book.

Swine

Swine are mentioned twice.

• Ether 9:18 - And also all manner of cattle, of oxen, and cows, and of sheep, and of swine, and of goats, and also many other kinds of animals which were useful for the food of man.
• 3 Nephi 14:6 - Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Swine are not native to the Americas. There have not been any remains, references, artwork, tools, or any other evidence suggesting that swine were ever present in the pre-Columbian New World.

Chariots

Chariots are mentioned five times.

• Alma 18:9-12 - ... Now the king had commanded his servants, previous to the time of the watering of their flocks, that they should prepare his horses and chariots, and conduct him forth to the land of Nephi... Now when king Lamoni heard that Ammon was preparing his horses and his chariots he was more astonished... And it came to pass that when Ammon had made ready the horses and the chariots for the king and his servants, he went in unto the king...
• Alma 20:6 - Now when Lamoni had heard this he caused that his servants should make ready his horses and his chariots.
• 2 Nephi 12:7 - ...their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.
• 3 Nephi 3:22 - ...they had taken their horses, and their chariots, and their cattle, and all their flocks, and their herds, and their grain, and all their substance, and did march forth by thousands and by tens of thousands...
• 3 Nephi 21:14 - Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they repent; for it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots;

There is no evidence chariots were ever used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Furthermore, even the wheel was unknown to pre-Columbian natives.

Steel and Iron

Steel and iron are mentioned several times.

• 1 Nephi 4:9 - And I beheld his sword, and I drew it forth from the sheath thereof; and the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel.
• 1 Nephi 8:19 - And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood.
• 1 Nephi 11:25 - And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God...
• 1 Nephi 16:18 - And it came to pass that as I, Nephi, went forth to slay food, behold, I did break my bow, which was made of fine steel; and after I did break my bow, behold, my brethren were angry with me because of the loss of my bow, for we did obtain no food.
• 2 Nephi 5:15 - And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance.
• 2 Nephi 20:34 - And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
• Jarom 1:8 - And we multiplied exceedingly, and spread upon the face of the land, and became exceedingly rich in gold, and in silver, and in precious things, and in fine workmanship of wood, in buildings, and in machinery, and also in iron and copper, and brass and steel, making all manner of tools of every kind to till the ground, and weapons of war—yea, the sharp pointed arrow, and the quiver, and the dart, and the javelin, and all preparations for war.
• Mosiah 11:3 - And he laid a tax of one fifth part of all they possessed, a fifth part of their gold and of their silver, and a fifth part of their ziff, and of their copper, and of their brass and their iron; and a fifth part of their fatlings; and also a fifth part of all their grain.
• Mosiah 11:8 - And it came to pass that king Noah built many elegant and spacious buildings; and he ornamented them with fine work of wood, and of all manner of precious things, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of brass, and of ziff, and of copper;
• Ether 7:9 - Wherefore, he came to the hill Ephraim, and he did molten out of the hill, and made swords out of steel for those whom he had drawn away with him; and after he had armed them with swords he returned to the city Nehor, and gave battle unto his brother Corihor, by which means he obtained the kingdom and restored it unto his father Kib.
• Ether 10:23 - And they did work in all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore, they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work.

While pre-Columbian tribes sometimes used beaten metal, there is no accepted evidence of high-temperature melting. The word "dross", meaning a by-product of smelting, appears twice in the Book of Alma. According to Brent Lee Metcalfe:

The context for the word "dross" in two passages in the Book of Mormon record suggests that the speaker and audience understood the metallurgical process the metaphor implies (cf. Ps. 119:119; Prov. 25:4; 26:23; Isa. 1:22, 25; Ezek. 22:18-19). "Therefore they were not permitted to enter into their synagogues to worship God, being esteemed as filthiness," the text explains. "Therefore they were poor; yea, they were esteemed by their brethren as dross; therefore they were poor as to things of the world; and also they were poor in heart" (Alma 32:3). Later it is explained, "[T]herefore, if ye do not remember to be charitable, ye are as dross, which the refiners do cast out, (it being of no worth) and is trodden under foot of men" (34:29). Such apt metaphors suggest that metallurgical processes were an important and generally understood feature of Nephite life.

Cimeters

• Alma 44:8 - And now it came to pass that when Zerahemnah had heard these sayings he came forth and delivered up his sword and his cimeter, and his bow into the hands of Moroni...

Geographical Errors

• 2 Nephi 19:1 - Nevertheless, the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and afterwards did more grievously afflict by the way of the Red Sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations.

2 Nephi 19 basically copies chapter 9 of The Bible's Isaiah. However, where Isaiah had "sea", Smith has changed it to "Red Sea" hundreds of kilometers away.

Also See

• The Book of Abraham