10.4.1 Question: Are the parallels in Popol Vuh to the "tree of life" and the "forbidden
tree" that could have originated from the Book of Mormon?
10.4.2 ANSWER: The Book of Mormon teaches the doctrine of the fall from the Genesis
tree of life and the forbidden tree (2 Nephi 2:15-20; 42: 2, 7). There are subtle references
to the same doctrine taught in story form in the Popol Vuh, Part 11, Chapter 3, that
includes both tree symbols. Experts on the Popol Vuh are generally agreed, after much
study, that the Popol Vuh is a genuine pre-Columbian sacred book of the Quiche Maya
that was not composed around Biblical passages by the Indians, as some have supposed,
to gain influence with the Spaniards. We can consider the Book of Mormon book of
Nephi as the potential original resource record, because the Quiche chronicler knew there
was an ancient book "no longer to be seen" from which his compilation of the Popol Vuh
had originated (Recinos 1950:1617).
First, an ancient related source contemporary with the Book of Mormon has been
observed on Izapa Stela 2, dating to about 200 B.C. In my Izapa Sculpture work (Norman
1976: 94) I compare the Calabash (gourd) tree on Stela 2 with the Popol Vuh underworld
"tree of life." I believe there is a direct connection between these two sources. Two
figures that appear to be offspring (fruit) of the Stela 2 tree compare to the hero twins, the
first ancestors of the Quiche, who were sired when their mother, Xquic, partook of the
forbidden gourd tree. They compare to Eve's first two sons born after she partook of the
forbidden tree.
Other elements of this tree, which others have compared to the Book of Mormon tree of
life that imparted eternal life, are the beauty of the tree with its sweet white fruit, and
renewed life through the maiden partaking of its fruit. Careful examination of the details
reveals that this gourd tree is closer to the "forbidden tree of knowledge of good and
evil," and another tree represents the tree of life.
The maiden does not seem to have had knowledge that life would come from the tree
(through her offspring) until after the fact. The fruit of the gourd tree is not described in
the Popol Vuh text as being either beautiful or white. The maiden says, "Is it not
wonderful to see how it is covered with fruit" which "must be very good?" Her
wonderment was that the previously barren tree had become fruitful, not that it was
beautiful. An assumption of beauty equating with white fruit can be made from the skull
bone of Hun-Hunahpu placed in its branches being naturally white and the fruit matching
the skull. In reality, the gourd is green, and only after losing its husk does the dried gourd
pod take a beige color that resembles the skull. The skull of Hun Hunahpu hidden in the
tree lamented that it had no flesh, because "the flesh is all which gives . . . a handsome
appearance," and after death, "men are frightened by their bones." So any whiteness in
this context implies a bone fear of death, not beauty, joy, and life. Tedlock's Popol Vuh
translation (page 114, footnote on page 274) observes that the reference to desirable,
delicious fruit has to be metaphorical because the gourd is not edible, but the mystery is
unsolved. Does it survive from an original tree of life or forbidden fruit account in the
Book of Mormon?
An implied Book of Mormon tree of life correspondence is really nearer to Eve's
encounter with the Genesis "tree of knowledge of good and evil" than to the tree of life.
Adam and Eve were forbidden to partake of the fruit in consequence of death, and when
Eve partook, they were cast out to the earth where they became mortal, had children, and
became subject to death. They also had two sons, Cain and Abel, who became locked in a
life-death struggle that introduced the ultimate evil of murder as part of the fall that had
to be overcome by the redemption of Christ. This compares to the ancestral twins
Hunahpu and Xbalanque of the Popol Vuh, who were locked in a life-death struggle with
their two elder brothers. Because of their abusiveness, the two elder brothers were
changed through sorcery into animals that resembled monkeys and went off and lived in
the forest (Part II, Chapter 5). This compares to the elder brothers Laman and Lemuel
who became cursed because of their rebellion and began living primitive lives in the
forest (2 Nephi 5:21, 24). In this, we appear to have a Genesis account mixed with the
original ancestors from Lehi's first four sons in the Book of Mormon.
The inhabitants of Xibalba were forbid en to approach the gourd tree, and the maiden in
anticipation of partaking of its fruit said: "Must I die, shall I be lost, if I pick one of this
fruit?" It was enticing, but a fear of death lingered from the skull that hung in this
forbidden tree. I prefer this translation from Recinos rather than Tedlock's translation,
who felt this passage makes more sense if it refers to the fruit dying and being wasted
rather than the maiden.
The real tree of life in the Popol Vuh myth was not the Calabash but another tree. Upon
her partaking of the Calabash, a judgment of death by sacrifice was pronounced upon the
maiden, but she escaped death through the mediation of a "tree of light" that glowed
when it provided red sap as a substitute for her blood and heart for a sacrifice in her
behalf so that she could be exiled to the earth and live. The tree is identified as the Chuh
Cakche, a large tree the Mexicans called ezauahuitl, "tree of blood," also identified in
Chiapas, and in Guatemala where it is called Pilix and Cancante that is also distinguished
for its white leaves and stems. Is not this white "tree of light" a direct reflection from the
Book of Mormon tree of life?
An important point of correspondence, according to Mormon theology, is the condition
that the human race would not have been propagated without Adam and Eve being exiled
to the earth after partaking of the forbidden tree's fruit. Also, consequence of death that
came with mortality was overcome through the atoning blood sacrifice of Christ as
mediator in their behalf. And we learn from the Book of Mormon that the tree of life that
ensured eternal life was the symbolic embodiment of Christ as the Redeemer through his
atoning sacrifice (I Nephi 11).
-V. Garth Norman
References
Norman, V. Garth. 1976. Izapa Sculpture; Part 2 Text. Papers of the New World
Archaeological Foundation, No. 30. Provo.
Recinos, Adrian. 1950. Popol Vuh, the Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiche Maya. English
version by D. Goetz and S. G. Morley from Spanish translation by Adrian Recinos.
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Tedlock, Dennis. 1985. Popol Vuh; A Definitive Edition of the Maya Book of the Dawn of
Life, and the Glories of God and Kings. Simon and Schuster, New York.