Revision as of 18:32, 29 June 2009

Criticism

Critics charge that the description of the Liahona as a "compass" is anachronistic because the magnetic compass was not known in 600 B.C.

Source(s) of the Criticism

• Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults (Revised) (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1997), 206. ( Index of claims )

Response

Alma₂ explained why the director the Lord gave to Lehi was called the Liahona:

...I have somewhat to say concerning the thing which our fathers call a ball, or director — or our fathers called it Liahona, which is, being interpreted, a compass; and the Lord prepared it (Alma 37:38).^[1]

Believing it was called a compass because it pointed the direction for Lehi to travel is the fault of the modern reader, not the Book of Mormon.

• As a verb, the word "compass" occurs frequently in the King James Version of the Bible^[2]; and it generally suggests the idea of surrounding or encircling something.

• In a few cases (e.g. Exodus 27:5; Proverbs 8:27; Isaiah 44:13) it is used as a noun, and suggests something which encircles another thing.

• A third common situation in the KJV is the use of the phrase "to fetch a compass" (e.g., Numbers 34:5; Joshua 15:3; Acts 28:13), which if not recognized as a verbal phrase could be wrongly seen as presenting "compass" as a noun.

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.:

"Anything circular in shape, e.g. the globe, the horizon; also, a circlet or ring."

Conclusion

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.

Endnotes

1. [note] The Liahona is called a compass in 1 Nephi 18:12, 21; 2 Nephi 5:12; and Alma 37:38, 43-44.
2. [note] Biblical references to "compass" can be seen with this search of the lds.org scriptures web site.

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

External links

• Robert L. Bunker, "The Design of the Liahona and the Purpose of the Second Spindle," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 3/2 (1994). [1–11] link

Printed material