Magazine
Sacred Stones in the Vicinity of Newark, Licking County, Ohio
Title
Sacred Stones in the Vicinity of Newark, Licking County, Ohio
Magazine
The Latter Day Saints' Millennial Star
Publication Type
Magazine Article
Year of Publication
1866
Authors
M., M. R. (Primary)
Pagination
753–759
Date Published
1 December 1866
Volume
28
Issue Number
48
Abstract
An article titled “The Two Bibles” refers to the discovery of “sacred stones of Ohio,” upon which were inscribed Hebrew phrases (MS 28/41:641-43). This article analyzes the inscriptions further, showing that the decalogue was poorly written. It suggests the tribes of Dan, Reuben, Zebulun, or Joseph could have wandered to America and deposited the stones in Ohio. The first part begins the series.
SACRED STONES IN THE VICINITY OF NEWARK, LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
In No. 41 of the present volume of the Star, we published an article under the head of THE TWO BIBLES, in which some extracts were made from an American exchange paper, relative to the discovery of SACRED STONES, containing Hebrew writings, found buried in the ancient Indian mounds of that country. Since writing that article, we have fortunately been favored with a more complete description of these sacred Relics and their inscriptions. We are sure that our readers will hail these late discoveries with unbounded joy, as the most incontrovertible external evidences of the divine authenticity of the sacred writings, taken from the Nephite gold Plates, found in the hill Cumorah, in the State of New York, Sept. 22nd, 1827. Two of the Ohio Sacred Stones were found thirty-three years, and the other two, thirty-eight years, after obtaining the gold plates. Hundreds of thousands who have read the 563 pages of the ancient history of the people of Nephi (or “Nephel”) cannot fail to recognize that the American Israelites, whose inscriptions are found upon the Sacred Stones, are the same identical nation whose history is inscribed upon the metalic plates. The “Occident,” an American paper, contains the following interesting article, which we recommend to the careful consideration of all our readers:—
“Having just returned home, Mr. Editor, after some days spent in Cincinnati, I hasten to give you some account of the stones, with Hebrew inscriptions, which have been disinterred from Indian mounds near Newark, in Licking county, Ohio. All these stones I carried with me to Cincinnati, and they have been examined by Drs. Lilienthal, Illowy, and other excellent scholars. I regret that more such scholars did not see them.
I will begin with the smallest, and probably the least valuable of all the four relics. It belongs to Mr. Dennis, a lawyer of Newark. It was found in a mound about three miles east from Newark, which has been described to me as being about seven feet high, and it was lodged near the base or the level of the ground, where human bones were also disinterred. It is the figure of a human heat cut off from the body, and cut off so close that there is no part of the neck with it. The forehead, the eyes, nose and mouth, and all parts of the face are very plainly figured. Two marks represent the ears. The forehead is low, and rather singular as a receding forehead. The face does not appear to me to have any resemblance to the Indian face. There is an occipital protrusion, which appears to represent very nicely an abundance of hair. The whole is not an inch and a half high, and it does not cover the length of two inches. The stone itself is rough, and I would guess that it is some common sandstone. Five Hebrew letters are cut in the forehead. When Dr. Lilienthal saw it, he instantly decided that the last three letters were nun, pe, lamed. The little Hebrew boy, says he, will tell you at once that these are the letters. The whole inscription appears to be these: Dr. Illowy gives it as his judgment that the words are “Yerachamehu Adonai Nephel,” “May the Lord have mercy on him, an untimely birth,” or an abortion. Both Job and David use the word Nephel with this meaning. If I might take the liberty to add one suggestion to this most plausible and interesting solution of the scholar, it would be this, that the affixed pronoun of the first word be changed to the first person, and then the interpretation will be, “May the Lord have mercy on me, an untimely birth.” The expression may be illustrated by such verses as these: “I am a worm and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” (Psalm xxii, 6.) “I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.” (Job xxx, 29.) We have, accordingly, found written in the rock one of the most interesting expressions of humility and contrition. The man feels that he has failed to reach the high mark of human life; that all his life has been a failure; that he once had excellent prospects, but all his promises have proved to be only the blossoms where the fruit fails, and now he leaves it written in the rock: “May the Lord have mercy on me, an utter failure,” a Nephel!
