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+ | [[de:Das Buch Mormon/Anachronismen/Kompass]] | ||
+ | [[es:Anacronismos del Libro de Mormón: Brújula]] | ||
[[fr:Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Compass]] | [[fr:Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Compass]] |
Critics charge that the description of the Liahona as a "compass" is anachronistic because the magnetic compass was not known in 600 B.C.
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here
To use the word compass as a name for a round or curved object is well attested in both the King James Version of the Bible and the Oxford English Dictionary. The Book of Mormon refers to the Liahona as "a compass" not because it anachronistically pointed the way to travel, but because it was a perfectly round object.
1 Nephi 16:10, 30
This object did give directions, however this object was referred as "a compass" because it was a perfectly round object.
Alma2 explained why the director the Lord gave to Lehi was called the Liahona:
Believing it was called a compass because it pointed the direction for Lehi to travel is a natural interpretation by the modern reader.
In every case, it is clear that, at least in Jacobean England, the word was regularly treated as meaning either a round object, or something which moved in a curved fashion.
Further evidence of the archaic meaning of the word comes from a study of the rather lengthy listing for the word in the Oxford English Dictionary. It includes definition 5.b.:
If critics insist on reading this as a "mariner's compass," even this may not be as anachronistic as they have assumed.
Naturally-occurring magnetic ore was being mined by the 7th century B.C., and its magnetic properties were first discussed by the early philosopher Thales of Miletos around 600 B.C.[3]
Non-LDS astronomer John Carlson reported finding a Olmec hematite artifact in Mesoamerica, which was radio-dated to 1600 to 1000 B.C. If Carlson is right, this usage "predates the Chinese discovery of the geomagnetic lodestone compass by more than a millennium."[4] Other researchers have suggested the metal is simply part of an ornament,[5] though Mesoamericanist Michael Coe has suggested the use of such ores as floating compasses.[6] Such examples demonstrate how a single find can radically alter what archaeology tells us is "impossible" with regard to the Book of Mormon text.
== Notes ==
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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