Transcription
In the year 1834, Joseph Smith was with a group of early Saints, uh with Zion's camp, traveling through uh Western Illinois. They came across a mound which is now known as the Naples Russell Mound number 8, also called the Zelf Mound. In that mound, which is a Hopewell Native American burial mound, uh they discovered a skeleton. Upon uh seeing the skeleton, Joseph Smith received a revelation in which he identified the skeleton as belonging to a Lamanite man named Zelf and gave additional information about uh Zelf.
In this video, we're going to talk a little bit about that revelation that Joseph Smith received. We're also going to look at the scientific information that's been gathered uh related to the Zelf Mound, the Naples Russell Mound number 8, and we'll look at the relevance it has for Book of Mormon authenticity and for evidence related to the geography for the Book of Mormon.
All right, so first, let's take a look at where the Zelf Mound is. The Naples Russell Mound uh number 8, it's in Western Illinois, uh north of St. Louis. It's south of the Nauvoo area, and it's uh right along the Illinois River. So, as we will go in, it's on a bluff overlooking the Illinois River, and it's not far from the city of Griggsville, Illinois.
Okay, so this is the Illinois River, and then on a on a bluff that overlooks the river is is the mound. We'll go ahead and take a look at it there, maybe with a a little more tilt to it. And it's a it's an oval, um it's an oval-shaped mound. And uh so the um early Saints, they went up, they went up the hill, they found this oval-shaped mound. At the time, um there's some evidence that it wasn't uh covered by trees at the time, but uh and then they dug into the mound there.
Okay, so let's go ahead and take a look at um information related to the to the Zelf Mound. So, if you just look at Wikipedia, it gives a little bit of basic information about it. It talks about how Zelf is a figure of interest in Mormon studies. It talks about how in early June 1834, Joseph Smith, with a Zion Camp Expedition, where they were marching uh to Missouri, and they're passing through West Central Illinois near Griggsville, they found the mound. Here's a picture of the mound, and uh they found some bones on earth from the top. And then it talks about how Joseph Smith um where identified the bones as belonging to a Lamanite chieftain warrior named Zelf, and that it talks about how the mound has since been identified as being a Hopewell culture mound, dating from the 200 BC to 400 uh AD time frame. That's for the Hopewell culture, and we'll talk about how there um has more recently been an excavation of some artifacts. They also found another uh skeleton. That skeleton was carbon dated to 91 AD, so it fits the uh the time frame for the Book of Mormon and sort of fits uh is consistent with the revelation that Joseph Smith uh received.
All right, uh it also talks about how different accounts about the revelation, but we can get a lot better information about uh the accounts from this um site that the Joseph Smith Foundation has on the account of Zelf. And what it has is nice, which it has the uh word-for-word accounts by the several different witnesses. There are six different witnesses uh for uh the discovery of of the Zelf skeleton and the revelation. And so it's one of the best documented uh revelations. It's pretty reliable, as you'll see, all of the witnesses essentially agree on on what occurred.
So, the first one it uses is Wilford Woodruff, and I'll just go ahead and read uh from what Wilford Woodruff says. So he says, when during the march of Zion Camp, he says, while on our travels, we visited many of the mounds which were flung up by the ancient inhabitants of this continent, probably by the Nephites and Lamanites. We visited one of those mounds, and several of the brethren dug into it and took from it the bones of a man. We visited one of those mounds was about 300 ft above the level of the Illinois River, and this fits um the the description. The description fits the geography well. Three persons dug into the mound and found a body. Milton Holmes took the arrow out of the back bones that had killed Zelf and brought it with some of the bones to the camp. I visited the same mound with Jesse J. Smith, and uh Brother Joseph had a vision respecting the person. He said he was a white Lamanite. The curse was taken from him, or at least in part. So we're talking about a Lamanite who had converted uh and had joined with the Nephites. He was killed in battle with an arrow. The arrow was found among his ribs. One of his thigh bones was broken. This was done by a stone flung from a sling in battle years before his death. His name was Zelf. Some of the bones were brought into the camp, and the thigh bone which was broken was put into my wagon. It was carried to Missouri. Zelf is a large, thick-set man, a man of God. He was a warrior under the great prophet, and andas, that was known from the hill Cumorah or East Sea to the Rocky Mountains. The above knowledge Joseph received in a vision. So he has several aspects here. He says that Joseph received it in a vision. He gives various details which I seem to have come from that vision, and this fits with the descriptions that are given by the other accounts.
