Yes, the Book of Mormon contains a number of anachronisms, details that don’t fit the time and place it describes. It mentions steel, horses, chariots and other items unknown in the ancient Americas, and it uses New Testament language centuries before the New Testament was written. These Book of Mormon anachronisms suggest the book reflects Joseph Smith’s 19th-century world rather than an ancient record.
What Is an Anachronism?
An anachronism is something that shows up in the wrong time period. Picture a Civil War movie where a soldier checks a wristwatch, or a medieval knight who mentions a telephone. Small details like these quickly reveal that a story was written later than the period it portrays, even if the writer was sincere.
Joseph Smith described the Book of Mormon as “the most correct of any book on earth.” It claims to be a record of people who lived in the Americas from about 600 BC to AD 400. If that’s true, we would expect its details to fit that ancient setting. Scripture encourages this kind of careful examination of spiritual claims.
Acts 17:11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
The Bereans were eager to hear, but they also checked what they heard. That’s a healthy model for anyone weighing a book that claims to be Scripture, and it’s how Christians should approach the Bible too.
Which Details Don’t Fit Ancient America?
The Book of Mormon describes Nephites using steel swords and a “bow of fine steel,” yet there’s no evidence of steel production in the ancient Americas. It mentions horses pulling chariots, though horses had disappeared from the Americas thousands of years earlier and returned only with the Spanish. It also speaks of cattle, wheat and silk in ways that don’t match what archaeologists have found in pre-Columbian America.
Latter-day Saint scholars have offered thoughtful responses, suggesting, for example, that “horse” might refer to a different animal such as a deer or tapir, or that “steel” could mean some other hardened metal. Those explanations are possible to propose, but they require reading familiar words in unfamiliar ways again and again. The simpler explanation is that the author used the world he knew.
How Does the Book of Mormon Echo the New Testament?
Some of the clearest anachronisms involve the Bible itself. Nephite prophets living before Christ use phrases from Paul’s letters and the book of Hebrews, often in King James wording. Moroni 7 includes a description of love that closely mirrors 1 Corinthians 13. The book also has believers called “Christians” around 73 BC, yet Luke tells us when and where that name first appeared.
Acts 11:25-26 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
Antioch is in Syria, and this happened in the decades after Jesus’ resurrection. Latter-day Saints may answer that God revealed the same words to the Nephites, but it’s hard to explain why those revelations would match the wording of an English translation completed in 1611.
Does the Book Reflect Joseph Smith’s World?
Many themes in the Book of Mormon line up with debates that were common in early 19th-century America. People speculated about the origins of Native Americans, argued over infant baptism and Freemasonry, and saw America as a promised land with a special role in God’s plan. All of these topics surface in the book. Researchers have also noted similarities in style and phrasing between the Book of Mormon and a schoolbook called The Late War Between the United States and Great Britain, written in King James-style English and published in 1816, more than a decade before the Book of Mormon appeared. Similarities alone don’t prove copying, but together these details point toward the setting in which Joseph lived.
The Bible gives a very different picture. Its books fit their historical settings, and the gospel it proclaims didn’t need to be restored centuries later because God has preserved his Word.
Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.
That confidence frees Christians to talk with Latter-day Saint friends honestly and kindly. You don’t need to win an argument. You can simply invite them to look at the evidence and to consider Jesus as he is revealed in the Bible. To go deeper, read about the historical evidence for the Book of Mormon.
The Takeaway
Book of Mormon anachronisms, from steel and horses to New Testament phrases used centuries too early, point to a 19th-century origin rather than an ancient one. The Bible, by contrast, fits its historical world and offers a trustworthy foundation for knowing God through Jesus Christ.
