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Now residing in the Israel Museum, a sword from the Vered Jericho fortress was found in the 1980s. It's over three feet long and is described as being made of mild steel. Some listings may describe it as iron, but because steel is so close to iron (up to 99%), academic descriptions often don't distinguish between the two materials. But articles delving into the details will mention the difference. According to Popular Mechanics and the Biblical Archaeology Review, it is indeed iron hardened into a mild steel (click here to read the article). According to the museum's 1992 journal, "Metallurgical analysis of a sample taken from the blade proves that it was made of mild steel, and that the iron was deliberately hardened into steel, attesting to the technical knowledge of the blacksmith."
The sword of Laban can now safely be removed from any list of Book of Mormon controversies. No longer do we need to try and explain it away, as it fits fully into the historical record of the time, without any hit of anachronism.
Click here to watch Shad's recreation of the sword of Laban.
Click here to watch Shad's defense of the Vered Jericho sword as steel.
6 comments:
Can you help me understand where there is an LDS antagonistic stance/argument that there were not swords in the old world / Israel? This seems like a straw man argument. Help me understand why this article matters or helps an LDS argument against a ditractor's stance.
It's not that there weren't swords in the Old World, but a common criticism of the Book of Mormon is that it is anachronistic in its mention of steel. An argument used against it in the past (and perhaps still) is that steel hadn't been invented by 600 BC. That's why I posted this information. I don't know if I can show you examples right now, but I have read it and heard this objection for a long time. And when support for something like this shows up, critics usually don't acknowledge it; they may drop it, or more commonly, continue to use an outdated argument. Thanks for your comment. I hope this answers your question.
Here is a great list of objections to Laban's sword of steel, from a wide historical range of critics: “This is the earliest account of steel to be found in history.” E. D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (1834), 25-26.
“Laban’s sword was steel, when it is a notorious fact that the Israelites knew nothing of steel for hundreds of years afterwards. Who but as ignorant s person as Rigdon would have perpetrated all these blunders?” Clark Braden in Public Discussion, 1884, 109.
“Laban is represented as killed by one Nephi, some six hundred years before Christ, with a sword `of the most precious steel,’ hundreds of years before steel was known to man!” Daniel Bartlett, The Mormons or, Latter-day Saints(1911), 15.
“[The Book of Mormon] speaks of the most `precious steel,’ before the commonest had been dreamt of.” C. Sheridan Jones, The Truth about the Mormons(1920), 4-5.
“Nephi . . . wielded a sword `of the most precious steel.’ But steel was not known to man in those days.” Stuart Martin, The Mystery of Mormonism (1920), 44.
“Laban had a steel sword long before steel came into use.” George Arbaugh, Revelation in Mormonism (1932), 55.
“Every commentator on the Book of Mormon has pointed out the many cultural and historical anachronisms, such as the steel sword of Laban in 600 B.C.” Thomas O’Dea, The Mormons (1957), 39.
“No one believes that steel was available to Laban or anyone else in 592 B.C.” William Whalen, The Latter-day Saints in the Modern World (1964), 48.
One of the things that struck me is the poor quality of the sword. (Not surprising given how old it is.) But it corresponds to something Lapham reports that Joseph describes about the sword of Laban that was in the concrete vault. Lapham reports that he was told by Joseph that the sword had '"rusted away and become useless," leaving only the hilt for the young prophet to find.' (I read this in Bradley, "The Lost 116 Pages." I have ebook so I can't give the page number, but it is at the end of chapter 10.)
The detail about it having rusted away and being useless describes this other recently-discovered sword very well as well! I'm not sure a young fraud would think about that kind of detail, but to me it adds a bit of verisimilitude to the story of the plates and their associated artifacts.
P.S. Hi Daniel from your Olympus High School 1988 classmate! Go Titans!
A fellow Olympian!
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