as with Mormonism itself. Kingsborough’s sad fate—to have lost all in pursuit
of the tribes—marked one of the last attempts to prove the Israelite identity of
the Native Americans by way of ethnographic research, a tradition that had
begun with the early Spanish writers whom he translated. The Jewish Indian
theory as a scientific project died more or less with him. However, the elabora-
tion of theology based on the idea that the ten tribes had arrived in America had
only just begun to prevail. Mormonism is its most significant product.
The well-researched history and tenets of Mormonism are beyond the
scope of this book.^73 Yet it is worth stressing here one important Mormon
principle: the transposition from theology to revelation of the principle of loss.
Whereas Simon had tried to resuscitate the Jewish Indian theory by evoking its
theological value, the Book of Mormon breathes life into it with revelation.
Colin Kidd points out that “the book of Mormon is particularly rich with
ethnological and genealogical lore” describing the roots of all sorts of biblical
“ethnicities” found in America, thereby making its terrain and history part of
the Bible.^74 America was thus imbued with a biblical past that predated
European colonization. What the Book of Mormon takes from the debates
about the ten lost tribes is the singular possibility acknowledged since the early
sixteenth century: that a biblical people had arrived in America. This new
biblical past was implied in the sacred Mormon texts. Crucial in this regard
is the idea that knowledge—or, more aptly, revelation—accompanied the Is-
raelites who came to America. If the exile of the tribes were the miraculous
work of God, he surely knows where they now are: “But now I go unto the
Father, and also to show myself unto the lost tribes of Israel, for they are not
lost unto the Father, for he knoweth whither he hath taken them,” declared the
Mormon prophet Nephi ( 3 Nephi 17 : 4 ). If God carried the tribes away, he also
revealed himself to them; and this revelation is to be united with the Old World
revelation. This unification is carried out in the Book of Mormon: “And it shall
come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the
Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews
shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall
have the words of the Nephites and the Jews” ( 2 Nephi 29 : 13 ).
Loss is central in Mormon prophecies. Isaiah speaks only once about the
“lost in Assyria”; Jesus commands his disciples only once to “go unto the lost
sheep of Israel.” The Book of Mormon, however, deals with loss profusely,
echoing the language of the older prophecies: “And behold, there are many
who are already lost from the knowledge of those who are at Jerusalem. Yea, the
more part of all the tribes have been bled away; and they are scattered to and fro
upon the isles of the sea; and whither they are none of us knoweth, save that we
know that they have been led away” ( 1 Nephi 22 : 4 ).
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