What Is the “Skin of Blackness” in the Book of Mormon?

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“And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity … as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.” 2 Nephi 5:21

The Know

In the aftermath of Lehi’s death, Nephi and those who followed him were forced to flee from Laman and Lemuel because the two brothers sought, once again, to kill him. Nephi and his people, however, established a prosperous colony, complete with a temple, where they followed the law of Moses and were blessed according to the covenants the Lord made with Lehi and his family (2 Nephi 5:1–17).

In contrast, Nephi reported that his brothers were “cut off from the presence of the Lord” and that a “cursing … even a sore cursing” came upon them “because of their iniquity.” Consequently, their hearts became hardened like flint, and whereas once “they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, … the Lord did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them” (2 Nephi 5:21). Another account, presumably the large plates of Nephi, recorded that the Lord “cursed, and … set a mark on” the Lamanites, and thus “the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them” (Alma 3:6, 14).

Church Disavows Theories of Black Skin as a Curse

For many modern readers, these and similar passages in the Book of Mormon are understandably jarring in their seemingly “racist concepts of nonwhite racial inferiority as contrasted with white racial superiority.”1 In the past, many readers and writers have accepted such racial connotations without question, but a 2013 essay authorized by the First Presidency published on the Church’s website declares unequivocally, “Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse.”2

Despite this pronouncement, some scholars persist in reading the Book of Mormon through an old racial lens, albeit often with the twist that this lens actually subverts the racism of the nineteenth century.3 More careful scrutiny, however, indicates that the text does not comport with modern racial perspectives at all. Euro-American sources from the 1800s most frequently describe Native Americans as having red or copper skin, and these are the descriptions typically used by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and other early Latter-day Saints as well.4 Yet as Hugh Nibley first pointed out in the 1950s, “there is no mention in the Book of Mormon of red skins versus white; indeed, there is no mention of red skin at all.”5

Dark/Black Skin in Ancient Near Eastern Symbolism

Instead, the Book of Mormon consistently contrasts black or dark skins with white or fair skins in ways consistent with ancient Near Eastern symbolism. For instance, Nibley noted, “With the Arabs, to be white of countenance is to be blessed and to be black of countenance is to be cursed.”6 This can be seen in the Quran, in which the day of judgment is described as “the Day when faces whiten and faces blacken.”7 Nibley noted a similar idiom in an ancient Egyptian text as well, which described being ḥḏ-ḥr, “white of countenance,” and being šw m snk.wt, “free from darkness.”8

Kerry Hull has recently drawn attention to similar expressions in early Jewish and Christian literature that are not racist but symbolic and are often drawn from poetic imagery in the Bible itself.9 For example, Origen and Augustine drew upon Song of Solomon 1:5 (“I am black, but comely [that is, fair or beautiful]”) and paired it with Song of Solomon 8:5 LXX (“Who is this that comes up all white”) as a metaphor for people who are black with sin but are washed white through repentance and baptism (compare 3 Nephi 2:15–16). Origen wrote, “She is called black, however, because she has not yet been purged of every stain of sin … nevertheless she does not stay dark-hued, she is becoming white.”10 Some early Christians metaphorically referred to the dark or black skin of Ethiopians in such analogies.11

Perhaps the most direct and enlightening ancient Near Eastern parallel to the Book of Mormon’s “skin of blackness” in terms of date, circumstance, and language is found in the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon, recently discussed by T. J. Uriona.12 This treaty was sent out to Assyrian vassals, including Judah, in around 672 BC to establish Esarhaddon’s son Assurbanipal as the legitimate successor—despite the fact that he was not the eldest son.13 As was customary in ancient Near Eastern treaties and covenants, curses were pronounced upon those who would violate this treaty’s terms. One of the curses in the document states, “May they [the gods] make your skin and the skin of your women, your sons and your daughters—dark. May they be as black as pitch and crude oil.”14

The biblical prophet Nahum, one of Lehi’s contemporaries, appears to have alluded to this very curse in a “subversive reversal” of the imagery, applying it to the fall of the Assyrian Empire itself around 612 BC: “The faces of [the Assyrians] all gather blackness” (Nahum 2:10).15 Likewise, in Lamentations (traditionally ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah) similar imagery is used of the Nazarites after Jerusalem was destroyed: “Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk … [but now their] visage is blacker than a coal,” later adding, “Our skin was black like an oven” (Lamentations 4:7–8; 5:10).

In its Assyrian context, “skin black as pitch” appears to be a motif for death and destruction.16 Its reappropriation in Lamentations, according to Gideon Kotze, may not refer to literal death but instead could indicate that the people have become “dead men walking.”17 Likewise, the “skin of blackness” Nephi describes falling upon the Lamanites was not necessarily physical but was given in the context of some people violating the Lord’s covenant and thereby being “cut off from the presence of the Lord,” bringing upon themselves the sore cursing that Lehi had warned of previously.18 In other words, the Lamanites had simply experienced what Alma later calls “spiritual death” and thus their souls were in spiritual darkness (Alma 42:9).

Symbolic Meaning of Black (or Dark) and White in the Book of Mormon

Clues throughout the Book of Mormon strongly support the symbolic interpretation of references to black, dark, and white “skins.” For instance, the earliest descriptions of people as either white or dark come in Nephi’s foundational vision.19 Rather than being literal references to skin color, these labels appear to figuratively link different people or groups back to the white and dark symbols of Lehi’s dream, in 1 Nephi 8.20 Likewise, throughout the Book of Mormon dark is frequently paired with terms such as filthy and loathsome that are clearly intended to describe the spiritual state of the Lamanites, not their lack of hygiene or physical attractiveness.21

Furthermore, throughout the rest of the text white, black, and dark are applied variously to objects, garments, skins, and people—always in ways consistent with symbolism associating white with purity, holiness, and righteousness while associating black or dark with impurity, unholiness, and the stain of sin.22 In most contexts throughout the Book of Mormon, it is clear that these terms are symbolic or metaphorical. Thus, as David M. Belnap observed, “metaphorical readings [of skin color passages] bring consistency to other Book of Mormon verses connecting lightness, delightsomeness, darkness, filthiness, and similar words to a person’s or a people’s spiritual state.”23

In addition, toward the end of his record, Nephi speaks of a future day when the remnant of the Lamanites would be “restored unto the knowledge of … Jesus Christ,” causing “their scales of darkness … to fall from their eyes; and … they shall be a white and a delightsome people” (2 Nephi 30:5–6).24 The imagery alludes to the sore cursing from 2 Nephi 5:21 being lifted, and Joseph Smith clarified this passage in the Nauvoo edition of the Book of Mormon to read “a pure and a delightsome people,” making it crystal clear that spiritual purity rather than skin color is what was intended.25

A Self-Imposed Dark Skin as a Mark

If a real difference between Nephites and Lamanites in physical skin color existed, it does not seem to have been very stark since any such difference goes completely unmentioned in several accounts in which it would be expected to have a noticeable impact on events.26 John L. Sorenson explained, “It is likely that the objective distinction in skin hue between Nephites and Lamanites was less marked than the subjective difference.”27 Some have suggested that Lamanites may have more heavily intermarried with Indigenous populations, or that their lifestyle darkened their skin due to greater sun exposure.28 These would have created a more subtle difference in skin tone that perhaps was exaggerated for symbolic purposes.

Others, pointing to the story of Amlicites, reason that any difference in physical appearance “was propagated by the Lamanites themselves … through marking their own skin.”29 The Amlicites “marked themselves with red in their foreheads after the manner of the Lamanites,” but this was interpreted as a fulfillment of the Lord’s declaration that “I will set a mark upon him that fighteth against thee and thy seed” despite the fact that they “set the mark upon themselves” (Alma 3:4, 13, 18). Nibley explained, “So natural and human was the process that it suggested nothing miraculous to the ordinary observer. … Here God places his mark on people as a curse, yet it is an artificial mark which they actually place upon themselves.”30

In recent years, several theories have given possible explanations of the nature of this artificial mark. For example, consider these three leading proposals:

1. Dark Skins as Garments

One theory, first proposed by Ethan Sproat and summarized by John W. Welch, suggests that “when [Alma] chapter 3 is read in its entirety, it becomes apparent that … the dark ‘skins’ were possibly animal skins worn as symbolic clothing, not their normal flesh.”31 In both the Book of Mormon and the Bible, skin can refer to animal skin garments, and in fact this appears to be the context in which the Lamanites’ skins are described as dark in Alma 3:5–6: “The Lamanites … were naked, save it were a skin which was girded about their loins. … And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers” (emphasis added). If this theory is correct, Welch noted, “the Lamanites and Amlicites were distinguishing themselves by the things they chose to wear or put upon themselves.”32

Sproat draws on the Israelite temple tradition, which used special temple garments that represented the coat of skins given to Adam and Eve when they left the Garden of Eden, and he notes that each of the major statements about Lamanite skin color comes in a temple context.33 Throughout the Book of Mormon, authors referred to both garments and skins in identical ways as symbols of one’s spiritual state. Among early Christians, the symbolism of Adam and Eve’s dark coat of skins was contrasted with a garment of light that they shed upon leaving the garden, with each garment symbolically representing the flesh—the coat of skins being the flesh in its mortal, sinful state, and the garment of light being symbolic of both the purified state after baptism and the glorified state of the Resurrection.34

2. Dark Skins as Body Paint

Another proposal, recently put forward by Gerrit M. Steenblik, is that the Lamanites marked themselves by painting their skin dark. Art from the Classic Maya period illustrates that many elites “darkened their skins with paints, stains, and pigments for ceremonial purposes and as camouflage for warfare, hunting, and plunder.”35 This fits with Nephi’s reference to a “skin of blackness” in close association to describing the Lamanites as hunters “in the wilderness for beasts of prey.” Furthermore, the first occasion in which Nephi and his people encountered the Lamanites after being separated from them was likely during their “wars and contentions” (2 Nephi 5:24, 34). The Amlicites also mark themselves in a military context (Alma 3:4).

Skin darkened by paint or staining could be associated with cursings through prewar rituals of whispering curses while applying the paint. Charcoal and soot were often used in these skin-darkening paints, which could have linked the paint-darkened skins to filthiness in the Nephites’ point of view.36 For some Maya ceremonies, ritual participants would fast for several days and “cover themselves with black paint or soot, only to be cleansed of the black soot—both physically and symbolically purified—at the end of the fast.”37 Perhaps something similar took place through the purifying ritual of baptism when some Lamanites had “their curse … taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites” (3 Nephi 2:15).

3. Dark Skins as Tattoos

Others have suggested that the mark could have been an ancient tattoo.38 Tattooing was known in the ancient Near East and in the Americas among various Indigenous tribes in both North and South America.39 In Mesoamerica, it can be documented from as early as 1400 BC among the Olmec and, later, the Maya, as the practice was continued up through the Spanish Conquest.40 Most tattooing in ancient America was black, but some evidence exists for red tattoos at Chichen Itza, thus accounting for both the black or dark skin of the Lamanites and the red mark of the Amlicites (Alma 3:4).41

Linguistically, “the language of ‘mark’ in the Book of Mormon could … relate to the word tattoo” since it originally meant “to write, paint, or mark.”42 Words with a similar range of meaning are attested in Mayan languages.43 In Hebrew, qaʿaqaʿ means “incision, imprintment, tattoo” and gets translated as “mark” in Leviticus 19:28: “Ye shall not … print any marks upon you.”44 As a violation of the law of Moses, such a mark would literally be a “cursed thing” upon the Lamanites’ skin, and visibly signal their rebellion against the Lord’s covenants.45 After Lamanites converted, they would discontinue this practice, and thus future generations lacked the mark: “And their young men and their daughters became exceedingly fair” (3 Nephi 2:15–16).46

The Why

It is easy—even natural—for modern readers of the Book of Mormon to intuitively see contemporary sensibilities regarding race and skin color in passages about a “skin of blackness” or “dark skins,” but such interpretations are misplaced when reading an ancient text. As John W. Welch explained, “when reading ancient historical texts, such as the Book of Mormon, it is absolutely essential not to impose modern ideas of race and cultural identity onto the people of the past.”47 Such interpretations represent what Sam Wineburg refers to as “an anachronistic reading of the past.”48 As Frank Snowden Jr. has observed, “nothing comparable to the virulent color prejudice of modern times existed in the ancient world.”49

Cultural and historical contexts are crucial to overcoming such modern presentist assumptions when reading ancient documents. As Kerry Hull noted, when this is done with the Book of Mormon’s passages describing skin color, it reveals “a more expansive cultural metaphor at play,” while a literal reading “obfuscates the beauty of the figurative imagery and invites unwarranted racial tensions into Nephite/Lamanite relations.”50 It also illustrates, as Welch has concluded, that “there are several explanations for the mark or curse of the Lamanites” that do not involve modern racism.51

Certainly, some among both the Nephites and the Lamanites likely held prejudicial views toward the other group, and descriptions of both groups from the opposing point of view often reflect ancient stereotypes of outsiders.52 These were based not on race, however, but rather on religious, cultural, and tribal differences fueled by costly violent conflicts over the course of nearly a thousand years.53 Furthermore, these occasional expressions of prejudice do not constitute the message of the Book of Mormon, which overwhelmingly extends an inclusive invitation for all people to repent and come unto to Jesus Christ.54

At no point in the Book of Mormon is any individual or group excluded from the blessings of the gospel on the basis of their race or skin color.55 Nephi taught that “the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one” and “denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; … and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.”56 Alma taught that “the Lord will be merciful unto all who call on his name,” and Ammon said, “God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in” (Alma 9:17; 26:37). According to Mormon, “the gate of heaven is open unto all … who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ” (Helaman 3:28).

At the pinnacle of the Book of Mormon, the Savior Himself states that He was sent “that I might draw all [people] unto me” (3 Nephi 27:14). The sacred volume then ends with an invitation from its final prophet, Moroni, for “all the ends of the earth” to “come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift … and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness … and love God with all your might, mind and strength, … that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; … that ye become holy, without spot” (Moroni 10:24, 30, 32–33).

Through moving historical accounts, the Book of Mormon not only teaches an inclusive message but also illustrates the power of the gospel to break down cultural and ethnic barriers and unite people in Christ. For instance, the record of the sons of Mosiah preaching to the Lamanites provides stirring examples of both Nephites and Lamanites looking past generations of ethnic strife to serve each other and follow Christ.57 One of the most powerful prophetic witnesses of Christ in the book is a Lamanite (Helaman 13–15). At the record’s climax, it demonstrates that the key to overcoming all forms of prejudice is letting go of identities that divide us into “any manner of -ites” and becoming “one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God” (4 Nephi 1:17).

Elder Ahmed Corbitt of the Seventy taught that references to “skin of blackness” or dark skins “should not distract readers from the grand, eternal perspectives and purposes … the Lord intended for the Book of Mormon.” Elder Corbitt powerfully testified,

The Book of Mormon is, in my view, the most racially and ethnically unifying book on the earth. … It teaches that God invites and guides the entire human family toward unity, harmony, and peace, regardless of color or ethnicity. It provides examples of righteous people from contrasting cultures reaching across differences of color and tradition to rescue their brothers and sisters with the gospel of Jesus Christ and with its ordinances and covenants. … The Book of Mormon is a blueprint from heaven, in black and white, for establishing peace on earth in the last days.58

KnoWhy #718 | April 18, 2024