Zelph

Zelph is a minor figure in Mormon history. In May and June 1834, Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, led a group of Mormon brethren (known as Zion's Camp) on a march from Kirtland, Ohio to Jackson County, Missouri. On June 3, while passing through southern Illinois, some bones were discovered on the top of a mound (now known as Naples Russell Mound Number 8). These bones were said to have been identified by Smith as belonging to a Lamanite prophet warrior named "Zelph."

Background

In 1834, Joseph Smith said he received a revelation from God, calling for a militia to be raised in Kirtland which would then march to Missouri and "redeem Zion." About 200 men and a number of women and children volunteered to join this militia, which became known as "Zion's Camp." On 3 June 1834, in Pike County, Illinois, some of the men of Zion's Camp located some bones and an arrowhead about a foot below the ground. [Harvnb|Godfrey|1999] Smith himself wrote nothing about the event, however, seven of the members of Zion's Camp who were with him either recorded or orally related their accounts of what was said. [Harvnb|Godfrey|1999] These accounts declared that the bones were from Zelph, a "white Lamanite" general who was a righteous man.

A reference to this event is made in E.D. Howe's 1834 anti-Mormon book "Mormonism Unvailed", which states:

A large mound was one day discovered, upon which Gen. Smith ordered an excavation to be made into it; and about one foot from the top of the ground, the bones of a human skeleton were found, which were carefully laid out upon a board, when Smith made a speech, prophesying or declaring that they were the remains of a celebrated General among the Nephites, mentioning his name and the battle in which he was slain, some 1500 years ago. [Harvnb|Howe|1834|p=159]

Contrary to Howe's statement that the group found the remains of a "General among the "Nephites", all of the recorded accounts agree that Zelph was identified as a "Lamanite". [Harvnb|Godfrey|1999]

Accounts

Heber C. Kimball wrote in 1841 that several of the group, along with Joseph Smith, walked to the top of a mound that they had located on the bank of the Illinois river. Kimball states that " [o] n the top of this mound there was the appearance of three altars, which had been built of stone, one above another, according to the ancient order; and the ground was strewn over with human bones." This prompted Kimball and the others to dig into the mound after sending for a shovel and a hoe. "At about one foot deep we discovered the skeleton of a man, almost entire; and between two of his ribs we found an Indian arrow, which had evidently been the cause of his death. We took the leg and thigh bones and carried them along with us to Clay county. All four appeared sound." [Harvnb|Kimball|1841 Nothing more is contained in Kimball's account regarding the altars.]

After continuing on their journey, Kimball reports that " [i] t was made known to Joseph that he had been an officer who fell in battle, in the last destruction among the Lamanites, and his name was Zelph. This caused us to rejoice much, to think that God was so mindful of us as to show these things to his servant. Brother Joseph had enquired of the Lord and it was made known in a vision." [Harvnb|Kimball|1841]

Reuben McBride’s journal account states that "His name was Zelph a war [r] ior under the Prophet Omandagus Zelph a white Laman [i] te." McBride also wrote that "an arrow was found in hisRibs…which he said he sup [p] osed oc [c] aisoned his death." McBride wrote that Zelph “was known from the atlantic to the Rocky Mountains." [Harvnb|McBride|1834] Moses Martin stated "Soon after this Joseph had a vision and the Lord shewed him that this man was once a mighty Prophet and many other things concerning his dead which had fal [l] en no doubt in some great bat [t] les." [Harvnb|Martin|1834] Levi Hancock's journal also refers to "Onendagus," stating that "Zelf he was a white Lamanite who fought with the people of Onendagus for freedom." [Harvnb|Hancock|1834] Onandaga is the name of a county in New York state as well as the name of a tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy that once occupied the area. [cite journal| last=Mohawk| first=John| title=Origins of Iroquois Political Thought| journal=Northeast Indian Quarterly| volume=3| year=1986| date=summer 1986| pages=16–20]

Zelph and the question of Book of Mormon geography

The accounts related to Zelph are used as evidence by some Book of Mormon scholars to suggest that the Lehites inhabited the entire North American continent as proposed by the Hemispheric Geographical Model, rather than merely portions of Central America as suggested by the Limited Geography Model. (See also "Archaeology and the Book of Mormon")

Although Smith did not mention the Zelph event specifically in his journal, it is clear that during this period he considered the area in which the group was traveling to have been part of the land described in the Book of Mormon. In a letter that Smith wrote to his wife Emma the following day (4 June, 1834), he stated:

The whole of our journey, in the midst of so large a company of social honest and sincere men, wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls & their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity, and gazing upon a country the fertility, the splendour and the goodness so indescribable, all serves to pass away time unnoticed. [Harvnb|Jessee|1984|p=324]

