According to Warren and Ferguson, Ixtlilxochitl, Mexico’s sixteenth-century historian, working from records which preceded the coming of the Spaniards, describes and dates to the time of the crucifixion events as they occurred in southern Mexico. The darkness and the quaking and the rending of rocks at the very time of the crucifixion are described:
“It was 166 years since they had adjusted their years and times with the equinox, and 270 since the ancient ones had been destroyed, when the sun and the moon eclipsed, and the earth trembled, and the rocks broke, and many other things and signs took place, although there was no calamity whatever toward men. This happened in the year of ce Calli, which, adjusting this count with ours, comes to be at the same time when Christ our Lord suffered, and they say it happened during the first days of the year. These and many other things the Tultecs comprehended, from the creation of the world up to our times. As I have said, in order to avoid prolixity all things they knew are not set our according as they appear in their histories and pictures, especially the original, I mean all the things which can be found in pictures and history, for everything is abridgment (contraction) in comparison with the histories that the first archbishop of Mexico ordered burned.” (Hunter and Ferguson 190)
[Bruce W. Warren and Thomas Stuart Ferguson, The Messiah in Ancient America, p. 35]
“In the Thirty and Fourth Year in the First Month on the Fourth Day of the Month There Arose a Great Storm”
By combining four calendars: the Jewish, Gregorian, Nephite, and Mixtec, Bruce Warren was able to arrive at a date for the birth of Christ on Thursday, April 6, 1 B.C. (also the date specified in D&C 20:1). Using those same calendars, Warren also calculates that Christ would have died on Friday, April 1, 33 A.D. Let’s look at the evidence.
From the Book of Mormon we learn that the day of the Savior‘s birth became the New Year’s Day on the Nephite calendar. 3 Nephi 2:8 states that “the Nephites began to reckon their time from this period when the sign was given, or from the coming of Christ.”
Converting Thursday, April 6, 1 B.C. to the Mesoamerican calendar produces 7.17.17.17.13. 1 Ben 6 Mak. 1 Ben is the birthday of Quetzalcoatl (the White God of Mesoamerica whom numerous LDS scholars have equated with the Savior) and 6 Mak is the New Year’s Day of a Mixtec calendar. (Incidentally, the likelihood that these facts are all merely coincidental becomes a virtual impossibility when it is known that 1 Ben 6 Mak occurs concurrently with April 6 only once every 1,507 years on the Mesoamerican calendar.)
The 16th century Mexican historian, Fernando Alva Ixtlilxochitl writes that there was a great storm “in the year Ce Calli, which, adjusted to our calendar, happened at the same time that Christ, our Lord, was crucified. And they say that this destruction occurred in the first few days of the year” (Allen Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, 140). Now, keeping in mind that Christ died on Friday, April 1, A.D. 33, we turn to 3 Nephi 8:5: “And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land.” As you will recall, this storm marked the death of the Savior.
Now look at Table 1 (see below). Listed are the New Year’s Day dates on the Mixtec calendar for 35 years. Note that, as previously stated, the New year’s Day always falls on 6 Mak. Note too that the New Year’s Day date for the 34th Nephite year is Tuesday, March 29th, A.D. 33.
3 Nephi 8:5 In the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm: Table 1--[Mixtec New Year’s Day] Dates. [Bruce W. Warren, “1 Ben 6 Mak: Part Two,” in Jace Willard ed. The Book of Mormon Archaeological Digest, Volume II, Issue III. Orem: Book of Mormon Tours, 1999, p. 4]
Look now at the top half of Table 2 (see below). Notice on the left that the days of the 34th Nephite year are listed as (a) = first day, (b) = 2nd day, etc. You will see that Friday, April 1, A.D. 33, the proposed date of the Savior’s death, falls precisely on the fourth day (d) of the first month of the thirty-fourth year, exactly as the Book of Mormon records.
3 Nephi 8:5 In the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm: Table 2--[The 34th Year: Great] Destruction and Appearance in Bountiful, [Bruce W. Warren, “1 Ben 6 Mak: Part Two,” in Jace Willard ed. The Book of Mormon Archaeological Digest, Volume II, Issue III. Orem: Book of Mormon Tours, 1999, p. 5]
This correlation is stunning. It successfully demonstrates the consistency of four independent calendars while forming yet another testimony of how minutely exact the Book of Mormon record is. [Bruce W. Warren, “1 Ben 6 Mak: Part Two,” in Jace Willard ed. The Book of Mormon Archaeological Digest, Volume II, Issue III. Orem: Book of Mormon Tours, 1999, p. 4]
3 Nephi 8:5 In the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm: Table 1--[Mixtec New Year’s Day] Dates. [Bruce W. Warren, “1 Ben 6 Mak: Part Two,” in Jace Willard ed. The Book of Mormon Archaeological Digest, Volume II, Issue III. Orem: Book of Mormon Tours, 1999, p. 4]
3 Nephi 8:5 In the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm: Table 2--[The 34th Year]: Great Destruction and Appearance in Bountiful, [Bruce W. Warren, “1 Ben 6 Mak: Part Two,” in Jace Willard ed. The Book of Mormon Archaeological Digest, Volume II, Issue III. Orem: Book of Mormon Tours, 1999, p. 5]