Who Were the Phoenicians? Part III

It is well known and recorded that the Phoenicians, who called themselves the Canaani (originally Cannanite which evolved to mean "merchant"), though the Greeks called them Phoenicians because of the purple dye they created, began their first expedition of great distance in 600 B.C. around Africa. However, what is usually forgotten is that this journey, which took three years, was only in coastal waters, and only in sight of land. It also involved numerous stops for rest and to refurbish their ship as well as to replenish supplies.

Replica built of the 600 B.C. ship that sailed around Africa. In 2008 this reconstruction of the Phoenician / Mediterranean trading vessel embarked on a journey with a crew of 20 to retrace the Phoenicians' route around Africa. One can easily see that such a ship could not have sailed into deep water across the Atlantic Ocean)

The voyage around Africa was begun as a result of Pharoah Necho of Egypt who, at the time, had brought many Phoenicians into Egypt as a result of an earlier occupation of that northern land—these would have been much like slaves and had no choice in making the voyage. This voyage was neither one of trade nor settlement as all other recorded Phoenician voyages were. Nor was it done for the value of Phoenicia or the sailors, though it is likely they would have secured trading posts or ports along the coastal area for future purposes.

The white line shows the route of the Phoenician sailors in 600 B.C. on their historical route around Africa. The voyage took 3 years with constant stops along the way for overnight stays and replenishment of daily supplies)

After all, Pharaoh Necho, the son of Psammetichus, king of Egypt, raised great armies, and sent out great fleets, as well on the Mediterranean as the Red Sea, and expended a vast sum and many thousands of lives in a fruitless effort to unite and Nile and the Red Sea by a canal. His commission to the Phoenician seamen to sail around Africa from east to west was part of this great, overall plan. This sailing venture had nothing to do with the Phoenicians directly, only that they performed the task.

Before 600 B.C, the Phoenician traveled only short distances in the Mediterranean and along the coast of Portugal, Much later they voyaged along the coast northward to Gaul and across the English Channel to Bretania, what is now England. These voyages were for the soul purpose of trade and purchase of tin in England, which they brought back and used along with copper from Cyprus to make bronze—a highly tradable item at the time.

Since all of these voyages were made by sailing along coastal waters in sight of land with shallow-draft ships used in the day, and would have had men at the oars to supplement a single-masted sail, and steerage was by outboard oar as a rudder, and by furling the sail when in close to the coast, it cannot be concluded that in 600 B.C., Phoenicians were so experience seamen that they could have sailed to the Western Hemisphere, bringing Mulek and the others to the Land of Promise.

The Phoenicians, like the Greeks and the Romans, sailed the Mediterranean Sea. Unlike the others, whose purpose was battle, conquest and expansion, the Phoenician purpose was trade. They established settlements along the northern coast of the Mediterranean and used these ports to move goods and trade. Their purpose was never to conquer, nor was it to settle other than establishing posts and settlements that would enhance their trading purposes.

On the rare and unique voyages outside the Mediterranean, they stayed in coastal waters, and their purpose was to trade—never to settlement. Even in the most unlikely case of taking Mulek to the Western Hemisphere, any Phoenicians involved would not have stayed there, for they never settled any land outside the Mediterranean basin. However, they most certainly would have brought back word of their voyage and the settlement established by the Jews in some far off land—obviously, this would have led to trade and the bringing of others to that land—an event that is directly opposite the Lord’s promise to Lehi. In fact, if such a scenario were to have happened, as Nibley, Sorenson and other Mesoamerica theorists so flippantly claim, the Lord would have been breaking his promise to Lehi at the same time he was making it.

Such is simply not possible!

For those who want to make such claims, they should look into this promise the Lord made to Lehi—a promise repeated by Nephi and others down through the centuries. Such promises may be broken by man, but never by God.

Thus we can see that the Phoenicians would not have made such a voyage, because they 1) did not have the knowledge to do so, 2) did not have the ships and maritime ability to do so, and 3) the Lord never would have been involved in such a way in bringing Mulek to the Western Hemisphere since it would have broken his promise to Lehi.

(See the next post, “Who Were the Phoenicians? Part IV,” for an understanding of the availability of a ship to take the Mulekites to the Land of Promise)