So, that first one was Wilford Woodruff. They then have uh Joseph Smith's own words. And so he starts talking about other stuff at first, but then he describes the descri at the mound. He says, on the top of the mound were stones which presented the appearance, this is Joseph Smith's words, uh which presented the appearance of three altars having been erected one above the other, according to the ancient order, and the remains of bones were strewn over the surface of the ground. The brethren procured a a shovel and a hoe, and removing the earth to the depth of about 1 foot, discovered the skeleton of a man almost entire, and between his ribs, the stone point of Lamanite arrow, which evidently produced his death. Elder Burr Rig stayed the arrow. Arrow. The contemplation of the scenery around us produced peculiar sensations in our bosoms. And so this is Joseph Smith saying, and subsequently, the visions of the past being opened to my understanding by the spirit of the Almighty, I discovered that the person whose skeleton was before us was a white Lamanite, a large, thick-set man, a man of God. His name was Zelf. He was a warrior and chief captain under the great prophet Andas, who was known from the hill Cumorah or Eastern Sea to the Rocky Mountains. The curse was taken from Zelf, or at least in part. One of his thigh bones was broken by a stone flung from his sling while in battle years before his death. He was killed in a battle by the arrow found among his ribs during the last great struggle of the Lamanites and the Nephites.
So, we have Joseph Smith's own words, and Joseph Smith in particular saying that this came by revelation. It was a vision of the past opened to his understanding by the spirit of the Almighty, and he gave those informations which were then uh repeated, as you saw in Wilford Woodruff's account, and the other accounts um say the same thing.
First, it should be mentioned that the very next day, the day after the discovery of Zelf, was the letter uh that Joseph Smith wrote to his wife Emma, where he talks about the wandering over the plains of the Nephites that they've been doing. So he calls the places where they've been walking the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mountains of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls and their bones as proof of its divine authenticity, and gazing upon the country. So this is the day after he picks up the the bones from Zelf from that mound. So he's clearly talking about this as part of what he's discussing, the picking up the skulls, and this revelation that he received where he sees this as proof of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and that this was the land of the Nephites.
Okay, uh the third witness is Heber C. Kimball. And so these are Heber C. Kimball's words. He says, on Tuesday, the 3rd, this would be of June 1834, on Tuesday, the 3rd, we went up, several of us with Joseph Smith Jr., to the top of the mound on the bank of the Illinois River again. That fits several hundred feet above the river, and from the summit of which we had a pleasant view of the surrounding country. Uh, and then on 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 caused in us very peculiar feelings to see the bones of our fellow creatures scattered in this manner, who had been slain in ages past. We felt prompted to dig down into the mound, and sending for a shovel and hoe, we proceeded to move away the earth. At about 1 foot deep, we discovered a 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. And then it says, it was made known to Joseph that he had been an officer who fell in battle in the last destruction among the Lamanites. His name was Zelf. 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 inquired of the Lord, and it was made known in a vision.
So, this is a third witness, all um agreeing with each other on what occurred. There was a fourth account by George A. Smith, who talks about how they were going up that next morning uh to the mound. There's a fifth one, Levi Hancock, and who was there, and then he says the same thing. He said, Joseph said, so Joseph addressed himself to Willard Richards. Joseph said, this is what I told you, and now I want to tell you that you may know what I meant. This land was called the land of Desolation, and Andas was the king, and a good man was he. There in that mound did he bury his dead, and did not dig holes as the people do now, but they brought their dirt and covered them until you see they were raised to be about 100 ft high. The last man buried was Zelf. The last man buried was Zelf. He was a white Lamanite who fought with the people of Andas for freedom. When he was young, young, he was a great warrior and had his thigh broken and never was set and knitted together as you see. On his side, he fought after it got strength until he lost every tooth in his head save one, and the Lord said he had done enough and suffered him to be killed by the arrow you took from his breast.
So, these words Joseph said as the camp was moving off of the ground. And so this is another account. The words are a little bit different, but it fits with the others. And then also Moses Martin, again, some of the same things, confirming the same thing. And Reuben McBride saying some of the things, same things, how they dug up the skeleton. Joseph said his name was Zelf, a great warrior under the prophet Andas, arrow found in his ribs, man of God, uh white Lamanite, known from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. So the wording is just a little bit different, but you see several different witnesses, all with accounts that are in very high agreement, which means this is an extremely reliable uh church account. For some of the church accounts, uh things that some people say Joseph Smith said, and you don't really have a verification of anyone else hearing it, or the words matching up, or you don't have the verification from Joseph Smith. This particular account is very good and verified by several different witnesses, confirming that it was a vision Joseph Smith received, a revelation uh to give this information.
