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Critics have been quick to point out that a “steel” bow in Nephi’s day is anachronistic – carbonized steel is not believed to have existed in Nephi’s day so this proves that Joseph smith was a fraud.
In this podcast Brother Ash talks about how the Bible mentions “steel” bows and Dr. William Hamblin (an expert in ancient Near Eastern history) explains that “the metal is apparently called ‘steel’ in the KJV because bronze is ‘steeled’ (strengthened) copper through alloying it with tin or through some other process.”
The full text of this article can be found at Deseret News online.
Brother Ash is author of the book Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, as well as the book, of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith. Both books are available for purchase online through the FairMormon Bookstore. Tell your friends about the Mormon Fair-Cast. Share a link on your Facebook page and help increase the popularity of the Mormon Fair-Cast by subscribing to this podcast in iTunes, and by rating it and writing a review.
The views and opinions expressed in the podcast may not reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon
Steel making in Nephi’s day is probably not an anachronism. Note the following quote from Wikipedia:
“The earliest known production of steel is a piece of ironware excavated from an archaeological site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehoyuk) and is about 4,000 years old. Other ancient steel comes from East Africa, dating back to 1400 BC…Steel was produced in large quantities in Sparta around 650 BC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel
The Spartan steel is particularly interesting because there was considerable Phoenician trade between Greece and Israel in that time period. The exceptional hardness of Spartan steel in the 6th century BC was derived from their use of an iron-manganese alloy, because their ore iron ore deposits were laced with manganese.
In the moon light, or perhaps just starlight, Nephi drew Laban’s sword and “saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel.” It wasn’t just made of steel but it was made of the “the most precious steel.” The most precious steel in Israel in Nephi’s day would probably have been Spartan steel. For Nephi to recognize this in the moonlight would mean that he was a highly trained metallurgist, which is born out in his other writings.
On display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem are the remains of an Israelite sword dating about 600 BC and is about the same size and shape as early Viking swords. The caption below it reads “The sword is made of iron hardened into steel, attesting to substantial metallurgical know how.”
It appears that real steel in Nephi’s day is not an anachronism.
TheodoreB: Steel is anachronistic in the Americas in that time period. You have the same problem with horses, for example. They certainly existed in Europe but there is no good evidence that they were present in the Americas during that time.
whitethunder:
There is an adage amongst archaeologists that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. There is a huge problem in finding 2,000 year old steel. It usually will not survive that long. In the ground, steel will corrode between .020 mm and .2 mm per year depending on variable factors such as moisture, oxygen and salts in the soil. The best case conditions in the ground would mean 1 mm of corrosion on a sword blade every 50 years. A 6 mm thick sword rusting from both sides would last a maximum of 150 years. In the air, corrosion on steel will be about ½ that of soil, mainly based on humidity. In extremely dry desert conditions it may last two or three thousand years or longer. In northern climates where the ground is frozen most of the year Viking Swords have been found from the 9th century.
The absence of finding ancient steel swords in America is not evidence that they were not there 2,000 years ago.
While it is true that the King James Version of the Bible uses the word “steel” to mean bronze, the references to a steel bow and to Laban’s sword as steel could certainly be to actual steel (carburized iron). Both items were made in the Old World. So a question about steel in the New World is not our primary consideration, even though outcroppings of iron ore were well-known in Mesoamerica, and were in fact exploited there beginning with the Olmec (who produced tons of iron objects).
Prof. Richard Cowen (Geology, UC Davis) has pointed out that “When King Tutankhamen died, about 1400 BC, he was buried with one of the most lavish funerals of all time. When it was discovered in 1922, the tomb contained more gold than the Royal Bank of Egypt at the time. Tutankhamen had with him a truly royal weapon: an iron dagger with a hilt and sheath of gold decorated with rock crystal. The dagger blade had not rusted in more than 3000 years, and we do not know how it was forged.” Please note that Laban’s much later sword also had a gold hilt.
Professor Cowen goes on: “Apart from Tutankhamen’s dagger, we have a battle-axe from Ugarit, in Syria, dated about 1450-1350 BC. It has a bronze hilt decorated with gold, and an iron blade that contained nickel. The iron may have been alloyed with nickel deliberately, or it may have been meteoritic iron. But the blade had been forged into mild steel, with 0.4% carbon. These items show a great deal of metallurgical sophistication, but at the same time they reflect the great value attributed to well-worked iron objects.”
Reading chapter 5 of Professor Cowen’s book, Exploiting the Earth, online at http://bretxu.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/exploiting-the-earth/ , ought to disabuse anyone from the silly notion that steel is anachronistic in the Book of Mormon.