According to Jerry Ainsworth, Friar Bernardino de Sahagun (1499-1590) in his book History of the Things of New Spain quotes Ixtlilxochitl on the arrival of the Quinamis in the New World. The oral tradition of the Quinamis describes them as living in "caves" while coming to this land, traveling over and under the water (see illustration). Today, in the state of Puebla, Mexico, there exists a town called Zacualpan whose name in the language of the Nahuatls, early inhabitants of Mexico, means "City of the People from the Great Tower." [Jerry L. Ainsworth, The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni, p. 46]
Ether 1:33 [The Quinamis] came forth . . . from the great tower (Illustration): A representation of the heads of seven families of the Quinamis (Jaredites) traveling to this land through the sea in "caves." From Codex Vaticano A, p. 66v. [Jerry L. Ainsworth, The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni, p. 47]
“The Great Tower”
According to Tom Cryer, the truncated pyramids of Mexico and Guatemala were patterned after the ziggurats of Palestine, Mesopotamia, and early Egypt; not merely in design but in purpose and meaning as well (Ferguson:98) The stepped structure served as a "giant stairway which the god could go down and the devotee go up, to meet each other." (De Vaux:282) Such are the incremental steps of Jacob's ladder and the Mayan stairs of inscriptions. The different levels represented the different glories of God's house. Different levels of glory are depicted in an ancient Mesopotamian boundary stone. The glories of the sun, moon, and stars are shown above a turtle, which represents the earth, below which are animalistic symbols representing the underworld. (see illustration) [Tom Cryer, Visual Sermons, p. 171, unpublished]
Ether 1:33 Jared came forth . . . from the great tower ([Illustration]): Examples of ziggurats from Biblical lands compared with the pyramids of Mesoamerica. [Tom Cryer, Visual Sermons, p. 171, unpublished]
Ether 1:33 The great tower ([Illustration]): The Tower of Babel. Artist: Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Courtesy of Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. [Donald W. Parry, "The Flood and the Tower of Babel," in The Ensign, January 1998, p. 39]
“The Great Tower”
According to John Heinerman, President Brigham Young claimed that,
"the City of Enoch was caught up a little ways from the earth, and that the city was within the first sphere above the earth. And [Nimrod and his people imagined] that if they could get a tower high enough, they might get to heaven, where the City of Enoch and the inhabitants thereof were located. So they went to work and built a tower.
But, notes Heinerman, Brigham Young got his ideas from that great earthly fountainhead of eternal knowledge, the Prophet Joseph Smith himself. According to the Nauvoo Journal of George Laub, Joseph gave a discourse on April 13, 1843 in which he stated: "Now I will tell [you] the designs of building the tower of Babel. It was designed to go to the city of Enoch, for the veil was not so thick that it hid it from their sight. So they concluded to go to the city of Enoch, for God gave him place above this impure earth."
Apostle Orson F. Whitney rightly called the construction of this Great Tower to that suspended city in the atmosphere, "the mightiest engineering feat" ever accomplished, involving very "cunning skills."
It is also noteworthy that according to the apocryphal Book of Jasher (9:38) it took a man "three days' walk" to completely go around the Tower, obviously showing its enormous circumference. [John Heinerman, Hidden Treasures of Ancient American Cultures, pp. 121, 123]
“Jared Came Forth from the Great Tower Chronology”
According to Randall Spackman, there were numerous Mesopotamian towers, built and destroyed one by one over thousands of years, that could have been Jared's "great tower." In Mesopotamia, such a tower was called a ziqqurat, the word being derived form an Akkadian verb zaqaru meaning "to rise up high." As Sarna stated, the word was used "specifically for the great towers constructed at the holy places."
