Book of Mormon

The Birthdate of Quetzalcoatl (Christ)
By Bruce W. Warren

Editor’s Note:  We celebrate Christ’s birth at Christmas and consider his actual birthdate on April 6th, according to revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith (D&C 20:1).  Mesoamerican research by Bruce Warren – with Extract Notes from Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon by Alan C. Miner (unpublished) -adds significant documentation to the April 6th date and adds a powerful witness of the Savior’s divinity.

D&C 20:1 says the following: “The rise of the Church of Christ in these last days, being one thousand, eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh… in the fourth month, and on the sixth day of the month which is called April. “

Bruce Warren notes that in 1987, Dennis O. Clawson was examining the Olmec-Maya Long Count calendar of Mesoamerica to see how the proposed birthdate of Christ (Thursday, 6 April 1 B.C.) would be recorded. 

To his delight, the date was 7.17.17.17.13 1 Ben 6 Mak.  The 6 Mak portion of this date is the New Year’s Day of a Mixtec calendar. The 1 Ben portion is associated with the birth of Quetzalcoatl, and the long-count date represents the beginning of a major calendar round.

This amazing parallel to the Book of Mormon account of the Messiah in Ancient America and the unique but detailed correlation with both the Olmec-Maya Long count calendar and the Mesoamerican Calendar round is startling to say the least. (Minerva Teichert’s painting of the resurrected Christ in America with a Quetxzalcoatl bird illustrates this connection.)

An indirect proof of this birth-date for Quetzalcoatl (Christ) is the temple at Chichen Itza.  On the doorway of the El Castillo temple at Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico, there is a carved and bearded figure representing Quetzalcoatl.

At the spring equinox, the sun casts a shadow across the corner of the stepped pyramid, creating a serpent body of light along the stairway balustrade to the carved, feathered serpent head at the base. (See photo by Garth Norman.)  This illuminated serpent takes on the appearance of a serpent representing Quetzalcoatl slowly descending from the top of the pyramid and the sun in the heavens. Researchers from Merida discovered that the serpent of light reaches its maximum perfection on April 6.

Although this temple was built in the tenth century in celebration of their ruler Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl, it already has been noted that because of the circumstances of his birth, this ruler took upon himself the name of the legendary god Quetzalcoatl.  Thus, the type and shadow of this temple perhaps extends back beyond the tenth century to the other Mesoamerican god of rebirth, resurrection, and life. 

As a further type and shadow pointing to this ancient god, if one were to extend the serpent forward in the same direction it has moved down the steps, the serpent path would lead to their sacred cenote, a well of sacrifice and “living waters” to the feathered serpent rain-life god.            .

At the beginning of each calendar round, Mesoamerican priests had the people begin life anew.  At times, temples were torn down and new ones constructed on top of the old ones.  Interestingly, the Aztecs rebuilt their temple to Quetzalcoatl (their god of rebirth and resurrection) in A.D.1507.  That means that if: (1) the temple to Quetzalcoatl was built to commemorate his birthday; and (2) the temple of Quetzalcoatl was built to commemorate a new major calendar round; then Quetzalcoatl was born in the year 1 B.C.” [Bruce Warren, Ancient America Foundation Newsletter, No. 3 December 1994, pp. 5-7]

Ammon O’Brien adds this insight pertaining to the day and the night and the day as one day sign of the birth of the Savior as observed in Mesoamerica. “One prolific source of information on the ancient culture of Mexico is the work of Fray Bernadino de Sahagun.  Looking at Book 7 Chapter 2 in his Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana (Florentine Codex), which deals with the cosmology of the Nahuas, we find the legend of a night when the moon appeared in glory. 

The following words are recorded: “Like the sun he shone, and it was like daytime.  It was said, ‘It is almost like day; everywhere it is bright.  Light is spread everywhere.'”  [Ammon O’Brien, Seeing beyond Today with Ancient America, pp. 271, 263-264, 25]

Copyright 1999-2002 Ancient America Foundation. The Ancient America Foundation (AAF) is pleased to present AAF Notes: a series of research articles by scholars of Book of Mormon culture and history and reviewed by AAF editors. Visit our Web site:  HYPERLINK https://www.ancientamerica.org

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