The hill Cumorah is sacred ground to the Latter-day Saint. This is supposedly where Joseph Smith found the golden plates, buried under a stone. It was these golden plates that Mormons believe was translated by the gift and power of God into what is now known as the Book of Mormon.
I stumbled across this interesting video that discusses a recent find at the Hill Cumorah.
Oh, did I wish you a happy April Fool’s day?
Of course Joseph Smith never called the hill in upstate NY “Cumorah,” nor does a candid reading of the Book of Mormon allow that it be the “Hill Cumorah” of the text.The “Hill Cumorah” of the Book of Mormon is the place were the library of the Nephite records was deposited. The text records that Mormon takes the Golden Plates from that hill. On the contrary, Joseph Smith describes that he found the plates in an anonymous “hill” near his Palmyra home–inside a stone and cement repository. With the plates he found the “sword of Laban,” the “Liahona,” and the Urim and Thummim or “interpreters”–all items mentioned in the text–but that he found no other plates or literature in the repository. His description of the repository suggest that it was only big enough to house the plates and other items mentioned.Furthermore, Moroni mentions at the end of the Book of Mormon that he aimlessly wonders for many years with the plates; he never mentions in the text his eventual burying of the plates in the repository where Smith millennia later find them.April Cheers,Dale Caswell.
Dale said, “Of course Joseph Smith never called the hill in upstate NY “Cumorah,” nor does a candid reading of the Book of Mormon allow that it be the “Hill Cumorah” of the text.”Sure he did. http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1/51a
I’ve been caught, I’ll admit.Nice find Keith. I’m of course very familiar with the quote, and am a bit ashamed to be challenged from such an established source. Though the D&C doesn’t say “hill Cumorah”, “Cumorah” here is an obvious reference to the hill in upstate NY where the plates were found–and made in a religious text unquestionably authored by Smith. And it shouldn’t surprise me all that much, as I knew that Mormons had established “Cumorah” as a place name for the NY hill since at least the mid 1830s–long before Smith’s death. So my claim that Smith “never” used the term in such a way was, in the very least, foolish. And I’m glad you called me out on it.But it is pretty well established that Joseph Smith was not the one responsible for connecting the Book of Mormon name with the NY place, and the descriptions in the text itself certainly beg to challenge such a connection.But on top of the literary dilemma of connecting name to place, it seems an especially strange thing to me that Smith never describes the angel Moroni as identifying the hill as “Cumorah.” P.S. Keith: I’ll admit that this was a rather lame comment to be made by me to this post. The reason is that I thought the post was a rather lame attempt at humor. That’s because I originally viewed this from the BYU library, which has a block on Youtube. As the post originally appeared to me, in place of the Youtube interface was simply a blank space. I therefore thought that the blank space itself represented your archaeological “proof” for the Book of Mormon. In other words, that there was none.Keith, I thought your idea of humor was a little more mature than that, and I’ve since seen the Youtube clip on my own laptop–and NOW get your post.Not that the Youtube clip was anything more than the hardy-har admitted by the host, but I admit I got at least that much from it–and could’ve gotten more with a better delivery. After all, all “scientific” religion apologetics deserves a good jab in the ribs more than every now and again.Sincerely,Dale.