Okay, so seeing the importance of the vision and what was discovered there, let's take a look at what has been found scientifically about the mound since then. Okay, so if you go to look up the the Naples Russell Mound 8, also called the Naples Mound 8, Naples Mound 8, Naples Russell Mound 8, uh so it's an agreement that it is a Hopewell uh culture site. Again, uh this Zelf account is yet another one that shows really connects the Nephites and Lamanites to the Hopewell culture, that the Nephites, Lamanites were the Hopewell. But anyway, it talks about the mound, its location, gives a little bit about the Zelf Mound incident in the Mormons, and then uh it talks about first recorded visits by settlers, and then how it was later uh investigated. So, it was kind of left after the 1880s until 1974. Rediscovered in 2001, there was an archaeological investigation into the mound. In that investigation, they found uh another skeleton on the upper west side. They determined that this would have been one of the last burials in the mound, likely because it was near the top. So those the the things near the top come last. If you'll recall, one of the witnesses for the the Joseph Smith account said that Zelf was the last one buried. So it would have been after this one, although this uh skeleton was determined to be one of the last burials in the mound.
So, this skeleton is called QL 4904. They did do carbon dating on it. The carbon dating uh turned up 91 AD, or between the range of 58 AD to 127 AD. So it hits it, it fits very well. Again, Joseph in the 1800s, uh he says he has a vision, he says, you know, last battles of Lamanites would have put a post-Christ in that, you know, 100 to 300 some AD time frame. He says known from uh the Rocky Mountains to uh the Cumorah or East Sea, and he doesn't know the science of it, but the science that comes later, the carbon dating is a hit. The Hopewell culture time frame is a hit uh for the right time frames for the Nephite time frames. The carbon dating here is a hit. So this skeleton was 91 AD approximately. Joseph, the account about Joseph Smith finding Zelf, said that Zelf was the last skeleton buried in. So meaning that Zelf would have been after 91 AD, which fits perfectly. And in terms of the geographic range of the Rocky Mountains to uh Cumorah or the East Sea, which could mean Lake, that Lake Ontario area, or the Atlantic Ocean, um both are good fits for the extent of the Hopewell uh culture. So it really was a fit on all aspects of science verifying uh that Joseph Smith's revelation.
But anyway, uh so they they did excavations. Hopewell burial mound could have started as early as 100 BC. Again, the skeleton was 91 AD, and uh there are artifacts that were found in the mound. I'll show you a couple of the artifacts that were found. So here are some of the uh there were some effigy, uh bird pipes, and these fit Hopewell culture type items. And these are similar to uh artifacts in particular that are found in that Ohio Hopewell area, very similar bird effigies and pipes and things like that, or also arrowheads and so forth. And this is uh the mound and kind of where they dug into it and found these artifacts.
Okay, and then uh in addition, I'm going to show you um so there's a there's a very good uh video if you want to go like a full deep dive into the Zelf Mound. I recommend uh this uh video from The Book of Mormon Evidence channel, and it was from a few years ago. This um lesson number 38, Gospel Doctrine Answers with Rod Meldrum and Elden Barrows. And Elden Barrows is a man who's done a lot of study on uh the uh the Zelf Mound. This was done made in September 14, 2021. But I'm just going to show you a couple of the, in it, they go through some of the artifacts that were found, and I'm going to show you that. So the first one will be at the 29-minute mark, uh right about here. Okay, so this was uh the arrowhead or spear point that was found with the Zelf skeleton, and it, this was something that ended up being uh kept by uh Brigham Young. The point is made of obsidian. The obsidian is is from the Yellowstone area in the Rocky Mountains. So yet again, yet another correspondence where Joseph Smith had a revelation, and he says this man was known from uh the Rocky Mountains to uh the Cumorah or East Sea. It turns out that the uh arrowhead in Zelf was from the Rocky Mountains. So that was the the obsidian spear point or arrowhead that uh that was um found with Zelf.
And then on the thigh bone, so this will be about the 38-minute mark, uh right about here. Okay, so the thigh bone for the Zelf skeleton, they said that Joseph Smith held it up to his thigh. Joseph Smith was about 6 foot or 6'1", and the thigh bone was 2 inches longer than Joseph Smith's thigh. So they project that Zelf was a very large man, potentially 6'8" to 6'1" approximately in size. So, uh that's another interesting thing that they found.
And then there were some copper ax heads that I'll show you, this is around the 50-minute mark, and right about here. And so they were these copper ax heads. Some of them had fabric attached to them. There's very few evidences uh that the fabric didn't last or didn't get preserved, but there are little pieces of fabric that sometimes end up attached to the copper or things like that, and you can see that there was fabric that was attached uh to the copper ax heads as well.
And then there's a bowl. This would be at the 53-minute mark. Yeah. Okay, and this is at the 53-minute mark. There's a ceramic bowl and a design of a bird on the ceramic bowl. So this gives an example of the of the pottery design that was used by the people at the time.
