Divine Origin of the Book of Mormon (4 July 1881)

HISTORICAL EVIDENCES CONSIDERED.— PEREGRINATIONS.

III.

Desiring in this number to trace the migrations of the aboriginal inhabitants, or first colonists of America, we will here briefly consider the reasons which induced the descendants of Noah to build the Tower of Babel, from which God dispersed them. In the fourth chapter of the first book of the “Antiquities of the Jews,” by Flavius Josephus, we find the following: “Now, the sons of Noah were three—Shem, Japheth and Ham, born one hundred years before the deluge. These, first of all, descended from the mountains into the plains, and fixed their habitations there; and persuaded others who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds on account of the flood, and so were very loth to come down from the higher places, to venture to follow their example. Now, the plain in which they first dwelt was called Shinar. God also commanded them to send colonies abroad, for the thorough peopling of the earth, that they might not raise seditions among themselves, but might cultivate the great part of the earth, and enjoy its fruits in a plentiful manner; but they were so ill instructed, that they did not obey God; for which reason they fell into calamities, and were made sensible, by experience, of what sin they had been guilty; for when they flourished with a numerous youth, God admonished them again to send out colonies; but they, imagining the prosperity they enjoyed was not derived from the favor of God, but supposing that their own power was the proper cause of the plentiful con di- they were in, did not obey Him. Nay, they added to this, their disobedience to the divine will, the suspicion that they were therefore ordered to send out separate colonies, that, being divided asunder, they might the more easily be oppressed. Now, it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Kan, the son of Noah —a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy,  but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny—seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence upon his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach; and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers!

‘‘Now, the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work and by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of brick cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them different languages; and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon; because of the confusion of that language which they really understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion.”

This lengthy extract from Josephus, is inserted here to show the will of God, regarding the re-peopling of the earth as it was previous to the deluge.

We learn from it, that his command, positive and explicit, to send out colonies, was twice unheeded by the disobedient descendants of those whom God had saved, by means of the Ark from the flood and these commands were not only disobeyed and the Almighty defied, but that Nimrod (upon whom no doubt, the curse of Noah rested, he being the grandson of Ham, whom Josephus says Noah cursed not, because of his nearness of kinship, but his children after him), sought to defeat the plans of God in re-inhabiting the whole earth, by gathering the people under a self-constituted tyrannical government of his own, by means of which he turned them from God and made them dependant upon his personal rule and power But God defeated the end of this wicked man, and those who listened to and obeyed his treasonable counsels. And, as we find recorded in the fifth chapter of the work from which we have quoted, that:  “After this, they were dispersed abroad on account of their languages, and went out by colonies everywhere; and each colony took possession of that land which they lighted upon, and into which God led them; so that the continent was filled with them both the inland and maritime countries. There were some also who passed over the sea in ships and inhabited the islands."

The great Jewish historian explains in his excellent work the location as far as he was able to do so, of these different tribes, or peoples, and shows from whom they were descended. In speaking of those who passed over the sea by means of ships, he evidently possessed sources of information not now generally known. He further informs us that the Greeks had changed the names of the various nations, founded by the colonies which were led out by the Almighty, and also the name of countries, rivers and cities, “that they might be better understood among themselves, and setting agreeable forms of government over them, as if they were a people derived from themselves.’' This the Greeks did after they became potent, and acquired a desire for the glory of antiquity We will now turn our attention to, and follow the wanderings of the colony whom God led to America.

From the eighth volume, pages twenty-five and twenty-seven, of Kingsborough’s Mexican Antiquities, we quote the following:   “Don Francisco Munos de la Vega, the Bishop of that diocese (Chiapa), certifies in the prologue to his ‘Diocesan Constitutions,’ declaring that an ancient manuscript of the primitive Indians of that province, who had learned the art of writing, was in his record office, who retained the constant tradition that the father and founder of their nation was named Teponahuale, which signifies the lord of the hollow piece of wood, and that he was present at the building of the Gr -at Wall, for so they named the Tower of Babel, and beheld with his own eyes the confusion of the language; after which event, God, the Creator, commanded him to come to these extensive regions, and to divide them amongst mankind.” “They affirm that at the time of the confusion of tongues, there were seven famines who spoke the same language; which was Nahuatl, that which is still spoken by the Mexicans (Aztecs), and since they understood each other, they united, and forming a single company, proceeded on their journey, through divers lands and countries as chance directed them, and without any particular destination, in search of a convenient habitation; and having traveled during a century (which amongst them was a period of time amounting to one hundred and four years), passing in the interval, mountains, rivers and arms of the sea, which they noted down in their paintings, they arrived at the place were they made their first settlement, in the northern part of this kingdom, which they named Tlapalan, which signifies the red country, on account of the soil being on that color; and even still, in all modern maps (picture writings), they gave the name of the Red Sea to the gulf which is situated between the eastern coast of the province of New Mexico and Sonora; and the river (Colorado) which Hows into the northern part of the gulf is named the Red River.”

To my mind there is something remarkable in this name “Tlapalan” as signifying red country, for the “Hue hue Tlapalan,” appears to be the original land from whence came the different colonies that inhabited and peopled America in the early ages, “Hue hue,” meaning “ old.” Thus we would say, “Hue hue Tlapalan”—old, or original, red country. Now, we may reasonably suppose that the country, at least, in the vicinity of the Red Sea, is of a similar color, and, Josephus says: “This man was called Adam, which, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies one that it red; because he was formed out of the earth, compounded together; for of that kind is virgin true earth.”—Chap, i, 2 Antiq. of the Jews. According to this authority, then, we learn that virgin true earth was originally red, hence, as I view the matter, we have a very natural foundation for the word “Tlapalan” — red country — as applied to that land in the vicinity of the Gulf of California, and for “Hue hue Tlapalan," as applied to the original land beyond the seas, from whence came the primitive inhabitants of America.—''Contributor."