Chariots and the Book of Mormon
by Robert Rosskopf

The Book of Mormon has been ridiculed by skeptics for mentioning chariots. I believe it was a rush to judgment.

For many of us oldtimers, "chariot" brings back memories of the chariot race in Ben-hur. Chariots were these little wooden boxes on wheels, and were hitched up to a teams of horses. The charioteers stood on the chariots, and drove the horses hard, vying for the finish line. No where in North, Central, or South America can anyone locate a similar device of ancient provenance. Nor has anyone found any art showing such a device. To top it off, there were few roads that were smooth enough to use a wheeled cart.

Of course, the Nephites weren't Romans. They were Israelites. The Israelites were familiar with chariots, and had a couple of words to describe them - rakeb, which is closely related to rakab - to mount or ride a horse, mercab, which signifies a chariot or riding seat, and appiryon, which is actually a litter! According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, appiryon is "Probably of Egyptian derivation; a palanquin -- chariot. " (http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/668.htm) The King James Version, which was ostensibly the English language reference for the translation of the Book of Mormon, translates appiryon as "chariot". So why did the King James translators not use the word "litter"? According to Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English language(1785), a litter was a carriage with a bed hung between two horses. The Mayans didn't have litters, as the word was defined in 1611. "Chariot" was the right word to use, despite the modern confusion over using an archaic term.

Did the Nephites have horses?

There are a few brief mentions of horses. It is odd though, that with all the detail of wars, battles and military campaigns, not once is a horse mentioned in that context. They had wars, but no calvalry. No one is ever mentioned riding a horse. Nor is there any mention of horse-drawn carriages or wagons, something very common in Joseph Smith's era. In fact, horses in the Book of Mormon, excluding old-world references, are mentioned in only one context. They were used in a caravan or entourage. I'll discuss this a little more later.

Throughout Mesoamerica, litters were used by both kings and generals. They were carried by servants. Many drawings and carvings of this form of travel have been found in Mesoamerican art history. They didn't have wheels and weren't pulled by horses, but they were chariots as defined in the KJV of the Bible.

According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, appiryon is "Probably of Egyptian derivation; a palanquin -- chariot. " (http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/668.htm)

In the Book of Mormon, Nephi states:

"Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians." (1st Nephi 1:2)

Joseph Smith knew as much about Egyptian as you or I might know about Hittite. Yet once again, an apparent mistake turns into corroborating evidence of the truth and authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Palanquin may have been the word of choice to describe a "riding seat", and Joseph Smith faithfully translated it as chariot. Does the Book of Mormon support this theory? Let's take a look at the actual scriptures.

5 And Ammon said unto him: No one hath told me, save it be God; and he said unto
me—Go and deliver thy brethren, for they are in prison in the land of Middoni.
6 Now when Lamoni had heard this he caused that his servants should make ready
his horses and his chariots.
7 And he said unto Ammon: Come, I will go with thee down to the land of Middoni,
and there I will plead with the king that he will cast thy brethren out of prison.
(Alma, chapter 20)

Both horses and chariots are mentioned, but they are mentioned as part of a list of things to do; they may not necessarily have anything to do with one another. The context is a trip, taken by a king. What we do know is that he had both "chariots" and horses in his entourage. If Joseph Smith was correct in his assertion that these lands lay in southern Mexico, then the king would have ridden on a litter or "riding seat". Pack animals would have been loaded with tents, bedding, food and clothing. I believe the horses were used as pack animals.

And it came to pass in the seventeenth year, in the latter end of the year,
the proclamation of Lachoneus had gone forth throughout all the face of the
land, and they had taken their horses, and their chariots, and their cattle,
and all their flocks, and their herds, and their grain, and all their substance,
and did march forth by thousands and by tens of thousands, until they had
all gone forth to the place which had been appointed that they should gather
themselves together, to defend themselves against their enemies.
(3 Nephi 3:22)

Here again, both horses and chariots are mentioned as part of a list of things that the Nephites took with them as they gathered to one place. As in the previous example, the wording shows no correlation between chariots and horses; other than proximity in the list. They took the horses and the chariots; if these were horse drawn chariots, why mention the horses? It would be like me saying, I took my car and the engine. The wording makes perfect sense if the chariots were "riding seats" held aloft by human hands, and the horses were loaded with goods.
I know I have provided no proof to the serious skeptic, but I also know that I have shown that it is completely plausible that Nephi might have used the Egyptian word for Chariot - the same word used by the Israelites to denote a litter or "riding seat" and translated by the KJV translators as chariot.