Smith's statements in later years suggests that his thinking regarding the location of Book of Mormon events evolved over time. Smith stated that he believed that the discovery of ancient Maya ruins on the Yucatán Peninsula in the late 1830s offered evidence to the Book of Mormon's authenticity. After reading about the accounts, Smith proclaimed the ruins were likely Nephite. [ [http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/030930joseph.html "Did the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1842 Locate Book of Mormon Lands in Middle America?"] , by V. Garth Norman] Zelph is not an individual mentioned in the Book of Mormon narrative and would therefore not necessarily be associated with any of the events presumed to have occurred in Mesoamerica. [Harvnb|Widtsoe|1950 John A. Widtsoe stated that the account of Zelph "is not of much value in Book of Mormon geographical studies, since Zelph probably dated from a later time when Nephites and Lamanites had been somewhat dispersed and had wandered over the country."] There is nothing in the Book of Mormon narrative that excludes the possibility of people moving northward into the North American continent either during the period of the events described, or during the period of time between the conclusion of the record and the recovery of the golden plates. [Harvnb|Godfrey|1999]

The implication of belief in a hemispheric Book of Mormon geography by these men is supported by several references made by Wilford Woodruff. Woodruff writes that he "visited many of the mounds which were flung up by the ancient inhabitants of this continent probably by the Nephites & Lamanites." Woodruff also states that Zelph "that was known from the hill Cumorah on East sea to the Rocky mountains," thus implying that the hill Cumorah in New York is the same hill Cumorah referred to in the Book of Mormon. [Harvnb|Woodruff|1934] Some LDS scholars believe that "hill Cumorah" was Woodruff's term rather than Joseph Smith's, since other accounts refer only to the sea and fail to mention either Nephites or the hill Cumorah. [Harvnb|Godfrey|1994 Godfrey states that his "position on the Woodruff citation was, and remains, that the term Cumorah in the text is Woodruff's, not Joseph Smith's. My rationale for this claim is that Woodruff's statement about Joseph mentioning Cumorah in the Zelph incident is unique among the six near-contemporary accounts, indicating that Joseph himself probably did not use the term, which was, rather, an interpolation of Woodruff."]

In 1842 Willard Richards compiled a number of records in order to produce a history of the church. Among the records examined were the various accounts related to Zelph. In the process of combining the accounts, Richards crossed out Woodruff's references to "hill Cumorah," and Heber C. Kimball's reference to the "last" great struggle with the Lamanites." [Harvnb|Godfrey|1994 "Zelph was a white Lamanite, a man of God who was a warrior and chieftain under the great prophet Onandagus who was known from the [hill Cumorah is crossed out in the manuscript] eastern Sea, to the Rocky Mountains. He was killed in battle, by the arrow found among his ribs, during a [last crossed out] great struggle with the Lamanites" [and Nephites crossed out] ."]

Notes

References

*Harvard reference
last=Godfrey
first=Kenneth W
title=An Apologist for the Critics: Brent Lee Metcalfe's Assumptions and Methodologies
journal=FARMS Review of Books
volume=6
issue=1
year=1994
publisher=Maxwell Institute
place=Provo, Utah
url=http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=146
accessdate=2007-03-01 .
*Harvard reference
last=Godfrey
first=Kenneth W
journal=Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
title=What is the Significance of Zelph In The Study Of Book of Mormon Geography?
publisher=Maxwell Institute
place=Provo, Utah
volume=8
issue=2
year=1999
pages=70-79
url=http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/display.php?table=jbms&id=202
accessdate=2007-01-23 .
*Harvard reference
last=Howe
first=Eber D
authorlink=Eber Dudley Howe
year=1834
title=Mormonism Unvailed
place=Painesville, Ohio
publisher=Telegraph Press
publication-year=1834
url=http://www.solomonspalding.com/docs/1834howb.htm .
*Harvard reference
last=Jessee
first=Dean C
authorlink=Dean C. Jessee
title=The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith
publisher=Deseret Book
place=Salt Lake City
year=1984
url=http://deseretbook.com/personalwritings/ .
*Harvard reference
last=Hancock
first=Levi
title=Diary of Levi Hancock
year=1834.
*Harvard reference
last=Kimball
first=Heber C
authorlink=Heber C. Kimball
title=Extract from the Journal of Heber C. Kimball
journal=Times and Seasons
volume=2
year=1841
url=http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/HCKimball.html.
*Harvard reference
last=Martin
first=Moses
title=Moses Martin Journal
year=1834
publisher=LDS Church Archives
place=Salt Lake City, Utah.
*Harvard reference
last=McBride
first=Reuben
title=Reuben McBride Journal
date=3 June 1834
year=1834
publisher=LDS Church Archives
place=Salt Lake City, Utah.
*Harvard reference
last=Widtsoe
first=John A
authorlink=John A. Widtsoe
title=Is Book of Mormon Geography Known?
journal=Improvement Era
year=1950
date=July 1950
publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
place=Salt Lake City, Utah .
*Harvard reference
last=Woodruff
first=Wilford
authorlink=Wilford Woodruff
title=Wilford Woodruff's Journal
year=1934
publisher=LDS Church Archives
place=Salt Lake City, Utah.

External links

* [http://rameumptom.blogspot.com/2004/07/another-round-dna-zelph-and-book-of.html Another Round: DNA, Zelph, and the Book of Mormon]
* [http://www.bookofzelph.com The Book of Zelph] :A parody of "The Book of Mormon"