Based on later discussions in the Book of Mormon of the children who did not take the oath, Gardner noted that all of the members of the group made the oath, except the very young, which would be those that were too young to voice an oath. An item unaddressed is whether the very young, or others who did not typically possess weapons, could have participated in the votive offering itself. Noting the relative simplicity of many of the pseudo-axe offerings at Chiapa de Corzo (some were just river rock and pebbles) and noting that only 10 percent appeared to be weapons that were actually used, these votive offerings seem to be community-type offerings in which all persons would have been able to participate, not just the warrior class who possessed actual weapons. The participation of all members of the Anti-Nephi-Lehites is consistent with the weapon offerings tendered in Chiapa de Corzo.
Further, the Anti-Nephi-Lehi votive weapons offering is described that “they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace” (Alma 24:19). Smith (2017) argues that this phrase is an example of an improvisational error in the Book of Mormon, meaning that a mistake was engraved into the plates, and the correct verbiage is then restated and engraved by the author (72). Smith’s argument here is in error. With a removal of a comma (remembering there was no original punctuation in the Book of Mormon), the phrase reads “they buried their weapons of peace or they buried the weapons of war, for peace.” Given the fact that in the Chiapa de Corzo example there were two types of weapons buried, pseudo weapons (weapons of peace) and also actual weapons (weapons of war), this phrase makes perfect sense in a Mesoamerican votive offering context and is not an improvisational error. (Jerry D. Grover, Jr., The Swords of Shule: Jaredite Land Northward Chronology, Geography, and Culture in Mesoamerica [Provo, Utah: Challex Scientific Publishing, 2018], 284-85)
