Cumorah or Cumorah or 'a Hill a Hill We Have a Hill'

8/2/2019 Cumorah or Cumorah or 'a Hill a Hill We Have a Hill'

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CumorahOr

CumoraOr

A HILL,A HILL

WE HAVE AHILL!

Oh do you?


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Joseph Smith wrote:

"And again, what do we hear? Glad tidings from

Cumorah! Moroni, and angel from heaven, declaring thefulfilment of the prophetsthe book to be revealed. A

voice of the Lord in the wilderness of Fayette, Seneca

County, declaring the three witnesses to bear record of the

book. The voice of Michael on the banks of the

Susquehanna, detecting the devil when he appeared as an

angel of light. The voice of Peter, James and John in the

wilderness between Harmony, Susquehanna county, and

Colesville, Broome county, on the Susquehanna river,

declaring themselves as possessing the keys of the

kingdom, and of the dispensation of the fullness of times.

(Doctrine & Covenants, 128:20)

In this psalm-like exultation, Joseph does not say HillCumorah, but Cumorah. It is not positively declared

that the Hill Cumorah is the place where the plates were

obtained.

Cumorah refers to the land of Cumorah, and to the HillCumorah

Mormon 6:2


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And I, Mormon, wrote an epistle unto the king of the

Lamanites, and desired of him that he would grant unto

us that we might gather together our people unto the land

of Cumorah by a hill which was called Cumorah, andthere we could give them battle.

The locations of the land and the hill are not known, but it

is suggested that they are in Mesoamerica.

How, then, did the hill in New York get the name Cumorah

attached to it? Joseph Smith did not so name it.

Mormon 6:4

And it came to pass that we did march forth to the land of

Cumorah, and we did pitch our tents around about the

hill Cumorah; and it was in a land of many waters,rivers, and fountains; and here we had hope to gain

advantage over the Lamanites.

This is not a geographical description of the Palmyra area,

where the modern Hill Cumorah is located.

Brigham Young wrote, When Joseph first received the

knowledge of the plates that were in the hill Cumorah


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John Taylor wrote, I have conversed with several of those

men who say they have seen the plates that Joseph Smith

took out of the Hill Cumorah;

Heber J Grant wrote, The wonderful record of the ancient

people of this continent, the Book of Mormon, was brought

forth from its hiding place in the Hill Cumorah

George Albert Smith wrote, It was by faith that he was able

to go to the hill Cumorah and receive from the hands of the

Angel those sacred records that he later translated by the

gift and power of God.

Joseph Fielding Smith wrote, Then when Moroni came to

Joseph Smith, he told him that in the hill Cumorah there

were certain records of the ancient people of this land, and

that he was going to turn them over to him.

It is known that the Hill Cumorah where the Nephites were

destroyed is the hill where the Jaredites were also

destroyed. This hill was known to the Jaredites as Ramah.

It was approximately near to the waters of Ripliancum,

which the Book of Ether says, "by interpretation, is large,

or to exceed all."

Although other brethren called the eminence from which

Moroni gave the plates to Joseph Smith, neither Moroni or

Joseph ever called it Cumorah. Oliver Cowdery was the


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first to call that hill The Hill Cumorah. The first

reference of this kind is found in the Messenger and

Advocate, a paper published by the Church in 1834-5, in

an article describing a brief history of the rise of theChurch.

Why didnt Joseph Smith correct Cowderys cognomen for

the hill at which he received the plates from the hands of

the angel Moroni? It is only possible to speculate why he

did not correct the impression given by Cowdery if

indeed that was what he was intending to convey.

Smith might have thought the name to be appropriate

because of its connection with the ancient Hill Cumorah as

a place connected with the Book of Mormon records. But,

because Smith has left no record of his thinking on this

matter, we must refrain from settling on an answer thatsounds as if we had all the necessary facts before us. Any

conclusion is speculative and, therefore, unsafe.

Hank said that it was Smith that said Moroni told him to go

to the Hill Cumorah. However, this is not accurate. The

quote posted by Hank is not from the lips or pen of Smith,

but from the pen of another.

A testimony of interest is that of David Whitmer given to

Elders Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith in September 1878,


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when they paid him a visit at his home in Richmond. To

these brethren he said:

"When I was returning to Fayette, with Joseph and Oliver,all of us riding in the wagon. Oliver and I on an old-

fashioned wooden spring seat and Joseph behind us

while travelling along in a clear open space, a very

pleasant, nice-looking old man suddenly appeared by the

side of our wagon and saluted us with, 'Good morning, it is

very warm,' at the same time wiping his face or forehead

with his hand. We returned the salutation, and, by a sign

from Joseph, I invited him to ride if he was going our way;

but he said very pleasantly, 'No, I am going to Cumorah.'

This name was something new to me; I did not know what

Cumorah meant.

If Smith did not tell two of the Three Witnesses Cowderyand Whitmer - that the hill was called Cumorah, it can be

fairly concluded that Smith did not call it by that name.

Spencer W. Kimball, wrote,And remember that there

were no heavenly beings in Palmyra, on the Susquehanna,

or on Cumorah when the soul-hungry Joseph slipped

quietly into the grove, knelt in prayer on the river bank,and climbed the slopes of the sacred hill.


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What can we learn from these leaders? Only this: that

although Moroni did not give a name for the hill containing

the Nephite record, it was later named as Cumorah by

Oliver Cowdery, and was apparently accepted widelywithout too much questioning.

Some early members identified the Hill Cumorah in New

York as the Hill Cumorah, or Ramah, in the Book of

Mormon. This seems to have been an understandable

mistake.

For example, The writings of these prophets, compiled

and abridged by Mormon, the father of Moroni, had been

buried in a hill anciently called Cumorah, in which place

of deposit the youthful prophet, directed by the angel,

discovered them. (Published by the First Presidency in

Deseret News, Nov. 4, 1911)

Some writers, for whatever reasons, try to make Joseph

Smith responsible for what has been called the

Hemispheric Geography Model of the Book of Mormon by

claiming that he "located the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra,

New York," assertions for which they provide no evidence,

or else manufacture supporting evidence themselves byputting the words of other men into the mouth of Joseph

Smith.


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In fact, the earliest explicit correlation of the hill in New

York where Joseph Smith found the golden plates and the

Hill Cumorah mentioned in the Book of Mormon comes

not from Joseph Smith, but from Oliver Cowdery.

Joseph Smith simply describes "a hill of considerable size";

no name is given. But even though Joseph Smith may

have accepted Cowderys later identification of it as

Cumorah, it was never put forward as revelation, and, as

will be discussed below, Joseph also supported a version of

what may be termed a Limited Geography Model.

It is interesting to note that this identification contradicts a

statement in the Book of Mormon itself. Mormon wrote,

"having been commanded of the Lord that I should not

suffer the records which had been handed down by ourfathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the

Lamanites (for the Lamanites would destroy them)

therefore I made this record [the Book of Mormon] out of

the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the

records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the

Lord, save it were these few plates [the set from a part of

which the Book of Mormon was translated] which I gaveunto my son Moroni" (Mormon 6:6).

In other words, the Book of Mormon explicitly states that

the records hidden in the Mesoamerican Cumorah were not


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the plates of the Book of Mormon, but were the other

records of the Nephites. The Book of Mormon itself

provides no name for the hill in which the golden plates

found by Joseph Smith were buried.

This issue poses an interesting dilemma for critics of the

Book of Mormon. We are expected to believe that, on the

one hand, Joseph consciously forged the Book of Mormon,

while, on the other hand, he personally identified the hill in

which the golden plates were buried as the Hill Cumorah,

which is the only hill in the world in which the Book of

Mormon explicitly states the plates were notburied!

This is another manifestation of the "Idiot Savant" theory

of the origin of the Book of Mormon. Anti-Mormons

typically hold that Joseph was an incompetent country

bumpkin who was so illiterate regarding the Bible that hewas unaware that Christ was born in Bethlehem, and yet at

the same time he is supposed to be capable of forging a

complex document exhibiting hundreds of intricate and

significant parallels with the ancient Near East and

Mesoamerica.

