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Book of Mormon Commentary
3 Nephi Chapter 4
THE SIGN OF CHRIST'S DEATH Is GIVEN, VER. 1-25
3 Ne 4:2 And there was not any man who could do a miracle in the name of Jesus, save he were
cleansed every whit from his iniquity.
Nephi, who kept the record, "did many miracles in the name of Jesus." This testimony was given
as evidence that the time for the Savior's death was at hand: "We know our record to be true," said
Mormon, for Nephi "was a just man" (1). "The thirty and third year had passed away," and the
sign of
three days' darkness, as prophesied by Samuel, the Lamanite (H. 5: 71-82), should soon be given.
"The people began to look with great earnestness for the sign" (III N. 4:3, 4).
3 Ne 4:6 And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, in the fourth day of the
month, there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land;
A logical deduction may be made from this time statement as to when Jesus was born. Assuming
that the time reckoning dates from the sign of Jesus' birth (III N. 1:13-18,45) and that the sign of
his death came four days after the thirty-third year ended, some fairly definite timetables are
provided.
It is quite likely that the Nephites would cling to the Hebrew calendar which gives Nisan or Abib,
as the beginning of the year. This Corresponds to our March 15-April 15. Easter, which is a
Christian holy day to celebrate the Resurrection, is fixed as the first Sunday after the full moon
after the vernal (spring) equinox. Therefore it shifts from year to year, but cannot be before March
21 or the equinox.
The Passover occurs on Nisan 14, 15 and came at the same time that year as the Sabbath, and was
referred to as a "high day" or double Sabbath (John 19:31). Luke uses the term "Easter" instead of
Passover in telling that King Herod was vexing the church by killing James and putting Peter in
prison "intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people" (Acts 12:4).
From these deductions we can be assured that Jesus was born and crucified in the early spring.
Accompanying this "terrible tempest" were earthquakes, lightnings, and fires which destroyed
cities; highways were broken up, "the whole face of the land was changed, ...many smooth places
became rough, and many great and notable cities were sunk, and many were burned, ...and the
inhabitants thereof were slain" (III N. 4:7-11).
“And there were Some Who were carried away in the whirlwind" (13) .
Professor J. D. Baldwin spoke of a tradition in old Central American books of an immense
catastrophe.
This tradition affirms that a part of the continent extending into the Atlantic was destroyed in the manner supposed,
and appears to indicate that the destruction was accomplished by a succession of frightful convulsions. Three are
constantly mentioned, and sometimes there is mention of one or two others. "The land was shaken by frightful
earthquakes, and the waves of the sea combined with volcanic fires to over- whelm and ingulf it." Each convulsion
swept away portions of the land, until the whole disappeared, leaving the line of the coast as it is now. Most of the
inhabitants, overtaken amid their regular employments, were destroyed; but some escaped in ships, and some fled for
safety to the summits of high mountains, or to portions of the land which, for the time, escaped immediate destruction.