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.
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.
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.
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.
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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