“My Father Lehi Spake Unto Us”

Alan C. Miner

According to the analysis of Stela 5 by Wells Jakeman (Stela 5, Izapa), one of the seated figures on the left of the tree clearly represents an old man (the long full beard and hunched back), who seems to be saying something about the tree to the other persons seated nearby, just as we should expect ancient Nephite artists to have portrayed the prophet Lehi of the Book of Mormon. (p. 14)

The long, full beard (much heavier than expected) worn by this man strongly suggests that he as well as the other persons represent people of the Caucasoid race (p. 16).

He has a repousse nose, and wears long ear-pendants and a high pointed turban or mitre. This high pointed turban or mitre resembles the high pointed turban or mitre worn by ancient Judean Israelite priests (and to a lesser degree that worn by the Assyrian kings), even appearing to be draped with folds of cloth parted in front, just as the ancient Near Eastern mitres (pp. 16,17)

Obviously the principal person in the event here depicted, he sits apparently cross-legged oriental-fashion, on a cushion… . Facing the tree, he is evidently saying something concerning it to the five other persons seated nearby. He was very probably a man of special religious learning, since the tree he is evidently speaking about is the Tree of Life, one of the most sacred religious symbols of ancient America (p. 16).

He seems also to be of priestly authority, since he appears to be making while he speaks, a burnt offering upon an altar. We should note here that Lehi and his people are identified in the Book of Mormon as ancient Israelites of the Near East, a ceremonious people who frequently made burnt offerings upon altars; in fact small, portable, incense altars called “tables of offerings,” somewhat like the altar shown here, were especially common in Israelite families at the time of Lehi (p. 17).

He seems to have an emblem of some kind held above him. This strongly indicates that it is a hieroglyph recording his name. Now this emblem--apparently a name-glyph--is unquestionably the cipactli or ‘crocodile’ symbol of ancient Mesoamerican hieroglyphics (p. 18). It was employed as a hieroglyph for the name of a certain old man of ancient times called by the Aztecs Cipactonal, who was held by them to have invented the calendar, with the help of his wife (p. 19). This old couple of ancient Mesoamerican tradition--the “great father” and “great mother” were reported to have been the ancestors of the ancient inhabitants of the Guatemala Quiche region after “the flood,” i.e. the old man “Cipactonal” or “Ixpiyacoc“ and old woman ”Oxomoco“ or ”Ixmucane" (pp. 23-24).

The cipactli glyph here is not only the general name glyph, “Cipactonal,” but more specifically a glyph recording the personal name of this particular old man “Cipactonal”--symbolically, by depicting its meaning- -as the Book of Mormon name Lehi. For the meaning of the name Lehi is the jaws--especially the upper jaw--in side view, i.e. “cheek.” The cipactli glyph, held above the old bearded man, mainly depicts a pair of huge jaws (those of the crocodile)--especially the upper jaw--in side view, i.e. a great cheek! That is, this glyph is essentially a portrayal of what the name Lehi means. It therefore constitutes-- whether intended or not--a symbolic recording of that name (pp. 32-33).

According to Chiapan tradition, the twenty named days of the Sacred Almanac were so named by this “Cipactonal” and his associates in “Nachan” after twenty ancient “lords” the first of whom was “Imox” (or “Imix,” i.e. “Cipactonal”), evidently the ancestor of the ancient peoples of Chiapas; i.e., the name of this ancestor and first lord was adopted as the name of the first day of the religious calendar which day became known as Imox (Imix)[Mayan] or Cipactli, “Crocodile,” [Nahuatl or Aztec](p. 34). A confirmation of this reconstruction is found in the fact that the name Mox (pronounced Mosh, the letter x in Mayan orthography having the sound of English sh given the first lord or ancestor of the ancient peoples of northern Central America in the Chiapan tradition, and the name Imox (Imosh) or Imix (Imish) given the cipactli or crocodile symbol of the first lord and also his calendar day in the Maya and Quiche Mayan languages, duplicate very closely in form and exactly in meaning the Egyptian word msh, ”crocodile"! (pp. 16-33). [Wells Jakeman, Stela 5, Izapa, pp. 14-34]

1 Nephi 8:2 I have seen a vision ([Illustration] Beautiful wood carving of Stela 5, a possible representation of the dream of the Tree of Life, discovered with 21 other stelae and 19 altars at Izapa in southern Mexico. In one of the earliest studies of Stela 5, an archaeologist, M. Wells Jakeman, found 22 correspondences and 114 points of agreement between the Izapa carving and the written accounts of Nephi and Lehi’s Tree of Life visions. [Scot F. Proctor and Maurine J. Proctor, Light from the Dust, p. 31]

[1 Nephi 8:4] A Dark and Dreary Wilderness:

Hugh Nibley explains that in his dreams Lehi finds himself wandering “in a dark and dreary waste,” a “dark and dreary wilderness,” where he must travel “for the space of many hours in darkness,” lost and helpless (1 Nephi 8:4-8). Of all the images that haunt the early Arab poets this is by all odds the commonest; it is the standard nightmare of the Arab; and it is the supreme boast of every poet that he has traveled long distances through dark and dreary wastes all alone. Invariably darkness is given as the main source of terror (the heat and glare of the day, though nearly always mentioned, are given second place), and the culminating horror is almost always a “mist of darkness,” a depressing mixture of dust, and clammy fog, which, added to the night, completes the confusion of any who wander in the waste. [See 1 Nephi 8:23] [Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, F.A.R.M.S., p. 43]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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