Here is a most solemn insight into the humble heart, the repenting and praying mind.
Another relic is so singular, that when Dr. Lilienthal looked at it a moment, the first expression of his emotions was that is was the strangest thing he had ever seen. It was extracted from the same little mound which has just been mentioned, and is now the property of Mr. Shrock, of Newark. Its form is nearer a right-angled triangle than a square, but it differs widely from both. Its most extreme parts are separated by just three inches and a half. Its greatest thickness is about one inch, where the same rounded part is on one side the forehead of a human face, and on another side it is the forehead of another human face. These foreheads come together at the right angle of the figure. Antiquity is impressed on the whole figure. The stone has almost the same whiteness as limestone. First, I take a lateral view of it, and there stands very plainly before me an animal; shall I say it is a dog, erect and long? Or shall I say it is a panther?— this I cannot determine. Behold there the head, the highest part of the figure as it now stands; there are ears, eyes, nose, mouth, the neck is singularly long, the two legs in front are there, and behind them is an open space through which I can push my little finger, and I now have my finger between the two legs in front and the two behind. The tail is nicely carved, rather bushy at the end, and measures about half the distance from the back to the ground. Four or five letters are cut in the side of this animal, which we are not able to explain. Next we turn our eyes from the animal to the human faces. We adjust the whole figure, so that the animal is standing with its face to us, and we look right into its eyes. Beneath its face is a human face: evidently forehead, eyes, nose, and mouth cannot here be mistaken. Next, I throw the animals on its back, laying the back of its head right on the ground, while we are still standing right in front of it: and here above the animal’s head is a human face, singularly long, and as plainly carved as such an object can be. Mark it, long nose, receding eyes, prominent chin, open mouth, receding lips. Several Hebrew letters are on the forehead, but we will pass these by just now, naming them the mysterious inscription, to which we will soon revert. We leave this forehead and try to look round to the back part of the head, and this brings us round to another forehead at the point where the right angle of the triangle is. This is a large forehead, and the letter shin clearly inscribed on it. Here the first thought is that this shin stands for “Shaddai,” or Almighty, and that it is the shin of the phylactery. It will not be doubted that this is the aspect of devotion, and the phylactery is in its place. Beneath this forehead are all the other parts of the human face, eyebrows, eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, lips, and chin; and, what is again most singular, if you just turn this face so as to place the top of the head right on the ground, the two hind feet of the animal then become supreme and rest on the forehead of another human face, which you instantly see to be such, and parts of the face last mentioned are in this one. Two sides of the right angle exhibit each one two human faces, that is, four faces in all, and all having their backs to the centre of the stone.
We must revert to the mysterious inscription. My own first impression would be that these are the letters. The first letter might stand for , which means “good;” the last is the initial of , which means “old man,” “aged;” and accordingly, the sentence would be, “It is good to love the aged;” or, “It is good to bring the aged under obligations to you.” The face which bears this inscription on its forehead has the marks of extreme old age. The sentiment itself is most praiseworthy. It has its richest bloom at the grave of departed excellence. It is equally honorable to deceased and survivors. I know not, however, that any accomplished scholar would acquiesce in this solution. Dr. Illowy has suggested another of incomparably greater beauty. The first he takes to be a . He argues that the lower mark, which makes it more like a beth than a daleth, is more recent than the original letter, and daleth has been used as a substitute for the Lord or the Ineffable Name. He takes the last letter to be nun: perhaps he is right. The first two letters make , which means dew. Let stand for life, for the Lord (Adonai), for “in awaking,” and for or , and the result is the brilliant sentence. “The dew of life is the Lord in awaking those that sleep,” or “in awaking souls.” Most clearly those that sleep are those that sleep in the dust—the souls that are asleep in death. There was the same association of ideas among the Prophets. Dew became one of the figures in the language of the resurrection of the dead. Isaiah unites the two ideas in this verse: “Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise. Awak and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” (Isaiah xxvi, 19). The sentence which Dr. Illowy has brough out cannot be surpassed in respect to either beauty, or force, or appropriateness. If it could only be proved to be the true solution, it would make this stone one of the most interesting and valuable in the world. The only fear is, that there is more fantastic beauty than solid verity.
