John L. Sorenson discusses the presence of various fermented drinks in Mesoamerica that the Spaniards called "wine."

Date
2002
Type
Book
Source
John L. Sorenson
LDS
Hearsay
Direct
Reference

John L. Sorenson, "How Could Joseph Smith Write So Accurately About Ancient American Civilization?" in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002), 288-89

Scribe/Publisher
Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies
People
John L. Sorenson
Audience
Reading Public
PDF
Transcription

Wine

Some scholars have faulted Joseph Smith for references in the Book of Mormon to wine in the New World promised land (as in Mosiah 11:15). These scholars assure us that sine produced from grapes—which is the usual meaning of the word wine—was never made nor used in the Americas. However, the Book of Mormon makes no reference to rapes, although it does mention "vineyards." Some other sort of wine could have been so labeled by the Nephites. When the Spaniards arrived in Mesoamerica, they spoke about several kinds of native "wines." An intoxicating drink was commonly manufactured by fermenting a mixture of water, a certain tree bark, and honey. Other groups fermented juices drawn from the agave plant, bananas, pineapples, or the heart of certain palm trees. To all of these, the Europeans applied the term *wine*. Further, the Spaniards spoke of native plantings of the agave cactus (from which the drink balche was made) as "vineyards." So Joseph Smith's use of the terms *wine* and *vineyards* in the translation of the Book of Mormon has prove to be no mistake, whether some non-grape fruit was used or, as Joseph himself probably assumed, the Nephite wine was made from grapes by a process like that used by European settlers in the early United States.

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