Evidences of the Book of Mormon—Some External Proofs of Its Divinity: Part III. The Language of the Record

EVIDENCES OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

SOME EXTERNAL PROOFS OF ITS DIVINITY.

Part III.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE RECORD.

By the word Lamanites, as previously used we mean the descendants of those who destroyed the Nephite nation, and who occupied this continent at the time of the first coming of the Spaniards. We do not confine it, as is sometimes done, to the wild tribes of the mountains, but include therein the Mexicans and Peruvians, the Toltecs and Aztecs, indeed all the native races of this vast land. With regard to these traditions we desire to draw attention to two points: one, that they were strongest among the culti­vated races who recorded their history by hieroglyphics, by paintings, or by some equivalent; the other, that the further we go back the clearer these traditions become; mixing them with the idea of the Catholic monks and friars only made them muddy. Hence the earlier Spanish writers give the better and more surprising account of what the natives believed, both with regard to their faith and their history, and from these earlier writings come the strongest proof that the Book of Mormon is an authen­tic history of the peoples of ancient America. As the years wore on, Catholic and Lamanite traditions become so intermixed in the writings of the Spanish historians that it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate the one from the other or to decide what is taken from the sacred books of the aborigines and what from the Bible of the Europeans.

Beltrami, in his letters, gives a lengthy account from his own experience, of what habitually took place when an Indian died. The widow, and afterwards others, addressed the deceased in terms of endearment and sorrow, and from the questions put to him it seems as if they must have had a more or less clear idea of the pre-existence of spirits. One said: “Why is there silence now on those lips, which lately spoke a language so energetic and expressive? You are gone to the place where you existed before coming to these countries, but your glory will remain with us forever.” Another said, “Alas! alas! alas! that form which was viewed with such admiration, is now become as inanimate as it was three hundred winters ago. But you will not be forever lost to us, we will rejoin you in the supreme region of spirit, etc. Meanwhile, full of respect for your virtues and your valor, we come to offer you a tribute of kindness; your body shall not be exposed in the fields to beasts of prey, but we shall take care that it, like yourself, shall be gathered to your forefathers.”1

So wonderfully did the traditions of the natives of what took place in the antediluvian world agree with the Bible accounts of these same events that Lord Kingsborough came to the conclusion that they were acquainted with the book of Genesis. He writes: “I cannot fail to remark that one of the arguments which persuades me to believe that this nation descends from the Hebrews is to see the knowledge they have of the book of Genesis.” That the ancient Nephites possessed numerous copies of this book and also of all the books of Moses is stated with great plainness in several passages in the Book of Mormon.2

We will now submit the testimony of various authors to show that the Indians were acquainted with the history of the creation of this earth, and with many of the events that took place in the earlier ages of man’s existence upon its face. It must be remembered that these traditions do not all apply to one tribe or to the people residing in one section of the country, but they are found among widely separated people, some having much clearer recollections of the history of their far distant forefathers than others.

We must warn our readers not to expect that Bible names, or the names by which English speaking people know the ancient Bible worthies are to be found in the traditions of Peru, Mexico, Yucatan or elsewhere. To expect it would be very absurd. Occasionally we find a strong resemblance to the original Hebrew name, but generally names have been changed with the various languages, and those given to certain characters in Peru have no resemblance to the names given to the same individuals in Mexico; they resemble each other no more than they resemble the same persons’ names in English, French or German. Yet “South America had five cities with names identical with cities in Asia Minor and North Africa. This could hardly be accidental.”3

Regarding the traditions of the Mexicans, Lord Kingsborough writes: “It is impossible on reading what Mexican Mythology records of the war in heaven, and the fall of Zontemoque and other rebellious spirits; of the creation of light by the word of Toncatlecutli, and of the division of the waters; of the sin of Yzclacolinhqui, and his blindness and his nakedness; and of the temptation of Suchequecal and her disobedience in gathering roses from a tree, and the consequent misery and disgrace of herself and all her posterity, not to recognize scriptural analogies. But the Mexican tradition of the deluge is that which bears the most unequivocal marks of having been derived from a Hebrew source. This tradition records that a few persons escaped in the Ahuchueti, or ark of fir, when the earth was swallowed up by the deluge, the chief of whom was named Palecath of Cipaquetona: and he invented the art of making wine; that Xelua, one of his descendants, or at least one of those who escaped in the ark, was present at the building of a high tower, which the succeeding generation constructed with a view of escaping from the deluge, should it again occur; the Toncatlecutli, incensed at their presumption, destroyed the tower by lightning, confounded their language and dispersed them; and that Xelua led a colony to the New World.4

Brasseur de Bourbourg5 gives the following grand and touching Quiche6 tradition of the creation of man. Strange as are some of its parts it cer­tainly bears a closer resemblance to the truth than do most of the tradi­tions on this subject found among uninspired races. It relates that the persons of the Godhead having counseled regarding the creation of more perfect man, on the fourth attempt succeeded so that “Verily, at last, did the gods look upon beings who could see with their eyes and handle with their hands and understand with their hearts; grand of countenance and broad of limb, the four lives of our race stood up under the morning star—sole light as yet of the primeval world—stood up and looked. Their great clear eyes swept rapidly over all; they saw the woods and the rocks, the lakes and the sea, the mountains and the valleys, and the heavens that were above all; and they comprehended all and admired exceedingly. Then they returned thanks to those who had made the world, and all that therein was: We offer up our thanks twice—yea, verily, thrice; we have received life, we speak, we walk, we taste, we taste and understand, we know both that which is near, and that which is far off, we see all things, great and small, in all the heaven and earth. Thanks, then, Maker and Former, Father and Mother of our life, we have been created, we are.”

Boturini says: “There is no Gentile nation that refers to primitive events with such certainty as the Indians do. They give us an account of the creation of the world, of the deluge, of the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel, and of all other periods and ages of the world, and of the long peregrinations which their people had in Asia, representing the specific years by their characters; and in the Seven Conejos (rabbits) they tell us of the great eclipse that occurred at the death of Christ our Lord.”

Regarding the Aztec Eve, Father Sahagun says: “This woman was the first who existed in the world, and the mother of the whole human race; who was tempted by the serpent who appeared to her in the terrestrial paradise, and discoursed with her, to persuade her to transgress the com­mand of God, and that is likewise true, that after having committed sin, etc., she bore a son and a daughter at the same birth, and that the son was named Cain and the daughter Calmana; and that afterwards she brought forth at a second birth, Abel, and his sister Delborah, so that she bore them by twin births.”

One painting7 appears to allude to the passage (Genesis, ch. iii.) “I will put enmity between thee and the woman,” etc., “as, in fact, the seed of the woman appears to be there in the act of bruising the head of the serpent with a staff, whilst the latter has bitten, and is holding in his jaws the foot of his adversary.” One commentator remarking on this Ms. writes, that “it contains some ancient traditions evidently derived from the Old Testament, and tending to prove the Indians were at least acquainted with that portion of it designated the Pentateuch.”

“The fact of the Mexicans recording both in their painting and songs, the Deluge, the building of the tower of Babel, the confusion of tongues and the dispersion, etc., being generally admitted by Spanish writers on America, it is almost unnecessary to give the authority of any particular author, to prove what no one will deny; since Gomara in his ‘History of the Indians,’ describing the conference of Nicaragua with Gil Goncales and the Calezcaster introduces this chief as putting a variety of questions to the Spaniards.” Gomara’s8 words are: “Nicaragua, who was so acute and skilled in the knowledge of the rites and antiquities of his own coun­trymen, had a long conference with Gil Goncales, and the ecclesiastic. He inquired if the Christians were acquainted with the great Deluge, which had swallowed up the earth, men and animals, etc.; and whether the earth was to be revolutionized, or the firmament to remove? When and how the sun, moon and stars would be deprived of their light? What was the honor and reverence due to the triune God, etc.; where souls go after death, and what would be their occupation, etc.”

Regarding the antediluvian world and the Deluge, Prof. Short, in his “North Americans of Antiquity,” page 238, quotes from the native writer, Ixtellxochitl, as follows: “It is found in the histories of the Toltecs, that this age and first world, as they call it lasted seventeen hundred and six­teen years; then men were destroyed by tremendous rains and lightnings from the sky, and even all the land, without exception of anything, and the highest mountains were covered up and submerged in water ‘caxol-moletlti’ or fifteen cubits, and here they add other fables of how men came to multiply from the few who escaped from this destruction in a toptlipetlacali, this word signifies a close chest.9

