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Book of Mormon/Compass
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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
==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
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."
- the clock also fits the description of a compass, yet is used to point 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.
==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.
== Notes ==
- [note] The Liahona is called a compass in 1 Nephi 18:12, 21; 2 Nephi 5:12; and Alma 37:38, 43-44.
- [note] Biblical references to "compass" can be seen with this search of the lds.org scriptures web site.
- [note] 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
- [note] 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. (Citations from Smith,
- [note] Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-Djen, Trans-Pacific Echoes and Resonances: Listening Once Again (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co., 1985), 21.
- [note] Smith, "Lodestone and the Liahona"; see also Michael D. Coe, America's First Civilization (New York, 1970).
Further reading
FairMormon Answers articles
Book of Mormon/Compass
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