It is interesting that in the writings on the Title Page of the Book of Mormon, a reference to the tower says that it was "a tower to get to heaven." The builders of the towers did not expect to create a tower for their troops to storm heaven by force. Rather, the ziqqurat was the material and symbolic "mountain of God: where God could come down and his worshippers could climb up to make contact with each other. Indeed, the Akkadian name for Babylon was babilum, meaning "the gate of God" referring to the role of Babylon as the religious center of lower Mesopotamia. Consequently, Moroni's comment on the Title Page complements both the Biblical version and the ancient Mesopotamian view of the ziqqurats as binding places of heaven and earth. [Randall P. Spackman, "The Jaredite Journey to America, pp. 7-11, unpublished] [See Appendix A]
Ether 1:33 Jared came forth . . . from the great tower ([Illustration]): Sites of Mesopotamian ziggurat towers. [The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Vol. 1, p. 156]
“The Great Tower”
According to Moroni's record of the Jaredites, "Jared came forth with his brother and their families, with some others and their families, from the great tower at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the face of the earth" (Ether 1:33). According to Thomas Valletta, the tower of Babel, described further in Genesis 11, is considered by many scholars to be a Babylonian temple (Jacobsen 334). This false temple was an attempt by an ambitious and wicked people to imitate true temple worship (Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites 154-68; Thomas 388-98). . . . The focus of these beguiled followers was to "reach unto heaven . . . [and] make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:4). But what kind of a name might an apostate covet, hoping to avoid being scattered abroad? The biblical meaning of "making a name" is to give a reputation, fame, or monument (see Genesis 12:2). . . .
In "Babylonian or Akkadian the meaning of the name Babel was 'gate of God" (Donaldson 60). This name was traditionally thought to be inspired by Nimrod, whose "name is for the Jews at all times the very symbol of rebellion against God and of usurped authority" (Nibley, Lehi 165). . . .
In contrast centuries later, a prophet-king, speaking from a true temple, declared "that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent" (Mosiah 3:17). . . .
Elder Dallin H. Oaks has noted the connection between holy temples and receiving "the name of Jesus Christ.":
All of these references to ancient and modern temples as houses for "the name" of the Lord obviously involve something far more significant than a mere inscription of his sacred name on the structure. The scriptures speak of the Lord's putting his name in a temple because he gave authority for his name to be used in the sacred ordinances of that house. That is the meaning of the Prophet's reference to the Lord's putting his name upon his people in that holy house. (Oaks 81)
[Thomas R. Valletta, "Jared and His Brother," in The Book of Mormon: Fourth Nephi through Moroni, From Zion to Destruction, pp. 305-306]
The Great Tower
According to Warren and Palmer, it is extremely important to know the starting point of the culture of the Jaredites in order to correlate with the cultures known from historical and archaeological studies. The time of the departure from the Old World by Jared, his relatives, and friends, was the time of the "great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the face of the earth; . . ." (Ether 1:33). However, there has been considerable disagreement over the time of that event.
According to Warren and Palmer, it is interesting to note that the text of the Book of Mormon does not mention the word "Babel." As pointed out by Andre Parrot (1955b:16) although the writer of the account in the Book of Genesis called the city "Babel," this probably comes from the Akkadian bab-ilu. That means "gate of god." It certainly does not come from the city that was constructed many centuries later. Nevertheless, one of the early Sumerian cities was probably the scene of that biblical story. So what is the significance of the term "Babel" and what does it have to do with the "great tower" as mentioned in the Book of Mormon? Parrot very carefully points out that the "tower" was no doubt a Mesopotamian ziggurat. There were 34 known ziggurats in Mesopotamia at the time of his book in 1955, and more have no doubt been discovered since that time. According to Parrot these structures represented the temples of antiquity. They were in his words, ladders up to heaven, with the temple on the top representing the "gate of God."
The Sumerian city of Nippur was the center of political influence for some important centuries. The Ziggurat of Enlil at Nippur could possibly have been the tower of the dispersion, or the biblical "tower of Babel" (3rd millennium B.C.). Enlil was the patron god of all of Sumer. His temple was the "most Sumerian of all Sumerian temples." The mound of Nippur rises more than five stories high and spreads nearly a mile across. This possibility was suggested in a book review by M. Wells Jakeman (1959).
