Teotihuacan, Mexico
Updated: Aug 3
Application
Ancient cultures preserve faint memories of the true Creator and the Flood, but those memories are often twisted. We must hold fast to the pure Word of God and recognize the types and shadows that point us to Jesus Christ.
In this Lesson, Dr. Bob stands at the Quetzalcoatl Pyramid in Teotihuacan, just outside of Mexico City in Mexico. This pyramid exists in the same archaeological zone and is connected by the avenue with the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. It is particularly interesting because of some of its unique characteristics.
Supplemental Information
Today we are at the Quetzalcoatl Pyramid in Teotihuacan. Behind Dr. Bob on the statues is a figure coming out of the steps and the sides of the pyramid: a serpent with a fringe of feathers around its head. That is the representation of Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was a prominent god to the people of this area. He represents both the eagle or the bird flying (the God of the air) as well as the serpent on the earth (the God of the earth). It is a uniting of the concept of the God of the sky and the God of the earth.
Many see a connection between Quetzalcoatl and Jesus Christ. There are some good reasons why they see this connection, but there also are some complications.
Similarities. Quetzalcoatl was seen as a creator God. He was responsible for the creation of this Earth and the world and of people. In addition, he was seen as a kind God, particularly early on. He was also seen as a God who taught and who gave the people the tools they needed to be successful. He taught them about maize, he taught them to build, and he taught them all the skills that they needed to actually have a culture and a civilization. He is broadly included in the legends and the stories of the people of Mesoamerica, including the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Teotihuacanos, and the other cultures that lived in this area. These prominent characteristics seem to liken him unto a Christ figure.
Complications and distinctions. This is just the latest iteration of the temple. It has gone through between five and seven phases. Five is a pretty confirmable number, but there may be others. On a cycle they would rebuild or enhance the temple. Their cycle was about 52 years for this period. It is interesting because when we look at Jewish history we see the concept of the Jubilees. A Jubilee of Jubilees was 49 years, so the 50th year would be a special Jubilee. Here, every 52 years they would rebuild this temple. In itself that is not much of a concern. But as a part of that rededication of the new temple, as they were building it, they would sacrifice young men. The DNA evidence suggests that many of them were born elsewhere, but spent a considerable amount of time here before their death. They were sacrificed to the god at the time that the temple was reconstructed. We found these burials. The men would have their hands tied as they were being killed and their blood spilt to dedicate this new temple. This is obviously a major distinction from Christian teaching.
We do see enough in the stories (like the Epic of Gilgamesh and what we see on the Nippur flood tablet) that there are connections that may reflect an echo of a previous truth that had been corrupted by Satan to cause confusion and even to corrupt whole generations of people. Worldwide flood legends, including those preserved in Mesoamerica, function as residual historical memory. After the global Flood and the dispersion at Babel (Genesis 11), every people group carried knowledge of the true Creator and the judgment of the Flood. Over generations that knowledge was mixed with error, animal imagery, and false worship. The result is an echo, not the pure record. Archaeology and genetics now confirm the sacrificial practice described in the video. The DNA data showing non-local origins for many victims is a modern scientific confirmation of the historical and ritual reality at the site.
The Quetzalcoatl temple, alongside its companions of the Sun God and the Moon Goddess, is important. These structures were unique because, while the Egyptian pyramids remained somewhat enigmatic as to their actual purpose, the temples and pyramids here were actually that temple. At the top of the pyramid would have been a temple specifically for the worship of the god. The Spanish, one of the first things they did when they came to these areas, was to destroy these temples, and often then build Catholic churches on top of them. Some of the major historical records we use to discern the stories of this area are from codices that likely came to us as transcriptions by Catholic priests, the Spanish priests that came initially during the colonial period and copied these codices. Many of them were burned because they were seen as a worship of a false god, or even worse, a worship of Satan himself. This was likely due to the serpent nature of Quetzalcoatl and the animal nature of many of the other gods. So they were destroyed, but several were retained. And so we see these stories which have a lot of Christian parallels.
What we are not sure of is whether those parallels were written in by the Catholic priests who transcribed them, or whether they actually are an accurate reflection of the stories that were told by the Teotihuacanos and the others that lived in this area. At the very least, it is an echo. We see that through the nature of the Mesoamerican calendar, this cyclical nature of time, and these repeating of events. Teotihuacan reflects that as well through this renewal of all these pyramid structures on a periodic basis. We also see through the extended Mayan calendar the repeating of history. So these figures will come up again. There actually was a Quetzalcoatl, a human figure that existed much later. And there is some question of how much of the stories regarding the sacrifice and things like that are the result of his influence of naming himself as Quetzalcoatl and corrupting the beliefs of the people. It is hard to know because of the corrupted nature of the historical record as well.
We see a lot of parallels. We have a lot of things to be concerned about. But the cyclical nature of the calendar brings to mind this concept of types and shadows and how God does use specific dates to reflect specific events, not because He is bound, but to teach us to look for the signs of the events that He has foretold and He has warned us about. We are to be the watchers who look for these patterns and these parallels.
Biblical truth is supported here by both the historical record and the scientific observations available today. The construction phases are visible in the archaeology. The DNA results are empirical data. The worldwide distribution of Flood legends is consistent with a single recent global Flood followed by rapid post-Babel dispersion, not with independent evolutionary development of similar myths over deep time. The pure, uncorrupted account remains in Scripture. The true Creator is Jesus Christ, by whom and for whom all things were made. The hope of the world is found only in Him.
Scripture References
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” Colossians 1:16–17
“And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” Leviticus 25:8–10
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” 2 Peter 3:3–6
“Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Colossians 2:17
“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45
“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. ... And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.” Genesis 11:1, 6–8
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