Los Lunas Decalogue (c) 2007, David Grant Stewart, Sr.

Transcription

1 Los Lunas Decalogue (c) 2007, David Grant Stewart, Sr. Photos courtesy of Ancient American magazine (Samuel Oshmier, Pilgrimage to New Mexico s Mystery Mountain, Ancient American 66:2-4). Used with permission from AA staff. See also: Lydia Rome, New Mexico s Mystery Rock, Ancient American 65: This rock is on a hill near Los Lunas, New Mexico, and is claimed to be a Hebrew version of the Ten Commandments.

2 It has been known since before New Mexico became a territory in 1850, so it can hardly be a hoax. It is inscribed on Basalt a very hard material with a depth of 0.25 inches. A transcription attributed to Barry Fell is given here. Some of the words are separated incorrectly in the transcription where they are correct in the rock engraving, but the transcription is better than nothing. Here is the translation provided at the site referenced above: I am Yahweh your God that brought you out of the lands of Egypt. 1. You shall not have any other gods besides me. 2. You shall not make for yourself any graven image. 3. You shall not take the name of Yahweh in vain. 4. Remember the day of the Sabbath, to keep it holy. 5. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long on the land which Yahweh your God is giving to you. 6. You shall not murder. 7. You shall not commit adultery. 8. You shall not steal. 9. You shall not testify against your neighbor as a false witness. 10. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor anything of your neighbor's. This is not a real translation. It inserts words that are not on the stone (like Egypt ), and does not contain text that the stone includes (like spared you from the path of the sea ). It appears that the author of this rendition has looked for recognizable characters in the inscription that match the English translation of the Ten Commandments, while ignoring words, phrases, and characters not familiar to him. This rendition fails to capture any of the content of the original inscription that is not contained in or the Bible version. It therefore cannot be termed a translation, but only an attempt to match the inscription to an existing known text based on textual homologies. While the Ten Commandment explanation is the most dominant, several unrelated translations have been proposed by other authors. The Decalogue is perfectly apparent to any Hebraist. The nit-picky objections to characters being rotated are based upon ignorance. Characters were always changed in orientation according to the direction of the writing. Here is my translation of the inscription. I believe that it is the best translation of the inscription to date: I am the Lord thy God who took pity and spared you from the path There shall not be other gods before Me.

3 of the sea, from the house of bondage [and] from... Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor s wife, nor anything that is thy neighbor s. Notice that the third line is a continuation of the first line. The scribe originally intended to write everything double spaced and then came back and inserted the second line! This is why the first three lines are single spaced and all the rest of the inscription is double spaced. Apparently he was under duress. This is written in a reformed Hebrew. Both the characters and words and syntax are slightly altered from traditional Hebrew. Contrary to Internet claims, there is no Greek nor any other foreign influence whatsoever. The delta occurring in the engraving predates the Greek writing system altogether. There is no definite article anywhere in the text, something discarded as superfluous since the grammatical particle ET implies that anyway. Contextual analysis: This writing is on a stone on a hill which was fortified for military defense. Language analysis: This is a modified form of Hebrew used about 600 B.C. This record was written by the Nephites [white Israelites who migrated from Jerusalem to the Isthmus of Darien in the year 591 B.C. and settled in South America for 550 years before sending settlements to North America about 50 B.C.] during the military administration of General Mormon, between 375 and 384 A.D. How do I know? There was no permanent Nephite presence in North America before about 50 B.C. This is a fortified site. There were no wars between the Nephites in North America and the Lamanites before the year 320 A.D., hence no need for Nephite fortifications in North America before that date [4 Nephi 1:48, Mormon 1:8].

4 In the year 350 A.D. North America was inhabited only by Nephites [Mormon 2:28-29]. The first major Nephite fortifications in North America were built in the year 350 A.D. [Mormon 3:1]. The major fortification effort was spent in the area of Panama City [Mormon 3:4-6]. The Lamanites did not make a permanent breach in Nephite defenses at the city Desolation [Panama City] until the year 375 A.D. [Mormon 4:16-23]. The Nephites wrote in a modified form of Hebrew [Mormon 9:33]. I am not interested in debating those who believe that the entire Book of Mormon civilization was born, lived, and died in a tiny area of Central America. Let them believe as they wish: considerable and diverse data stands to the contrary. Geographic data will be discussed in a separate article. The fortified site of this engraving was certainly built between A.D. Before that time, there would be no point in building a fortified settlement on the top of a rather inaccessible hill and fortifying it, by the people in question [Nephites]. After that time, there were no people who would have built such an installation with this language, nor the use it was put to. There is too much knowledge built into this engraving for it to be any kind of hoax, and the eyewitness records all serve to authenticate it. Now let s examine the characters we find in this engraving, and trace their origin or descendents: Nephite characters compared with related scripts Common origin is indicated by blue coloring. Phoenician 1450 B.C. Moabite 930 B.C. Nephite 600 B.C but modified down to A.D. Etruscan 600 B.C. a A a A b B b B g G g d Late Square Hebrew 100 A.D. T c Roman [from late Greek] 500 B.C. A B G

5 D D D s h H E E v V V Z Z Z Z x H H H y Y _ I K K K K l l L L m M M 2,m,M n n N N N b Uu x X O O O g p P P P p U r R R R \ \ \ S, T T T T V S,w v u z j y h f k m e r a w D H, later E V Z H, heavy J, Y K L M N S GN, O P, Ph, F TS Q, C R SH T Here we see that the affinity with other writing systems is directly correlated to the age of the writing system. If we didn t already know this was reformed 600 B.C. Hebrew, this chart would strongly suggest it. Etruscan writing is older than Roman. Moabite writing is older than Etruscan. Phoenician writing is older than Moabite.

