Excerpt from “Cumorah revisited”, Charles A. Shook, 1910: 1
“Instead of ”Re-formed Egyptian” many of the “Caractors” are deformed English, as any one will observe who will compare them with English letters, figures and signs.”
Book of Mormon Characters Examined, Dan Vogel – https://youtu.be/aMPFKZ2E4MM
References
| 1 | “Cumorah revisited”, Charles A. Shook, 1910 – https://archive.org/details/cumorahrevisited00shoo |
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Topic: Hill Cumorah Cave
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From Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 17 June 1877: 1
“Oliver Cowdery went with the Prophet Joseph when he deposited these plates. Joseph did not translate all of the plates; there was a portion of them sealed, which you can learn from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. When Joseph got the plates, the angel instructed him to carry them back to the hill Cumorah, which he did. Oliver says that when Joseph and Oliver went there, the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room. He says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day. They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table that stood in the room. Under this table there was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls. The first time they went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall; but when they went again it had been taken down and laid upon the table across the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written these words: “This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ.” I tell you this as coming not only from Oliver Cowdery, but others who were familiar with it, and who understood it just as well as we understand coming to this meeting. . . . [Don] Carlos Smith was a young man of as much veracity as any young man we had, and he was a witness to these things. Samuel Smith saw some things, Hyrum saw a good many things, but Joseph was the leader.”
From The Journal of Wilford Woodruff, December 11, 1869: 2
“December 11, 1869: At School of the Prophets: President Young said in relation to Joseph Smith returning the plates of the Book of Mormon, that he did not return them to the box from where he had received them. But he went into a cave in the Hill Cumorah with Oliver Cowdery and deposited those plates upon a table or shelf and in that room were deposited a large amount of gold plates, containing sacred records; and when they first visited that room, the sword of Laban was hanging upon the wall and when they last visited it, the sword was drawn from the scabbard and lain upon the table, and a messenger who was the keeper of the room informed them that that sword would never be returned to its scabbard until the Kingdom of God was established upon the earth and until it reigned triumphant over everyone. Joseph Smith said that cave contained tons of choice treasures and records. ”
From the Journal of Discourses, 28 September 1856. In response to a Brother Mills’s statement about the handcart pioneers, Heber C. Kimball said: 3
“How does it compare with the vision that Joseph and others had, when they went into a cave in the hill Cumorah, and saw more records than ten men could carry? There were books piled up on tables, book upon book. Those records this people will yet have, if they accept of the Book of Mormon and observe its precepts, and keep the commandments.”
From Orson Pratt, The Contributor, September 1882: 4
“But the grand repository of all the numerous records of the ancient nations of the western continent, was located in another department of the hill, and its contents put under the charge of holy angels, until the day should come for them to be transferred to the sacred temple of Zion.”
Hill Cumorah Cave, Joseph Smith Foundation – http://www.josephsmithfoundation.org/wiki/hill-cumorah-cave/
Cumorah’s Cave, Cameron J. Packer, BYU – https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&httpsredir=1&article=1360&context=jbms
References
| 1 | Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 17 June 1877 – http://jod.mrm.org/19/36 |
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| 2 | The Journal of Wilford Woodruff, December 11, 1869 – https://archive.org/stream/WoodruffWilfordJournalSelections/Woodruff_Wilford_Journal_Selections_djvu.txt |
| 3 | Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, 28 September 1856 – http://jod.mrm.org/4/105 |
| 4 | Orson Pratt, The Contributor, September 1882 – https://archive.org/details/contributor0312eng |
Excerpt from the ‘Book of Mormon and DNA Studies’, LDS Gospel Topic Essay: 1
The evidence assembled to date suggests that the majority of Native Americans carry largely Asian DNA. Scientists theorize that in an era that predated Book of Mormon accounts, a relatively small group of people migrated from northeast Asia to the Americas by way of a land bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska. These people, scientists say, spread rapidly to fill North and South America and were likely the primary ancestors of modern American Indians.
Spencer W. Kimball
The Lamanite: Their Burden, Our Burden
Feb. 9, 1967 2
(0:00)
My beloved brothers and sisters. My fellow Indian students. It’s a joy to be with you and I appreciate this privilege of being with you, especially this week, during the Indian week.The Indian is the Lamanite. They are South Americans, Central Americans, Mexican, Polynesian and other Lamanites running into millions who are not specifically called Indians though they are related Lamanites.
The Lamanites are a mixture of many. Undoubtably there is in their veins the blood of Nephi, Joseph and Jacob as well as that of Laman, Lemuel and Sam. Also of the Mulekites of Judah. They are not Orientals. They are from the Near East. The twelve apostles who were associated with the prophet Joseph proclaimed this to the world. Quoting “He, the Lord, has revealed the origin and the records of the aboriginal tribes of America and their future destiny, and we know it.”
