https://latterdaysaintmag.com/maya-glyph-and-it-came-to-pass-book-of-mormon-literary-style-in-mesoamerica/ A strange thing about Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Mormon plates is the extensive use (over 1500 times) of the phrase “and it came to pass”. Oliver Cowdery recorded Joseph’s translation as a running text without punctuation. When Joseph sent the manuscript to Grandin Press for publication, there was no punctuation. Grandin had to persuade Joseph to let him punctuate the manuscript before printing without altering the text which included the many “and it came to pass” phrases. Three decades later after advances in deciphering Maya hieroglyphics, David Stuart (1984: 5) gave a Proto-Cholan Maya reading of I Uti (see editor’s note #1) as “to finish, come to pass,” or Chontal ut with the same meaning. Linda Schele in1982 (21-25) translated and illustrated this frequently used word in Maya hieroglyphic texts in four types of directional indicators as “then it came to pass,” “until it came to pass,” “since it had come to pass,” etc.