The King James translation of the Holy Bible places this tower at about 2200 B.C. with Noah's flood at about 2300-2400 B.C. However, the Holy Bible translation used by Christ's first apostles was the Greek Septuagint which has a much earlier chronology. It would place the Great Flood between 3100 B.C. and 3200 B.C. From Mesoamerican data, mentioned later, it would appear that the actual date was August 13, 3114 B.C. (Gregorian calendar system). These dates are consistent with historical and archaeological data from Egypt, Ebla, India, and Mesopotamia. These include flood levels at four Mesopotamian cities that date to about 3100 B.C. In addition, the Septuagint dating is confirmed by Mesopotamian king lists, and the biblical connection to Nimrod. Thus, a date of 3114 B.C. appears reasonable.
Working from that date, using the Greek Septuagint account of the Old Testament, it would appear that the great tower episode occurred at close to 2700 B. C. Chinese sources and the works of the native American prince Ixtlilxochitl both appear to agree on an exact date of 2697 B.C. for the time of the dispersion. [Bruce W. Warren and David A. Palmer, The Jaredite Saga, ch. 4, Conclusions, unpublished] [See Appendix A]
Ether 1:33 The great tower ([Illustration]): Isometric drawing of the restored temple-tower of the mmon-god Nanna, built by King Ur-Nammu of Ur. [The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Vol. 1, p. 155]
Ether 1:33 The great tower ([Illustration]): Ziggurat of Enlil. A. General View, Looking Southwest [Warren and Palmer, The Jaredite Saga, ch. 5, unpublished]
“Jared Came Forth from the Great Tower”
The Book of Mormon reader should remember that when king Limhi's 43 men were sent to find the land of Zarahemla, they found instead the destroyed Jaredite civilization. When they tried on the rusted breastplates which they found, they said they were "large" (Mosiah 8:10). Readers should also recall that there was a large stone which was brought to king Mosiah, with engravings on it: "And they gave an account of one Coriantumr, and the slain of his people . . . It also spake a few words concerning his fathers. And his first parents came out from the tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people; and the severity of the Lord fell upon them according to his judgments, which are just; and their bones lay scattered in the land northward. (Omni 1:20-22). This passage undoubtedly has reference to the Jaredites, for in Ether 1:33 we find that "Jared came forth . . . from the great tower."
According to Joseph Allen, it is interesting that the first settlers in Mesoamerica, whom archaeologists call Olmecs, also came from a tower. A history of Mexico was written in 1568 by Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. He wrote that after the flood, the people: "built a Zaucalli very high and strong, which means 'The Very High Tower,' to protect themselves against a second destruction of the world. As time elapsed, their language became confounded, such that they did not understand one another; and they were scattered to all parts of the earth." (Ixtlilxochitl:6-8)
The Spanish Chronicles, and archaeologists all bear witness that the first civilization of Mesoamerica was also a large people. The 16th-Century Spanish writers who recorded the Olmec's history called them "giants." The archaeological record sculptured them as large people. Ixtlilxochitl wrote the following about these people who lived along the Gulf Coast of Mexico:
"In this land called New Spain there were giants, as demonstrated by their bones that have been discovered in many areas. the ancient Tulteca record keepers referred to the giants as Quinametzin; and as they had a record of the history of the Quinametzin, they learned that they had many wars and dissensions among themselves in this land that is now called New Spain. They were destroyed and their civilization came to an end as a result of great calamities and as a punishment from the heavens for grave sins they had committed." (Ixtlilxochitl:25).
