THREE

And Then It Came to Pass

And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.

(MORMON 9:32)

I HAD RENTED A CAR to drive from Merida, the capital city of the State of Yucatan, to Uxmal and then on to Chichen Itza. I didn't have any air conditioning in the car, so I had the window rolled down.

As I was leaving the city, I stopped at a traffic light. A young man came over to me and asked in Spanish if I would give him and his wife and young child a lift. They got in the car, and he told me he was going to a town called Muna, which is located close to the Maya ruins of Uxmal.

Although he and his wife were dressed in modem clothing, I knew they were of Maya descent; and I asked them if they spoke Maya. The young man's name was Chac Zui, and he did all of the talking. His wife, Nami, simply nodded in approval. Chac said that he spoke only Spanish because he grew up in the city. However, he said that his mother understood both Maya and Spanish and that his grandmother, to whose place they were going, understood a little Spanish but spoke mostly Maya.

I remember thinking about how the Maya language has been spoken for over 3,500 years; however, in this particular family, in just three generations, the family was beginning to lose the ability to speak the Maya language. The Mexican government is promoting the study of the Mayan language, as studies indicate that all of the groups who speak Mayan seem to have come originally from the same ancestral branch. The Yucatecan language, which is considered Maya, dates to 1600 BC.

The drive from Merida to Muna took only 35 minutes. During that time, we talked about how, in the 16th Century, a priest by the name of Diego de Landa burned some of the Maya record books at the nearby town of Mani and about how scholars are still working to decipher the Maya hieroglyphs.

As we approached the village of Muna, the women wearing their beautifully embroidered dresses were returning from the market where they had purchased the daily portions of food consisting of fruit, tortillas, and other items for the meals of the day.

Chac invited me to meet his grandmother, who lived in a thatch-covered home typical of all of the homes in the village. The hammocks were tied neatly against the wall, having served as beds for the family during the night. I observed that the architecture of the homes was very similar to the rooms you see at the 9th Century AD ruins of Uxmal in the area called the Quadrangle of the Nunnery.

The stove was belching forth smoke in a separate hut, and corn was stored in another small house located about 10 feet from the kitchen. Other houses the size of Chac's grandmother's house were located in the complex and were the sleeping quarters of the extended family. All in all, three sons and their wives and 15 grandchildren lived in the same complex.

Two pigs were tied not too far from the kitchen, and several chickens roamed throughout the yard. Orange trees and other fruit trees could also be seen in the yard.

Some of the women were sewing dresses and blouses to sell to tourists as well as at the local market. The men were in the field preparing their crops for the spring rains. The water for the homes was gathered in a cistern by the kitchen. During the rainy season, the cistern fills up; but during the dry season, water is brought in to the homes from the central water well, called a cenote.

I thanked the family for their hospitality. Because they knew of my interest in the Maya language, we chatted a little about some Maya words. I asked the grandmother if she knew what the word UTCHI meant. Without hesitation, she said, "Hace tiempo algo paso." Interpreted, that means, some time ago something happened, or in other words, AND IT CAME TO PASS.

AND IT CAME TO PASS

The phrase "and it came to pass" occurs in the English translation of the Book of Mormon 1,381 times. It appears 202 times in I Nephi alone. The Book of Alma records the highest number of "it came to pass" phrases, 431. Only the Book of Moroni fails to use the phrase "and it came to pass." 1 Sometimes the phrase is recorded as "NOW it came to pass" (Alma 62:37) or "FOR BEHOLD it came to pass" (Alma 43:4) or "BUT BEHOLD, it came to pass." (Alma 53:16)

In addition, the future or prophetic phrase such as "and it SHALL come to pass" (2 Nephi 29:13) is recorded another 95 times in the Book of Mormon. Only the small books of Jacob, Enos, and Onmi do not use the prophetic phrase "and it SHALL come to pass."

The phrase "and it came to pass" is not unique to the Book of Mormon, as the Bible utilizes the same introductory phrase. "And it came to pass," or one of its derivatives, occurs 526 times in the Old Testament and 87 times in the New Testament. This fact suggests that the phrase "and it came to pass" is Hebrew in origin and correlates with Nephi's statement, "Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians." (1 Nephi 1:2)

Mormon, whose writing style occupies most of the Book of Mormon, wrote:

And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.

And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record.

