According to Cleon Skousen, the true principles of scientific astronomy were well known to the ancients (see, for example, Abraham 1:31; 3:2-10), therefore Mormon wants us to appreciate that all of this talk about the sun "turning back" and the phrase, "for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun" (Helaman 12:15) and so forth is merely referring to the earth-view illusion of the sun's course across the heavens. Mormon says that in reality, it is the earth which goes back rather than the sun, for it is the earth that rotates on its axis and creates this illusion and not the movement of the sun.
It is often stated that clear up to the time of Columbus it was generally thought that the earth was flat rather than a rotating globe, but this is a myth which Washington Irving put in our history books and it has been there ever since. Research by Dr. Samuel Eliot Morison of Harvard led him to say concerning Columbus that "Every educated man in his day [1492] believed the world to be a sphere, every European university so taught geography. . . . " (Admiral of the Ocean Sea, p. 33) The Greeks had even estimated the circumference of the earth in their day! In some of the early texts of Mark 16:3 we have this from the Christian era: "In the third hour of the day there came darkness throughout all the globe of the earth." (See Nibley, Since Cumorah, p. 74) [W. Cleon Skousen, Treasures from the Book of Mormon, Vol. 3, p. 3306]
“Surely It is the Earth That Moveth and Not the Sun”
Helaman 12:15 states, "for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun." Also, in Alma 30:44 we find that in his words to Korihor, Alma declared, " . . . all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."
According to Michael Griffith, Book of Mormon critics believe these statements refer to the earth rotating around the sun and thus are anachronisms:
The knowledge that the planets revolve about the sun rather than the earth was not popularized until 1543 A.D. There is no historical evidence that either the ancient Romans or the ancient Jews understood this Copernican astronomy . . . (Vernal Holley, Book of Mormon Authorship: A Closer Look, 1983:14)
In actuality, the Book of Mormon does not speak of the orbits of other planets; it refers only to the earth's revolving around the sun. While the Nephites may very well have known that the planets in our solar system revolve around the sun, this is not explicitly stated in the Nephite text.
In any event, contrary to Holley's assertion, there is evidence that at least some ancient Jews knew that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun. (Sidney B. Sperry, Answers to Book of Mormon Questions, 1967:172-174; Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, 1981:13-14; Milton R. Hunter, Pearl of Great Price Commentary, 1951:91-96; R. Grant Athay, "Worlds Without Number: The Astronomy of Enoch, Abraham, and Moses," in B.Y.U. Studies, 8/3 Spring 1968:255-269). Furthermore, in the New World, some experts in ancient Mesoamerica knew that the earth rotates around the sun. They also knew with great precision how long it takes the earth to complete its orbit (John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, 1985:273). [Michael T. Griffith, Refuting the Critics, p. 77] [See the commentary on Alma 30:44]