Monday, April 29, 2019

"Christians" in the Book of Mormon: An Anachronism?


The term "Christians" appears in the Book of Mormon one century before the birth of Jesus:

And he fastened on his head-plate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land . . . And those who did belong to the church were faithful; yea, all those who were true believers in Christ took upon them, gladly, the name of Christ, or Christians as they were called, because of their belief in Christ who should come. And therefore, at this time, Moroni prayed that the cause of the Christians, and the freedom of the land might be favored. (Alma 46:13, 15-16)

And thus he was preparing to support their liberty, their lands, their wives, and their children, and their peace, and that they might live unto the Lord their God, and that they might maintain that which was called by their enemies the cause of Christians. (Alma 48:10)

Some critics of the Book of Mormon have argued that this is an anachronism as, they charge, the followers of Jesus were not called "Christians" until Acts 11:26, after the ascension of Jesus and well over a century after the date of these Book of Mormon texts:

And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. (Acts 11:26)

There are a number of problems with this argument. Firstly, the Book of Mormon purports to be a translation into English of an ancient text; it stands to reason that the language from which it was translated is not the same it was translated into. The Nephites may have called themselves something akin to “Messiah followers” (e.g., Meshihim, from Messiah) that Joseph Smith translated as “Christian,” the best word in his vocabulary to denote such. Furthermore, Luke’s comment refers to when the Greek term Χριστιανος was used of the fledgling Church—the Nephites did not write or speak in Greek.

Let me quote two previous LDS apologetic responses.


"Acts 11:26 says: ‘The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.' (KJ)  But Alma 46:15, purportedly describing events in 73 B.C.E., has Christians in America before Christ ever came to earth" (p. 25).  Were we to say that the Templars were organized in Germany and settled in the Holy Land in the late 19th century, you might try to correct us by saying that the Templars were organized in the year 1118 by Hugh de Payen and participated in a Crusade to the Holy Land in the years that followed.  Actually, both statements are correct, for we would be referring to two different Christian groups that called themselves "Templars."  Since Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, didn't know about the followers of Christ in the New World, he would naturally assume that the term "Christian" was first used in Antioch in his own day. In the same way, many history books credit Columbus with having discovered America, though there is now abundant evidence for the Vikings having visited North America five hundred years earlier.  If one acknowledges that prophets such as Isaiah (e.g., Isaiah 53) foresaw the coming of Christ, there should be no problem in having a people living a few decades before his birth and who looked forward to his arrival calling themselves "Christians."  Since the term "Christians" is from the Greek word that gave us "Christ," it would not, of course, have been used by the Nephites. They may have called themselves Meshihim, from the Hebrew Messiah. All we can say for certain is that the anglicized form "Christians" was used in the English translation to represent whatever term the Nephites used.


There is no contradiction, when one considers the facts. The events of the Book of Mormon occurred in the Americas at about 73 BC; the events of Acts somewhere between AD 40 and 50. Since Luke did not live in the Americas during the year 73 BC, it is obvious that he would not have been aware of these prior events, separated by more than 100 years and by the Atlantic Ocean. His not being aware of this historical event, would account for his use of the word first at Acts 11:26.

Further, the Book of Mormon is a translation of an ancient text. Since Joseph Smith used the vocabulary available to him, what other word could he have used to properly convey the sense of a text that spoke of followers of the Messiah?

“Christian” in the Book of Mormon is clearly not an anachronism and/or a contradiction between the Book of Mormon and the Bible.

For more articles addressing Greek names and words in the Book of Mormon, see: