5. Are Any Book of Mormon Cities Buried in Lakes?
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5. Are Any Book of Mormon Cities Buried in Lakes?
Copyright © 2015 by Jerry L. Ainsworth
In 3 Nephi, Christ names cities that were destroyed during the cataclysms at the time of His crucifixion—Jerusalem, Gilgal, Onihah, and Mocum.
And behold, the city of Gilgal have I caused to be sunk, and the inhabitants thereof to be buried up in the depths of the earth;
Yea, and the city of Onihah and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Mocum and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Jerusalem and the inhabitants thereof; and waters have I caused to come up in the stead thereof, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come up any more unto me against them. (3 Nephi 9:6–7)
Read separately, these verses suggest the following:
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Gilgal sank into the earth but was not covered by water;
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Onihah, Mocum, and Jerusalem were covered by water but did not sink into the earth.
Were verses 6 and 7 originally written as one thought?
I believe that verses 6 and 7 may originally have been written on the plates as a single thought. If so, the combined verse states that four cities sank into the depths of the earth, along with their inhabitants, and that water later covered the area where the land had cleaved together again (see 3 Nephi 10:10).
These verses are divided in a very unusual way. Verse 6 feels somewhat like a fragment of a sentence, ending in a semicolon rather than a period. Verse 7 then continues the sentence of verse 6, with “Yea, and the city of Onihah and the inhabitants thereof . . . ”
Verse 7 then explains that where these cities once stood, “Waters have I caused to come up in the stead thereof.” In other words, just like the city of Gilgal, the three other cities sank into the earth, and where these four cities had once stood, water swept in and covered the earth beneath which the cities were buried.
“Yea” Preceded by a Verse Ending in a Semicolon
Out of interest, I have checked the use of the expression “Yea, and . . . ” in the Book of Mormon, and it appears 280 times. In 123 cases, this expression appears in the middle of a sentence, following the semicolon of the previous sentence and then continuing with the same trend of thought in the same paragraph.
In 83 cases, the expression “Yea, and . . . ” appears at the beginning of a paragraph, but in only five of these cases does the previous paragraph end with a semicolon, as in 3 Nephi 9:6–7. Put another way, in addition to 3 Nephi 9:6–7, there are only four other places where one verse ends with a semicolon, to be followed by the next verse beginning with “Yea, and . . . ”
In these other four cases, the second verse, the one beginning with “Yea, and . . . ” is a continuation of the thought of the preceding verse—which ends in a semicolon (see Mosiah 18:9, Alma 9:22, Alma 13:22, and Helaman 8:9).
This discussion is a very laborious way of explaining that, in my opinion, 3 Nephi 9:6–7 should be read as one paragraph, not two, with verse 7 simply being a continuation of what is being described in verse 6.
Book of Mormon Not Broken into Chapters and Verses until 1879
Joseph Smith did not divide the Book of Mormon into chapters and verses. That task was undertaken by Orson Pratt in 1879, thirty-five years after the Prophet’s death. Pratt relied on his own skills and perceptions. He did not have access to the Urim and Thummim, as did Joseph Smith when the plates were translated.
Here are the two verses as I think they should appear, providing more clarity to what is being described in these two verses:
And behold, the city of Gilgal have I caused to be sunk, and the inhabitants thereof to be buried up in the depths of the earth; yea, and the city of Onihah and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Mocum and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Jerusalem and the inhabitants therefore; and waters have I caused to come in the stead thereof, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come up any more unto me against them. (3 Nephi 9:6–7; combined as one verse)
Reading the two paragraphs this way changes the meaning of the verses dramatically. Now the events being described are those of four cities sinking into the earth, and then waters fill up the area where these cities once stood.
Reading the verses this way allows the last comment of verse 7, “to hide their wickedness,” to apply to all four cities rather than to just three, an outcome that makes more sense to me.
The Blood of the Prophets and the Saints
Each verse in the text of 3 Nephi 9:5–9 except one ends with the wording “that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto me against them.” Verse 6 is the exception. To me, this is another indicator that verses 6 and 7 were originally one thought on the plates:
And behold, that great city Moronihah have I covered with earth, and the inhabitants thereof, to hide their iniquities and their abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto me against them.
And behold, the city of Gilgal have I caused to be sunk, and the inhabitants thereof to be buried up in the depths of the earth;
Yea, and the city of Onihah and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Mocum and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Jerusalem and the inhabitants thereof; and waters have I caused to come up in the stead thereof, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come up any more unto me against them.
And behold, the city of Gadiandi, and the city of Gadiomnah, and the city of Jacob, and the city of Gimgimno, all these have I caused to be sunk, and made hills and valleys in the places thereof; and the inhabitants thereof have I buried up in the depths of the earth, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up any more unto me against them.
And behold, that great city Jacobugath, which was inhabited by the people of king Jacob, have I caused to be burned with fire because of their sins and their wickedness, which was above all the wickedness of the whole earth, because of their secret murders and combinations; for it was they that did destroy the peace of my people and the government of the land; therefore I did cause them to be burned, to destroy them from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up unto me any more against them. (3 Nephi 9:5–9; emphasis added)
Are we looking for something that does not exist?
If I am correct about this analysis, then we can understand why we have not yet found a Book of Mormon city under fresh water lakes in Mesoamerica. For certain we have found a Maya city under the waters of the ocean, in a place named Cerros off the eastern coast of Belize, but we are still looking for cities under freshwater lakes.
Perhaps we have not discovered a city under a lake, dating to Book of Mormon times, because there may not be one. We may have been looking for something that does not exist.
Note: After drafting the above answer, I received an email from a Book of Mormon guide who lives in Antigua, Guatemala, a person I had met while attending church there. In his email, he assured me that there was a village under the waters of Lake Atitlan and that it was located close to the city of Santiago Atitlan. He also informed me that photos were available of this underwater site, as well as artifacts retrieved from this location in past years.
I know about artifacts that have been retrieved from the lake, as I saw that take place twenty years ago during one of my earlier visits to Santiago Atitlan. As a seasoned scuba diver, I was interested in the retrieving of these artifacts from under the waters of Lake Atitlan.
After viewing these items, I was told by the locals they were ceramic artifacts that had been thrown into the lake by the early Spaniards because they assumed the artifacts were of pagan origin. I am also conversant with the type of ceramic artifacts for the different time periods of the Maya, and the artifacts that I saw being retrieved were from the Postclassic Period, which is hundreds of years after the Book of Mormon.
In conclusion, I must consider the issue of underwater Book of Mormon cities as unresolved. I will continue to follow up on the claims made by the person in Antigua, Guatemala, and will continue to keep readers informed of the progress made in this ongoing saga.
Contact me with a question or comment: eljefejla@aol.com