In an article on their Mormonism “Research” Ministry’s Website, “Are Ancient Coins Mentioned in the Book of Mormon?” anti-Mormon activists Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson write (in response to Daniel C. Peterson’s review of Everything you Wanted to Know About Mormonism by John Ankerberg and John Weldon, found here):
We disagree with Dr. Peterson's claim that no variant of the word coin is used in the text. Taking his advice that Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language is perhaps "our best source for the language of Joseph Smith and his contemporaries" (Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, 5:8), there are several definitions found under the word "piece" (the word Smith used in Alma 11:4). What's interesting is that none of them have any meaning that would fit Alma 11:4 until the eighth definition: "A coin; as a piece of eight." The meaning for "piece" in Joseph Smith's day was "coin." This shows that "coin" was interpreted not only by James Talmage but the "translator" of the Book of Mormon himself! Here is the page from the 1828 dictionary: [an image of the definition of “piece” from Webster’s 1828 dictionary is then reproduced; one can find an online edition in the URL McKeever and Johnson provided above]
This rule was followed in the 1979 Book of Mormon Student Manual - Religion 121-122 when a subheading asked students "How Valuable Were the Nephite Pieces of Money?" Showing that "pieces" meant "coins," the manual presents a chart to show "the relative value of silver and gold coins under the system set up by Mosiah" (p.229).
There are a couple of problems with this argument. Firstly, if one looks up the first definition in Webster's 1828 dictionary, one will find a definition fitting an ancient weight, “A fragment or part of anything separated from the whole, in any manner, by cutting, splitting, breaking or tearing; as, to cut in pieces, break in pieces, tear in pieces, pull in pieces, etc.; a piece of a rock; a piece of paper.” One would also add as an extra example, “a piece of gold” or "a piece of silver.” Such a definition is part-and-parcel of ancient usage of metal weights as currency.
Furthermore, the KJV, in pre-exilic texts (or texts that are set in the pre-exilic era though they may have reached their final form in a later period), couples “piece” with terms such as “gold,” showing that “piece” was understood to denote, not just a coin, but a weight, consistent with Alma 11 in the Book of Mormon and modern Book of Mormon exegesis and scholarship. Consider the following (emphasis added):
And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved. (Gen 20:16)
And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money. (Gen 33:19)
And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money. (Gen 33:19)
And the king of Aram said, "Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment." (2 Kgs 5:5)
Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and everyone an earring of gold." (Job 42:11)
With their article, Johnson and McKeever had an opportunity to (1) seriously interact with LDS scholarship on Alma 11 and the evidence it provides for the historicity of the Book of Mormon and (2) offer a scholarly refutation thereof. They failed on both counts. The weights and measurement system, as discussed in Alma 11, offers evidence of both the ancient background of the Book of Mormon as well as the text’s internal consistency and complexity.
For more refuting Bill McKeever et al., see, for e.g.:
Top 17 Reasons Bill McKeever Doesn't Understand the Latter-day Saint Faith
For more refuting Bill McKeever et al., see, for e.g.:
Top 17 Reasons Bill McKeever Doesn't Understand the Latter-day Saint Faith