The wedge-shaped stone next claims our attention. It is now the property of Mr. David M. Johnson, of Coshocton, Ohio. It was found in a sink or depression of ground near Newark, which has been compared to the sinking clay that fills up a well. Its length does not reach six inches; its widest part is hardly three inches. Its color approaches near the chocolate. It has the shape of a wedge; at its small end it tapers, or is rounded, and the end itself is a flattened surface of about half an inch in diameter. At the other end there rests on the head of the wedge a handle. A Hebrew inscription is on each of its four sides, and these inscriptions are as plain as the word “Occident” ever is on the first page of your magazine. The inscriptions are—
A Jew does not need to be informed that the meaning is, the King of the earth, the Law of the Lord, the Word of the Lord, and the Holy of Holies. Here is a most suggestive summary of all religion both natural and revealed. Here is all dogmatic theology comprehended in four phrases. The fundamental idea of all religion is the idea of the King of the earth the Creator, the Preserver, the Supreme Disposer. We mount one step higher and become acquainted with the Law of the Lord, we become a learner at Mount Sinai. we advance farther and become acquainted with the word of the Lord, spoken by the Prophets, and all these Prophets direct their fingers to a particular object that blazes in the future—it is the Holy of Holies. The great religious idea which united and comforted the Jews, during the Babylonish captivity, was that of a new temple and a more pure worship, a better age approaching, when “he that is feeble among them should be as David, and the house of David should be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.” (Zech xii, 8). Ezekiel devoted several of his last chapters to the description of the new temple, and the better Holy of Holies which should be among the Jews. Daniel spoke of a Holy of Holies (the very words that are on this stone) which should be anointed at an appointed time. Thus the four inscriptions begin with the first idea of natural religion, the King of the earth; then they place before us God's Law at Sinai; then they introduce us to the Word of the Lord by all the Prophets; and finally, they mention the great hope of the world, the Holy of Holies—the more magnificent temple that was promised and expected, the regeneration of our fallen nature, the glory of Ggod blazing before the eyes of all the world. More comprehensive items of a religious faith were never written than just the four items on that stone. And we feel as if it must be the sublime, hopeful lessons of the Babylonish captivity that are concentrated in that one phrase on the stone, the Holy of Holies.
The fourth stone is immeasurably a greater mystery, and an object of greater interest than the others. It is the stone presenting the engraving of the Ten Commandments. It was disinterred in I860, the same year in which the wedge-shaped stone was found. The other two were found in 1865. It is also the property of Mr. Johnson, who bought it from Mr. Wyrick, the gentleman who found it.
There is an extended series of Indian mounds, fortifications, and enclosures around Newark. One of the most remarkable was an enormous stone mound of conical form, eight miles south of the spot where Newark now stands. It is believed that some thousands of loads of stone have been taken from it in wagons for the Ohio canal and other purposes. It was once five hundred and eighty feet in circumference at the base, and from forty to fifty feet high. It became an impression among the workmen that there was a circle of little mounds, consisting of pure clay, enclosed within the great mound, and standing round near the periphery at the base. In the removal of one of these clay mounds, a piece of wood was found, like the shell of an old log, and on it several copper rings were lying. A farther examination decided that this piece of wood was only the covering of a lower piece, which had the form of a large trough, and all its interior seems to have been once lined with a very coarse cloth, so rotten at present that a piece as large as a thumb nail could not be held together. This trough contained several human bones, “a locket of very fine black hair, about six or eight inches long,” and ten other copper rings. It was farther found that this coffin lay in a bed of very tough fire clay of the color of putty, and two feet thickness. In digging into this fire clay, a stone box was struck in the lower part of it. The box was drawn out with care, was found to be of a rounded oblong shape, and of a metallic color, lighter than copper. Its two halves were cemented together, and, after considerable effort, the cement was broken, the two halves separated, and, behold! in the centre of the box was this stone with the engraving of the Ten Commandments. Now, keep these facts in their connection: the stone lodged in the centre of the stone box, this box buried in a stratum of fire clay, the coffin also lodged in the fire clay and above the box, the clay mound over all, and then the enormous stone mound covering all.