[Joseph L. Allen, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, pp. 62-63] [See the commentary on Ether 13:21]
Ether 1:33 Jared came forth . . . from the great tower ([Illustration]): Olmec (Jaredite) archaeological sites along Mexico's Gulf Coast [Joseph L. Allen, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, p. 63]
Geographical [Theory Map]: Ether 1:33 Jared Comes Forth from the Great Tower (Year )
Ether 1:33 Jared came forth . . . from the great tower ([Illustration]): Map 7. Early and Middle Preclassic Ruins in Mesoamerica. 2300 B.C. to 600 B.C. (Jaredite Period). [David A. Palmer, In Search of Cumorah, p. 260]
Ether 1:33 Jared came forth . . . from the great tower ([Illustration]): Olmec archaeological sites. [Charles R. Wicke, Olmec, inside cover]
Ether 1:33 Jared came forth . . . from the great tower ([Illustration]): 22-ton Olmec stone head--possibly representing Ixtlilxochitl's "first parents" who "came out from the tower" and who he referred to as "giants." Also possibly representing the "large" people (Jaredites) who's remains were found by Limhi's expedition (Mosiah 8:10). [Joseph L. Allen, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, p. 64]
Ether 1:33 Jared came forth . . . from the great tower ([Illustration]): Twenty-four-ton basalt head discovered at the ancient site of La Venta, Mexico. To date, twenty-three of these giant heads have been found, all from the Olmec period. [Scot and Maurine Proctor, Light from the Dust, p. 201]
“The Great Tower”
John Heinerman writes that on August 13, 1521, the last Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan surrendered to the "bloody butcher" Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes at Tlatelolco in the northern part of the Aztec capital in Mexico. Soon thereafter a determination was made that these heathen Aztecs needed Christianizing in order to save their own poor pagan souls from the devil idolatry in which they were heavily steeped. Between 1524 and 1533, three Catholic orders of friars--the Franciscans, the Dominicans, and the Augustinians--came from Spain to the New World for this very purpose. No slack was cut for any Aztecs who wished to stick with their old heathen beliefs and ways--they were summarily executed on orders from the friars.
There came also from Spain to Mexico, with one of these missionary groups, a young child, Diego Duran, with his family. His father held a position of some importance in the Spanish colonial government. The boy witnessed numerous Aztec slaves being branded in the homes of his relatives; this event played a great role in his decision to become a priest when he grew up so that he might help alleviate some of the suffering and terrible injustices then being regularly imposed on the subdued natives by their cruel conquerors. In his late teens he entered the Dominican Order as a novice, later to become a deacon in the convent there.
Awhile after this he was dispatched to the convento at Oaxtepec, where he was influenced by "a most honest priest," who is thought to have been Fray Francisco de Aguilar. Aguilar had been a soldier under Cortes before entering the Dominican Order and had much to tell young Duran about the conquest. Duran speaks frequently of him in his History of the Indies of New Spain. Aguilar himself had experienced a gradual change of heart while still a conquistador and felt sympathetic toward the Aztecs; by entering the Catholic priesthood he hoped it might, in part, atone for some of his previous sins committed against the oppressed people while still a soldier. It was Aguilar, in fact, who helped to greatly expand in young Fray Duran the kindly feelings and respect for the Aztecs which he had felt as a child. Aguilar wisely counseled him to seek out those elderly informants who knew something of the history of these people and interview them with the idea of keeping a written record of what they knew before it became permanently lost upon their deaths.
Some time later, Fray Duran received an appointment from his superiors in Mexico City to become the vicar in Hueyapan, a town high on the southern slopes of the volcano Popocatepetl; the Dominican convento there dates from 1563 and is still in use today. In that Nahuatl-speaking region Duran found numerous informants for his eventual History. His fluency in the native tongue of the Aztecs was learned as a child and served him well while stationed there. One of the important characteristics of his research is that he ventured into rural areas, questioning the old and young in their own language, observing their customs, and always searching for ancient documents, which he felt could parallel some of the more ancient history of mankind that is found in Genesis of the Old Testament. In his search for such evidence and in concert with his daily missionary work among the native people, he discovered pictorial manuscripts that he incorporated into his history; unfortunately these and old native maps also acquired were not preserved as they should have been. No other friar of the time, not even the more famous Franciscan Father Bernardino de Sahagun, whose own encyclopedic account of Aztec culture is without compare, could match so fully this priest's wide access to the natives or their readily-gained trust.
