Here are some
additional comments or questions (some not on geography or the Land of Promise) that have been
sent in by readers of this website:
Comment #1: ”The fact that King Limhi’s group of men traveling
to Zarahemla ended up in the Land Northward and found the remnants of bones and
rust-covered swords, tells me that the Jaredite final battle took place maybe
50 to a maximum of 100 years before Limhi’s time” Samuel.
Response: It is interesting how
uninformed people are about bone and metal deterioration. You might be
interested in a recent (1996) find by a pair of Italian
archaeologists investigating near Siwa in Egypt. They uncovered hundreds of
bleached bones, Bronze age weapons, arrowheads, jewelry, water pots and other
artifacts dating to the 6th century B.C., right around the time Herodutus told
us that the Persian king Cambyses II lost himself an army of 50,000 trying to
destroy an oracle denying his right to rule a conquered Egypt.
Bleached
bones found by the Italian archaeologists as reported bhy Alfredo Castiglioni,
director of the Eastern Desert Reasearch Center in Varese that appeared in
"Discovery News." These bones date to 525 B.C., over 2500 years old, laying on
the ground
The rusted, and cankered remains of a 2500
year old sword once used by a soldier in the Persian army of 525 B.C., and the
“hilt thereof had perished” as Limhi’s people reported
There is no reason to
believe that the Jaredite bones and swords, etc., were not visible in the
condition reported two, three, or four hundred years before Limhi’s people
found them. As has been reported here in these posts in the past, bones and
swords have been found around the world that were 1000 years and more old that
have been found and are now located in museums.
Comment #2: “The most important feature in the Land of Promise was probably the
location of a strip of wilderness which ran all the way from the East Sea to
the West Sea, that is, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. At about 100 BC,
this strip separated the Nephites and Mulekites on the north from the Lamanites
on the south. It was important strategically for the Nephites to close off
their south border to keep the Lamanites from overrunning their land. Captain
Moroni had seven cities fortified along this strip for that purpose. It is
fortunate for us that the strip had strategic military importance to the
Nephites because that likely caused this important clue to be included in the
record. What was the nature of the "wilderness"? Does that only refer
to uninhabited jungle areas? One clue is that Moroni only had to fortify cities
at certain locations on the strip in order to secure it, so it must have been difficult
to cross at other places”
LeGrand W.
Response: It is uncertain if
this strip was an important strategic area for the Nephites, and we certainly
can’t say it ran from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean from any
scriptural reference. And we don’t know if this narrow strip closed off the
Nephite south border, and there is no way we can call this wilderness a jungle,
any more than the wilderness around Jerusalem is a jungle (1 Nephi 2:2,4,27) or the
wilderness across the Empty Quarter desert could be called a jungle (1 Nephi
17:1) or the wilderness along the Red Sea could be called a jungle (1 Nephi
2:5-6,9).
For those who have never been in
the jungle, they might find it very difficult to drive flocks and herds of animals,
with women and children, through a jungle where Ammon took the people of Limhi
(Alma 27:14); it also would have been difficult in a jungle for all the
thousands of the children of Israel to look up and see Moses holding up the
serpent (Numbers 21:8-9,11; Alma 33:19; Helaman 8:14); it is also extremely
difficult to march an army through a jungle in the fashion Moroni marched his
army with their tents into the wilderness (46:31-32).
All
these areas are designated “wilderness areas” by their various state or federal
governments. Not a jungle, mountain or desert among them
The point of all this is that a
“wilderness” is not particularly a jungle, and certainly not a jungle in the
verses under discussion here. In fact, the 1828 American Dictionary of the
English Language defines a wilderness as “an unoccupied tract of land.” In
fact, an area not occupied by permanent dwellings, cities, or development of
any kind, is called a wilderness. That was not only true in 1828, but also
today in dictionaries. Despite Hugh Nibley and John L. Sorenson both claiming a
wilderness was a mountainous area, or others claiming it was a jungle. A
wilderness can be any type of topography, including a desert, forest, plain,
and a mountainous area or a jungle. Any place that has not been developed and
where people are not living in a permanent fashion.
In addition, as we have stated
elsewhere, perhaps no other expression to the Jews was more familiar than the
expression “into the wilderness,” when talking about going on a journey.
As for the other comment, about
building seven cities across this narrow strip of wilderness that separated the
Land of Nephi from the Land of Zarahemla, is entirely unfounded. After Moroni
had driven out of the east wilderness
and the west wilderness the Lamanites who lived there in tents, and forcing them back into the Land of Nephi, “he caused that the
inhabitants who were in the land of Zarahemla and in the land round about
should go forth into the east wilderness, even to the borders by the seashore,
and possess the land”
(Alma 50:9). There they built cities, along the east seashore, including the
city of Moroni (Alms 50:13), the city of Nephihah (Alma 50:14), and the city of
Lehi (Alma 50:15). The city of Aaron was also along this east seashore (Alma 50:14).
In addition, Moroni “placed armies on the south, in the
borders of their possessions, and caused them to erect fortifications that they
might secure their armies and their people from the hands of their enemies”
(Alma 50:10), but these were not cities, merely fortifications, which might
have been forts or resorts, nor do we know how many there were, or if they were
strung clear across the narrow strip area. But certainly, nothing suggests that
part of this narrow strip was inaccessible for the Lamanites to cross.
What Moroni accomplished by all this was that he “cut off
all the strongholds of the Lamanites in the east wilderness, yea, and also on
the west, fortifying the line between the Nephites and the Lamanites, between
the land of Zarahemla and the land of Nephi, from the west sea, running by the
head of the river Sidon -- the Nephites possessing all the land northward”
(Alma 50:11), meaning all the Land of Zarahemla, including those areas in the
east and west wildernesses that the Lamanites had previously occupied. In
addition, the description is that not only in the Land of Zarahemla, but “even
all the land which was northward of the land Bountiful, according to their
pleasure.”
The thing about all these opinions being stated on the
internet, in books, writings, journals and papers, about the Book of Mormon, we
need to be careful we are not trying to force the scriptural record into an
agreement with our predetermined beliefs, ideas or models, as so many theorists
do. We need to accept the written words as they are written and not try to make
them say, mean, or appear as something else.
Comment
#3: “My idea of the Land of Promise would
not include Mosiah shoveling snow off the temple walkway. Nephi’s description
in 1 Nephi 18:23-25, does not sound like a snow and ice climate around the
Great Lakes” Jalon.
Salt Lake City in winter. Snow, ice
and freezing temperatures everywhere
Response:
I certainly agree that the Book of Mormon Land of Promise was not in the Great
Lakes. However, the climate of a land of promise does not seem to be the main
issue to the Lord. The Utah Rockies is hardly a tropical paradise, nor is
Missouri where Adam-ondi-Ahman is located. We don't know if Mosiah or others shoveled snow, but the Saints have often been led to areas where snow is prevalent.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment