Some Questions and a Rule

Rule of Book of Mormon Interpretation 

Textual phrases must be interpreted consistently. Sounds simple enough. We run that up the flagpole and almost everyone will salute. In reality, though, it has proven frustratingly difficult. All previous Book of Mormon correlations of which I am aware (there are dozens) violate this principle, some more egregiously than others. For example:

1. Some correlations suggest the sea south and sea north mentioned in Helaman 3:8 were metaphorical rather than physical salt water oceans. Following our rule of consistency, we locate suitable candidates for all four seas referenced in the text. As with all images on this blog, click to enlarge.

Plot of Alma's 21 Travel Days from Nephi to the Local Land of Zarahemla

1.5 Travel Days Across the Bountiful/Desolation Border Line

4. Most correlations proof text the Book of Mormon. That means they cherry pick select words or phrases  for private emphasis, ignoring other occurrences of the same word or phrase that evidence a contrary meaning. Some of the most prolific words are the most problematic because the amount of work required to analyze every occurrence in the text is huge. Key words that need to be understood include:

• relative elevation prepositions "up" and "down"
• relative distance prepositions "near" and "far"
• the relative location preposition "over"
• adjectives "exceeding,""great," "large," "narrow," "small," "strait"
• nouns "borders" and "wilderness"

How does one go about analyzing every occurrence of a word or phrase in the text? George Reynolds' A Complete Concordance of the Book of Mormon has been available since 1899. R. Gary Shapiro's An Exhaustive Concordance of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price appeared in 1977. The searchable lds.org version of the text has been online for over a decade. A major problem is that none of the sources above index such ubiquitous words as "up." To search for ultra common words in the text, one has to do a lot of copy and paste from the lds.org edition into a Word document, PDF or similar format and then use the search functionality available for that format. Click here, for example, to download the complete 1981 LDS text of the Book of Mormon as a word document. Click here to download the same text as a PDF. Note: the doc and pdf files are raw words, not formatted with chapters or versification. They are research tools, not versions intended for use by the general public. Only text that was on Nephi's and Mormon's plates (including colophons) is included. Modern accretions such as chapter summaries are not in the files. And even after all this work to get the text in a common searchable format, it can still be difficult to find a search engine that will distinguish the word "up" without also including "upon" in the search results.

So, how have we tried to avoid the bias inherent in proof texting? We have patiently analyzed every occurrence of the words "narrow," "small" and "strait" in the article entitled "Narrow and Small Things." We have similarly analyzed every occurrence of the words "near" and "far" in the article entitled "Things Near and Far." We have looked at every occurrence of the phrase "great city" in the article entitled "Great Cities." We have begun the process of analyzing demographics in the article "Population Sizes and Casualty Counts." We have looked at the various meanings of the phrase "cross over" in the article "Crossing Things." We have done a preliminary analysis of Nephite polities in the article "Nephite Political Geography." And, we have tried to understand the Nephite meaning of the word "wilderness" in the article entitled "A Note about Wilderness." There is much more to do along these lines, but the idea is clear. Before we can pontificate about a narrow this or a great that, we have to do our homework so we can accurately represent what the Nephite text means or implies when it uses a particular word or phrase.

Royal Skousen's experience is highly insightful. When he began his critical text project lo these many years ago, he was initially excited to find "errors" in the various printed editions of the text. As he patiently worked through the material, though, much more exciting patterns began to emerge. His textual emendations trended strongly toward greater consistency in the text, so much so that he coined the term "systematic phraseology" to represent the Book of Mormon authors' tendency to employ the same word constructs over and over again to convey standardized meanings in similar contexts. See Royal Skousen, "The Systematic Text of the Book of Mormon" in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Volume 11, Issue 2, Provo: Maxwell Institute, 2002.

5. Few correlations make a serious attempt to synthesize space and time. The 1979 LDS edition of the Bible contains 21 maps. 20 of them represent some portion of the Mediterranean world at a particular point in time. In the outstanding Mapping Mormonism just published by BYU Studies, maps and timelines are inseparable. In similar fashion, geography and chronology must be analyzed synthetically to interpret the Nephite text consistently, because that is the way Mormon and the other authors wrote it. We reference approximate time (e.g. ca. 72 B.C. which was an axial moment in Nephite history) routinely and important spatial insights have resulted. See for example, "Expansion of the Nephite Nation," "Sidon East then West," and "Captain Moroni in Space and Time."

Hard work facilitated by great tools allows us to interpret textual phrases consistently. Don't be too hard on those diligent pioneers who made sense of many Book of Mormon spatial relationships in the era before lds.org, Google Earth and the 2009 Yale University Press edition of the text. "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants," Isaac Newton letter to Robert Hooke, 1676. Now that powerful analytical tools exist, though, we should demand consistent interpretation from authors who explicate the Book of Mormon. For other aspects of textual interpretation germane to this discussion, see the article "Plainness."

Some Questions
1. Was the land southward nearly surrounded by water? Yes. Alma 22:32. If that is true, what are we to make of Jacob's comments that the Lehites inhabited an isle of the sea 2 Nephi 10:20-21? Jacob was explaining his earlier recitation of Isaiah 51 2 Nephi 8:5 that referred to the isles. Jacob was likening 2 Nephi 6:5 the words of Isaiah to the Nephites as Nephi had previously done 1 Nephi 19:23-24, 1 Nephi 22:8. Isaiah uses the term "isles" frequently referring to the far reaches of the earth where the house of Israel has been scattered (e.g. Isaiah 24:15, Isaiah 49:1). In Isaiah's prophetic and symbolic worldview, the Western Hemisphere was an isle.

This map shows one interpretation of Alma 22:32 where "water" = salt water.

Land Southward Nearly Surrounded by Salt Water

In the map above, total circumference = 3,808 kilometers. 445 kilometers or 11.69% is land. 3,363 kilometers or 88.31% is water.

This map shows another interpretation of Alma 22:32 where "water" = fresh + salt water.

"Nearly surrounded by water" probably means a waterline to land ratio above 75%.

2. Did the greater land of Nephi extend from the sea east to the sea west? Yes. Alma 50:8 says the land of Nephi ran from the east sea in a relatively straight line toward the west. Alma 50:11 adds the land of Nephi ran from the west sea eastward to the head of Sidon. Alma 50 describes the geo-political situation ca. 72 B.C. So, ca. 72 B.C., the greater land of Nephi extended from the sea east to the sea west, passing by the head of Sidon in the middle.

Zooming in on the eastern part of the greater land of Nephi, we place a 135 kilometer long black line along the narrow strip of wilderness boundary. In this correlation, Nephi's comment that the border ran in a straight course from the east sea to the west Alma 50:8 strikes us as remarkably accurate.

3. Did the Greater Land of Zarahemla Extend from the Sea East to the Sea West? Yes, but not until the Nephites reached their territorial maximum in the days of Helaman₁ and Captain Moroni. We know that at the time Mosiah₁ discovered them in and around the local land of Zarahemla, ca. 200 B.C., the people of Zarahemla (Mulekites) had a large population Omni 1:17. In the nearly 400 years they had been in the New World, the Mulekites had not settled far afield from their homeland in the local land of Zarahemla Omni 1:16. Among King Mosiah₂'s subjects ca. 120 B.C., the Mulekites outnumbered the Nephites, but the alien Lamanites were much more numerous than the Mulekites + Nephites combined Mosiah 25:2-3. That was the fundamental problem the Nephite nation faced during the 500+ years from Mosiah₂ (ca. 120 B.C.) to Moroni₂ (ca. A.D. 385). The Nephites were vastly outnumbered by their enemies Helaman 4:25, yet they had large expanses of territory to defend Alma 58:32.

In the days of Mosiah₂ and Alma₁ the geo-political entity we call the greater land of Zarahmela was beginning to develop. It consisted of a number of federated lands allegiant to the monarchs and later the chief judges resident in the capital city Zarahemla which was in the local land Zarahemla. See the article "Zarahemla" for a description of the multiple ways the Nephites used that toponym. In Mosiah 25:19 the phrase "all the land of Zarahemla" refers to the greater land of Zarahemla where Alma₁ founded 7 churches Mosiah 25:23. We know that one of those seven churches was in the land of Gideon because Alma₂ ca. 83 B.C. on his first visit to Gideon Alma 7:1 preached to an existing church established by the previous generation Alma 6:8. Nine years before, Gideon himself, after whom the land was named Alma 2:20, Alma 6:7, had served as a teacher of the church in Gideon Alma 1:7. For a discussion of the 7 churches established by Alma₁ in the greater land of Zarahemla (we determine they were in the lands of Ammonihah, Melek, Gideon, perhaps Minon, and various locations within the local land of Zarahemla) see the article entitled "The Church in Zarahemla." This incipient greater land of Zarahemla is referenced in Words of Mormon 1:14 where lands (plural) are noted during the reign of King Benjamin and in Mosiah 27:2 where it is called "the land round about." This greater land of Zarahemla is the sense of three very similar passages describing the Nephite nation under Benjamin Mosiah 1:1, Mosiah₂ Mosiah 27:35, and Alma₂ Mosiah 29:44. The rapid expansion of the greater land of Zarahemla is the point of Mosiah 27:6.

This map shows our correlation of the greater land of Zarahemla ca. 120 B.C. when Mosiah₂ had been on the throne for about 4 years and Alma₁ was in his prime as the high priest, establishing churches throughout the land.

Proposed Greater Land of Zarahemla ca. 120 B.C.

