Looks like I was wrong after all. There were actually steel swords in B of M times. I guess I will have to return to the fold now.
http://www.ldsliving.com/Archaeological-Discovery-Disproves-Early-Critics-of-Mormonism-What-Swords-in-the-Book-of-Mormon-Were-Really-Like/s/82855?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=ctr

Read the [short] article...nothing that explains "what" was found, if anything. What a joke.

http://m.deseretnews.com/article/865660011/BYU-religious-scholar-analyzes-Book-of-Mormon-swords-at-FairMormon-Conference.html?pg=all?ref=https:%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F


Do you believe this nonsense?

"How do you remove blood from a blood-soaked wooden weapon? You can't," Roper said. "Swords stained with blood mirror human hearts and consciences stained with sin and guilt. So we have a powerful metaphor emphasizing the profound power and mercy of God in taking away the stains of sin and guilt through his own atoning blood. … Having learned of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and having believed it, these converts repented of all their sins to be made clean. Freed from guilt and shame they obtained a hope as bright as the light once reflected upon their obsidian blades. … While the metaphor is understandable with steel blades, it would have been especially meaningful and profound, perhaps more so in a cultural context of Mesoamerican warfare and weapons."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2016 04:55AM by anybody.

Yes, this stained sword nonsense has been around for a very long time. I assume it originated long before the 1990 apologetic cited below.


"Although today we speak of 'stainless steel,' in Joseph Smith's day, metals were not generally thought of as becoming stained. Staining was a term that generally applied to wood, cloth, or other substances subject to discoloration. Reference to staining swords with blood is not found in the Bible. Thus, although not impossible, the metaphor of staining metal swords with blood is somewhat unusual."

Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin, eds., Warfare in the Book of Mormon, FARMS (1990), pg. 342


The following quotes are from the 2001 GospelLink CD from works of literature predating or shortly following Joseph Smith's day, and aptly demonstrate the willful ignorance of LDS "scholars" like Hamblin:

"rewarded the hospitable Laodicea, and deplored the hard necessity that had stained his sword with any drops of Christian blood"

Gibbon, Edward, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, vol. 6 (1782, revised in 1845)


"Don Quixote laughed, and asked them to take off the next cloth, underneath which was seen the image of the patron saint of the Spains seated on horseback, his sword stained with blood, trampling on Moors and treading heads underfoot"

Cervantes, Miguel, Don Quixote


"long as I lived, when, laved in blood,
stood sword-gore-stained this stateliest house"

Beowulf


"see how he stains with blood his lance and bare sword"

Troyes, Chrtien de, Four Arthurian Romances


"throwing his blood-stained sword in thunder down" [Chapter 7]
"threw his blood-stain'd sword in thunder down, with such effect" [Chapter 13]

Dickens, Charles, Great Expectations


"Nevertheless none of these things constrained him to stain his sword with blood"

Chrysostom, John, Homilies on the Gospel According to Matthew


"Till I be crown'd and that my sword be stain'd
With heart-blood of the house of Lancaster"

Shakespeare, William, King Henry VI, part 2


"Lest unadvised you stain your swords with blood"

Shakespeare, William, King John


"Let him break into as many pieces as he will, the sword that he stained with my common blood"

Dickens, Charles, Tale of Two Cities


"A sword, whose temper I intend to stain
With the best blood that I can meet withal"

Shakespeare, William, King Henry IV, part 1


"In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
To stain the temper of my knightly sword."

Shakespeare, William, King Richard II


"And scarce sufficient blood to stain the steel"

Ovid, Metamorphoses


"cleansing his blood-stained knife"

Stevenson, Robert Louis, Treasure Island, 1883 (a bit on the late side, but still nearly 30 years before the invention of stainless steel in 1912)


"blood enough in all their sickly veins To give each naked curtle-axe a stain"

Shakespeare, William, King Henry V


"stained his cimeter with the blood of the inhabitants"

Gibbon, Edward, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 4 (1782, revised in 1845)


"armor stained with blood"

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

...and it never will be.

From the article:

"Although Nephi mentions taking the sword of Laban and making others like it (2 Nephi 5:14), it seems the steel sword-making technology was lost and wood-bladed swords became the preferred weapon, Roper said."

Riiiiggghhhhhttt. An entire complicated technology of mining iron ore and making steel was somehow "lost." That's like theorizing that some ancient culture invented the wheel, and used them for decades, but then somehow "lost" the idea.

Even if the Nephites (who didn't exist) "lost" the ability to make steel, you'd think that the ancient Amerinds (who did exist, and whom modern Mormon apologists claim lived amongst the non-existent Nephites) would have kept smelting technology going.

As usual, Roper's dumb comments aren't "Book of Mormon evidence," but are merely excuses for LACK of evidence.

so......


¿ the Book of Mormon is metaphor now ?



brb ~



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What these apologists conveniently ignore is that metal swords WERENT the only metal things the Book of Mormon people made.

The Jaredites were great at metallurgy according to the Book of Mormon.

Ether 10:23
23 And they did work in all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore, they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work.

Helaman talks about how good the Nephites were at metallurgy as well.

Helaman 6:11
11 And behold, there was all manner of gold in both these lands, and of silver, and of precious ore of every kind; and there were also curious workmen, who did work all kinds of ore and did refine it; and thus they did become rich.

The Gold Plates were made of Gold. Now if it was pure Gold then it would be too soft and mixing it with other types of metals would take metallurgy.

"The Book of Mormon is a sacred record of peoples in ancient America and was engraved upon metal plates."

Mormon even complains that he doesnt have ore to make more plates out of to write on. This implies that if he had ore then he would make more plates to write on. That would require metallurgy skills.

Mormon 8:5
5 Behold, my father hath made this record, and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold, I would write it also if I had room upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone. My father hath been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not.