Sunday, October 5, 2014

Glass Windows in the Book of Mormon?

One alleged anachronism in the Book of Mormon is that Ether 2:23 has an anachronistic reference to glass windows. While glass was known in the ancient world, as seen in some archaeological discoveries from Egypt and elsewhere, there are no evidence of glass windows during the time of the Book of Mormon.

Ether 2:23, speaking of the Jaredite barges, reads as follows (emphasis added):

And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire.

From the context, “they” does not refer to the windows, but to the barges themselves.

In the Bible, the term "window" referred to an opening through wich the wind could enter in.


As the Lord explains in v. 24, they would go through turbulent conditions at sea, sometimes being buried beneath the waves. "Windows" would result in additional cuts in the wood of the Jaredite barges, weakening their structure and making them more fragile, and thus would be liable to being "dashed in pieces."

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