Evidence #135 | January 4, 2021

Book of Mormon Evidence: Laban's Steel Sword

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Scripture Central

Abstract

Archaeological discoveries of ancient weapons with blades of steel, hilts of gold, and sheaths are comparable to Nephi’s description of the Sword of Laban.

Labans Sword

Nephi gave the following description of the Sword of Laban: “I drew it forth from the sheath thereof; and the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel” (1 Nephi 4:9). Several aspects of this description are consistent with archaeological discoveries from the ancient world.

Early and Persistent Criticisms

One early and persistent criticism of the Book of Mormon was Nephi’s description of Laban’s sword as having been made of “precious steel” (1 Nephi 4:9). As one 19th-century commentator objected, “Laban’s sword was steel, when it is a notorious fact that the Israelites knew nothing of steel for hundreds of years afterwards.”1 Such claims continued well into the 20th century, as demonstrated in the following comment from 1964: “No one believes that steel was available to Laban or anyone else in 592 B.C.”2 Similar statements could be cited.3

Ancient Near Eastern Steel Blades and Artifacts

Contrary to these views, scholars in recent decades have learned that ancient Near Eastern blacksmiths and metallurgists were making steel objects through a process of carburization hundreds of years before Nephi’s day.4 Archaeologists have recovered not only tools,5 but also rare examples of steel swords from the ancient Near East.5

Particularly relevant to the Book of Mormon is a sword discovered near Jericho, only about 12 miles east of Jerusalem.6 Approximately one meter in length, the sword dates to the time of King Josiah, a contemporary of Lehi. According to Avraham Eitan, “Metallurgical analysis of a sample taken from the blade proves … that the iron was deliberately hardened into steel, attesting to the technical knowledge of the blacksmith.”7 It is apparently “the only complete sword of its size and type from this period yet discovered in Israel.”8

This 7th-6th century BC Israelite sword, held at the Israel Museum, was found at Vered Jericho, about 15 miles from Jerusalem. The blade is made "iron hardened into steel" (museum plaque). Photo credit: Lauren Perry. Image and caption via studioetquoquefide.com.

Gold Hilts

Concerning Laban’s sword, Nephi explained that “the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine” (1 Nephi 4:9). Many examples of gold-hilted or gold-ornamented swords and daggers from diverse times and locations have been discovered throughout the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. According to John A. Tvedtnes, 

Other nations from Lehi’s time (ca. 600 BC) also had swords with gold hilts. These included Assyria, which fell to the Babylonians in 605 BC; Persia, which conquered Babylon in 539 BC; the Medes, who joined with the Persians in the conquest of Babylon, and the Scythians, who migrated from Russia and Afghanistan to the Near East as far south as northern Israel in the 7th century BC. Later Mediterranean peoples, notably the Greeks and Romans, also decorated swords with gold. Various examples of swords resembling the one taken from Laban by Nephi were found after Joseph Smith’s time, yet the Book of Mormon testifies of a gold-hilted sword when such were as yet unattested in the biblical world before the age of modern archaeology.9

Gold hilted daggers discovered in the tomb of King Tutankhamun (14th century BC). Image via livescience.com. 
Hilt of Achaemenid Sword from 5th-4th centuries BC. Image via https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/.
Golden Cover of a Sword Handle with Animals from the second half of the 4th century BC. Image via https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/.

Sheaths

Nephi described Laban’s sword as having a “sheath” (1 Nephi 4:9). Depending on the materials from which they were made and the circumstances in which they were preserved, some ancient sheaths have survived the ravages of time (some of which are demonstrated in the examples above). Tvedtnes has drawn attention to a Mesopotamian sword (ca. 2500 BC) with a gold blade and a hilt decorated with gold bead inlay. “Of particular interest is that this sword was found with its sheath intact. The sheath is of gold-decorated open-work and has two vertical slits on the back to allow it to be attached to a belt.”10

Gold dagger and scabbard, from the royal tomb of Ur. Image via Wikimedia Commons. 

In 2019 a Scythian a dagger/short sword with a gold-plated hilt, cross-guard, and sheath was discovered at Mount Mamai in modern-day Ukraine. The burial site dates to the 6th century BC, which is approximately contemporary with Laban.11

The leaf-ribbed grip and cross-guard of the Scythian short sword (Credit: MamaiGora/Facebook). Image and caption via archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com.
Scabbard of the Scythian short sword (Credit: MamaiGora/Facebook). Image and caption via archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com.

Conclusion

Because of archaeological discoveries made after the publication of the Book of Mormon, Nephi’s description of Laban’s sword is no longer an apparent anachronism. Relevant examples of blades of steel, hilts of gold, and sheaths can all be found in antiquity, sometimes in contexts very close in time or place (or both) to the Sword of Laban.

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