Mystery Of The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone

America's ancient Indian's called it the "Cliff of the Strange Writings". It has been named Phoenician Rock or the Commandment Stone. It is called today Inscription rock. Most people have never even heard of the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone, but it is truly one of the greatest historical mysteries of North America. The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is a huge flat stone on the side of Hidden Mountain, near Los Lunas, New Mexico, approximately 35 miles south of Albuquerque.

The stone preserves an abbreviated form of the Ten Commandments as written in Exodus 20, which is very exciting, but what makes this stone an enigma is the fact that the writing is clearly semitic in origin. The ancient Hebrew inscriptions were once thought to be a combination of Greek, Hebrew and Phoenician characters but now are clearly seen as a form of Hebrew ancient paleo-Hebrew script writing dating to approximately 1000 B.C.! The Greeks "borrowed" from the Phonetic alphabet so the characters would be familiar. The Hebrews and the Phoenicians were neighbors which, in their trading environment, shared the same language and alphabet. The style of the characters is strikingly similar, almost identical, to that used on the Moabite Stone in the days of the Israelite kings Omri and Ahab. The Moab stone was engraved by captive Israelites for the Moabite king, Mescha, as per its own inscription. After examining the Los lunas site geologist, George Morehouse, estimated the placement of this Decalogue inscription up to 3000 years ago, which would, again, date it around 1000 B.C. Just how were historians to explain how a seventy ton boulder with Hebrew inscription appeared on this mountain landscape in North America around 1000 B.C.?


    The Mystery Of The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone

If you tried to tell most history teachers that the Ten Commandments arrived in North America long before Christopher Columbus did, most of them would tell you that you are absolutely nuts. But that is apparently exactly what happened. The existence of the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone suggests that there is a whole lot more to the history of North America than we have been told.


So where in the world did these Ten Commandments written in paleo-Hebrew come from?

The recorded history of the stone goes back to 1933, when archaeologist Frank Hibben saw it. According to Hibben, an unnamed guide took him to the stone. The guide claimed to have found it as a boy during the 1880s. Undocumented claims go back all the way to the 1850s, before New Mexico even became a state. One story goes that local Native Americans told then landowner Franz Huning in 1871 that the stone predated their tribes coming to the area.

There are those who believe that the stone was inscribed by a lost tribe of Israel who made early contact with the Americas. Other scholars dismiss this claim, saying that the inscription uses modern punctuation. The Paleo-Hebrew script, however, is practically identical to Phoenician script (older than 1050 BC).

Most who have studied the stone are almost certain that the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone pre-dates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in North America.

So how in the world is it possible that a copy of the Ten Commandments written in paleo-Hebrew showed up in North America long before Christopher Columbus "discovered" America?

Perhaps the key to this mystery is in studying the Phoenicians.

The "Phoenicians" were THE great seafaring people of the ancient world. Most scholars agree they were originally from the coastal areas of Israel and Lebanon, but they founded a vast array of settlements all around the Mediterranean during the course of their travels. In fact, the great ancient city of Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians. It is historically documented that the Phoenicians got as far as Spain, and many scholars believe that the Phoenicians eventually were able to cross the Atlantic and arrive in North America. If any ancient culture would have been able to cross the Atlantic ocean, it would have been the great seafaring Phoenician people.


Over two thousand years before Columbus "discovered" America there were people of semitic origin in New Mexico worshipping the God of Israel. How can this possibly be reconciled with known history? It is seemingly apparent that the financial backing to launch a Hebrew-Phoenician voyage of world exploration could have readily occurred during the reign of King Solomon of Israel. Solomon worshipped the true God of Israel and had the means to fund explorative voyages to other lands. With Solomon's main port being located on the Red Sea it would be difficult to explain how his fleet would have entered America through the Atlantic drainage. The Los Lunas site is located along the Puerco River which is tributary of the Rio Grande River. The Rio Grande is definitely in the Atlantic drainage. It would have been entirely possible for the Hebrew-Phonecian sailors to access the area of the stone.

So just how did the 10 Commandments inscribed in the ancient Hebrew language show up in New Mexico? 

Nobody knows the answer for certain. But 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. You see, the Los Lunas Decalogue stone is yet another clue about what happened to the ten lost tribes of Israel. These ten lost tribes are known in the Scriptures as the northern kingdom of Israel or sometimes they are simply referred to as "Ephraim". Ephraim was one of the most dominant tribes in the northern kingdom, and just as God said in His Word, He scattered Ephraim (the northern kingdom) over the face of the entire earth. The Los Lunas Decalogue stone is evidence that they may have even been scattered as far as North America.

The inscription has been translated by the Epigraphic Society as follows:



I (am) Jehovah [the Eternal] Eloah [your God] who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim [Mizraim or the two Egypts] out of the house of bondages. You shall not have other [foreign] gods in place of (me). You shall not make for yourself molded (or carved) idols [graven images]. You shall not lift up your voice to connect the name of Jehovah in hate. Remember you (the) Sabbath to make it holy. Honor your father and your mother to make long your existence upon the land which Jehovah Eloah [the Eternal your God] gave to you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery(or idolatry). You shall not steal (or deceive). You shall not bear witness against your neighbor, testimony for a bribe. You shall not covet (the) wife of your neighbor and all which belongs to your neighbor.

SOURCE