Used in:
- Mosiah 5:35 [7:22]
- Mosiah 6:12 [9:9]
- Mosiah 6:17 [9:14]
What does the Book of Mormon state?
- Hebrews had no word for "corn" (meaning maize)
- "Corn" in Hebrew refers to any grain with a kernel
At face value - Did corn exist in the New World?
- Yes (any grain - Hebrew definition)
- Yes (maize)
Statement
- Corn (maize) originated in Mesoamerica
- Note: The term "corn" was applied to any grain.
- Corn, in orthodox English, means grain for human consumption, and especially wheat, e. g., the Corn Laws. The earliest settlers [in the U.S.], following this usage, gave the name of Indian corn to what the Spaniards, following the Indians themselves, had called maize. The term appears in Bradford's "History of Plymouth Plantation" (1647) and in Mourt's "Relation" (1622). But gradually the adjective fell off, and by the middle of the eighteenth century maize was called simply corn and grains in general were called breadstuffs.
- The term "corn" is not consistently used even today. In some countries, "corn" means the leading crop grown in a certain district.
- Begs the question about what the original word was used that was translated into "corn" or if "corn" in the Book of Mormon means maize
- If it didn't mean maize, then anything about it's meaning is conjecture as it would apply to any grain (i.e. amaranth)
Assessment
- Corn (maize) is endemic to Mesoamerica
Additional Material
- History
- Accelerator mass spectrometry age determinations of maize cobs (Zea mays L.) from Guila Naquitz Cave in Oaxaca, Mexico, produced dates of 5,400 carbon-14 years before the present (about 6,250 calendar years ago), making those cobs the oldest in the Americas. [as of 2000]
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC29388/
- Maize had previously been reported in several Hoysala [India] temples by Carl Johannessen and Anne Z. Parker ("Maize Ears Sculptured in 12th and 13th Century AD India as Indicators of Pre-Columbian Diffusion," Economic Botany vol. 43, 1989, pp. 164-180).