Torquemada writes that the Indians of Cuba assert, when first their countrymen settled in that island, an old man knowing that the deluge was about to happen, built a large ship, in which he embarked with his household and many animals, and that he despatched from thence a crow, which did not return, but stayed to prey upon the dead carcasses, and that he afterwards sent a dove, which came back cooing, and bringing a leafy branch which resembled a hop, but was not one, on which he quitted the ship and made wine of mountain grapes, and became drunk, and hav­ing two sons, one of them laughed and said to the other, ‘Turn him into jest’ but the other reproved him and covered his father, who, having slept off the effects of the wine, and knowing the impudence of his son, cursed him, and pronounced a blessing on the other, and from the former10 the Indians of these countries were descended.

Las Casas affirms that the Guatemalians had a knowledge of the flood and a prophecy of the end of the world. The first they called a flood of many waters, the other was to be one of fire. They held that certain persons who escaped from the deluge, populated their land; these were called the Great Father and Great Mother.

Proceeding to times nearer their own, Lord Kingsborough states that “A very remarkable representation of the ten plagues which God sent on Egypt, occurs in the eleventh and twelfth pages of the Borgian Ms. Moses is there painted, holding up in his left hand his rod, which became a serpent; and, with a furious gesture, calling down the plagues upon the Egyptians. These plagues were frogs, locusts, lice, flies, etc., all of which are represented in the pages referred to; but the last and most dreadful were the thick darkness which overspread Egypt for three days, and the death of the first-born of the Egyptians.

“The curious symbol of one serpent swallowing up others, likewise occurs in the nineteenth page of the same Ms. It is not extraordinary that the Mexicans, who were acquainted with one portion of the exodus— that relating to the children of Israel journeying from Egypt—should also not have been ignorant of another.”

The natives also had an account of a divinely led journey of their ances­tors, during which they were fed with bread from heaven, and with water drawn from a rock. Some writers suppose that this painting refers to the exodus from Egypt under Moses, others to some later migration, when the people passed over to America; but we incline to the former idea, as no such manifestations of divine care are recorded by writers in the Book of Mormon in the history of the journey of either the Jaredites or Nephites. At any rate they were acquainted with some of the incidents of the Mosaic exodus. Lord Kingsborough draws attention, that “A curious feature of identity in the Hebrew and Aztec migration, is with reference to Miriam who, under the name of Chimalman, was shut out several days from the Aztlan camp, in consequence of her quarrel with her brothers, the leaders of the Aztecs or Mexicans.” Numb. 12:15.

Thus we have remarkable testimonies, in many instances from unwilling witnesses, that the ancient inhabitants of this land had distinct and in some cases very correct traditions of “the war in heaven, the fall of Lucifer, the creation of the world, the transgression of Eve, the Noachian Deluge, the ark and its contents, the incident of the dove, Noah’s lapse from sobriety, the sin of Ham, the building of Babel, the confusion of tongues, the ten plages of Egypt, the exodus of the Israelites, the rebellion of Miriam, the gift of manna from heaven, the water that gushed from the rock when struck by Moses.”

We have already seen that the natives believed that America was peopled by a colony led by God from the Tower of BabeI. Clavigero gives another tradition on this point, he says the Chiapanese Indians had a manuscript in which it was written, “that a person named Votan was present at the building in order to mount to heaven, and that then every people received the various languages.” This Votan became the leader of the people who came to America; in some traditions he is repre­sented as being the grandson of Noah. How remarkably this tallies with the Book of Mormon account of the coming of the Jaredites, those acquainted with this sacred record can best judge.

Some have objected to both the tradition and the statements in the Book of Ether regarding the migration of the Jaredites, on the ground that there were no ships in those days to make such voyages. That America must then have been colonized, is argued by Dr. Lowry in this wise: “Moses tells us that about that period the Lord scattered the people abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (Gen 11:8, 9.) America, then, according to this portion of sacred history, was at that time re­occupied by man; for the writer could not have meant by all the earth, only one half of it.” And Josephus in his Antiquities,11 makes the direct statement: “There were some also who passed over the sea in ships, and inhabited the islands.” So the tradition and the record are sustained by both the Bible and by Josephus.

We also find a correct tradition of the coming of the Nephrites. Fernando Montesinos, probably the profoundest student of the ancient history of Peru, says that “that nation was originated by a people led by four brothers, the youngest of these brothers assumed supreme authority, and became the first of a long line of sovereigns.”12 This is exactly the state­ment of the Book of Mormon but given from the Lamanite standpoint.