One of the traditions that Diego Duran became particularly interested in was the very old Aztec legends having to do with the great Tower. Fray Duran came across one elderly Aztec gentleman who was able to recall with vivid clarity the traditions about the Tower which had been handed down among his people over many successive generations. Here in Duran's own words is a narrative of that amazing account:
An aged man from Cholula, about one hundred years old, began to describe their [Aztec origins to me. He began thus:
In the beginning, before light or sun had been created, this world lay in darkness and shadows and was void of every living thing. It was all flat, without a hill or ravine, surrounded on all sides by water, without even a tree or any other created thing. And then, when the light and sun were born in the east, men of monstrous stature appeared and took possession of this country. These giants, desirous of seeking the birth of the sun and its setting, decided to seek [dawn and dusk], and they separated into two groups. One band walked toward the west and the other toward the east. The latter walked until the sea cut off their route; from here they decided to return to the place from which they had set out, called Iztac Zolin Inemian which means 'Where white quails dwell'].
Not having found a way to reach the sun but enamored of its light and beauty, they decided to build a tower so high that its summit would reach unto heaven. And gathering materials for this building, the giants found clay for bricks and an excellent mortar with which they began to build the tower very swiftly. When they had raised it as high as they could--and it seemed to reach to heaven--the Lord of the Heights became angry and said to the inhabitants of the heavens, 'Have you seen that the men of the earth have built a proud and lofty tower in order to come up here, enamored as they are of the light of the sun and its beauty? Come, let us confound them, for it is not right that these earthlings, made of flesh, mingle with us.' Then swift as lightning those who dwell in the heavens came out from the four regions of the world and tore down the tower that had been constructed. And the giants, bewildered and filled with terror, separated and fled in all directions.
That is how [this] Indian related[d] the creation of the world with giants and the tower of Babel. Therefore, I am convinced and wish to convince others that those who tell this account heard it from their ancestors; and these natives belong, in my opinion, to the lineage of the chosen people of God for whom He worked great marvels. And so [a] knowledge of the things told in the Bible and its mysteries have passed from hand to hand, from father to son [over many long generations].
Similar legends exist about the great Tower in other parts of Mexico. Edward King Kingsborough, a British lord and man of some considerable means, spent his entire fortune in publishing over a period of 17 years (1831-1848) a massive nine-volume folio set entitled, Antiquities of Mexico. Unfortunately, Lord Kingsborough died penniless in debtor's prison. The end result of all his efforts was a printing and binding bill exceeding one million dollars and a giant repository of facsimiles of many ancient Aztec scrolls, maps, paintings, and parchments filled with hieroglyphics that were locked away in storage in a number of the world's great museums and private libraries, which the general public and most scholars were denied access to.
Yet from this huge work (8:25;27) comes the following legend about the great Tower:
An ancient manuscript of the primitive Indians of that province [the Mexican state of Chiapas], who had learned the art of writing, had retained the constant tradition that the father and founder of their nation was Teponahuale, which signifies, 'Lord of the hollow piece of wood [or barge].' And that he was present at the building of the Great Wall, for so they named the Tower of Babel. And beheld with his own eyes the confusion of tongues. After which event, God, the Creator, commanded him to come to these extensive regions, and to divide them among mankind. They affirm that at the time of the confusion of tongues, there were seven families who spoke the same language, which was Nahuatl, that which is still spoken by the Aztec Mexicans. And since they understood each other, they united and, forming a single company, proceeded on their journey through diverse lands and countries as chance directed them, and without any particular destination in search of a convenient habitation. And having traveled during a century, passing in the interval mountains, rivers and arms of the sea, which they noted down in their paintings, they arrived at the place which they named their first settlement. [It was] in the Northern part of this kingdom, which they named Tlapaln, which signifies red country, on account of the soil being of that color.
These are but two examples which are typical of the many different Native American legends concerning the great Tower. [John Heinerman, Hidden Treasures of Ancient American Cultures, pp. 95-99]