No less serviceable

I came across an interesting discussion of ritual war within Karl Friday's Samurai Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan. On page 32 he says:

To the Japanese of the Nara, Heian and Kamakira eras, ritual and ceremony were not quaint or meaningless customs designed to occupy the time of bored courtiers, they were a visible symbol of the social order and served an important function in vitalizing and renewing the polity...for from the very beginning, court ritual and ceremony were politics.

As such, defense of the emperor and the state involved far more than just guarding the security of his corporeal body, and military service extended into the realm of [the spiritual]. Participation in rites of this sort was, in effect, an alternative type of military service, one equally valued at the time as police work and battlefield activity.

With the both physical and spiritual service being equally important in Ancient Japan I was drawn to a discussion of the spiritual leaders of the Nephite realm. In Alma 48, Mormon praises the military leader Moroni [1] for his military and spiritual might, but he makes sure to point out that:

19...Helaman [the prophet] and his brethren were no less serviceable unto the people than was Moroni; for they did preach the word of God, and they did baptize unto repentance all men whosoever would hearken unto their words.
20 And thus they went forth, and the people did humble themselves because of their words, insomuch that they were highly favored of the Lord, and thus they were free from wars and contentions among themselves, yea, even for the space of four years.

The modern Western mind often separates the spiritual from the martial. In fact, any connection of the two usually brings up significant negative connotations like Al Qaeda and religious inspired terrorism. I recently read an article where Jerry Falwell, the former Christian minister at Liberty, caused quite a stir when he said that Christians must put on the "Armor of God". The press office had to quickly point that he only meant that spiritually.

In contrast, the prophets in the Book of Mormon were often their military leaders. (3 Nephie 3:19)Moroni received direction from the prophet on where to position his forces. (Alma 43) He told Pahoran what the Lord had said to him. (Alma 60:31-35) And he blessed a banner which he then used as flags of allegiance and as a battle standard. Yet through all those actions, Moroni and other Nephite generals were still only equal to the prophets of God who cultivated the spirituality of the people. As in many other ancient societies, their spiritual health directly reflected their physical health. And it had a direct bearing on the safety of their realm. This is best summarized by the promise: If you keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land.

The answers to whats wrong with this picture

I got quite a few good and funny responses. Maybe I will have a "caption this" contest in the future with Mormon war themes. Before I point out the answers I must make two statements. First, I appreciate the beauty of art no matter what my academic mind says about it. Second, the "answers" are simply based on current scholarly consensus. A new archaeological discovery or new geographic theory could cause a complete rethinking of the field, thus every answer can include a qualifier such as "probably" or "most likely".

Here is the picture one more time:





And here are my answers:

1. Chris pointed out correctly that both weapons and armor look too Western European. Moroni looks like he is about to cross the Rubicon in this picture. Except for the Sword of Laban, which seemed like a status symbol for much of Nephite history (see The Sword of Laban as a Symbol of Divine Authority and Words of Mormon 1:13, Mosiah 1:16). Other than that, the evidence suggests that they used the standard Mesoamerican sword called a macuahuitl.
2. Likewise, their armor would look more Mesoamerican. Remember Moroni's armies wore: breastplates and arm-shields, yea, and also shields to defend their heads, and also they were dressed with thick clothing— Hamblin points out the differences in the likely armor between European and Mesoamerican forces:(The table is formatted better in the article than it is here)

Table 1. Comparison of Biblical and Book of Mormon Armor Terminology KJV Bible Book of Mormon

armor armor
— arm-shield
breastplate breastplate
buckler buckler
coat of mail —
greave —
— head-plate
helmet/helm —
— thick garments/clothing

The print version also has several visual aids. Chris mentioned that the armor was metal instead of some leather wood variant. I agree, the search party mentioned in Mosiah 8:10 brought back the most amazing artifacts they could find: metal armor. Moroni being a part of a heredity military household could have had extremely rare and prestigious armor. But this is not supported by Mesoamerican evidence or the armor mentioned in Alma 43:19.

3. Shannon pointed out and I mentioned this earlier, that Moroni's skin color looks too European as well. We have this belief that the Nephites were a bunch of Anglo Saxon's running around in ancient America. Soreson points out the flaws in this reasoning: We can safely infer that Lehi and his party showed physical features in the normal range for people in Palestine in his day...Their build was slender and gracile (sic.), unburdened by heavy muscles. (This information was not known to the artist who prepared tahe illustrations used in the Book of Mormon...) Hair was shaded black to fully brown. Eyes too, were most often brown, alhtough they could also range...Light reddish-brown or copper colored (untanned) skin was normal... (An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, 81-82)

Sorenson also mentions the possibility of inter marriage with local native populations that would make them darker.
4. I was surprised to read that the banner was in Hebrew and not Reformed Egyptian. This article discusses what reformed Egyptian would look like to modern eyes. And I didn't know enough Hebrew to notice, so that is extra points to Chris for noticing something that I did not.
5. I'm such a geek that I took Scott's suggestion about a leg tattoo as a chance to examine the practice of pre classic Mesoamerican body art. I know Micheal Coe discussed it in his seminal book called The Maya. He used face painting as the reason there were light and dark skinned people in Mesoamerican murals. As Mormons, we have a slightly difference explanation for that of course. So I appreciated the joke not only for the laughter, but for an idea to study once I get some free time.
6. There were some other comments about the nature of the flag waving and the bad quality of the Jpeg file. Way to get into it!

Thanks for the comments, stay tuned for a potential "caption this" contest.