But, critics of the Book of Mormon simply can't have itboth ways. They must be able to construct a consistent

model that can explain all of the known data concerning

the origin and text of the Book of Mormon. It is not

sufficient simply to invent a haphazard collection of


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contradictory and inconsistent explanations for individual

features of the text. As has been demonstrated in detail, the

Book of Mormon is completely consistent internally in

presenting a limited geography.

Such a discontinuity between what the text of the Book of

Mormon actually says and what Joseph personally may

have believed about the geography and antiquities of the

Book of Mormon is very illuminating. If Joseph Smith is

the originator of, or a believer in, the Hemispheric

Geography Model as some less functionally illiterate anti-

Mormons claim, he could not consistently be the author of

the Book of Mormon.

In the same spirit that critics have leaped on the idea that

Smith identified the NY hill as Cumorah, others, notably

Wilson, claim that "Joseph Smith identified the coast ofChile as the place where Lehi's party arrived in the New

World." In fact, this statement is based not on the writings

of Joseph Smith, but on Frederick G. Williams's

interpretation of an anonymous manuscript, which

Williams believed derived from Joseph Smith; this

statement did not appear in print until 1882.

Much of the subsequent attribution of the Hemispheric

Geography Model to Joseph Smith, and thereby the

acceptance of that model by Latter-day Saints, comes from

the mistaken assumption that the Chile interpretation


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represents a revelation to Joseph Smith. A careful

examination of the manuscripts and development of this

idea, however, has demonstrated that there is no reason to

attribute this idea to Joseph Smith, and it certainly wasnever put forward as a revelation. Indeed, questions

concerning the authenticity of the attribution of this

statement to Joseph Smith were raised by B. H. Roberts

and others as early as 1909.46

The "Zelph" story is another piece of evidence that is

frequently used to associate Joseph Smith with the

Hemispheric Geography Model. It is claimed that Joseph

Smith had a revelation concerning the discovery of some

bones in Illinois during the Zion's Camp march in 1834.47

However, the version of the story that appeared in the

Documentary History of the Church, although editorially

couched in the first person, does not in fact representJoseph Smith's own written account of the event, nor a

revelation, nor was it editorially approved by Joseph

Smith. Rather, it is an editorial compilation by Willard

Richards written in manuscript between 1842 and 1843. It

was not published until 1846, after the death of Joseph

Smith, and so could not have had his final editorial

approval. In the printed version, editorial deletions andchanges in the original manuscript (which might have

represented Joseph Smith's work) were mistakenly ignored.


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The complex textual history of the story is fully

documented by Kenneth Godfrey and need not be repeated

here. What is important is that many significant qualifiers

were left out of the printed version. Thus, whereas WilfordWoodruff's journal account mentions that the ruins and

bones were "probably [related to] the Nephites and

Lamanites," the printed version left out the "probably,"

and implied that it was a certainty. Godfrey examines

several similar shifts in meaning from the original

manuscripts to the printed version.

The mere 'arrow' of the three earliest accounts became an

'Indian Arrow'(as in Kimball), and finally a 'Lamanitish

Arrow.' The phrase 'known from the Atlantic to the

Rocky Mountain,' as in the McBride diary, became

'known from the Hill Cumorah' (stricken out) or 'eastern

sea to the Rocky Mountains.'"

The point here is that there are many difficulties that make

it nearly impossible for us to know exactly what Joseph

Smith said in 1834 as he reflected on the ruins his group

encountered in Illinois.

Within recent years there has arisen among certain studentsof the Book of Mormon a theory to the effect that within

the period covered by the Book of Mormon, the Nephites

and Lamanites were confined almost entirely within the

borders of the territory comprising Central America and


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the southern portion of Mexicothe isthmus of

Tehauntepec probably being the "narrow neck" of land

spoken of in the Book of Mormon rather than the isthmus

of Panama.

It is unfortunate that Anti-Mormon critics are unwilling (or

unable) to come to grips with the reality of current Latter-

day Saint thought on the subject, relying instead on old

discredited anti-Mormon arguments. Actually, the Limited

Geography Model does not insist that there were two

Cumorahs. Rather, there was one Cumorah in

Mesoamerica, which is always the hill referred to in the

Book of Mormon.

Thereafter, beginning with Oliver Cowdery (possibly based

on a misreading of Mormon 6:6), early Mormons began to

associate the Book of Mormon Cumorah with the hill inNew York where Joseph Smith found the plates.

The Book of Mormon itself is internally consistent on the

issue. It seems to have been early nineteenth-century

Latter-day Saint interpretation of the text of the Book of

Mormon, which has caused the confusion on this point.

Thus, advocates of the Limited Geography Model arerequired only to show that their interpretations are

consistent with the text of the Book of Mormon itself, not

with any nineteenth-century interpretation of the Book of

Mormon.


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But here is the crunch the sticking point, if you will. The

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has nevertaken

an official position on issues of Book of Mormongeography. Some unofficial books, written before modern

archaeological methods were applied, assumed that

Mormons Cumorah and the New York hill were the

same.

This tradition, begun by Oliver Cowdery, has continued to

the present. The New York hill came to be known as the

one Book of Mormon location known with certainty.

However, it was generally believed that Mesoamerica was

the cradle of those cultures.

Similarly, stories of a cave full of plates inside the Hill

Cumorah in New York is often given as evidence that it is,indeed, the hill where Mormon hid the plates.

Dr Yorgason in addressing this issue, quotes one version of

the story from Brigham Young and alludes to six others

collected by Paul T. Smith. Unfortunately, none of the

accounts is firsthand.

The New York Hill Cumorah is a moraine laid down

anciently by a glacier in motion. It is comprised of gravel

and earth. Geologically, it is impossible for the hill to


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have a cave, and all those who have gone in search of the

cave have come back empty-handed.

If, therefore, the story attributed to Oliver Cowdery (byothers) is true, then the visits to the cave perhaps represent

visions, perhaps of some far distant hill, not physical

events.

Joseph Smith wrote,

Joseph Smith History 1:30-54

While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I

discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued

to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday,

when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside,standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor.

He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was

a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor

do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear

so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked,

and his arms also, a little above the wrist; so, also, were hisfeet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His

head and neck were also bare.


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I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this

robe, as it was open, so that I could see into his bosom.

Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his

countenance truly like lightning. The room was

exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately

around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was

afraid; but the fear soon left me.

He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a

messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that

his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do;

and that my name should be had for good and evil among

all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both

good and evil spoken of among all people.

He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold

plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this

continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He

also said that the fullness of the everlasting Gospel was

contained in it, as delivered by the Saviour to the ancient

inhabitants;

Also, that there were two stones in silver bows--and these

stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called

the Urim and Thummim--deposited with the plates; and the

possession and use of these stones were what constituted


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"seers" in ancient or former times; and that God had

prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.

After telling me these things, he commenced quoting theprophecies of the Old Testament. He first quoted part of

the third chapter of Malachi; and he quoted also the fourth

or last chapter of the same prophecy, though with a little

variation from the way it reads in our Bibles. Instead of

quoting the first verse as it reads in our books, he quoted it

thus:

For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and

all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as

stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord

of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus: Behold, I willreveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the

prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of

the Lord.

He also quoted the next verse differently: And he shall

plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the

fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to theirfathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly

wasted at his coming.


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In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of

Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled. He quoted

also the third chapter of Acts, twenty-second and twenty-

third verses, precisely as they stand in our New Testament.He said that that prophet was Christ; but the day had not

yet come when "they who would not hear his voice should

be cut off from among the people," but soon would come.

He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-

eighth verse to the last. He also said that this was not yet

fulfilled, but was soon to be. And he further stated that the

fullness of the Gentiles was soon to come in. He quoted

many other passages of scripture, and offered many

explanations, which cannot be mentioned here.

Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he

had spoken--for the time that they should be obtained wasnot yet fulfilled--I should not show them to any person;

neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only

to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if

I did I should be destroyed. While he was conversing with

me about the plates, the vision was opened to my mind that

I could see the place where the plates were deposited, and

that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place againwhen I visited it.

After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin

to gather immediately around the person of him who had


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been speaking to me, and it continued to do so until the

room was again left dark, except just around him; when,

instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up into

heaven, and he ascended till he entirely disappeared, andthe room was left as it had been before this heavenly light

had made its appearance.

I lay musing on the singularity of the scene, and marvelling

greatly at what had been told to me by this extraordinary

messenger; when, in the midst of my meditation, I

suddenly discovered that my room was again beginning to

get lighted, and in an instant, as it were, the same heavenly

messenger was again by my bedside.

He commenced, and again related the very same things

which he had done at his first visit, without the least

variation; which having done, he informed me of greatjudgements which were coming upon the earth, with great

desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence; and that

these grievous judgements would come on the earth in this

generation. Having related these things, he again ascended

as he had done before.

By this time, so deep were the impressions made on mymind, that sleep had fled from my eyes, and I lay

overwhelmed in astonishment at what I had both seen and

heard. But what was my surprise when again I beheld the

same messenger at my bedside, and heard him rehearse or


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repeat over again to me the same things as before; and

added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to

tempt me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of

my father's family), to get the plates for the purpose ofgetting rich. This he forbade me, saying that I must have no

other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God,

and must not be influenced by any other motive than that

of building his kingdom; otherwise I could not get them.

After this third visit, he again ascended into heaven as

before, and I was again left to ponder on the strangeness of

what I had just experienced; when almost immediately

after the heavenly messenger had ascended from me for the

third time, the cock crowed, and I found that day was

approaching, so that our interviews must have occupied the

whole of that night.

I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the

necessary labours of the day; but, in attempting to work as

at other times, I found my strength so exhausted as to

render me entirely unable. My father, who was labouring

along with me, discovered something to be wrong with me,

and told me to go home. I started with the intention of

going to the house; but, in attempting to cross the fence outof the field where we were, my strength entirely failed me,

and I fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was quite

unconscious of anything.


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The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking

unto me, calling me by name. I looked up, and beheld the

same messenger standing over my head, surrounded by

light as before. He then again related unto me all that hehad related to me the previous night, and commanded me

to go to my father and tell him of the vision and

commandments that I had received.

I obeyed; I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed

the whole matter to him. He replied to me that it was of

God, and told me to go and do as commanded by the

messenger. I left the field, and went to the place where the

messenger had told me the plates were deposited; and

owing to the distinctness of the vision which I had had

concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I arrived

there.

Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario County,

New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most

elevated of any in the neighbourhood. On the west side of

this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable

size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box. This stone

was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side,

and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of itwas visible above the ground, but the edge all around was

covered with earth.


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Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got

fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion

raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the

plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, asstated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was

formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement.

In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of

the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other

things with them.

I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by

the messenger, and was again informed that the time for

bringing them forth had not yet arrived, neither would it,

until four years from that time; but he told me that I should

come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and

that he would there meet with me, and that I should

continue to do so until the time should come for obtainingthe plates.

Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end

of each year, and at each time I found the same messenger

there, and received instruction and intelligence from him at

each of our interviews, respecting what the Lord was going

to do, and how and in what manner his kingdom was to beconducted in the last days.


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Moroni didnt mention a hill, any hill, and Smith did not

call the hill he had been shown in vision, that he afterwards

visited several times, by any name at all.

Quote by Anti-Mormons are, therefore, incorrect if they

are intended to represent any statement by Joseph Smith

that the hill is identical with the Book of Mormons

Cumorah.

Ye Shall Know The Truth Ministry

Reverend Rokka Veygezz

Cumorah or Cumorah or 'a Hill a Hill We Have a Hill'

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