Book of Mormon Nuggets

7/28/2019 Book of Mormon Nuggets

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Book of Mormon NuggetsSupplementing Jeff Lindsay's Book of Mormon Evidences page.

Nugget #9:

Overlooking the Obvious?Legends of Quetzalcoatl

and Ties to the Book of Mormon

I still remember the excitement I felt in fifth grade when we were shown a documentaryfilm about Cortes and Aztecs, describing how Cortes was greeted as the Great White God

of legend who had once visited the Americas and promised to return. I immediately saw

the "obvious" connections to the Book of Mormon. Years later, I would read that theselegends did not necessarily have any ties to the Book of Mormon, for some of these

legends had been twisted by the Spaniards for their own purposes and may not have been

reliable. Further, I would read that some Native Americans may have made claims of

Christ-like legends to impress their new lords. And so, when critics would charge, "Whyisn't there a scrap of evidence to support the Book of Mormon?", I would turn to the

Arabian Peninsula evidence or other issues, rather than start with what once seemed likethe most important issue of all: the evidence of a possible visit by Christ to the Americas,

preserved in the legends of Mesoamerica, the land of the Book of Mormon.

While some legends have been given a Spanish-spin, there is reason tobelieve that pre-Columbian Mesoamericans did have legendsconsistent with some key ideas in the Book of Mormon. Great cautionmust be used in interpreting these myths and recognizing Spanishinfluence to possibly increase the willingness of the natives to accept

Christianity. Further, one must struggle with the possibility that aMesoamerican reference to Quetzalcoatl may be to Quetzalcoatl thegod, or a follower of Quetzalcoatl, or Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl,the cultural hero. But taking due caution, I think it's time to revisit thelegends and traditions of Mesoamerica as tentative witnesses for avisit from Christ and the existence of the Gospel among the ancientinhabitants of Mesoamerica.

Diane E. Wirth in "The Bearded, White God Is Everywhere - or Is He?",FARMS Review of Books, vol. 12, no. 1, 2000, pp. 9-22, writes (citingpages 12-13):

Nonetheless, some who support the authenticity of various accountsspeak of the "return" of Quetzalcoatl, and although it is true that theoriginal legend has a late Spanish "spin," the "return" myth may stillhave been derived from an original and authentic belief among thenatives. One of the primary advocates of this opinion is David Carrascoof Princeton University. Carrasco writes, "There are a number ofreferences in the primary sources to the expected return ofQuetzalcoatl.... These references strongly suggest that the belief in
http://www.jefflindsay.com/BMEvidences.shtmlhttp://www.jefflindsay.com/BMEvidences.shtml


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Quetzalcoatl's return was a pre-Columbian attitude and not, as somehave suggested, invented by the Spaniards." [David Carrasco,Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire: Myths and Prophecies in the

Aztec Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 192. Seepage 192 and the following pages for Carrasco's argument andsources.]

Now, does it make any difference if the accounts refer to the return ofQuetzalcoatl the god or Ce Acati Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl - the greatculture hero? Indirectly, no. To the Mesoamerican community, the past,present, and future were all woven together. Rituals were often playedout with the express purpose of including occurrences that took placein the past. A good example of this mentality is recorded in theAnnalsof Cuauhtitlan, which was originally written in the native tongue andwhich recorded the pre-Cortesian history of the Valley of Mexico. [See

John Bierhorst, trans., History and Mythology of the Aztecs: The CodexChimalpopoca (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992). 10. Seeibid., p. 36.] TheAnnals tell the life story of the culture hero TopiltzinQuetzalcoatl who, according to this account, lived from A.D. 817-95. At

his death, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl miraculously became a star, the Lordof the Dawn - he became what we call the planet Venus. It was at thistime that he descended to the land of the dead. [ibid., p. 36] This isnothing but a repetition of what his god, Quetzalcoatl, is said to havedone; thus the storytellers were able to bring the events of the pastinto the present. Quetzalcoatl the deity is clearly shown in the codicesas the planet Venus and as the god who descended to the realm of thedead. It is true that we cannot know for certain that the story of

Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl's return also refers to the deity Quetzalcoatl, butthere is a high probability that it did.

More recently, Diane Wirth has provided a fair and detailed analysis of the possible

connections between Quetzalcoatl and Jesus Christ in her article, "Quetzalcoatl, the Maya

Maize God, and Jesus Christ" inJournal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1,2002, also available in PDF format orsimplified text format.

In fact, on the basis of numerous legends among native peoples, onenon-LDS writer became convinced that Christ was once in the Americasand compiled these accounts in a book, He Walked the Americas,Amherst, Wisconsin: Amherst Press, 1963. A few excerpts from thebook are available on the Web athttp://www.geocities.com/willow1d/amer.html. L. Taylor Hansenapparently had Masters Degrees in Archaeology, Anthropology andGeology from Stanford University and spent significant time with

Native Americans to better understand their traditions and legends.The book is still in print and maybe available at your local library. Itrequires some very large grains of salt, certainly, but does representan interesting perspective.

Some students of Mesoamerica see an association betweenQuetzalcoatl and resurrection themes, as John Sorenson explains in
http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?a=jbms/132819682475&x=2http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?a=jbms/132819682475&x=2http://farms.byu.edu/jbms/pdf/132819682475_11_1.pdfhttp://text.farmsresearch.com/display.php?id=298&table=jbmshttp://www.geocities.com/willow1d/amer.htmlhttp://farms.byu.edu/display.php?a=jbms/132819682475&x=2http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?a=jbms/132819682475&x=2http://farms.byu.edu/jbms/pdf/132819682475_11_1.pdfhttp://text.farmsresearch.com/display.php?id=298&table=jbmshttp://www.geocities.com/willow1d/amer.html


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Images of Ancient America: Visualizing Book of Mormon Life (Provo,Utah: Research Press, 1998, p. 230):

The most popular treatment of this salvational interpretation is byLaurette Sjourn, Burning in Water: Thought and Religion in AncientMexico (Berkeley: Shambhala, 1976) who sees Quetzalcoatl as a god in

a resurrection cult that is visible most clearly at Teotihuacan. MichelGraulich insists that elements in Mexican myth that have beenconsidered products of Spanish Christian influence represent native,pre-Columbian beliefs (see his "Afterlife in Ancient Mexican Thought,"in Circumpacifica, Band I: Mittel- und Sdamerika, Festschrift frThomas S. Bartel, ed. Bruno Ilius and Matthias Laubscher [Frankfurt,Peter Lang, 1990], 165-88). He maintains that the sources, whencorrectly read, tell of a divine creator couple who lived in a paradisefrom which they were expelled because of a transgression. They wererescued from their dismal state on earth by the self-sacrifice of the godQuetzalcoatl, or of him and his twin, and this allowed them to escapethe underworld and provided a means by which humans who emulatetheir qualities may reach the lost paradise.

We must not forget that understanding what ancient peoples really believed is terribly

difficult, especially in dealing with the Americas, where precious little written material

has survived. Brant Gardner, a Latter-day Saint scholar, has examined Quetzalcoatl

legends and sources in depth and urges that great caution is needed in understanding anypossible connections to the Book of Mormon, largely because of interpolations and

changes brought about by Spanish influence. Even the "white" of the Great White God

legend may be largely due to our cultural views and wishful thinking applied to nativelegends. Brant's collection of papers begins at his page, "Quetzalcoatl: Papers," where I

especially recommend reading his paper, "Digging for Quetzalcoatl's Christian Roots"

and exploring his related collection of papers, "Quetzalcoatl Element Analysis."

In spite of a good deal of uncertainty, several LDS writers suggest thatthere are still some elements that may be of interest to the Book ofMormon. Wallace E. Hunt, Jr., in "Moses' Brazen Serpent as It RelatesTo Serpent Worship in Mesoamerica" (FARMS Journal of Book ofMormon Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, 1993, p. 122) notes the presence ofevidence linking Quetzalcoatl with a Christlike-being (evidence whichmust still be taken with caution, preferably after reading Gardner'spapers cited above). According to Hunt,

Although Quetzalcoatl's origin is clouded in obscurity, the legends, the

few pre-Columbian writings extant today, and the early post-Conquestwritings contain an abundance of material on this ancient and reveredgod. These accounts are contradictory and vary widely both on thegod's attributes and the details of how he was worshiped, undoubtedlydue to a millennium of digressions from the original concept from theend of the Book of Mormon to the time of the Conquest. However,through all this maze, we find that the Mesoamericans consistentlyendow Quetzalcoatl with many Christlike attributes, some of which arelisted below:
http://frontpage2000.nmia.com/~nahualli/Quetzalcoatl.htmhttp://frontpage2000.nmia.com/~nahualli/Quetzalcoatl.htmhttp://frontpage2000.nmia.com/~nahualli/LDStopics/DigQ/DigQ%20TOC.htmhttp://frontpage2000.nmia.com/~nahualli/Quetzalcoatl/Elements/Elements%20TOC.htmhttp://frontpage2000.nmia.com/~nahualli/Quetzalcoatl.htmhttp://frontpage2000.nmia.com/~nahualli/LDStopics/DigQ/DigQ%20TOC.htmhttp://frontpage2000.nmia.com/~nahualli/Quetzalcoatl/Elements/Elements%20TOC.htm


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outstretched and perpendicular to his pole, it would comply fully withthe description "fiery flying serpent."

Thus, the connection can be made that Nephi's use of the term flying(and very likely its usage by other Book of Mormon leaders as well)could have been carried over into the later religious beliefs of the

Mesoamericans, since we do find in Mesoamerica the application of theterm flying in association with serpent representations of their God. Forexample, Carrasco refers to a Mixtec prose source containing stories inwhich Quetzalcoatl was referred to as "9 Ehecatl" (a calendric name) or"a flying serpent." [12] Nicholson reports that the Otomis(contemporaries of the Aztecs, the Otomi language being second inimportance only to Nahuatl), in one of their annual veintenaceremonies honoring Quetzalcoatl, attributed the word antazhoni,meaning "Great Flying," to Quetzalcoatl. [13]

References cited above by Hunt:

6. Karen R. Joines, Serpent Symbolism in the Old Testament(Haddonfield, NJ: HaddonfieldHouse, 1974), p. 8. Sturdy also indicates the word is sometimes translated "flying serpents";

John Sturdy, Numbers (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University, 1976), p. 148.7. Matthew Henry,An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 4 vols. (New York: Carter &Bros., 1853), 1:543.8. Joines, Serpent Symbolism in the Old Testament, 44.9. George Bush, Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Numbers (Oxford: OxfordUniversity, 1868), p. 313.10. Elias Auerbach, Moses, trans. Robert Barchay and Israel Lehman (Detroit: Wayne StateUniversity, 1975), p. 137. Bush, Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Numbers, p. 316,also comes to the same conclusion. He states "signifying properly a banner-staff."11. Consistent with this concept were the words of the Maya prophet Chilam Balam of Mani:"The raised wooden standard shall come. . . . Our lord comes, Itza! Our elder brother comes,oh men of Tantun. Receive your guests, the bearded men, the men of the east, the bearers ofthe sign of God, Lord"; Ralph L. Roys, The Book of the Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Norman:University of Oklahoma Press, 1967), p. 167-68.12. Carrasco, Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire, 28; also, Sylvanus G. Morley and GeorgeW. Brainerd, The Ancient Maya, 4th ed. (Stanford: Stanford University, 1983), p. 470, suggestthat the two names may refer to the same God.

13. Henry B. Nicholson, "Religion in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico," in Gordon F. Ekholm andIgnacio Bernal, eds., Handbook of Middle American Indians, 15 vols. (Austin: University ofTexas Press, 1964-76), 10:table 4, example 4.

The point is not whether snakes could actually fly, but whether it is plausible for an

ancient Hebrew prophet in Nephi's day to have spoken of fiery "flying" serpents instead

of the fiery serpents that we know of in the Bible. We don't know what would have beenthe source of the term "flying" - perhaps someone used the term "flying" because the

snakes were tree-dwelling snakes or something like cobras with flaps of skin like "wings"

that seemed to hold them upright in the air (there are cobras in Egypt, after all), orperhaps the word "flying" was due some obscure pun on a Hebrew word or even a word

that was later misunderstood to mean "flying," or perhaps the legend derived from Moses'

very creation of a brass snake on a flagpole. I don't think that mythical Pegasus-likesnakes were meant. Regardless of what was meant, the fact is that there are ancient

traditions that provide support for an ancient Hebrew to have used the word "flying" to

modify the "fiery serpents" encountered by the Hebrews while wandering in the

wilderness. People were bitten, but God in His kindness provided a miraculous cure thatalso served as a powerful teaching tool.

Aug. 2002 Update on a Tangential Issue:Flying Snake Candidates Examined


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Some critics have guffawed over the "fiery flying serpents" cited in the Book ofMormon. "Are we supposed to believe that God created some magical dragon-likeflying creatures that breathed fire? How could sane people accept such a tale?" Amore reasonable question, rarely asked by the critics, is, "What could the textactually mean?" I had previously speculated that tree-snakes could be viewed anddescribed as flying serpents, and that idea got more interesting when I learned that

there actually are "flying" tree snakes in Asia. Though these almost certainly aren'tthe snakes encountered during the Exodus, there existence does demonstrate thatsuch a thing as "flying snakes" are possible. Basic information on these creatures,with photos these snakes in flight, are available at:

FlyingSnake.org - the work of Dr. Jake Socha of the University of Chicago, whohas done research on the biomechanics of flying snakes

ABC News: Flying Snake's Secret - a news item from Aug. 7, 2002 CNN: Flying Snakes Slither through the Air - Aug. 8, 2002

National Geographic News: New Snake Footage Uncoils Mystery of FlyingSerpents - Aug. 8, 2002

As interesting as these flying snakes are, they don't live in the right part of the world

to have been encountered by the Israelites. There are some flying snakes on thewest coast of India, but that's still far from Israel (though we can't rule out theremote possibility that a related species of aerodynamically gifted snakes may haveonce been in the Middle East). Plus known flying snakes aren't poisonous enough tokill humans. Rather than flying tree snakes, a more likely candidate for the fieryflying serpents of 1 Nephi could be a member of the deadly saw-scale viper family,according to Ronald P. Millett and John P. Pratt in, "What Fiery Flying SerpentSymbolized Christ?," Meridian Magazine, Aug. 9, 2001, online athttp://www.meridianmagazine.com/sci_rel/000609serpent.html. Saw-scale viperssuch as the deadly Israeli saw-scale viper live in the region of Israel, are known to killhumans with a slow-acting venom, have a burning bite that could be called "fiery,"strike so quickly that they can be said to be "flying," can leap when they strike, andeven have a reddish color that could be represented by a brass serpent. As the

authors note, "One Bible dictionary explains that the word "flying" is still used inmodern Arab usage to "refer to the speed with which such reptiles may strike, asthough 'winged'." [New Bible Dictionary, "Serpent," Tyndall House, 1982, p. 1091]

(There is one more tangent worth mentioning, perhaps. I previously suggested thatEgyptian cobras could have interpreted as being "winged" due to their extensiblefolds of skin. I have just learned that cobras have been depicted with wings inEgyptian art. One can see an example of this at the Web page, Animals and the Godsof Ancient Egypt by Caroline Seawright, where a carving of Wadjet, the cobragoddess of Buto, is shown as a cobra with wings and a human head.)

If Joseph Smith had fabricated the Book of Mormon, he would have

been foolish to make up the idea that the serpents that afflicted theIsraelites were "flying" serpents, but that addition in the Book ofMormon text is supported by several ancient sources, providing furtherevidence that the Book of Mormon is an authentic ancient writing, andalso showing a possible source for the widespread use of the feathered(or flying) serpents as the symbol of a great God, just as the serpenton the flagstaff that Moses made was a symbol of the healing powerand the Atonement of Christ.
http://www.flyingsnake.org/http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/snake020807.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/08/08/coolsc.snakes/index.htmlhttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0807_020807_flyingsnake.htmlhttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0807_020807_flyingsnake.htmlhttp://www.meridianmagazine.com/sci_rel/000609serpent.htmlhttp://www.meridianmagazine.com/sci_rel/000609serpent.htmlhttp://www.meridianmagazine.com/sci_rel/000609serpent.htmlhttp://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/animalgods.htmhttp://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/animalgods.htmhttp://www.flyingsnake.org/http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/snake020807.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/08/08/coolsc.snakes/index.htmlhttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0807_020807_flyingsnake.htmlhttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0807_020807_flyingsnake.htmlhttp://www.meridianmagazine.com/sci_rel/000609serpent.htmlhttp://www.meridianmagazine.com/sci_rel/000609serpent.htmlhttp://www.meridianmagazine.com/sci_rel/000609serpent.htmlhttp://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/animalgods.htmhttp://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/animalgods.htm


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And if the legends among the Aztecs, Mayans, and others really dorefer to a visit from Jesus Christ, might we not expect traces ofChristian rituals to have persisted, in spite of the great apostasy andpersecution of Christians reported in the Book of Mormon from about300 A.D. to 400 A.D.? One such trace may be the practice of baptism,

not of infants, but of older children, as I discuss on my page ofQuestions about LDS Baptism. The Mayan rituals encountered by theSpanish included concepts of being reborn, purified, and prepared forthe next life, repenting of sins, confession to a priest, white cloth assymbol, and was called with a name that meant "the descent of thegod." These remarkable parallels with teachings in the Book of Mormonmay be due to the teachings on baptism that Christ gave to his peoplein the Americas when he ministered to them after His Resurrection(see 3 Nephi 11).

Others encountering the interesting parallels between Mesoamerican

traditions and Jesus Christ are quick to dismiss the possible "Mormon"connection, but it's interesting that this is an issue they have to atleast acknowledge. One interesting example that I encourage you toread and consider is Bruce Lane's article, "The Making of 'The Tree OfLife,'" in Quaker Theology, Vol. 4, No. 2, Issue 7, Autumn 2002,available at http://www.quaker.org/quest/issue7-4-lane04.htm, in whichhe notes interesting parallels between Mesoamerican traditions andJesus Christ. These were encountered in his work of making a filmabout the highly symbolic Mesoamerican ritual of the "Voladores"involving men who hang from a large tree of life as they spin in acircle. Fuller details are given at

http://www.docfilm.com/quakers/makingTOL.html. The following quotefrom Bruce Lane is available on both of the previously cited Webpages:

The Spanish priests brought with them statues of a white bearded godon a wooden version of the symbol of the four directions. They told the

Totonacs that this god had sacrificed himself so that no further humansacrifice would be needed, and that they should accept him as theirgod, in place of all others. Since Quetzalcoatl, represented as whiteand bearded, had prophesied his return in the year Cortes landed, myguess is that the Totonacs identified the white, bearded Christ imageas Quetzalcoatl. There may be no way to prove or disprove thishypothesis. But there is circumstantial evidence. The patron of theHuehuetla Voladores is San Salvador, the risen Christ -- a logicalmanifestation of the returning I>Quetzalcoatl. And since Cortes and hismen claimed to be the followers of the returning Quetzalcoatl, it wouldmake sense for the Voladores to dress in European costumes.Similarly, the Flowering Tree could easily be identified with the Tree ofLife, the Tree of the Four Directions to which the second Quetzalcoatlwas nailed. This explanation appears to account for the symbolictransformations in the Voladores ritual.
http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/FQ_Baptism.shtmlhttp://www.quaker.org/quest/issue7-4-lane04.htmhttp://www.docfilm.com/quakers/makingTOL.htmlhttp://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/FQ_Baptism.shtmlhttp://www.quaker.org/quest/issue7-4-lane04.htmhttp://www.docfilm.com/quakers/makingTOL.html


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Finally, and perhaps strangest of all, Christ was in fact the perfectmythological answer to the Mesoamerican dilemma: a god whosacrificed himself to end all sacrifice.

Besides explaining the Voladorritual, for me this interpretation for thefirst time made a kind of sense out of the otherwise baffling central

idea of Christian theology: that Christ offered himself as a sacrifice toatone for the sins of humanity. But it also raised new questions, which Iam still struggling to answer. How could a theology born in the Levantpossibly "resolve" a mythic dilemma halfway around the world?Discarding the Mormon fantasy of a lost tribe, the answer mustsurely lie in a broader conception of the role of human sacrifice in thedevelopment of human societies. Why was human sacrifice sowidespread, and why does it seem to occur in early agriculturalsocieties? [emphasis mine]

The author, in spite of an impressive bibliography and much research into Mesoamerican

traditions for his film-making project, may be too quick in dismissing the possible

connections between the Book of Mormon and Mesoamerican legends. Such connections

may not be as pervasive as I would like, and perhaps some aspects have been the subjectof improper hype in the past, or are accidental products of Spanish influence. But still,

there remains a genuine possibility of a real relationship between the Book of Mormon

and the ancient traditions of Quetzalcoatl and other Christ-like figures in the ancientAmericas.

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