The stone has for its length about six inches and seven eighths, for its width about two inches and seven eighths, and for its thickness about one inch and five eighths. On one side the greater part of the surface is depressed, and the carved human figure is in this depression, on the opposite side the central surface is a protruded plane, but the protrusion on one side does not correspond exactly with the depression on the other side. The human figure stands out in relief on the depressed plane; it has the appearance of a noble man; every thing is oriental; the man presents his left side to you; there is the turban. the garment thrown over the shoulder, the thick and peculiar vestment for the breast, the girdle, and beneath this the flowing robe, the varied folds of which are nicely carved; the eye is penetrating; the left arm has its hand at the breast; and the letters , that is, Moses, are over the head, engraved in the plane of the depression. This decides that the image represents Moses.
At the feet of the image there is an empty space through the stone, and then a round handle is united to the main stone at its ends, as if the stone was once carried by a strap passed through this empty space. The end of the stone at the head of the imago is circular and accordingly the border of the stone is at that end like an arch over the inscription at the head of the image and the whole image. This elevated border runs down on both sides of the image to the foot. Beginning at a peculiar mark in the arch, right above the head of the image, we read those words on the raised border in front of the image: “Who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” This brings us to the foot of the image, and now the stone must be turned over and there, close to the open space at the handle are the words: “Out of the house of servants.” All this back of the stone and the sides, with the exception of the little handle, are covered with letters, or lines of letters, running in different ways; and finally, we must again turn the image up, and, proceeding from the raised border nearest its feet, we find these words on the raised border, rather behind the image, running up to that peculiar mark in the arch over the head, the same mark where we first started, “Nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's.”
We will now translate the whole inscription, showing all the parts of the Decalogue that are on the stone.
“Who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servants.”
“I am the Lord thy God.”
‘‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them”
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days, and thou shalt do all thy work.”
“Honour thy father and thy mother.”
“Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.”
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.”
One of the first things noticed by the scholar on the stone is, that there is no distinction between initial and final letters. Mem has exactly the same for mat the beginning of Moses as at the end of Mitsrayim. Kaph is the same form at the beginning and end of words.
The second word appears to have a daleth where the right letter is vav, as if it was pronounced Hadtsethicha.
In Mitsrayim the yod is omitted, as if it was pronounced Mitsram.
In the phrase translated “other gods,” the word for gods has the he placed after the mem, and the yod is omitted.
The third commandment, so far as it is given, is written perfectly.
The fourth commandment has only where the right word is . The next mark after this is a round figure like O, which appears to have no other object than to fill out the line. “All thy work” is clearly Kelachtacha, instead of Melachtecha.
Some letters are omitted in that part of the fifth commandment which is given. The sixth commandment appears to be , which is a considerable error.
The ninth commandment is perfect.
The first part of the tenth commandment has some mistakes. The word “covet” does not appear to have just the same letters in the two instances of its use.
The words “his ox” are partly written at the end of one line, and then they are written in full at the beginning of the next line, on the opposite side of the stone.
One of the greatest mysteries here is the peculiar alphabet. The letters are very different from the letters of all the other stones, and this convinces Dr. Lilienthal and others that this stone is much the most ancient. I have examined several alephs in different languages, and found no aleph like the one here. Take a daleth, and draw its horizontal stroke a little farther towards your left; make its perpendicular stroke a little wider, and then place your pen directly beneath the end of the horizontal stroke which you have extended, and as far down as the foot of the perpendicular stroke, and draw a mark directly towards the right angle, but stopping short of it, and this is the aleph. The mem is very similar to the Samaritan yoa or the Samaritan tsadhe, as Nordheimer gives these in his grammar. Draw a horizontal stroke, then draw a similar stroke down from each of its ends, and draw another stroke down from its centre, and this is the mem. The lamed is the Roman L, with the horizontal stroke turned over, so as to point to our left hand. The vav and yod appear to be equally long. The ayin is like a square drawn within a circle, one angle touching the circle above, and the opposite angle touching it below. Fourteen of these letters differ very widely from the present square character sometimes called Assyrian, and sometimes Chaldee. And this suggests the most interesting question, Whether this stone exhibits the original Hebrew alphabet, in which the holy books were written, before the Babylonish captivity?
