Here are more comments that we have received from readers of
this website blog:
Comment #1: “You wrote about the discovery of the so-called
Paraiba Stone inscription, which two experts at the time considered it to be a
hoax, and the originator of the original claim later recounted his “discovery.”
It seems you didn’t do your homework on this one” Taylor O.
Response: As we have written before, there isn’t always the room
to write extensively about a point in a post, nor am I certain how interested a
reader might be in the subject we have chosen to write about. As for the Paraíba Stone inscription, I
obviously should have been more specific. The stone was found by a man named
Joaquim Alves de Costa, who claimed one of his slaves found the stone on his
property at Pouso-Alto on the shores of the Parahyba. His son copied the
characters on the stone and sent them with his letter (left), which in 1872 became
an international sensation, drawing a lot of scrutiny.
When Alves de Costa could not be located (because of many
Parahyba rivers and many places named Pouso Alto in Brazil), Ladisiau Netto
claimed the inscription Phoenician and interpreted it about a group of
Phoenicians who left Ezion-Geber in 500 B.C., were separated from their mates
and shipwrecked. However, Netto was no expert, though a student of Phoenician
archaeology and its culture who, at the time, was Director of the Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, and
evidently eager to promote investigations into Brazil’s mysterious past. By
1874, two epigraphists, S. Euting and K. Schlottmann, who studied inscriptions
as writing, thought it was badly written and claimed the stone inscription a
hoax.
Netto, under relentless criticism, admitted that he had
believed the inscription was original due to the excellent navigation skills of
the Phoenicians, and had become carried away by his enthusiasm, and recanted
his claim. So the inscription remained ignored, classified as a forgery, until
the 1960s, when it surfaced again. Dr. Cyrus Herzl Gordon, a leading Semitic
language scholar, who besides having published hundreds of “serious” or
”orthodox” papers, commented on a strange anomalous Middle Eastern-style
inscription found in the Americas such as the Metcalf stone and the Paraíba
Inscription, which he backed and received a lot of criticism from mainstream
science.
The Inga
Stone inscriptions on a wall about 12 feet high and 150 feet long in Paraiba,
Brazil. No one knows how, by whom or for what reasons the inscriptions on the
rock were made. One of the many inscriptions talks about a “borders war” in
Mesopotamia
However, Gordon believed that the text followed the pattern of
similar known commemorative inscriptions and that it included information that
was unknown at the time that it was found, and therefore could not be a hoax.
Gordon placed the writing in 554 B.C., referred to the group as Canaanites, and
believes the situation was far to the south and west of the Atlantic coast
where Netto thought it to be.
We may never know of the reality of the inscription, but it
has a lot more in its favor of being genuine than not, and mainstream science
has forever criticized and rejected discoveries, opinions, and events outside
their accepted patterns.
Comment #2: “Have you
heard of a writer named Hobby who claims that the insurrection against Pahoran
was led by Mulekites? Is there any proof that the Mulekites were behind the
king-men and other government problems?” Lynn H.
Response: Michael M. Hobby and his wife June J. along with Troy L. J.
Smith wrote a book (Angular
Chronology-The Precolumbian Dating of Ancient America, Zarahemla
Foundation, Coto Laurel, Puerto Rico, 1994), in which he makes several claims
regarding the Mulekites being behind all the problems. Several others have
written the same, including Sorenson and Nibley. In his book (p44) Hobby uses the
scripture Alma 62:7-10, as a reference, however, the scripture says nothing of
the kind, only that Moroni and Pahoran with their armies came into the Land of
Zarahemla and defeated Pachus and his men who were involved in this attempt to
overthrow the government. Pachus was killed and his men taken prisoner and
Pahoran was restored to the judgment seat. Far too many writers use a scripture
as reference, but the scripture does not support their view, as in this case.
There is nothing in all of scripture to suggest that it was the Mulekites who
were behind all the internal problems the Nephites experienced. Whether they
were or not, is strictly speculation. Basically, this blaming of the Mulekites
stems from Nibley’s claim that all the people causing problems had Mulekite
names—however, that is simply an unverifiable conclusion he has drawn from his
belief in his name tracing; we have written before how that is not accurate.
Comment #3: “According
to High Nibley, John Sorenson and Joseph Allen, your idea that the American
continent had been swept clean after the flood and no other people were around
is not accurate. They claim that we have learned about the language of
Mesoamerica that archaeologically and linguistically, people were here when
Lehi and Mulek arrived, and they claim that careful study of the Book of Mormon
bears this out. Why do you think you know more than these experts?” Cannon C.
Response: It’s not a matter of knowing more—it is simply a
matter of accepting the scriptural record. Those you mention often lay claim
that the scriptural record eludes to ideas not found in the actual wordage,
such as other people in the Land of Promise. It seems the problem with all
Mesoamerican Theorists, is that they have to change the scriptures, the words
of eye-witnesses to events, in order to make the Book of Mormon agree with
their Mesoamerican model, such as tilting Mormon’s north-south compass nearly
90º to match their east-west Mesoamerican alignment, or to claim Jaredites
lived after Ether tells us they were all annihilated.
When
Coriantumr killed Shiz, that was the end of the Jaredites—none survived that
last battle according to Ether’s record. To say some survived is not
scripturally accurate
First, any reading,
even a cursory one, of the scriptures tells a story of complete annihilation of
the entire Jaredite nation in a long and bloody civil war between the rightful
king, Coriantumr, and several would-be usurpers. From the Lord’s statements, to
Ether’s prophesies, to the prophet’s eye-witness acknowledgement of the
fulfilling of all the Lord’s promises to the Jaredites and to Coriantumr, were
all fulfilled—the Jaredites were wiped out with Coriantumr the last Jaredite who finally died among the Mulekites.
Second, the entire
Jaredite nation died in that gory civil war. Only two people were left,
Coriantumr and Ether. While we do not know Ether’s end fate, we do know that
Coriantumr lived long enough to see another people inherit his land as
promised.
Third, it would make
no sense for Coriantumr to be told another people would inherit the land if any
of his Jaredite nation or people remained alive to continue to possess it.
Fourth, there is
nothing—not one word, insinuation, or clue to suggest that a single Jaredite,
other than Coriantumr, survived that last, great battle, or that any Jaredite remained alive anywhere in
the Western Hemisphere.
Fifth, every
single statement, word and idea expressed throughout the entire record as
written by Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Mosiah, Alma, Halaman, the disciple Nephi and
his son, or Mormon, Ether or Moroni, shows that there were no other people in
the Land of Promise other than the Jaredites, then the Nephites, Lamanites, and
Mulekites.
Sixth, it is
literally impossible to gain any suggestion from the Book of Mormon that any
Jaredite other than Coriantumr survived the Jaredite annihilation, nor that any
other indigenous people, group, tribe, nation, or civilization preceded the
Jaredites in the Land of Promise, after the Flood, nor up until the final
demise of the Nephite nation.
After his
final battle, Coriantumr wanders the land until he chances upon the people of
Zarahemla, in fulfillment of Ether’s prophesy that Coriantumr would live long
enough to see another people inherit the land
Seventh, the only reason Mesoamerican Theorists try in vain to
place other people in the Land of Promise, or maintain survivors of the
Jaredite nation, is in order to make the Book of Mormon match their
Mesoamerican model—but nothing in the record can lead anyone in good conscience
to place people where none are mentioned.
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