Hunab Ku

Hunab Ku (Mayan pronunciation: [huˈnaɓ kʼu], standard Yucatec Mayan orthography: Junab K'uj) is a colonial period Yucatec Maya reducido term meaning "The One God". It is used in colonial, and more particularly in doctrinal texts, to refer to the Christian God. Since the word is found frequently in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel, a syncretistic document heavily influenced by Christianity, it refers specifically to the Christian God as a translation into Maya of the Christian concept of one God, used to enculturate the previously polytheist Maya to the new religion.^[1]

References to Hunab Ku have figured prominently in New Age Mayanism such as that of José Argüelles.

^ Hanks 2010:355 - "It is not objected that hunnab ku could refer as well to a non-Christian deity, as to God, and if so our reading of the foregoing passages would shift fundamentally. Even if this is possible in theory, it is unlikely in fact ^[why?]."

[1] Hanks 2010:355 - "It is not objected that hunnab ku could refer as well to a non-Christian deity, as to God, and if so our reading of the foregoing passages would shift fundamentally. Even if this is possible in theory, it is unlikely in fact ^[why?]."

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