Last week, I got into a debate with another user over a specific passage from the Book of Mormon. Here’s Ether 9:19-
“And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms.”
According to the North American fossil record, horses on the continent had become extinct by the time the passage allegedly took place. Despite it clearly referring to horses, both there and in three other instances, the user had a different opinion:
“nobody know, even if you claim you do, you don’t know either.”
Essentially, they believed that while the animal in question was referred to as a “horse”, it was something else entirely.
What do you think? What animal could the Mormons’ ancestors have been using that would have led them to call it a “horse?”
Fossil
Article URL : https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/ether/9?lang=eng