Were There Two Landing Sites for the Mulekites? Part III

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)