“I Beheld Your Mother Sariah”

Alan C. Miner

According to the analysis of Stela 5 by Wells Jakeman, the position and role of the person (fig. #2) seated directly behind the old man corresponding to Lehi and in attendance upon him, are much what we might expect ancient artists among the descendants of Lehi to have given Sariah, in a portrayal of the Lehi Tree-of-Life episode.

It will be observed that this person has an old-appearing but beardless face. Note also that only this person (the old woman) and the old man, among the six figures are shown seated on cushions; which indicates that these two were the elder members of the group (p. 12).

This figure wears a headdress that is most unusual for known Mesoamerican art representations: a tall crown or tiara, consisting of two contiguous roll-or band-like elements at the base, probably encircling the head, and what appear to be two tall feathers (or leaves?) rising upward there from side by side, enclosed at the bottom and sides by a pair of long horns. We find that this crown or tiara closely duplicates a certain crown seen in ancient Egyptian representations . . . which identifies the wearer as a queen or princess (e.g., as seen worn by the young wife of King Tutankhamen, in the latter's tomb; and by the last Queen Cleopatra, in a carving on the temple at Denderah) (p. 36).

It is therefore of considerable significance when the Izapa carving is viewed in the light of the Book of Mormon account. It constitutes a Near Eastern-like motif in the carving . . . Secondly, it confirms the indications brought out earlier in this study that the person shown wearing this crown was a woman ("Oxomoco" or "Ixmucane" of Mesoamerican tradition), as was the corresponding person of the Book of Mormon account, Sariah the wife of Lehi. Thirdly, its apparent identification of the person wearing it as not only a woman but a queen or princess is not improbably in further agreement with the Book of Mormon, since the corresponding person of that account, Sariah, may well have come to be regarded as a queen by the people of Lehi (having been the wife of Lehi, their first leader or ruler). Finally, its signification of "princess" closely agrees with the name of this corresponding person Sariah of the Book of Mormon account. For the meaning of the basic part of this person's name, Hebrew sarah, is also "princess"! (Sariah, "Princess of Yahweh"). In other words, this crown can be considered as actually a kind of name-glyph (derived from an Egyptian symbol, just as expected), giving the name of the person wearing it as the Book of Mormon name Sariah (p. 37). [Wells Jakeman, Stela 5, Izapa, pp. 12,18,36-37]

1 Nephi 8:14 I beheld your mother Sariah ([Illustration]): Horned-and-Feathered Crowns. Left: horned and feathered crown worn by figure 2 of the Izapa carving; right: the ancient Egyptian horned and feathered crown signifying 'queen' or 'princess' (an example of the crown worn by the young wife of King Tutankhamen, in a scene on the back of a throne found in the latter's tomb). [Wells Jakeman, Stela 5, Izapa, Plate 7]

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

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