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."