Swords in the Book of Mormon

[BMAF, division of Book of Mormon Central]

division of Book of Mormon Central 

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June 11, 2016

Matthew Roper, in a recent blog in Ether's Cave (http://etherscave.blogspot.com) discusses the use of metal swords in The Book of Mormon. "Swords were an important weapon in the arsenal of Book of Mormon peoples. It is likely that most swords in the Book of Mormon did not have metal blades, but the text does indicate that some of the people of Jared and Lehi possessed rare metal blades. The earliest reference is found in the account of the Jaredite prince Shule who led a successful rebellion to overthrow his brother’s regime. (Ether 7:8-9)

And it came to pass that Shule was angry with his brother; and Shule waxed strong, and became mighty as to the strength of man; and he was also mighty in judgment. Wherefore, he came to the hill Ephraim, and he did molten out of the hill, and made swords out of steel for these 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 Cohihor, by which means he obtained the kingdom and restored it to his father Kib” (Ether 7:8-9)   Shule is described as “mighty in judgment” (Ether 7:8). He is the one with the knowledge and skill to do this. “He did molten,” he “made swords out of steel,” “he . . . armed them.”

In (Mosiah 8:10-11) King Limhi’s search party did not find the land of Zarahemla, but they found ruins of buildings and bones of the Jaredites along with the 24 gold plates of Ether. “And for a testimony that the thing that they have said are true, . . . .  they have brought swords, the hilts thereof have perished, and the blades thereof were cankered with rust” . The search party brought back the rusted sword blades and other artifacts “for a testimony that the things that they had said are true” (Mosiah 8:9). That could suggest that metal blades were thought to be rare or unusual. 

The description of rusted sword blades could refer to rusted steel, although the passage does not identify the metal in question. At the present time no authentic archaeological specimens of carburized iron steel are known from Pre-Columbian America. Given, however, the broader range of meaning of the word steel in the language into which the Book of Mormon was translated, it is also possible that the blades described were bronze blades.

Given that such weapons were likely quite rare anyway, we would not expect that we would necessarily find surviving examples in an ancient trash heap, nevertheless, the Book of Mormon description of how such blades could corrode and perish is understandable.

Luke OBrien, a BMAF member and contributor responded to this article on our Facebook site:  (Facebook.d

"Metallurgically speaking, according to the description of being cankered with rust, these swords would have necessarily been iron-based. Copper, zinc, gold, or aluminum alloys do oxidize, but do so with a more stable oxide layer. To assume the swords were steel might be a bit of conjecture. They could have more easily been grey iron (like your iron skillets) which is brittle because that is easier to produce due to a lower temperature requirement, among other things. If it were ductile iron, those swords would have not been brittle, but would have required an inoculating agent (magnesium is used today). So, imagine what throwing some magnesium into a molten bath would be like. Steel requires that you burn off the carbon in the melt, and the extra temperature would probably necessitate higer-temperature capable refractories to contain the molten bath. At least, these are the considerations in present-day technology.  More remarkably - if Joseph Smith had used the word steel, he might have been speaking from his own understanding, and not from the translation of an ancient document. Steel is not so likely to have been the swords' composition."

Articles posted on our website during May, 2016:  

Incense Burning in the Near East and Mesoamerica  by John Sorenson

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/bmaf/lDaLzXPMvtg

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