We now come to the earthly life of the Redeemer, and find in the various traditions of the natives relating thereto some very pleasing surprises. Under one name or another, we are told that he was born of a virgin who, before his birth, was visited by an angel; we learn of his passion and death, of the great darkness and convulsions of nature that took place at His crucifixion, of His descent into the world of spirits, of the resur­rection of many at the time of His arising, of His visit to their fathers, His ministry in their midst, and the miracles and great work He then performed. Some of these, as given by the Spanish historians, we will now present.

The knowledge of the visit of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary is plainly shown in the writings of Torquemeda, who endeavors to attribute it to a visitation devised by the devil. Such was his usual argument, when he could get round a matter in no other way. He writes: “When it appeared good to him, despatched the heavenly ambassador to announce to the virgin that she should be the mother of the eternal word; and again *            * “the father of lies, who falsified and counterfeited in their false God Citemateonatli and his ambassador to that virgin.”13

What can more remarkable than the following statement, touching the knowledge of the races of Yucatan, regarding the passion and death of the Savior, and the subsequent descent of the Holy Ghost. “Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, relates in his apology, which is in Mss., in the convent of St. Dominic, that when he passed through the kingdom of Yucatan, he found there a respectable ecclesiastic, of mature age; he charged him to proceed into the interior of their country, giving him a certain plan of instruction, in order to preach to them: at the end of a year, thus he wrote to the bishop—he had met with a principal lord, who informed him that they believed in God, who resided in heaven, even the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father was named Yeona,14 the Son Bahab,15 who was born of a virgin, named Chibirias, and that of the Holy Spirit was called Euach.16 Bahab, the Son, they said, was put to death by Eupuro, who scourged Him, and put on his head a crown of thorns, and placed Him with His arms stretched upon a beam of wood, and that on the third day He came to life, and ascended into heaven, where He is with the Father; that immediately after the Euach came in His place as a merchant, bringing precious merchandise, filling those who would with gifts and graces, abundant and divine.”17

Other statements are equally interesting. One historian writes18: “The virgin is represented by the Indian paintings, of whom the great Prophet should be born, and that His own people would reject and meditate evil against him, and would put him to death; accordingly he is represented in the paintings with his hands and feet tied to the tree.”19 “The manner in which he returned to life again, and ascended to heaven was likewise painted. The Dominican fathers said they had found these things among some Indians, who inhabited the coasts of the South Seas, who stated they had received the traditions from their ancestors.”

“It is singular that the Mexicans should have viewed Quetzalcoatl in the light of ‘God and man,’—of a Father and a Son—of the Creator of the world, and of him by whom the world was finally doomed to be destroyed, since it is hard to reconcile such conflicting notions with each other. That they did so will appear from passages extracted from the sixth book of Sahagun’s history of New Spain.’’20

We may now turn to the traditions of Christ’s visit to the Nephites: Rosales declares21 “that the inhabitants of this extreme southern portion of America, situated at the distance of so many thousand miles from New Spain, and who did not employ paintings to record events, accounted for their knowledge of some doctrines of Christianity by saying, that in former times they had heard their fathers say, a wonderful man had come to that country, wearing a long beard, with shoes and a mantle such as the Mexicans carry on their shoulders, who performed many miracles, cured the sick with water, caused it to rain that their crops of grain might grow, kindled fire at a breath, healing the sick, and giving sight to the blind:22 and that he spoke with as much propriety and elegance in the language of their country, as if he had always resided in it, addressing them in words very sweet and new to them, telling them that the Creator of the universe resided in the highest place of heaven, and that many men and women resplendent as the sun dwelt with Him.”

Don Alonza Ercilla23 says, in his “History of Chili,” “The religious belief of the Araucanians24 is sublime. They acknowledge a Supreme Being, whom they denominate by a word expressive of Supreme Essence. They also call Him the Spirit of Heaven—the Great Life—the Thunderer —the Omnipotent—the Eternal—the Infinite. The government of this glorious Creator is the prototype of their polity. They are all agreed in the immortality of the soul, this animating and consolatory truth is deeply rooted and innate with them. They hold that man is formed of two sub­stances essentially different—the corruptible body and the incorruptible and eternal spirit. They have a tradition that the earth was covered with water, yet not destroyed, and that the same earth shall be covered with fire but not destroyed. There shall be great signs before the end, etc.”