The memorable record of the Talmud on this point is in Sanhedrin, fol. 21, col. 2, and is as follows:—
“Mar Zutra says, and some say it was Mar Ukba, In the beginning the Law was given to Israel in the Hebrew writing (letters) and the holy tongue. Again it was given to them in the days of Ezra in the Assyrian writing and the Aramaic tongue. Israel chose to themselves the Assyrian writing and the holy tongue, and they left to the plebeians the Hebrew writing and the Aramaic tongue. Who were the plebeians? Rabbi Chasda says, The Samaritans. What was the Hebrew writing? Rabbi Chasda says, the Libonaah writing.”
This extract from the Talmud furnishes a good foundation for an argument that this stone exhibits the original Hebrew letters in which the twelve tribes had all their sacred literature in the centuries preceding the Babylonish captivity. Ezra and the two tribes that went back to Palestine, carried with them the Hebrew language and the newly adopted Assyrian or square writing, and they have preserved both ever since. Now, mark how the Talmud answers the question where the original Hebrew writing or alphabet was then left. It was left with the Hedyototh, the plebeians, the uneducated, common people. Assuredly, it was a plebeian, an uneducated Hebrew, who engraved this stone. No competent Rabbi or educated Hebrew would ever write the Decalogue with so many omissions and mistakes, and evident confusion in the arrangement of the lines. No Rabbi would ever write Kelachtecha instead of Melachtecha. The Talmud says the original Hebrew letters remained with these uneducated writers. Next follows the answer to the question, Who are Hedyototh, the plebeians? They are the Samaritans. The Samaritans got their alphabet from the ten tribes whose places they came to fill in Palestine. It was the orginal Hebrew letters that they got and retained, and they never changed them for the Assyrian character. The last question and answer are equally weighty in our argument. What is the Hebrew writing? It is the Libonaah letters. One lexicon defines this as meaning the letters that were made on rocks. Very well: so far as this goes, it decides that this black, polished rock, which we are examining, and which my friend, a stone cutter, tells me is the strangest stone he has ever seen, ought to exhibit the original Hebrew writing. Rashi’s definition of the Libonaah letters is still better. He says, “The letters used on the talisman and mezuzah .” Consequently, if we can prove that this stone is a talisman, that it is a veritable specimen of the very ancient Teraphim, we have the authority of the Talmud, that the original Hebrew alphabet was preserved on such objects.
Ezra would never have permitted such a stone to pass from his hands and no disciple of Ezra, no approved scribe of the law in Judea from Ezra’s time, five hundred years before Christ, till the present hour, would ever have made such a wretched engraving of the Decalogue. Possibly Ezra would not have been ashamed of the wedge-shaped stone. It exhibits that Assyrian character which it is said he adopted, and the letters are beautifully made; but Ezra would never have owned this stone as his work. And when we consider farther, the prohibition of the Mosaic law was so strict against any use of figures carved in stone, whether of man or animal, in religious services, and how, from the time of Ezra, the restored tribes have utterly detested all such objects, we may well doubt whether such a stone as this could ever have been cut and treated with any respect among the restored tribes. There is not now a respectable Jewish Synagogue on the face of the earth, where such a defective writing of the Ten Commandments would be permitted to be read in the service. All things on the stone point to the time before Ezra rather than a later period, to the ten lost tribes rather than the two restored tribes, to the kingdom of Israel rather than the kingdom of David, and to Samaria rather than Jerusalem.
(To be Continued.)
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