And then the most interesting artifact is at the 55-minute mark here. And so here uh this it's this particular one, this mussel shell. So there's a, it was a bird head, another kind of uh pipe, and then there's this uh design on a mussel shell. Now, the mussel shell apparently comes from the Georgia area, so this was not sourced locally. It was uh from far away. And this is generally described as a two-water bird design. So they, there's this um kind of an oval design, and it looks like sort of a duck or a water bird here, and a parallel one on the other side. And they kind of ignore this central part of the design, but we'll focus on that just a little bit more.
So with this design, um it's a little better look at it again, and then when it's sketched out, they sketch it out like this. But what happened was that Mr. Barrows, when the design was turned upside down, realized that it actually looks different upside down and looks more like a depiction, potentially of of the Savior. So this is the this is the the ceramic and the arrowhead, but this is the that design. And when it's flipped upside down, that cylinder and sort of the bulb is more like a halo or head and arm stretched out, and kneeling or kneeling bird, or something to that effect. And so Mr. Barrows thinks that this was actually a representation of of Jesus Christ.
Interestingly, on this artifact, there are two holes, which indicate that a string would go through, or a rope, or leather strap, or something like that. So it'd be worn around the neck. And the fact that these are on this end indicates that this is the proper way up. So if it was held around the neck and through these holes, this is the the uh proper way up. And so this is the proper representation of it, instead of the way it's normally presented in the museums, which is the other upside down, so that it looks more like where you just focus on the the water bird or duck type view.
One other interesting thing is that on, in addition to the central part of the design, there's this little mark here. What's interesting is that this similar mark shows up on a number of Michigan relics and Burrow's Cave artifacts. And um maybe a symbol that that we don't know what it means, but to me, it's another indication that maybe some of those Burrow's Cave in Michigan uh relics are authentic. They have a this similar mark that's on a number of those artifacts.
Okay, so that shows what we have um from uh the Zelf Mound. Now, uh Mr. Barrows does have a website if you're interested in um uh that design. He'll he can buy a, he has, can sell it like he calls it a Nephite holy pendant, pendant you can get, or a pin, and also his book where he goes into some of the history of the mound and shows some of those artifacts and pictures if you're interested in that.
Okay, so knowing that this information about the mound, which this in my mind, the scientific uh examinations, the carbon dating, the artifacts, they do help confirm that this is a very high probability uh Nephite Lamanite site. And um so with that, I think it's worth going back and just thinking a little bit more about uh what was seen in the vision by Joseph Smith.
So, as he said, um Zelf was a warrior and chieftain under the great prophet Andas, who was known from the hill Cumorah or Eastern Sea to the Rocky Mountains. Now, again, what's interesting is this then kind of reflects a geography which fits the Heartland geography for the Book of Mormon, because this was the uh range and extent, the trading network and culture extent for the Hopewell, which really was out to the Rocky Mountains and East to um the Atlantic Ocean, and in the north, in particular, by the hill Cumorah, that uh to that Lake Ontario sea part. And that uh name Andas is actually an Andastes, a tribe in Western New York that is very similar to that name. So it all fits very well. In addition, it connects the word Cumorah to again being in that Western New York. So it's a use of that uh hill Cumorah from the traditional understanding of designating the hill Cumorah as being part in that Western New York and being part of the Book of Mormon uh geography.
So, to me, it's a very good indication that this is the right geography we need to be looking at, a Heartland geography uh tied to the to the Hopewell culture, because that's where the Zelf points us to. And this this Zelf incident, where you have several different people corroborating Joseph Smith receiving a revelation, is in my mind one of the best pieces of evidence we have as to the uh proper uh geography and setting for the Book of Mormon.
I'll go ahead and stop share there. There are some people on the carbon dating where the one um uh carbon dating for the skeleton found in 2001 said 91 AD. There are some nitpickers who have said, oh well, then that that's wrong, then then then Joseph Smith was wrong because he said it was during the last battles between the Nephites and Lamanites, so that would have been 300 AD. And the carbon dating for this, who was near the top of the mound, was 91 AD, which is a couple hundred years earlier. So he was off, and and Joseph Smith would have been was wrong about the time frame. It wouldn't have been in the last battles between the Nephites and Lamanites, according to the Book of Mormon. But that's really just nitpicking and it's erroneous because again, the 91 AD skeleton was found later. It was found on the northwest part of the mound. It was not in the same location as um the Zelf Mound, which we don't know exactly where in the mound, but um so it's, but it's in a different location in the mound. And the Zelf Mound was at the very uh top, within that top one foot. Joseph Smith, according to the one account, said that it was the last of the burials in the mound, which means that he would have been after uh the other uh burials that were found and and uh carbon dated later.
So, in fact, it actually fits exactly perfect, which is after the 91 AD, which fits perfectly with the Book of Mormon in terms of when the last battles between the Nephites and Lamanites occurred. So it really is a perfect hit on all angles and is an excellent piece of evidence for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.
All right, I look forward to your comments and and again, I hope you'll like and subscribe. Thanks.