But the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; ... therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof. (Mormon 9:32-34)

Apparently, the Maya people, who lived in Southeast Mexico and Guatemala, may have adopted the phrase "and it came to pass." Recent discoveries in the translations of the glyphs of the 7th Century AD Maya ruins of Palenque (Figure 3-1) manifest the phrase "and then it came to pass" and "it had come to pass."2 Recently, another glyph has been interpreted as "and it shall come to pass."

The noted Maya scholar, Eric Thompson, first observed and recorded two glyphs that followed a pattern of marking dates. He called one the Anterior Date Indicator (ADI), and the second he labeled the Posterior Date Indicator (PDI). 3

In 1985, a young Mayanist scholar, David Stuart, observed that the ADI and PDI functioned as a grammatical and literary feature in both colonial and modem Maya languages. He speculated correctly when he interpreted the sound of the glyph as "Ut" in the Chol language and Utchi in the Maya language, meaning "to happen, or to come to pass." (Schele 1987:26)

Two years earlier, John Justeson and Will Norman found a consistency in an event indicator that appears as the word "IWAL," which means the action is ongoing at the time, such as "and" or "and then." Together, UT-IWAL in the PDI in Maya glyphs read "and then it came to pass" or "and now it came to pass."

Kathryn Josserand and Nicholas Hopkins discovered that the ADI has basically the same meaning. It reads ut-ix, "it had come to pass." (lbid) (See Figure 3-2.)

1Robert F. Smith presented a preliminary report to The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies in which he outlined the number of times the phrase "and it came to pass" appears in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. His report may be obtained by writing F.A.R.M.S, P.O. Box 7113, University Station, Provo, Utah 84602.

2Linda Schele teaches art at the University of Texas at Austin. She wrote her dissertation on the Maya verbs. She conducts a yearly Maya symposium at the University of Texas and is one of the leading scholars and enthusiasts in the interpretation of the Maya hieroglyphs.

3j ..Eric Thompson is the most noteworthy personality among the Maya investigators. His labeling and numbering of the glyphs are still used today for identification purposes. For example, "T126" in the literature refers to the glyph that Thompson numbered 126.

A simple reading of the Maya glyphs located on the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque indicates that they give the genealogy of the 7th-Century king, who has been given the name of Pacal. Pacal's tomb was discovered buried beneath the Temple of Inscriptions and was unearthed in 1952 by Alberto Ruz and his team of workers. (See Figure 3-3.)

An additional interpretation of the inscriptions located on the temple panels appears to justify why Pacal should be king. The panel gives both his genealogy as well as significant events in his own life. The interpretation reads like a job resume.

Hence, a summarized version of the glyphs on the Temple of Inscriptions, with a loose interpretation to emphasize the phrase "and it came to pass," might be as follows. The dates are representative of the dates on the Tomb of Pacal or the Temple of Inscriptions.

And Pacal was born March 6, 603 AD (9.8.9.13.0 8 Ahau 13 Pop) and descended from great kings throughout the centuries, whose names are here recorded. AND NOW IT CAME TO PASS that on the 29th of July, 615 AD (9.9.2.4.8 5 Lamat 1 Mol) Pacal was anointed to be king. AND IT CAME TO PASS that on the 25th of January, AD 633, he ascended to the throne. AND THEN IT CAME TO PASS that on the 30th of August, 684 AD, Pacal, the king, died.

In the Book of Mormon, the pattern is consistent with the grammatical and literary purpose in the Maya glyphs. Therefore, we can speculate that the record from which the Book of Mormon was translated manifested a phrase, or glyph, similar to what is recorded in the Maya hieroglyphs. Furthermore, we now know, as already stated, that the Lowland Maya did not invent writing in Mesoamerica. They simply adopted it from an earlier culture period between 600 BC and 50 AD. The beginnings of the Classic Maya writing system fall in the period from 200 BC to 50 AD. (Schele 1987:1)

Apparently, the best translation that could be given by the Prophet Joseph Smith, in correlation with the Maya language culture, is "and it came to pass" or 11 and now it came to pass." In the Spanish translation of the Book of Mormon, the term that is used is "y acontecio," meaning "and it happened." The English translation, taken directly from the gold plates, appears to give the best interpretation of the glyph, as it gives the connotation that the event is ongoing-"AND IT CAME TO PASS."

Figure 3-4 shows a drawing of the west tablet of the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque. The glyph "and it came to pass" is highlighted to illustrate the number of times it occurs in one panel.

A WRITTEN LANGUAGE

The great Maya scholar, Eric Thompson, writes, "Middle America is the only part of the new world in which a system of embryonic writing developed." (Thompson 1966:189) This writing system was developed during the Preclassic Period (600 BC-200 AD)-a time period that correlates directly with the Book of Mormon time period.

From 200 BC to 200 AD, writing was used extensively throughout Mesoamerica-from the lowland areas of the Peten Jungle to the Highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas. A strong written-language base has also been documented during the above-mentioned time period in the Pacific Lowlands, where the Tree-of-Life Stone was discovered. The use of a written language was first discovered at Monte Alban in Oaxaca, located west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. (Schele and Stuart 1969:5)

Over one-half of the Book of Mormon history occurred during the period from 200 BC-200 AD. During this time period, several significant events took place, such as King Benjamin's sermon that was written and circulated among the people:

And it came to pass that he began to speak to his people from the tower; and they could not all hear his words because of the greatness of the multitude; there fore he caused that the words which he spake SHOULD BE WRITTEN and sent forth among those that were not under the sound of his voice, that they might also receive his words. And these are the words which he spake and caused to BE WRITTEN .... (Mosiah 2:8-9)

Sometime between 145 BC and 121 BC, which falls precisely in the time period mentioned above when language was used extensively throughout Mesoamerica, the following occurred, as recorded in the Book of Mosiah:

And now the name of the king of the Lamanites was Laman, being called after the name of his father; and therefore he was called king Laman. And he was king over a numerous people.

And he appointed teachers of the brethren of Amulon in every land which was possessed by his people; and thus THE LANGUAGE OF NEPHI began to be taught among all the people of the Lamanites.

... they taught them that they should keep their record, AND . . . WRITE ONE TO ANOTHER. (Mosiah 24:3-4, 6)

Amulon was a Nephite-one of the priests of King Noah and he was a contemporary of Alma, who baptized at the Waters of Mormon. Amulon and some of the wicked priests of Noah married some Lamanite girls and, subsequently, became part of the Lamanite culture.

Of interest here is the fact that the Nephite written language was used by the Lamanites at the same time as the archaeological records in Mesoamerica affirm that the Maya used a written language extensively, a language that had been adopted from another culture. This suggests that the 125 BC Lamanite (Maya) people adopted their written language from the Nephites.

A very common type of record in Mesoamerica is called a codex. For the most part, codices consisted of written pages made from the bark of trees or from animal skins. The writing material was flattened and structured to fold in much the same way a map folds, as shown in Figure 3-5. The writing was accomplished in color with dye made of plants and animals.

From an incident that occurred during Alma and Amulek's missionary journey about 80 BC, the same time period under discussion, we learn that the Nephites also kept records on materials that would bum, as the people of the Nephite city, Ammonihah, burned the records and holy scriptures of the members of the church:

And they brought their wives and children together, and whosoever believed or had been taught to believe in the word of God they caused that they should be cast into the fire; and they also brought forth their RECORDS WHICH CONTAINED THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, and cast them into the fire also, that they might be burned and destroyed by fire. (Alma 14:8)

During the time period mentioned, histories and genealogies were not only written on codices but also were engraved on gold plates and stone monuments. The Book of Mormon was written on gold plates. Both archaeological evidence and the Book of Mormon affirm that significant dates and events were written on stone monuments.

LANGUAGE AT THE TIME OF THE CONQUEST

Because the time correlation and the language style of Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon so closely parallel each other, I will mention briefly the language base in existence at the time of the Spanish Conquest in Mesoamerica. Although the 16th-Century Maya were removed from the 200 AD Maya (Lamanites) by 1,300 years, a person still may expect to see language similarities between Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon.

The Aztecs, who lived in the Mexico City Valley at the time of the Conquest, spoke a language that is referred to as Nahuatl. The Aztecs were the dominant culture north and west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec at the time of the Conquest, in 1521. Most of the written documents dating from the 16th Century are in the Nahuatl language. Even today, the best estimates suggest that 4.5 million people, in and around Mexico City, speak the Nahuatl language.

A student of the Spanish language soon learns that, in Mexico, a person will be exposed to an additional vocabulary consisting of Nahuatl names. For example, the largest park in Mexico City is called CHAPULTEPEC Park, which is a Nahuatl name meaning grasshopper hill.

Although Guatemala is vastly removed from Mexico City, the Nahuatl language extends to there in names of cities, such as Quetzaltenango, Chichicastenango, and Huehuetenango. These are Aztec or Nahuatl names of cities that are located in Maya territory. Tenango means place of, or near to. Hence, Quetzat/tenango means place of the quetzal. The quetzal is a beautiful bird native to Guatemala and is depicted on the cover of this book.