The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone - How In The World Did The Ten Commandments Get To America Before Columbus Did
The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is a huge boulder on the side of Hidden Mountain, near Los Lunas, New Mexico, approximately 35 miles south of Albuquerque. This stone shows the Ten Commandments written in ancient paleo-Hebrew script.
In 1996, Professor James D. Tabor of the University of North Carolina - Charlotte, interviewed the late Professor Frank Hibben (1910-2002), a retired University of New Mexico archaeologist, "who is convinced that the inscription is ancient and thus authentic. He reports that he first saw the text in 1933. At the time it was covered with lichen and patination and was hardly visible. He was taken to the site by a guide who had seen it as a boy, back in the 1880s."
The scholars who have studied this stone date it anywhere from 500 to 3000 years old. That almost assuredly means it pre-dates the arrival of Christopher Columbus to America.
So how in the world did a copy of the Ten Commandments in ancient Hebrew get to North America before Christopher Columbus arrived?
We believe that the key is in studying the Phoenicians.
The ?Phoenicians? were THE great seafaring people of the ancient world. Most agree they were originally from the coastal areas of Israel and Lebanon, but they founded many, many settlements all around the Mediterranean in their travels. In fact, the great ancient city of Carthage was founded by them. It is well documented that the Phoenicians got as far as Spain, and many believe that they eventually were able to cross the Atlantic and get to North America. If any ancient culture would have been able to cross the Atlantic, it would have HAD to have been the great seafaring Phoenician people.
So exactly who were the Phoenicians? The Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 A.D.) called the Israelites ?Phoenicians?. It is also a fact that the ancient Hebrew language and the ancient Phoenician language are virtually identical. The great ancient Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon were just north of ancient Israel.
And did you know that the Phoenicians also founded the Etruscan civilization in Italy? Scholars have found that some of those Phoenicians brought the worship of the Lord with them.
Early 19th century noted antiquarian scholar, Sir William Betham, studied the Celtic origins of Europe, and his studies of early Italy were published in a two-volume work, "Etruria Celtica." Betham reproduced ancient coins from the kingdom of Utruria, in Italy, known as the Etruscan civilization. Interestingly, several of the Utrurian coins discovered were minted in honor of their deity, which was none other than Yahweh, God of the Hebrews!
So how did the Ten Commandments inscribed in ancient Hebrew show up in New Mexico? Nobody knows the answer for sure. But to us it seems that the most reasonable answer is to say that the greatest seafaring people by far of the ancient world, the "Phoenicians", came to North America and brought the covenant of their God with them.
