More Comments Answered – Part II

The first four comments were answered in the last post. Comments number five and others will be answered here:

Comment #5 “The obvious question should be, how can Book of Mormon characters, writing in approximately 600 B.C., be quoting from Bible sources which weren’t written until centuries later?” Vincent.

Response: They were not quoting the Bible, they were quoting the same source that gave the Bible writers their knowledge, and the doctrines and principles of which they wrote. God is the author of all such knowledge—why would you or the Tanners think they would be different? How silly and uninformed you are about the workings of the Spirit and the voice of your Creator. He said, “my sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27-30). Did you think his voice would say different things to the Jews than to the Nephites? Or to you today?

Comment #6: “The BYU interpretation of the Tree of Life Stone, claiming it contains Hebrew inscriptions and portrays Lehi, Sarah, and Nephi, has been refuted by Dr. Hugh Nibley of BYU, the Smithsonian Institute, and an expert in Meso-American archaeology” Kareena.

Izapa Stela 5, the so-called "Tree of Life Stone," found in the ancient ruins of Izapa in the Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico

Response: Neither Brigham Young University nor the LDS Church has ever made any attempt to interpret, or any claim to have interpreted, the Izapa Stela 5, also known as the “Tree of Life Stone.” In 1939, the stela was found at the ancient Mesoamerican site of Izapa, in the Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico, along the present-day Guatemalan border. It is composed of volcanic andesite, weighs around one-and-a-half tons, presents the most complex imagery of all the stelae at Izapa, and was first studied by Smithsonian archaeologist Matthew W. Stirling in 1941. Researcher Garth Norman has counted at least a dozen human figures, a dozen animals, over twenty-five botanical or inanimate objects, and nine stylized deity masks within the bas-relief. In 1953, M. Wells Jakeman, at the time head of the Archaeology Department at BYU, proposed that the image was a representation of a tree of life vision from the Book of Mormon, which was a popular idea among members of the Church for a while, but found little or no support among LDS historians and theologists other than Jakeman and similar Mesoamerican Theorists. The carving was also proposed by Pre-columbian contact theorist Ivan van Sertima as supporting an African origin of the Olmecs. To date, it has never been effectively or acceptably interpreted, and is associated with the LDS Church mostly by critics and opponents of the Book of Mormon.

Left:  Passover; Right: The Festival of Purim, a Jewish festival that commemorates the deliverance of the Jews in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Book of Esther 

Comment #7: “The Book of Mormon says the Nephites were strict in keeping the Law of Moses (Alma 30:3). Yet, there is no account of their observing the Sabbath, Jubilee, tithing, circumcision, sacrifices, Passover, or any of the festivals.” Alyona.

Response: There is no evidence in the Book of Mormon that the Nephites did not observe the Sabbath, Jubilee, tithing, circumcision, sacrifices, Passover, or any of the festivals. At the same time, circumcision was practiced among the ancient Andean people as evidenced by mummies found there.

Comment #8: “How do you account for Smith using the Greek name of Jesus and Christ?” Carla.

Response: 1) First of all, the name Jesus is the Latin form of the Greek Iesous, which in turn is the transliteration of the Hebrew Jeshua, or Joshua, or again Jehoshua, meaning “Jehovah is salvation.” The word Christ, Christos, is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Messias, which means “anointed." Only after the Resurrection did the title gradually pass into a proper name, and the expression Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus became only one designation. But at this stage the Greeks and Romans understood little or nothing about the import of the word anointed; to them it did not convey any sacred conception. Hence they substituted Chrestus, or "excellent", for Christus or "anointed", and Chrestians instead of "Christians." There may be an allusion to this practice in 1 Peter 2:3—hoti chrestos ho kyrios, which is rendered "that the Lord is sweet." The use of the definite article before the word Christ and its gradual development into a proper name show the Christians identified the bearer with the promised Messias of the Jews. Correctly, we should call him Jesus the Christ, which, over time, became Jesus Christ. Now, for your comment about Joseph Smith using the name Jesus Christ—how else would you interpret the name of Jesus Christ or God from Hebrew, Reformed Egyptian, or any other language into English? Jesus Christ (English), Jezi Kris la (Haitian Creole), osa Crͭost (Irish), Isus Hristos (Romanian), İsa Mesih (Turkish), Cha Gisu Ki (Vietnamese), Yeshua (Hebrew), Jesus/yesus (German), Isten (Hungarian), Yesu Christu (Tamil), Yesus=yesu (Hindi), YaeSu Nim (Korean), Ιησούς (Greek), Исус (Bulgarian), Jezu Krishti (Albanian), Hesukristo (Filipino), Isus (Romanian), Isa (Turkish), Boze (Russian), Deus (Latin), Dio (Italian), Dieus (French), Jumala (Finnish), Isa (Arabic), Deus (Portugese), Gud (Norweigian), Bog (Bulgarian), or numerous other translations. Jesus Christ would be the correct term or name to use in 1829 New England America.

Comment #9: “You can say that the Amercas (North, Central and South) were once considered one continent, but I doubt that it is true. What is your proof?” Burkhardt

Left: Moses, the giver of the law; Right: Paul, the preacher of the law

Response: The Law of Moses required the truth to be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:16), also in Matthew “in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established” (Matthew 18:16), and John;s “the testimony of two men is true,” (John 8:17), as Paul also proclaimed that “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1). Therefore, it would seem sufficient to say that the Western Hemisphere may be viewed as a single continent known as America, a viewpoint that was common in the United States until World War II, and remains prevalent in some Asian six-continent models. This remains the more common vision in Spain, Portugal and Latin American countries, where they are taught as a single continent. This use is shown in names such as the Organization of American States. From the 19th century some people used the term “Americas” to avoid ambiguity with the United States of America. When continents are defined as discrete landmasses, embracing all the contiguous land of a body, then Asia, Europe and Africa form a single continent known by various names such as Afro-Eurasia. This produces a four-continent model consisting of Afro-Eurasia, America, Antarctica and Australia. As an example, the International Olympic Committee (and the Olympic logo) shows North and South America as a single continent. This is also taught in Latin American countries, Greece and some areas of Europe. In fact, until World War II, Atlasses considered both North and South America as a single continent (Martin W. Lewis and Kären E. Wigen (1997). The Myth of Continents: a Critique of Metageography. BerkeleyPress, University of California, p. 32.  Also "The Olympic Flag"  Extract from: Textes choisis II, p.470. (written in 1931).

(See the next post, “More Comments Answered -- Part III,” for more answers to comments submitted in this blog)