Critics once called the Book of Mormon's weapons a fatal flaw — steel swords in 600 BC? Scimitars a thousand years before Muhammad? Bows and arrows in ancient America? Then archaeology started coming into play.

In this episode, Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot dig into Matthew Roper's Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence for the Book of Mormon, published through the Interpreter Foundation — an exhaustive documentation of weapons critics once claimed couldn't have existed.

===Informed Saints Credits===

Produced by The Ancient America Foundation

Producer: Spencer Clark

Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye

In this episode:

• Roper's scorecard: 12 of 15 allegedly anachronistic weapons now confirmed, 2 partially confirmed
• The sword of Laban (1 Nephi 4) and the critics — Clark Braden (1884), a 1964 Notre Dame Press book, Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults (1997) — who insisted steel didn't exist in Nephi's day
• The meter-long steel sword discovered by Avraham Eitan at a fortress near Jericho, dated to the late 7th century BC
• King Tut's meteoric-iron, gold-hilted dagger and other gold-hilted weapons of the ancient Near East
• Why "steel" in the Book of Ether may reflect layers of translation — and why the King James Bible renders Hebrew bronze as "steel"
• The macuahuitl: the obsidian-edged Mesoamerican sword conquistadors said cut better than Spanish steel (Ross Hassig, Michael Coe) — going back to Olmec San Lorenzo
• Scimitars from Enos to the Egyptian khopesh, the Hebrew kidon, Goliath's weapons in 1 Samuel 17, and curved blades on the Lachish reliefs
• Curved blades in the New World: Tonina, Teotihuacan, and San Lorenzo
• Nephi's steel bow, the "bow of steel" of 2 Samuel 22:35 / Psalm 18, and composite bows with metal fittings
• Bows, arrows, and atlatls in ancient Mesoamerica — and what a 2005 Copán study changed

Further Readings:

Read the primary source: Matthew Roper, Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence for the Book of Mormon

https://scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-bow-and-arrow

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ancient-mesoamerica/article/classic-maya-warfare-and-weapons-spear-dart-and-arrow-points-of-aguateca-and-copan/8E310349816CEA249F7A7A6095A90B4C

https://scripturecentral.org/archive/books/book-chapter/bow-and-arrow-book-mormon

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/arts-and-entertainment/atlatl

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278416522000794

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=jbms

https://scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-cimeters

https://scripturecentral.org/knowhy/why-does-the-book-of-mormon-mention-cimeters

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol5/iss1/7/

https://scripturecentral.org/knowhy/what-kinds-of-swords-did-book-of-mormon-peoples-use

https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/lehi-the-smelter-new-light-on-lehis-profession

https://interpreterfoundation.org/blog-the-hilt-thereof-was-of-pure-gold

https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/anachronisms-accidental-evidence-in-book-of-mormon-criticisms-chapter-2-warfare-in-the-book-of-mormon

https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/anachronisms-accidental-evidence-in-book-of-mormon-criticisms-introduction

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===Content Disclaimer===

The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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