Anachronisms in The Book of Mormon - Flora and Fauna Anachronisms - Barley and Wheat

Barley and Wheat

Grains are mentioned twenty-eight times in the Book of Mormon, including barley and wheat. The introduction of domesticated modern barley and wheat to the New World was made by Europeans sometime after 1492, many centuries after the time in which the Book of Mormon is set.

FARMS apologist Robert Bennett offered two possible explanations for this anachronism:

"Research on this matter supports two possible explanations. First, the terms barley and wheat, as used in the Book of Mormon, may refer to certain other New World crop plants that were given Old World designations; and second, the terms may refer to genuine varieties of New World barley and wheat," states Mr Benett of the Maxwell Institute. "For example, the Spanish called the fruit of the prickly pear cactus a "fig," and emigrants from England called maize "corn," an English term referring to grains in general. A similar practice may have been employed when Book of Mormon people encountered New World plant species for the first time."

Bennett also postulates that references to "barley" could refer to Hordeum pusillum, also known as "little barley", a species of grass native to the Americas. The seeds are edible, and this plant was part of the pre-Columbian Eastern Agricultural Complex of cultivated plants used by Native Americans. Hordeum pusillum was unknown in Mesoamerica, where there is no evidence of pre-Columbian barley cultivation. However, evidence exists that this plant was domesticated in North America in the Woodland periods contemporary with mound builder societies (early centuries AD) and has been carbon-dated to 2,500 years ago.

Read more about this topic:  Anachronisms In The Book Of Mormon, Flora and Fauna Anachronisms

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