Comparison of Book of Mormon and Mesoamerican Dates

Brant Gardner’s March 17, 2025, Interpreter Blog post on the life of Mormon in conventional chronological sequence is very interesting.^[1] More importantly, that chronological sequence can be usefully applied to an ancient context in which actual contemporary Mesoamerican records have been recovered and translated. Gardner himself has actually applied our historical knowledge about that region and its most prominent events – suggesting, for example, that the Gaddiantons are to be identified with the powerful warrior class of Teotihuacan, and that they are the primary cause of the demise of the Nephites at the close of the Book of Mormon (Helaman 2:12-14), just as the secret combinations had been for the much earlier Jaredite demise.^[2]

Indeed, Mesoamerican anthropologists have discovered a number of stelae and statuettes engraved with precision dates within the Book of Mormon period:

It would be wonderful if we could correlate such dates with specific Book of Mormon events. For example, a warrior named Eagle-Striker became the ruler of Teotihuacán in 374 AD. Acting at the behest of Eagle-Striker (formerly “Spearthrower-Owl”), Fire-is-Born (Sihyaj K’ahk’) conquered Mayan Tikal in January 378 AD. Sixty years later in 414 AD., the Marcador was dedicated at Tikal, prominently featuring the name of Eagle-Striker (Stuart 2022).^[3] Fire-is-Born (Sihyaj K’ahk’), Lord-of-the-West (Ochkin Kaloomte; formerly known as “Smoking-Frog”), arrived in Waka, Guatemala (El Perú, on the San Pedro River), on January 8, 378 AD. He was welcomed by the ruler there, Sun-Faced-Jaguar. He also came from powerful Teotihuacán in faraway central Mexico. By January 16th, Fire-is-Born had conquered Tikal, executed the king there (Chak Tok Ich’aak), and installed the son of his patron (Eagle-Striker) as the new king – the ancestor of Stormy-Sky, who recalled the event 60 years later on Tikal Stela 31 and on the Marcador. Tikal would later reach out and conquer even Copán, Honduras, in AD 426 (Gugliotta 2007:74-85).

“Eagle-Striker” calls to mind the possible meaning of the name of a Nephite military commander, Teancum (Alma 50:35 – 62:36), which could be derived from hypothetical Sumerian *Te-an-kam “Eagle-of-Heaven [Aquila].”^[4] A similar etymology could be applied to Teancum’s fellow warrior, Teomner (Alma 58:16-23), perhaps from hypothetical Sumerian *Te-uma-ŋir “The-Eagle-triumphant-over-the-Scorpion; Aquila-victorious-over-Scorpio.” These would not be out of place as carryovers of the Jaredite-Olmec warrior caste tradition (part of secret combinations?).

Mesoamerican peoples had a strong ideology of time:^[5]

By any account the calendrical script of the Maya remains quite exceptional in integrating astronomical and social time, cosmology and history, within the same formal and semiotic system from the very start. (Brotherston 1979:248)

For example, Katun 8 Ahau of 179 AD (8.7.0.0.0) accompanied the shift in power from Late Preclassic El Mirador to Early Classic Tikal, whose ascendancy was soon linked with Teotihuacán — where the Early Classic begins quite early (Coe 1994:89). The next katun 8 Ahau began in 435 AD, and has been mentioned above in connection with the later "Hiatus" (534-613 AD). It was also the beginning of baktun 9 in the Long Count (9.0.0.0.0), and involved the rapid expansion of Classic Maya sites with the full complement of the traditional core ceremonial complex: Copán, Quirigua, Piedras Negras, Altar de Sacrificios, Yaxchilan, Oxkintok, Calakmul, Naranjo, and Caracol. Likewise, Chichen was supposed to have been discovered by the Itza (at katun 6 Ahau). Lord Yax Kuk Mo’, for example, apparently came from central Mexico to Copán, Honduras, with his retinue, took over and began to rule at the beginning of baktun 9 (8 Ahau 13 Ceh, 9.0.0.0.0 = 11 Dec 435 AD), and his dynasty continued to rule Copán until the end of baktun 9, four hundred years later, i.e., the dynasty ruled for one baktun (Schele & Freidel 1990:311-313).

Such carefully dated events and synchronisms led archeologist John E. Clark to comment that

A correspondence that has always impressed me involves prophecies in 400-year blocks. The Maya were obsessed with time, and they carved precise dates on their stone monuments that began with the count of 400 years, an interval called a baktun. Each baktun was made up of 20 katuns, an extremely important 20-year interval. If you permit me some liberties with the text, Samuel the Lamanite warned the Nephites that one baktun “shall not pass away before . . . they [would] be smitten” (Helaman 13:9). Nephi and Alma uttered the same baktun prophecy, and Moroni recorded its fulfillment. Moroni bids us farewell just after the first katun of this final baktun, or 420 years since the “sign was given of the coming of Christ” (Moroni 10:1). What are the chances of Joseph Smith guessing correctly the vigesimal system of timekeeping and prophesying among the Maya and their neighbors over 50 years before scholars stumbled onto it?^[6]

For these reasons, I would like to suggest that we need greater precision in calculating dates within the Book of Mormon – so as to find possible synchronisms with Mesoamerican dates.. For the life of Mormon, for example, the following chronology is based on a careful reassesssment of dates internal and external to the Book of Mormon.

(The following tables have a column for “tuns.” A tun is a 360-day year in the Mayan understanding. The Maya knew the length of the solar year, but they used the tun year because it was mathematically more elegant.)

LIFE OF MORMON

How do we know that these dates are accurate in real time?

The Book of Mormon is a set of annals embedded in a systematic chronological matrix. Editor Mormon states that Jesus was executed at 33 years and 3 days of age (in his 34^th year on the 4^th day; III Ne 8:5). Since we know from the Gospels that Jesus was crucified on 14 or 15 Nisan (at the beginning of a Passover), this not only tells us that the Nephite year was not in sync with the Old World Jewish year, but also that we have the bare bones of an equation which can provide the exact day and year in which Jesus was born. We need only fill in two more elements in order to do the math. Those two elements are (1) the absolute date of Lehi leaving Jerusalem, and (2) the birth of Jesus 600 “years” later:

Mormon states that Lehi left Jerusalem in the first year of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah (III Ne heading; cf. I Ne 1:4). Contemporary Neo-Babylonian cuneiform tablets make it clear that Jerusalem surrendered on 2 Adar (Julian March 16) 597 BC, King Jehoiachin was quickly deposed, and thus that Zedekiah was enthroned by 10 Nisan 597 BC^[8] (Julian April 22, 597 BC). The birth of Jesus was prophesied to take place 600 years after Lehi left Jerusalem, i.e., 600 years after Zedekiah’s first year (I Ne 10:4, 19:8, II Ne 25:19; cf. Hela 14:2, III Ne hdg, 1:1, 2:8). Given those premises, along with the application of the well-known 360-day year, the math is pretty straightforward, demonstrating that Jesus was most likely born in the Fall of 6 BC, and that he was crucified in the Spring of 28 AD (the 360-day years losing 6 months in 33 solar years [precession]). This suggests that he began his ministry in the Fall of 26 AD with a formal announcement of the Sabbatical Year of release (Lk 4:17-21; Isa 61:1-2). This would be most appropriate at the New Year (Rosh haShana) or Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), although Isaiah 61 is not a fixed lection (Jewish haftarah). This provides us with the following abbreviated chronological sequences:^[9]

LEHI’S CALL & EXIT FROM JERUSALEM

JERUSALEM DESTROYED

BIRTH OF CHRIST

DEATH OF CHRIST

Endnotes