Bom Mesoamerica Correlation In 3 Ne 8?

[SeattleGrunge]

I noticed what seems to me to be a nice bulls eye for the BOM and Mesoamerica in 3 Nephi 8:1-2.

And now it came to pass that according to our record, and we know our record to be true, for behold, it was a ^bjust man who did keep the record—for he truly did ^cmany ^dmiracles in the ^ename of Jesus; and there was not any man who could do a miracle in the name of Jesus save he were cleansed every whit from his iniquity—

2 And now it came to pass, if there was no mistake made by this man in the reckoning of our time, the ^athirty and third year had passed away;

These verses shows that the Nephites saw the position of time keeper as a sacred duty and that they wanted a righteous person to do it. Increased accuracy came with increased righteousness. This seems significant because I don't know if the Israelites put the same amount of importance on time keeping as did those in Mesoamerica. Similarly, in JS's day, I don't think anyone put religious significance in the ability to keep track of the calendar (unless you can convince me something like the Zodiac "signs" are the same here and that JS was into that back in the BOM writing days).

I looked in Brant Gardner's Second Witness series book on verse one and two. It didn't mention anything about this. When I think of Mesoamerican religious practices this is one of the two big things that come to mind... time keeping and human sacrifices. As far as I am aware, nothing was known at the time about the importance the Mesoamerican culture put on time keeping. Therefore, with how this is described in this verse, I think it is a potential bulls eye.

Any thoughts?

[morgan.deane]

There was a presentation on this topic not to long ago. First annual "Expound Conference": Mark Alan Wright

“Nephite Daykeepers: Ritual Specialists in the Book of Mormon

If anybody has a copy of it I would love to read more.

[Brant Gardner]

There is a lingering idea that the Maya "worshipped" time. That is a holdover from the days when dates were the only thing that could be read. It is certain that they dated events, but it was the events that were important, not time itself.

In that context, it certainly fits that there was someone recording events and keeping track of the passage of time, but that is so general a function that it really doesn't point to any particular culture. Any culture keeping a record that marks the years qualifies.

Mark's presentation on the daykeeprs is available online and I would encourage people to watch it. He hasn't yet turned it into a paper, but I have encouraged him to do so (fortunately, right after he revisited the presentation and also thought it should be turned into a paper). Of course, who knows when we will see it, but in the meantime, check the video.

[livy111us]

Mark Wright's lecture on this topic is on the FAIR Youtube site here:

I know that they plan on publishing all of the lectures from the Expound symposium in book form but am unsure when it will be finished. Mark's lecture will be included in that book, with citations I'm sure.

[SeattleGrunge]

Thanks Brant for the information. That makes sense.

[Astral_Lds]

I feel that anyone who wants to understand the the Maya's concept of time needs to read David Stuarts Order of days.