Continuing from
the last post regarding the articles of Don R. Hender’s website that one of our
readers sent us:
Article:
“And then he [Mormon] gives, in his
precise, candid, pointed condensation of abridged words, the location of the
landing of Lehi's group. Read the following verse before you read the direct
commentary and see if you can pick it out. From their landing site, just north of the isthmus, the
Mulekites came up, following, either by foot or by ship, the course of the
Sidon River, its valley, into the heart of the land of Zarahemla. Mormon then
restates that Desolation was northward, not necessarily directly north, and
that Bountiful was southward of their common border. It sounds as though the
common border may not have been a direct east-west line.”
Response:
First, there is no such verse in the scripture as Hender wants us to read: “From their landing site, just north of the
isthmus, the Mulekites came up, following, either by foot or by ship, the
course of the Sidon River, its valley, into the heart of the land of
Zarahemla.” Anyone, after all, could write anything they wanted to set the
stage for an actual verse—which proves nothing at all. Playing around with
scriptures is not an option to scholarship, and only shows how desperate a
person is to try and make his point. If it cannot be made from the actual
scriptural record, then it should not be made at all!
Secondly,
when a person is unclear as to the meaning of something, like: “It sounds as
though the common border may not have been a direct east-west line” all one has
to do is search other scripture about
the same thing and learn what has
been said about it.
Left: The single land mass between
the Land Northward (Ecuador) and the Land Southward (Peru); Right: Through this
narrow neck of land ran a narrow pass, which still exists today and since Inca
times, has been called the Pass of Huayna Capac
1.
There is only one landmass between the Land of Desolation and the Land of
Bountiful, and that is the small or narrow neck of land (Alma 22:32);
2.
That narrow neck had a narrow pass or passage through it (Alma 50:34; 52:9);
3.
The narrow pass and neck had the sea on both sides of it—the Sea East and the Sea
West (Alma 50:34);
4.
The narrow pass was “small” (Alma 22:32), and was “narrow” (Alma 63:4);
5.
The two lands, Land Northward and Land Southward, were divided by water except
for the narrow neck (Ether 10:20);
No
other conclusion can be drawn from all these separate statements other than the
narrow neck ran north and south and the its width was between the Sea East and
the Sea West, or ran east and west, and that the Land of Desolaltion was north
of the narrow neck and the Land of Bountiful was south of the narrow neck. Now
as for the Mulekites wandering down the river Sideon, let us remember, that
river is never mentioned in the Land Northward, nor is it ever mentioned in
connection with the Land of Bountiful, yet the Land of Bountiful, between the
city of Bountiful and the city of Mulek on the East Sea coast is covered very
extensively during the Nephite-Lamanite battles there.
Article:
“But now comes the shocker. Ever want to
know where Lehi landed? Mormon tells you right here, 'Bountiful, it being the
wilderness which is filled with all animals of every kind.' There is only one
other place in the entire Book of Mormon which uses this exact same
phraseology, and that is in 1 Nephi 18:25.”
Response:
First of all, Nephi said: “there were beasts in the forests of every kind, both
the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat,
and all manner of wild animals” (1 Nephi 18:25), but Mormon says: “was called
Bountiful, it being the wilderness which is filled with all manner of wild
animals of every kind” (Alma 22:31). All manner of wild animals of every kind
is not the same as “All manner of wild animals.” The term “all manner of” is a
frequent term in the scriptural record, relating to words (Alma 1:20), cloth
(Alma 1:29), wickedness (Alma 1:32;
5:23), weapons (Alma 2:12, 14), precious things (Alma 4:6), afflictions (Alma 4:13), filthiness (Alma 5:22), diseases (Alma 9:22), things (Alma
9:22), disturbances (Alma 11:20), etc. The term “all manner” is simply a
qualifying phrase Mormon uses in his abridgement of the scriptural record to
eliminate taking up space by naming the items he is mentioning. We might say,
“animals of every kind,” or weapons of every kind,” or “all kinds of diseases,”
etc. Mormon uses “all manner of.”
Thus
the two statements Hender points out and tries to claim an “exact phraseology.”
However, Nephi and Mormon use different phrases: “beasts in the forest of every
kind,” and “all manner of wild animals,” and “all manner of wild animals of
every kind.” These are not identical statements, though the meaning is the
same.
Secondly,
during the time of the great drought, when serpents came into the land of the
Jaredites, the animals that were not bitten and killed, escaped through the
narrow neck of land and into the Land Southward (Ether 9:30-33). Since the
Jaredites preserved the land south of the narrow neck for an animal preserve,
these animals were not bothered as they wandered into the Land Southward, where
most of the “wild and ravenous beasts” ended up in the wilderness of Hermounts
where they evidently remained (Alma 2:37).
Others,
including the more domestic types, scattered throughout the Land
Southward. After Lehi landed and the
colony settled down, planted, etc., they journeyed around the area and found “beasts
in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the
horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals, which
were for the use of men” (1 Nephi 18:25). As for Nephi’s use, it is a general
concept, i.e., “they found upon the land of promise,” and in Alma, “the land on
the south was called Bountiful, it being the wilderness which is filled.” Hard
to make any claim of a connection regarding a single event being at both
places. Actually, both comments are more likely to use the exact same languages
ensures that we understand that the Jaraedite animals (of every kind) were the
animals the Nephites had to use since there is no record they brought any
themselves.
Article.
“True, Bountiful is also associated with
the wilderness of Hermounts, it being the extended wilderness of wild animals.
But Mormon here takes care to use the same words or 'reformed Egyptian'
characters which Nephi used in his record.”
Response:
The term “all manner of” is used 29 times in the Book of Alma alone, referring
to numerous items as mentioned above. It is also used 13 times in 1 and 2
Nephi. It would appear that it was a very common phrase when trying to describe
multiple units within a single classification. Note that when describing common
animals, they are singled out by specific names, but when referring to wild
animals, they are lumped together as though their individual names were not
known, or unimportant.
Article:
“Why did he take such care, but to
candidly state that this land of Bountiful was the same bounteous land where
Lehi landed finding the animals of every kind?”
Response:
He did not connect those two points. Lehi landed along the west coast toward
the south in the Land of Nephi (Alma 22:28). The distance between there and the
narrow neck of land would be quite far—all of the Land of Nephi, narrow strip
of wilderness, all of the Land of Zarahemla, an unnamed land between Zarahemla
and Bountiful, and all of the Land of Bountiful to get to the narrow neck. When
talking of the wild animals, Mormon is telling us that the land on the
southward of the narrow neck is called Bountiful, and that is the land the
animals came into, through the narrow neck, from the Jaredite lands.
The
two ideas and lands are not connected in that statement. On the other hand,
Lehi landed in the Land Southward, which also contained the Land of Bountiful,
from which the animals emanated southward to where Nephi discovered them not
far from the First Landing site. There was nothing candid about it—he is trying
to tie in for us where the animals came from that Nephi described since the
Lehi colony brought no animals.
(See
the next post, “Were There Two Landing Sites for the Mulekites? Part IV,” for
more of Hender’s views on the Land of Promise from his articles on his website)
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