long ago ideas

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago." - Friedrich Nietzsche. Long ago, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery conquered false claims that the Book of Mormon was fiction or that it came through a stone in a hat. But these old claims have resurfaced in recent years. To conquer them again, we have to return to what Joseph and Oliver taught.

Monday, October 14, 2024

Columbus vs Cabot

Today is Columbus Day.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/10/11/a-proclamation-on-columbus-day-2024/

Last week I was in Nova Scotia, which reminded me about the discovery of North America by John Cabot.

highway from Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia
(click to enlarge)

Many Latter-day Saints think that Nephi was referring to Columbus in this passage.

12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land. 

(1 Nephi 13:12)

It's a reasonable interpretation that makes sense, but other interpretations are also reasonable. And it doesn't really tell us much about history or geography, other than our inference that Nephi saw future Europeans coming to the Western Hemisphere.

Nevertheless, some M2Cers (promoters of the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory) claim that this identification of Columbus as the "man among the Gentiles" who "went forth... unto the seed of my brethren" means that the Book of Mormon events took place in Mesoamerica because Columbus never reached North America, per se.

It's an irrational argument for several reasons. 

1. Regardless of where Nephi and his descendants lived during through 400 AD, the "seed of [his] brethren" undoubtedly migrated far and wide, intermarried with other indigenous people, etc. Thus, if the prophets were correct about the New York Cumorah, by 1492 (over 1,000 years after the Cumorah battle) the "seed of [Nephi's] brethren" would be found throughout the Western Hemisphere. No matter where Columbus landed in the Western Hemisphere, he would have encountered the "seed of [Nephi's] brethren."

2. The passage doesn't say the "man among the Gentiles" was the first to "discover" the Western Hemisphere. Even if that is implied, there is evidence that Europeans "discovered" the Western Hemisphere long before Columbus, any of whom fit the description in verse 12.

Verse 12 is part of a larger passage.

10 And it came to pass that I looked and beheld many waters; and they divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren.

 11 And it came to pass that the angel said unto me: Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of thy brethren.

12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.

 13 And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.

14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten.

(1 Nephi 13:10–14)

3. Verse 12 works as a description of John Cabot as well as Columbus. Cabot, of course, landed somewhere in North America. 




Map by Evan T Jones - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54725020




For more info on Cabot, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cabot

4. There is evidence that Columbus was Jewish, not Gentile.

https://www.sciencealert.com/dna-reveals-a-surprise-twist-about-christopher-columbus

Although verse 12 might accommodate Columbus as a Jew ("a man among the Gentiles"), verse 13 refers to "other Gentiles," which wouldn't make sense if the "man among the Gentiles" was not himself a Gentile. 

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While we have come to expect our M2C friends to us Columbus as evidence that the prophets were wrong about Cumorah, it's easy to see that their arguments are irrational. We can all recognize that whether or not verse 12 refers to Columbus, it doesn't change the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

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BTW, the Bay of Fundy is famous for having the highest tides in the world. In one area they've measured tides up to 53 feet. On the Oregon coast, the highest tides we get are about 10 feet.

https://www.bayoffundy.com/about/highest-tides/

Low tide in the Bay of Fundy 
(click to enlarge)



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