6 Whoever wrote this had a profound knowledge of Hebrew. This is the purest form of Hebrew and of early Hebrew script I have seen. Internet writers have speculated a Greek influence. There is none whatsoever. There are only two Hebrew characters that do not exist in this engraving. The probability is that they do exist in other Nephite writings, because the letter C [called Q by modern scholars] such as we have in words like Cumorah [which would be called Qumorah by scholars] does exist in Nephite records. The shift in transliteration from C to Q is recent; as the time the Book of Mormon was translated, C was the accepted transliteration. Other changes we see in Nephite writings are the introduction of an F as in ziff and Zeniff. The letter F does not exist in Old World Hebrew. And the softening of the Old World Hebrew G: Old World Gershon, New World Jershon. We have enough characters now to identify positively any Nephite writings. No other language in the world uses this and only this set of characters. It is almost certain that this engraving was ordered to be made by General Mormon himself. He was the commander in chief at this time. I can t imagine anyone else ordering that it be made who was alive at that time and place, having either the authority or the inclination. The abridgement of the Ten Commandments is very intelligent and to the point. What we have here is a version adapted to military use as a list of concise standing orders. It is a brilliant piece of work, with all the essentials and nothing superfluous. This ought to be in every seminary manual on the Book of Mormon. This stone document suggests that we can translate any other Nephite records we may find in the future, provided they are not written in the reformed hieratic script, which has yet to be deciphered. I have not made any attempt in that direction as yet. That writing system was known to very few Nephites and reserved for records on metal plates; this one was known to all. The above table will assist any Hebraist in crossing the gap between Masoretic Hebrew and Nephite Reformed Hebrew with a good dictionary by Gesenius. We see that there is no Greek influence as claimed by some scholars. The Delta was used by Semitic languages in general, and old Hebrew in particular, seven hundred years before the Greek adopted it from the Phoenicians after they lost their own Linear B which was likewise borrowed from ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Second, we see that the Nephites simplified the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet and adapted it to their changing speech. When did this orthographic reform occur?

7 Alma 11:4 4 Now these are the names of the different pieces of their gold, and of their silver, according to their value. And the names are given by the Nephites, for they did not reckon after the manner of the Jews who were at Jerusalem; neither did they measure after the manner of the Jews; but they altered their reckoning and their measure, according to the minds and the circumstances of the people, in every generation, until the reign of the judges, they having been established by king Mosiah. This was about 91 B.C., and this was Mosiah II who standardized Nephite weights and measures. This is the most likely time for the orthographic reform also. We see the letter F for the first time also during this king s reign, which does not exist in Old World Hebrew, in words like Zeniff and ziff [platina]. It was necessary to visit personally the Los Lunas site to solve several problems: 1. How do you get there? Correct directions do not exist. 2. One visitor claims he saw vestiges of fortifications. All others say they have not seen any fortifications. Are there fortifications or not? 3. From the photographs, we get the idea that the Decalogue itself was remote from anything else insomuch that it was hard to find. Where, then, is it, and if it is remote from anything else, why is it even there? 4. One visitor claims there were other petroglyphs. Where are they, especially with respect to the Decalogue? 5. What is the context of the Decalogue? 6. Are there any artifacts left to provide further information, or will the absence of artifacts itself tell us something? 7. The Indians had a nasty habit of destroying all writing that was not theirs. How did this escape? 8. Why the bad grammar, Los Lunas? I took exactly one hundred digital photographs of the Decalogue site and the Chaco Canyon site, which is related to the former. To get to the Decalogue: 1. I-25 to the Los Lunas exit in New Mexico. This puts you on state highway Go northwest on highway 6 exactly 14.5 miles from the freeway.

8 3. On your left you will see the county dump transfer station entrance. Turn in there. 4. Over the tracks, on your left you will see a wide gate in the fence just before the transfer station payment booth. Turn left there unless the gate is closed. If it is closed, park there and walk through the gate. 5. Follow the dirt road. After a hundred yards or so it looks like a dry wash overgrown with weeds. Continue until you see a fence on your right with a gate in it. If your car is not bothered by four foot tumbleweeds, you should not need a four wheel drive. 6. Park by the gate and walk through it. Turn right and follow the dirt path parallel to the fence. 7. Perhaps fifty yards up the path you will see a path on the left leading into a ravine. Perhaps the arrow formed of rocks will still be there pointing up the path. Take this path. 8. Perhaps a hundred yards up the ravine you will see the Decalogue Stone on your left. I have photographs of every stage of the trip which I will post on the 72languages.com web site. You can follow them without any directions at all, if you know enough to get on state highway 6 going NW. We climbed the mountain and surveyed it with a metal detector and found nothing of ancient origin made of metal. I do not believe it has ever been surveyed before with a metal detector. At the top of every peak on the mountain, there was a cylindrical stone fire pit, blackened from fire on the inside, apparently used as a signal fire. Likewise at the top of every peak were dug in foxholes with walls of stone entirely surrounding them to the height of several feet. The foxholes were big enough for several standing soldiers or one sleeping one.

9 Rectangular foxholes. The mountain was very difficult and dangerous to climb by every approach. We could not find the Decalogue and gave up and returned homeward by way of the ravine, which seemed to be the only safe route. Then we found the Decalogue not far up the ravine from the base of the mountain.

10 My son Ben and the 10 Commandments near the entry of the ravine leading to the military observation and signaling post. We found no arrowheads. There were no traces of permanent habitation. This was a military observation and signaling station. Other petroglyphs on the site are almost all Indian. Yet it appears this site was rarely visited by Indians. Except to persons of exceptional physical constitution, the mountain top is inaccessible from all directions except by way of the ravine. (I took no little personal satisfaction in being able to reach the top the hard way, even if it was only because I did not know there was a better.) The ravine itself is quite obscured from view and hard to find if you didn t already know where it was. The large hill or small mountain was an ideal location for its purposes, being the only one in the immediate vicinity. I think it is safe to assume that no battle ever took place on this site, which suggests that it fulfilled its purpose well.

11 It appears that the purpose of the site was to provide advance warning of invaders from the southwest, to those farther north at Chaco Canyon, no doubt forwarded by intermediate sites. It appeared from the overgrown dirt road that no one had visited the site for at least one year. We drove north to visit the Chaco Canyon site, arriving near nightfall, and did a preliminary drive through survey. The next morning we walked through all of the Chaco structures and photographed every detail of their construction. Chaco Canyon structures were obviously built for military defense, having stone walls everywhere several feet thick. There were also holes carved into the sheer cliff surrounding the buildings, which supported stairways interrupted by successively higher platforms, leading to the top of the mesas or plateaus. That the defense posture deteriorated soon after the initial construction was evident from the fact that many of the windows were walled up completely, while others were walled up leaving only a very small opening. Another defensive feature was that the doors were mostly very small so that even a small adult would have to crawl through them, rendering himself defenseless to the occupants. Atop all the plateaus were observation stations to watch for distant signal fires, as relayed from Los Lunas and other forward observation points. Some structures were built right into cliff cavities as at Mesa Verde, still farther north, but they were not as extreme as at Mesa Verde which is suitable only for young adult males (e.g. at MV there are footholds carved into the sheer cliff rocks, with a thousand foot fall if you slip). Chaco was built for families, but heavily defended by thick stone walls and the surrounding canyon itself.

12 Chaco stone wall, in Chaco Canyon. Ben provides scale reference. By visiting the Los Lunas Decalogue site, you can easily see why this inscription escaped destruction by the Indians. Even if you know it is there, it is very hard to find unless you have very good directions. For the time frame in which these defensive structures were built, there purpose, and who commanded them to be built, I suggest this eyewitness account: Mormon 2:28 28 And the three hundred and forty and ninth year had passed away. And in the three hundred and fiftieth year we made a treaty with the Lamanites and the robbers of Gadianton, in which we did get the lands of our inheritance divided. Mormon 2:29 29 And the Lamanites did give unto us the land northward, yea, even to the narrow passage which led into the land southward. And we did give unto the Lamanites all the land southward. Chapter 3 Mormon 3:1

13 1 And it came to pass that the Lamanites did not come to battle again until ten years more had passed away. And behold, I had employed my people, the Nephites, in preparing their lands and their arms against the time of battle. Which puts it in the time frame of A.D. That leaves only one question unanswered. Why the bad grammar, Los Lunas? It isn t bad grammar. There are two ways of translating Los Lunas. One is the moons which assumes very bad grammar as well as bad logic. What are we doing with more than one moon? The other way is to assume that Lunas is a family name and therefore should remain untranslated, it which case it is grammatically correct to refer to the family name as a collective common noun. Since in Spanish, as in English, there is no common gender, the masculine plural pronoun is pressed into service. So in English we have The Smiths, and in Spanish we have Los Gomez, Los Martinez, and Los Lunas. A Spanish gentleman by the name of Domingo de Lunas was given a land grant in what is now New Mexico by the King of Spain and arrived to claim his possession on He married a gal by the name of Otero. The male line of Lunas died out over a hundred years ago, but Los Otero, the Otero family, remains still in the area. It was interesting to me to visit a site where General Mormon himself ordered the Ten Commandments to be posted in a place sufficiently prominent for all soldiers reporting for duty, but sufficiently inconspicuous that it could survive for over 1600 years for us to see today. In a future installment we will examine in detail the changes made in the New World to Old World Hebrew. They are all quite sensible, as you will see for yourself.