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Is the Book of Mormon mention of the word "compass" an anachronism?

Questions

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

Answer

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.

Robert L. Bunker, "The Design of the Liahona and the Purpose of the Second Spindle"

The Liahona was given by the Lord as a communications device for Lehi to determine the appropriate direction of travel. This device contained two pointers, only one of which was necessary to provide directional information. But the Liahona was more than just a simple compass in function, for it additionally required faith for correct operation. Since a single pointer always "points" in some direction, the additional pointer was necessary to indicate whether or not the first pointer could be relied upon. This proposed purpose for the second pointer conforms to a well-established engineering principle used in modern fault-tolerant computer systems called "voting," in which two identical process states are compared and declared correct if they are the same, and incorrect if they are different. Hence the second pointer, when coincident with the first, would indicate proper operation, and when orthogonal, would indicate nonoperation.

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Detailed Analysis

Direction

1 Nephi 16:10, 30

10 And it came to pass that as my father arose in the morning, and went forth to the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness.

30 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did go forth up into the top of the mountain, according to the directions which were given upon the ball.

This object did give directions, however this object was referred as "a compass" because it was a perfectly round object.

Name

This 13th century frontispiece from the Codex Vindobonensis 2554 shows God as creator using a compass—so named not because it is used for navigation, but because it is used to draw arcs and circles.

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 a natural interpretation by the modern reader.

• 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. Note the following usages:
  • Also he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about. 2 Chronicles 4:2
  • They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. Psalms 118:11
  • And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. Joshua 6:3
  • From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about. Psalms 17:9

• 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."

• the clock can also be referred to as a compass, yet it points at the time.

Suggested early pre-Columbian compass

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

1. ↑ The Liahona is called a compass in 1 Nephi 18꞉12,21; 2 Nephi 5꞉12; and Alma 37꞉38,43-44.
2. ↑ Biblical references to "compass" can be seen with this search of the lds.org scriptures web site.
3. ↑ Robert F. Smith, "Lodestone and the Liahona," in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, edited by John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1992), Chapter 12. direct off-site
4. ↑ John B. Carlson, "Lodestone Compass: Chinese or Olmec Primacy? Multidisciplinary Analysis of an Olmec Hematite Artifact from San Lorenzo, Veracruz, Mexico," Science 189, No. 4205 (5 September 1975): 753-760. See also R. H. Fuson, "The Orientation of Mayan Ceremonial Centers," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 59 (September 1969): 508-10; E. C. Baity, "Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy So Far," Current Anthropology 14 (October 1973): 443.
5. ↑ Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-Djen, Trans-Pacific Echoes and Resonances: Listening Once Again (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co., 1985), 21.
6. ↑ Smith, "Lodestone and the Liahona"; see also Michael D. Coe, America's First Civilization (New York, 1970).

Further reading and additional sources responding to these claims