Book of Mormon Evidence: Scourged with Faggots

The particular manner in which Abinadi was tortured and killed is described in the book of Mosiah. Noah’s priests “took him and bound him, and scourged his skin with faggots, yea, even unto to death” (Mosiah 17:13; emphasis added). As “the flames began to scorch him” (v. 14), Abinadi spoke to his tormentors, warning that they would suffer “the pains of death by fire,” just as he was suffering (v. 18). Then he finally died, “having suffered death by fire” (v. 20).1

The mention of being “scourged … with faggots” may seem rather curious in this context. Rather than simply being burned at the stake, it suggests a prolonged process of severe torture, beating and scorching his skin with burning torches or firebrands until he finally died by fire.2 In a paper published in 1991, Robert J. Matthews explained, “This passage seems to say that Abinadi’s tormentors took burning torches and poked him with these, burning his skin until he died.”3 The oddity of such a practice led Royal Skousen to suggest that it may be a transcription error, and that the text should be amended to read “scorched his skin with faggots” instead.4

Yet, however strange it may seem, the original reading of the text is consistent with the practices of various ancient North and Central American cultures.5 The Natchez tribe, for example, would scalp and bind a prisoner to a “crosspiece,” and then take dry canes (tall, wood-like grass or reeds), light them on fire, and use them to burn the prisoner.6 The Koroa tribe used a similar form a torture, only they used red-hot irons to sear the skin.7 Among the Hurons, everyone would take “a firebrand in his hand to apply to some part of [the] body” of an Iroquois prisoner.8 In Mexico, the Codex Mendoza (1541) shows two Aztec men punishing a youth “by beating him with burning firebrands.”9

Evidence for this practice going back into pre-Columbian times is found in Mesoamerica. Classic Maya iconography depicts an ancient myth where Junapu and Xblanque (known as the “Hero Twins”) captured the Jaguar Deity and tormented him by scorching his skin with pine wood torches.10 Evidence of the prolonged nature of the torment is seen on a vase that shows the Hero Twins’ father standing by with additional torches.11 

Naranjo Stela 35 makes reference to the torture and burning of the Jaguar Deity while depicting a bound war prisoner at the feet of his captor, who holds a burning pine wood torch in his hands, thus illustrating that this was more than mere myth.12 Another iconographic depiction shows a captive bound to a scaffold on all fours, with two men on each side of him, “both brandishing lit pine torches, in the act of scorching the skin of the pitiful captive.”13 

This torture could be prolonged for hours, days, and even weeks before the captive finally died.14 On some occasions, the victim would eventually be set on fire, often after succumbing to death, as evidenced by both a figurine and a doorjamb mural, each found in Campeche, Mexico, showing a tortured victim with faggots lashed on their back about to be burned.15 The account of Abinadi’s death is mercifully sparse on all the more gruesome details, but Mark Alan Wright and Kerry Hull, both specialists in ancient Mesoamerica, concluded that it “echoes perfectly what we find in these ancient traditions.”16