When North Does not Mean North – Mesoamerican Theorists’ Big Lie

John L. Sorenson, in his book, Mormon's Map, on pages 80—81, states: “We may be tempted to think automatically that "northward" and "southward" label directions that are the same as "north" and "south." But "northward" signals a different concept than does "north," something like "in a general northerly direction." By their frequency of using the -ward suffix, we can infer that Mormon and his ancestors used a somewhat different cultural scheme for directions than we do. However, we cannot tell from the Book of Mormon text exactly how their concepts differed from ours, because all we have to work with is the English translation provided through Joseph Smith.”
First of all, North basically means “due north,” while northward basically means “in the direction of north.” In fact, in the “1828 American Dictionary of the English Language,” Noah Webster gives us the exact New England language as known to Joseph Smith at the time of his translation of the Book of Mormon. In this dictionary, the definitions of North, Northward, etc., are clearly stated, and would not have been a problem for Joseph to understand. Nor would the Spirit have misled Joseph in this translation, for it was the Spirit that testified to Joseph whether his interpretation was correct or not—and if incorrect, the writing remained until he interpreted it correctly.

“North”: On our left when facing the rising sun in the meridian; being in the north

“Northward”: Being toward the north, or nearer to the north than to the east and west points

“South”: Facing the rising sun, south is to the right; opposite north; one quarter or 90 degrees or quarter of a great circle distant from east and west

“Southward”: Toward the south; to go southward

When the Lehi Colony left Jerusalem, Nephi records their direction of travel, using two entirely different statements: “South Southeast” (1 Nephi 16:13), and later “Nearly eastward” (1 Nephi 17:1). When comparing his line of travel along the Red Sea, then turning eastward to end up at the seashore, one sees that his use of these directions were exactly right. It would seem that Nephi, and obviously later Nephites, would have known their cardinal directions and their use is exactly right in the scriptures as Joseph Smith translated them, or the Spirit would not have allowed the translating to continue until he did get it right. (Eastward, by the way, means “toward the east; in the direction of east.”)

Therefore, it cannot be argued, as Sorenson does, that the “argument about directional systems is that they are cultural and not necessarily transparent.” I am afraid that early mariners, writers, geographers, mapographers, colonizers, wagonmasters, trappers, explorers, and their like would not agree that directions were “cultural” or any other such ridiculous description. When your life or livelihood depends on what you do, you tend to be exact and accurate. It might also be kept in mind that Mormon, who abridged all these directions and inserted many himself, knew he was writing to a future people so his directions would be what others would understand—not cultural to the Nephites.

In translating the Book of Mormon, we are informed that the Lord speaks to us in our language for our understanding. We also know that the Spirit passed on each statement, word, description, etc., Joseph translated. So who is correct? Joseph, Mormon and the Spirit? Or John L. Sorenson and other Mesoamerican Theorists?

The problem is that scholars and academics like to portray a mystery about things, to complicate information, to give epics and eras special names, and generally hide their disingenuous interpretations behind wordage and ideas that are not easily identifiable. The fact that Sorenson can spend pages on trying to explain away why the Nephites did not know basic cardinal directions for the thousand years they were in the Land of Promise seems worse than disingenuous—it seems like an outright fabrication! One that is necessary to Sorenson and other Mesoamerican Theorists because Mesoamerica is about 90º off line from north-south—it lies in almost a perfect east-west direction.