Abstract: The Liahona’s faith-based functionality and miraculous appearance have often been viewed as incongruous with natural law. This paper attempts to reconcile the Liahona to scientific law by displaying similarities between its apparent mechanisms and ancient navigation instruments called astrolabes. It further suggests the Liahona may have been a wedding dowry Ishmael provided to Lehi’s family. The paper displays the integral connection Nephi had to the Liahona’s functionality and how this connection more clearly explains the lack of faith displayed by Nephi’s band during the journey than traditional conceptions of its faith-based functionality.

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Conclusion

After arriving in the promised land, Lehi described Nephi’s role in the journey thus: “[He] hath been an instrument in the hands of God, in bringing us forth into the land of promise; for were it not for him, we must have perished with hunger in the wilderness” (2 Nephi 1:24, emphasis added). It is difficult to shake the impression that in this verse Lehi is making a deliberate comparison between Nephi and the Liahona itself. Just as the Liahona was “an instrument” in the hands of Nephi to guide the party through the wilderness, so too was Nephi an “instrument in the hands of God,” used as a tool to guide the party to the promised land. Nephi’s integral role in the use of the Liahona clearly suggests similarities in use and function to astrolabes used by astronomers throughout the ancient Near East. This new understanding of the Liahona provides greater meaning to the words of Nephi, “and thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things” (1 Nephi 16:29).