And It Came To Pass - Authenticity of the Book of Mormon

The phrase, "And it came to pass" occurs in the English translation of the Book of Mormon 1,381 times.  It is found in all books except the book of Moroni (the last book).  It can vary in how it is recorded, sometimes being used as "now it came to pass" or "for behold it came to pass" or "but behold, it came to pass" or "and it shall come to pass" but all variations contain the same root meaning.  


The phrase is not unique to the Book of Mormon, however.  The Bible uses the phrase, or one of its derivatives, some 613 times (526 in the Old Testament and 87 in the New Testament).  This supports the fact that the phrase "and it came to pass" is Hebrew in origin, which correlates well with the statement from Nephi, "Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians" (1 Nephi 1:2).  


It has been discovered that the Maya people, who lived in the Southeast part of Mexico and in Guatemala, may have adopted the phrase " and it came to pass."  Recent discoveries in the translation of the glyphs of the 7th Century Mayan ruins of Palenque show the phrase "and then it came to pass" and "it had come to pass" both used frequently.  Even more recently, another glyph has been directly interpreted as "and it shall come to pass."  This glyph has been named "Utchi" and it comprised of three separate glyphs; (U)T, CH and I.  Combined the three glyphs mean "and it came to pass."    

Three parts of the Utchi glyph

Here is a brief explanation of the glyphs history from "Things Mormon."

In 1985, a Mayanist scholar, Davit Stuart, observed that the Anterior Date Indicator (ADI) and Posterior Date Indicator (PDI) named by Eric Thompson functioned as a grammatical and literary feature both in colonial and modern Maya languages.  He speculated correctly when he interpreted the sound of the glyph as "Ut" in the Chol language and "Utchi" in the Maya language, meaning "to happen, or to come to pass." (Schele 1987:26)  Two years earlier, John Justeson and Will Norman found a consistency in an event indicator that appear as the word "IWAL," which means the action is ongoing at the time, such as "and" or "and then."  Together, UT_IWAL in the PDI in Maya glyphs read "and then it came to pass" or "and now it came to pass."   

It is interesting, and kind of ironic, that one of the things used to criticize the Book of Mormon has actually become one of the means to help prove its authenticity.  It is my testimony that the book is true and I am confident that as time goes on many other things will come to light to help further help the case of the authenticity of this great book.