And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow; wherefore, I did arm myself with a bow and an arrow, with a sling and with stones. And I said unto my father: Whither shall I go to obtain food? (1 Nephi 16:23)
In his article, The Bow and Arrow in the Book of Mormon in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, eds. Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin (FARMS, 1990) has an appendix entitled, "Why Did Nephi Make a New Arrow?" which discusses this particular verse:
Appendix: Why Did Nephi Make a New Arrow?
David S. Fox has maintained that Nephi had to make a new arrow for his new wooden bow because the arrows used with his old steel bow would have been too heavy for a wooden bow.66 Although the general principle he describes is accurate, I believe the issue is more complex than that.
In reality, nearly any arrow can be shot from any bow. The basic limiting factor is the length of the arrow versus the length of the bow — shooting short arrows from longbows is difficult. This is because a full draw on a longbow may make the distance between the fully drawn string and the handle of the bow longer than the length of the arrow. Short arrows can be shot from a longbow only if the string is not drawn back fully, which greatly reduces efficiency.
What Fox is really talking about is the relative efficiency of shooting arrows of different weights from different bows. A very heavy arrow shot from a bow with a light draw weight will have short range and weak penetrating power.67 The accuracy and impact will be ineffective, but the arrow can be shot. Fox’s discussion seems to be based on the assumption that Nephi’s “steel bow” was of the late medieval steel type, while I have argued that in fact Nephi’s steel bow must have been a metal-backed wood weapon that was common in the Near East of his day, which would not have shot an arrow substantially heavier than other bows.
Why then, did Nephi make a new arrow? There are two possible reasons. First, as arrows are continually shot in hunting they become lost or broken. He may simply have run out of arrows and needed a new one. Second, Nephi very likely owned a metal-backed recurved composite bow, as discussed previously. Recurved composite bows can achieve the same draw weight with a much smaller string and draw length than a longer bow. In other words, recurved composite bows shoot shorter arrows than longer bows. If Nephi’s old bow was the recurved composite type, and his new one was a long staff bow (which is the simplest to make on short notice), he may have needed to make a longer arrow because of the longer string and draw length of his new bow.
Notes for the Above:
66. “Nephi’s Arrows,” F.A.R.M.S. Update, July 1984, with a brief synopsis in “Nephi’s Arrows Create Solid Bull’s-eye,” Insights, October 1984, 2.
67. See Taybugha, translated in Latham and Paterson, Saracen Archery, 24-33, for a medieval discussion of this question.