Key features illustrated on the map above:

• circle represents the land round about the local land of  Zarahemla Mosiah 27:2
• north south and east west transects represent the quarters of the land Mosiah 27:6
• structure icons represent the 7 churches established by Alma₁ throughout the greater land of Zarahemla. See the article "The Church in Zarahemla."
• white background represents the approximate extent of Nephite settlement ca. 120 B.C. Notice that all settlement at this early period in Nephite history was along the central Sidon corridor or along major tributaries (San Pedro coming in from the east, Lacantun coming in from the west). This image shows our interpretation of Mosiah 27:6 with settlement north, south, east and west of the local land of Zarahemla. Major settlement activity in the next 50 years would be primarily eastward along the San Pedro and the Pasion, eventually reaching the east sea ca. 72 B.C.
• The 4 yellow polygons enclosed in black represent areas not likely to have ever been under Nephite control - the Tabascan Chontalpa from La Venta to Comalcalco, the Mirador Basin, the Altar de Sacrificios - Dos Pilas area, and the Piedras Negras area.

30 years later, ca. 90 B.C., the Nephite nation had expanded significantly. Alma₂ was the newly-elected chief judge residing in the city of Zarahemla. The 4 sons of Mosiah were on their 14 year mission to the Lamanites in the greater land of Nephi. In this setting, Mormon authored his most extensive geographical treatise, Alma 22:27-34, intended to show how the Nephite and Lamanite nations related to each other spatially ca. 90 B.C. These 8 verses have been the source of so much confusion over the years we will go through them phrase by phrase to illustrate the clarity consistent interpretation brings to a complex subject.

Alma 22:27 The king was Lamoni's father, the Lamanite emperor who reigned over several kingdoms Mosiah 24:2. The phrase "all the land, amongst all his people who were in all his land" was a stock phrase among the Nephites. Earlier in this article we referenced this phrase being used for the Nephite nation under Benjamin Mosiah 1:1, Mosiah₂ Mosiah 27:35, and Alma₂ Mosiah 29:44. Lamoni's father resided in the local land of Nephi Alma 22:1, probably in the ancient city Kaminaljuyu whose ruins are currently engulfed by the urban sprawl of modern Guatemala City. The "regions round about" are the Lamanite lands and cities surrounding the capital city of Nephi represented by the circle on this map.

Proposed Regions Round About the City of Nephi

The map above is crude and very incomplete since the vast majority of our time has been spent on Nephite cities, lands and places with little effort expended to date on Jaredite or Lamanite locations. The white line represents the continental divide separating Pacific from Atlantic (Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico) watersheds. Note that our proposed city of Nephi, Kaminaljuyu, sits right atop the continental divide.

Alma22:27 The greater land of Nephi ca. 90 B.C. (white overlay) bordered both the east sea and the west sea. It was continental in scope. (See question #2 above). The greater land of Nephi was divided from the greater land of Zarahemla by a narrow strip of wilderness (thin green polygon). Like the greater land of Nephi south of it, the narrow strip of wilderness also ran from the sea east to the sea west. See the article "The Narrow Strip of Wilderness." Near the west coast, the narrow strip of wilderness bent in a circular fashion "round about on the borders of the seashore." This circularity is highlighted by a white circle on the map below. As in previous maps, the white line represents the continental divide.

• Here in Alma 22:27 Mormon called it "the wilderness which was on the north by the land of Zarahemla." Was it in the land of Zarahemla? No. Mormon was describing the geo-political situation ca. 90 B.C. and at that time the greater land of Zarahemla did not yet extend to the east sea. What was the wilderness north of? It was north of the narrow strip of wilderness, the principal subject of this verse and Mormon's point of view in this description.
• Alma 31:3 calls it "the wilderness south" because it was south of the land of Antionum, the principal subject of this verse and Mormon's point of view in this description.
• Other references, though, call it the "east wilderness." In Alma 25:5-8 we learn that descendants of the wicked priests of King Noah fled into this east wilderness and were hunted and slain in fulfillment of Abinadi's prophecy Mosiah 17:18.  Alma 50:7-11 explicitly links the east wilderness to the narrow strip of wilderness boundary with Nephite lands on the north and Lamanite lands on the south. Alma 50:9 calls it "the east wilderness, which was north of the lands of their (the Lamanites) own possessions" using language very similar to Alma 22:27. What was the wilderness east of? The river Sidon and the greater land of Zarahemla which had been moving eastward for decades and finally reached the east sea ca. 72 B.C. Alma 50:9.

This map shows our correlation of the greater land of Zarahemla ca. 90 B.C. (white background) pushing northward to the Bountiful line, eastward along the San Pedro and Pasion Rivers and southward along the Sidon. New features added since the ca. 120 B.C. map above are the lands of Sidom, Noah & Manti and the city of Aaron. All of these Nephite polities are attested in the text by ca. 81 B.C. with Manti mentioned ca. 90 B.C.  The map also shows the east wilderness as it probably existed at that time (green polygon) north of the narrow strip of wilderness (thin green polygon) which itself was north of the greater land of Nephi (faint white overlay).

This map shows how the Nephite nation had expanded and the east wilderness shrunk by ca. 74 B.C. In those 16 years, the lands of Jershon, Antionum and Siron had been settled, the result of significant eastward expansion along the San Pedro River, across the Maya Mountains, and down northern Belizean drainages.