We also bear testimony that the Indians, so-called, of North and South America are a remnant of the tribes of Israel. Through the centuries, movements, discovery, explorations, settlement and colonization of the people of this land—it is not impossible that there could have seeped across the Bering Strait a little oriental blood as claimed by some people. And possibly a little Norse blood may have crossed the North Atlantic. But basically these Lamanites, including the Indian, are the descendants of Lehi, who left Jerusalem 600 years BC. In the general sense, we are the Gentiles having come from Gentile nations. The name ‘Indians’, given to the early possessors of the Americas by Columbus, as they intermarried with the invading European conquerers and nations were formed, they became Mexicans, Peruvians, Bolivians, Guatemalans and others. But the correct name for all the descendants of Lehi and Ishmael is Lamanite.
This is an honorable name. It was the Lord who so designated it. Every descendant of Lehi should proudly say “I am a Lamanite, and I am proud of my heritage.” The Book of Mormon was written to the laminates who are a remnant of Israel, for the express purpose of convincing the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the eternal God. And that the Lamanites might know their ancestors and the spectacular promises of the Lord to them.
(4:25)
Wilford Woodruff, president of the Lords church, identified many of the larger tribes as Lamanites. President Joseph Smith and John Taylor called them lamanites as have all the presidents and leaders of the church since. And so we look upon the name as proper and dignified and fully acceptable. The Lord consistently called his people the Lamanites.(4:58)
He [Moroni] probably saw with rather clear vision the deterioration, becoming savages without a written language, ignorant, superstitious and without God in their lives.(5:29)
Undoubtably, he [Moroni] saw the inspired Columbus bridge the mighty deep and bring two worlds together. The explorers, the discoverers, the conquerers, the colonists, peopled the land. He would have seen the growing gentile nation throw off the thralldom of it’s mother country in the great revolutionary war. There, developing a constitution, and freedom, and all of this was in preparation for the restoration of the gospel with the Book of Mormon.(15:18)
Whereas the Lamanites had been as numerous as the sands of the sea, through disease and warfare these numbers had dwindled by the time Columbus came. Likely there were fewer in the whole land left, than were killed in the one battle of Cumorah.
References
| 1 | Book of Mormon and DNA Studies, LDS Gospel Topic Essay – https://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-and-dna-studies?lang=eng |
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| 2 | The Lamanite: Their Burden, Our Burden, BYU Speeches (audio) – https://teknik.byu.edu/talks/spencer-w-kimball_lamanite-burden-burden/ |
Image: The Hill Comorah is a drumlin in Manchester, New York, United States, where Joseph Smith said he found a set of golden plates which he translated into English and published as the Book of Mormon.
In the text of the Book of Mormon, “Cumorah” is a hill located in a land of the same name, which is “a land of many waters, rivers and fountains”. In this hill, a Book of Mormon figure, Mormon, deposited a number of metal plates containing the record of his nation of Nephites, just prior to their final battle with the Lamanites in which at least 230,000 people were killed.
From the BYU publication ‘Journal of Book of Mormon Studies’, Archaeology and Cumorah Questions, 2004 —John E. Clark
In accord with these general observations about New York and Pennsylvania, we come to our principal object—the Hill Cumorah. Archaeologically speaking, it is a clean hill. No artifacts, no walls, no trenches, no arrowheads. The area immediately surrounding the hill is similarly clean. Pre-Columbian people did not settle or build here. This is not the place of Mormon’s last stand. We must look elsewhere for that hill. The Palmyra hill is still a sacred place and was the repository of the golden plates and other relics placed there by Moroni. How Moroni made his way to this place and constructed his time capsule of artifacts is a historic adventure for another time.”
From an October 16, 1990 letter from the secretary of the First Presidency addressing a question from a Brother Sparks about the location of the Hill Cumorah referenced in the Book of Mormon:
Dear Bishop Brooks:
l have been asked to forward to you for acknowledgment and handling the enclosed copy of a letter to President Gordon B. Hinckley from Ronnie Sparks of your ward. Brother Sparks inquired about the location of the Hill Cumorah mentioned in the Book of Mormon, where the last battle between the Nephites and Lamanites took place.
The Church has long maintained, as attested to by references in the writings of General Authorities, that the Hill Cumorah in western New York state is the same as referenced in the Book of Mormon.
The Brethren appreciate your assistance in responding to this inquiry, and asked that you convey to Brother Sparks their commendation for his gospel study.
Crash Course: