Nephi's Bow and Arrows a direct hit for the Book of Mormon

Nephi Hunting

This is a subject that I recently did a smaller post on in my other blog peculiar people illustrations but the whole idea behind it originated due to an article posted on the Neal A. Maxwell Institute by William J. Hamblin entitled, "Nephi's Bow's and Arrow's".  In this article William Hamblin points out that wording used by Nephi in 1Nephi 16:23, when he said, "I, Nephi, did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow." gives added authenticity to the Book of Mormon.  The reason this works so well as evidence for authenticity is because we know that Nephi had a steel bow or at least a steel ribbed bow that would have required heavier and stiffer arrows.  Nephi mentions that his bow broke and that his brothers bows lost their spring but he never mentions anything in regards to breaking his arrows.  But in the above quoted scripture he makes a direct reference to the fact that he not only made a bow out of wood but an arrow out of a straight stick.  This is important because his heavier and stiffer arrows would not have worked well with his newly made wooden bow and would have either caused it to loose power just due to the weight or stray of course because of the stiffness.

The idea that a farmboy in the early 1800's would have had any idea about the weight and stiffness of bows and arrows and would have been keen enough to mention the need for new arrows without mentioning that the old one had ever been broke would seem to be unrealistic because archery as a sport as pointed out by Hamblin did not appear until the later half of the 19th century .  One more bullseye for the Book of Mormon.  Below I have included a direct link to the Neal A. Maxwell Institute article by William Hamblin.

http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=71&chapid=777