We have in these traditions multiplied testimonies that the Indians were acquainted with the facts related in the Book of Mormon. That book, in the record of the prophecies of the ancient Nephite servants of God, gives many details of the earthly life of our Lord in Palestine. Undoubtedly, when He visited this people He recounted to them as fulfilled, the inci­dents in His life which these prophets had foretold. So we find that the Lamanites of the 15th century still bad a recollection that the Savior was born of a virgin; that before His birth an angel visited her; that He was ill-treated in the house of His friends; that He was scourged and crowned with thorns; that He was put to death by crucifixion; that most fearful convulsions of nature occurred on this continent at the time of His death; that He arose again from the dead; that at His resurrection many others of the dead also arose; that after His death the Holy Ghost descended on the disciples; that He visited the Nephites; that when with them He healed their sick and did many wonderful works; that His ministry here was full of love and kindness; that He promised that He would again return in a later age.

That the natives were not only acquainted with the contents of the Book of Mormon, but that the Mexicans had translated it, or, at least, parts of it into their picture writings is shown by a portion of one of the old Aztec charts. Here, the dream of Lehi (I Nephi ch. 8) is clearly shown. We have the tree of life with its twelve branches and the rod of iron leading thereto. Under the tree Lehi is seated inviting his family to partake of the fruit. Three (Nephi, Sam and Sariah) do so, while two (Laman and Lemuel) do not. Could any testimony be stronger than this?

Geo. Reynolds.

(To be continued.)

• 1. “Discovery of the Source of the Mississippi.”
• 2. See I Nephi, 5:10–19; Alma 37:3–12; 63:11–13; Helaman 3:15, 16.
• 3. “Bricks from Babel,” by Julia McNair Wright.
• 4. “Mexican Antiquities,” Vol. VI, Page 401.
• 5. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charles Etienne, born in Bourbourg, France, 1814, died 1874. A French clergyman, ethnologist and author who spent many years in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central America studying Indian antiquities and ancient manuscripts. In 1864 he was appointed archaeologist to the French scientific expedition in Mexico.
• 6. The dominant Indian race of Peru at the time of the Spanish conquest.
• 7. Lesser Vatican Ms., page 48.
• 8. “History of the Indians.”
• 9. There is a remarkable agreement between this writer’s statements and the book of Genesis. The height to which the waters of the Deluge are said to have risen is exactly the same. The time from the fall to the flood only differs sixty years, possibly only five, if the statement in the Book of Doc. and Cov. regarding Enoch (Sec. 107:48, 49), lengthens the chronology.
• 10. This appears to be an error, since the Indians boasted of having belonged to the same race as Quetzalcoatl, that is, derived from the Patriarch Shem.”
• 11. Book I, chap. 5.
• 12. Jacob 1:9–12.
• 13. The Mexican Deity, was, to their belief, born of a virgin, a native of the city of Tulan, who, being a devout person, and engaged in sweeping the alter in the Temple, perceived a ball of feathers falling through the air, which, having taken up and placed in her girdle, she became pregnant.”—Mexican Antiquities.
• 14. Yeona, apparently originally Yehovah. This change corroborates the Book of Mormon; for, when Lamanite names are given therein, the predominance of the letter n is quite marked. For instance, rabbanah, (from abba, father), powerful or great king, and the names Lamoni, Lehonti, Ani-Anti, Antiomno, Middoni, etc.
• 15. Bah-ab (abba), this is almost pure Hebrew, son—father; son of the father.
• 16. Euach; this people had no letter r in their languages, or the word would be identical with the Hebrew (ruach), spirit.
• 17. “Antiquities of Mexico.”
• 18. “Monarquia Indiana.”
• 19. In the Borgian Ms., (plate 72) Quetzalcoatl is painted in the attitude of a person crucified, with the impression of nails in his hands and feet, but not actually upon a cross.
• 20. “The Ten Tribes,” Simon.
• 21. “The history of Chili.”
• 22. III Nephi 17:6–10.
• 23. Ercilla, Alonzo de, born in Madrid, 1533; died 1594. A Spanish soldier and poet. He spent from 1554 to 1562 in Chili.
• 24. An exceedingly warlike tribe in Southern Chili.