What's wrong with this picture?

My wife often complains that she can't buy me any art because I always point out whats wrong. Now its your chance:







The answers will come shortly.

Guest Writer: Roger on Hill Cumorah Order of Battle

Sorry for my delay in posts. Last week I had my car break down right before a conference on Napoleonic warfare, and I still had to continue building the courses I am under contract for. So needless to say I have been a little busy. But I value my readers, those that do so often, those who just stop by, those that don't comment, and those that do.

I also have some good developments to announce as well. I have been contacted by several people asking for my opinion on various items. I have a new card game called "character match" that I need to look at. One reader and frequent commenter has mentioned a historical fiction novel that he plans to send me for review. The result will probably be a multi part series here and hopefully make it on the cover! And I received an email from Roger Magneson which is the subject of this post.

Roger graduated from West Point Academy, which already made me jealous, and he recently got his MLS from Emporia State. He recently wrote an article highlighting three principles of war within the book of Mormon. The one I wanted to highlight in this post comes from his provacative interpretation of the casualty figures given for the final Nephite battle at Cumorah. I won't steal his thunder by bloviating about the topic, but I did want to highlight that a common criticism of the Book of Mormon concerns its highly unrealistic numbers. I rebuffed that critique in The problem with Numbers
where I also recognized the need for additional research and analysis. Without further ado here is Roger's argument:

Units of the United States Army have names that have come down through history and through several countries. Terms such as squad, platoon, company, battalion, brigade, division, etc. are known to most people even if they are uncertain about how many soldiers comprise each. The size of units in the United States Army is determined by acts of Congress. During the American Civil War, for example, an infantry regiment consisted of 10 companies of roughly 100 men each. One thing is certain, however: at any given moment, not every position in a unit is filled. Consider the First Minnesota Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Gettysburg. Since we know this is an infantry regiment, we know that it is comprised of approximately 1,000 men. However, on 2 July 1863, at Gettysburg, the First Minnesota had been reduced by casualties to 262 men. On that day, 215 more were killed or wounded.David ben Jesse was made a captain over a thousand by Saul the King (1 Samuel 18:13) and of course modern Israel in its trek to the Great Basin had captains of tens, fifties, and hundreds similar to ancient Israel (D&C 136:3).

Not only were the numbers descriptive of the size of the unit, but as Dr. Hugh Nibley points out the number was also the name of the unit. In discussing Nephi’s reference to Laban’s fifty instead of tens of thousands (1 Nephi 4:1), Dr. Nibley states: the military forces are always so surprisingly small and a garrison of thirty to eighty men is thought adequate even for big cities. It is strikingly vindicated in a letter of Nebuchadnezzar, Lehi’s contemporary, wherein the great king orders: “As to the fifties who were under your command, those gone to the rear, or fugitives return to their ranks.”

Commenting on this Offord says, “In these days it is interesting to note the indication here, that in the Babylonian army a platoon contained fifty men”; also we might add, that it was called a “fifty”—hence, “Laban with his fifty.” Of course companies of fifty are mentioned in the Bible, along with tens and hundreds, etc., but not as garrisons of great cities and not as the standard military unit of this time (Nibley, 1988, p. 127.)


Now consider Cumorah, the final battle of the Lehite nations. Beginning in A.D. 375, the Nephites, not the army, but the entire Nephite nation was being driven before the Lamanite armies (Mormon 4:22). In A.D. 384, Mormon in a letter to the Lamanite king asks if he, Mormon, can gather the Nephite nation to battle at Cumorah, which is granted by the Lamanite king (Mormon 6:2-3). Within a year all the people are gathered in except a few who flee to the south country and a few who defect to the Lamanites (Mormon 6:15). At the end of the first day’s fighting, Mormon gives a list by name of 13 commanders and their ten thousand who had fallen, Mormon and Moroni being the exceptions, and then states there were 10 more commanders with their ten thousands who had fallen (Mormon 6:11-15) for a total of approximately 230,000 dead. Note that the name of the unit is ten thousand. Taking a cue from the regiments of the American Civil War, Nephite units might have been called, for example, the First Zarahemla Ten Thousand, the Second Zarahemla Ten Thousand, the First Bountiful Ten Thousand, and so forth.

The problem is this: the Nephite people had been conducting a running and losing battle with the Lamanites for 10 years, and while there may have been at one time 23 units called “ten thousand” in the Nephite army, when the Nephites gathered to Cumorah they were gathering everyone, including women and children (Mormon 6:7). It is highly unlikely that the 23 “ten thousands” were anywhere near full strength in terms of fighting men. Could the difference have been made up of women and children? The record is silent on this point, but knowing the desperate nature and the finality of the fight at Cumorah, it is highly probable that the women and children would fight in the ranks in preference to being captured by the Lamanites. However, even with women and children in the ranks I could not believe the ten thousands were at full strength. In my experience in the military I have never seen a military unit at full strength. Considering that the Nephites had just completed a running war of ten years, I would guess the Nephite ten thousands were anywhere from mere token units, as the First Minnesota, to at most 50% strength.


I appreciate Roger sending me his research, and I'm honored that so many believe I have something meaningful to offer in the field of Mormon studies. I will continue my attempts to deliver. In that vein I recommend my post called Myriads of Soldiers that discusses the number of a unit equalling its name.

I should also point out that this is the kind collaborative effort that I wish to stimulate in my attempts at a warfare symposium. Thank you for your patience. As always, I invite comments and look forward to seeing them.