Confirmatory Evidences of "Mormonism": The Calendar in America

CONFIRMATORY EVIDENCES OF “MORMONISM”

The Calendar in America

ONE of the true marvels of the intellectual world is the calendar developed by the Maya Indians in Yucatan.1 So accurate was the calendar that it lasted for centuries without the total error amounting to a day—a preciseness that made it greatly superior to any contemporaneous or previous calendars. This calendar was used not only by the Maya in Yucatan but also by other Central American peoples, in similar forms.2 In speaking of the calendar, Dr. Herbert J. Spinden, the eminent scholar, said:

The invention of the Central American calendar in the seventh century before Christ may be described with all propriety as one of the intellectual achievements in the history of man. This calendar solved with conspicuous success the great problem of measuring and defining time, which confronts all civilized nations. Moreover, it required tin* elaboration of one of the four or five original systems of writing the parts of speech in graphic symbols, and it conjoined with this supplementary invention of heiroglyphs the earliest discovery of the device of figures with place values in the notation of numbers.

This time machine of ancient America was distinctly a scientific construction, the product of critical scrutiny of various natural phenomena by a master mind among the Mayas. It permitted a school of astronomer priests to keep accurate records of celestial occurrences over a range of many centuries.” (Reduction of Mayan Dates, Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass., Papers, vol. 6, No. 4, p. v, 1924,)

Dr. Spinden has worked out a correlation between the Maya and Christian calendars that makes possible the statement of Maya dates in terms of our Christian chronology.3 He states:

The thirty-three years between August 6, 613 B.C. and December 22, 580 B.C., witnessed perhaps the first admirably conceived and patiently completed piece of systematic science anywhere in the world. … The Mayan Calendar ran without the loss of a day for 2,148 years and controlled the religious and civil life of several nations. (Reduction of Mayan Dates, p. 157.)

Michael Mok, in the Popular Science Monthly for January, 1930, asks:

Why on August 6, 613 B.C.? Where were the Mayas on August 5? Had they lived, tilled the soil, developed their wonderful astronomy and admirable architecture, pursued their other arts and sciences on this (American) continent before they carved that first inscription? If so, for how long? Nobody knows.

Although to distinguish one day from another over a longer period, and for longer calculations, the Maya people used a system reckoning from a date 3373 B.C., supposed to be a date of re-creation of the world (Gann and Thompson, History of the Maya, p. 209), yet 613 B.C. was the date when their history begins. This date, 613 B.C., is of remarkable interest. Book of Mormon students will find it especially so; for, according to Book of Mormon chronology, Lehi and his group left Jerusalem during the reign of King Zedekiah, about 600 B.C. (1 Nephi 1:4; 3 Nephi 1:1), from which time their history as a people began. And they not only kept historical records, but also carefully recorded the passage of time. (Enos 1:25; Jacob 1:1.)

Another interesting point about the calendar is that, according to Aztec legend, it was made among the Aztecs by Quetzalcoatl. J.C. Mueller says: “Quetzalcoatl arranged the calendar.”4 Torquemada says: ”It is held for certain that Quetzalcoatl made the calendar.”5 Readers may remember that in the last issue of the Star (p. 11) Elder Pierce mentions that the making of the calendar was attributed to Quetzalcoatl. Others have made similar statements.6

As mentioned in the December 21st issue of the Star, Quetzalcoatl had many characteristics and did many things which are explained in the Book of Mormon by the knowledge of Christ among the Nephites. Attributing the Calendar to Quetzalcoatl may well be another parallel between legend and history. The Book of Mormon tells us:

Now the Nephites began to reckon their time from this period when the sign was given, or from the coming of Christ. (3 Nephi 2:8.)

In the course of time, this practice might easily have caused the calendar itself to be attributed to Christ.

These two items—the date when the Maya history began, as recorded on their calendar, and correlated by Spinden; and the calendar’s attribution, by legend, to Quetzalcoatl—are confirmatory of the Book of Mormon, and aid in establishing its authenticity.—Franklin S. Harris, Jr.

• 1. For a description of the Calendar see Encyclopedia Britannica, article, Calendar.
• 2. Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 2, pp. 762, 766: Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, article, Calendar.
• 3. For more recent evidence supporting Dr. Spinden's correlation see his Maya Dates and What They Reveal, Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Science Bull., vol. iv, No. 1, 1930.
• 4. Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 3, p. 274.
• 5. Bancroft, Native Races, vol, 3, p. 259.
• 6. Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 180; Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 5, pp. 190, 192.