In a recent book, Tony Decker wrote the following about the Ugaritic texts discovered at ancient Ugaritic (modern Ras Shamra):
In 1959, the Rash Shamrah tablets were found in northern Canaan, and scholars discovered a new word in the Ugaritic tongue—liahona, which they interpreted to mean “round.” (Tony Decker, Traits of Truth: Proving the Book of Mormon [Pittsburgh: Rosedog Books, 2019], 16)
This is just one of the many great errors and distortions in this book. Firstly, the Ugaritic tablets were discovered in 1929, not 1959 (on p. 17, Decker also greatly errs by claiming that the Nag Hammadi texts were found in 1963—they were discovered in 1945).
Secondly, and more importantly—liahona is not a word in the Ugaritic. Needless to say, Decker does not provide any source, and for good reason—this is false. One can read the words of Gordon, Wyatt, and others who have translated/transliterated/commented on the Ugaritic tablets and will come up empty-handed--I know, I have read a great deal on the texts. Sadly, Decker made the same bogus argument in his previous book, Why I Believe the Book of Mormon (And Why Anybody Can). It would have been nice if Decker bothered to get people to review his books (I called him up on his nonsense about this issue on Amazon).
