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The *
National Geographic *Society maintained in 1998 that: “
Archeologists and other scholars have long probed the hemisphere’s past and the society does not know of anything found so far that has substantiated the Book of Mormon.”
Tying into the National Geographic statement, DNA evidence also refutes the Book of Mormon. From Googling:
The Book of Mormon presents itself as both God-inspired scripture, and as an historical account of a Hebrew (Israelite) family that immigrated to the Americas around 600 B.C. According to the Book of Mormon story, the patriarch of the family was a man named Lehi. Lehi had several children, among them Nephi, who was righteous, and Laman, who was rebellious. Following their arrival in the New World, and Lehi’s death, the two brothers, who were in nearly constant conflict, separated and eventually formed two separate nations–the Nephites and the Lamanites. Like their ancestors, these two nations were frequently in conflict with one another. The Nephites, according to the Book of Mormon, had God’s favor, and were civilized and fair-skinned. In contrast, the Lamanites were primitive and rebellious, and as a result were cursed by God with dark skin.
The Book of Mormon account tells of the appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas around 34 AD. For several centuries following the appearance of Christ, the two nations lived relatively at peace with one another. However, war eventually broke out again, and around 400 AD, the Lamanites annihilated the Nephites. Moroni (who was the son of a Nephite prophet-historian named Mormon) survived the final battle, however. He preserved his father’s account, written on golden plates, of the history of the Americas, and hid the plates on a hill in present-day upstate New York.
In the early 19th Century, a man named Joseph Smith claimed to have been visited by Moroni, who showed him where the plates were hidden. Smith then translated these golden plates “by the power and gift of God” into the Book of Mormon, which was first published in 1830.
What Book of Mormon Claim can be addressed scientifically?
The title page of The Book of Mormon claims to be “written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel.” The introduction page of The Book of Mormon goes on to say that “After thousands of years, all were destroyed, except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.”
Based on this claim of the Book of Mormon, the LDS Church teaches that modern-day Native Americans are descended from Lamanites, who are said to be of Hebrew origin.
How can DNA research apply to this claim?
Mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA testing are very reliable and effective means of determining the origins and ancestries of people and people groups. Such tests have been performed on thousands of individuals from scores of Native American tribes, from Alaska to the tip of South America. The results of the test show that the overwhelming majority (96.4%) of DNA originated in northeastern and north-central Asia, which essentially proves what had an already become a widespread consensus among archaeologists and anthropologists.
The post-Colonial era intermarriage accounts for the remaining 3.6% discrepancy. In addition, the testing of the DNA in the remains of pre-Columbian individuals shows a 100% Northeastern and North Central Asian origin. Had there been a Hebrew migration to the new world in ancient times as the Book of Mormon claims, there would be at least some evidence of this in the DNA of modern-day Native Americans; however, there is no correlation whatsoever.
This DNA evidence, therefore, shows that there never was any Hebrew migration to the Americas in ancient times, and as a result, there could not have been any Nephite or Lamanite race of Hebrew extraction in the Americas.
BJ
