The Deeper Meaning in Alma 22 – Part I

As Mormon is abridging Alma’s record, he runs across the story of the sons of Mosiah and skims through the account of Ammon (ch 17) and comes to the point where the missionary encounters king Lamoni’s father (who is unnamed in scripture), the chief king over all the Lamanite lands other than Ishmael, which he had given to his son, Lamoni (meaning “of Laman”) to rule over. 
    Mormon then skips to an account of Aaron who “after he departed from the land of Middoni he was led by the Spirit to the land of Nephi, even to the house and palace of the king which was over all the land save it were the land of Ishmael; and he was the father of Lamoni” (Alma 22:1). Mormon then recounts Aaron’s conversion of the Lamanite king, after which the king decided to send “a proclamation throughout all the land, amongst all his people who were in all his land, who were in all the regions round about, which was bordering even to the sea, on the east and on the west, and which was divided from the land of Zarahemla by a narrow strip of wilderness, which ran from the sea east even to the sea west, and round about on the borders of the seashore…” (Alma 22:27).
    What follows is an insert of Mormon that he adds to Alma’s account that is meant to give his future readers a glimpse of the layout of the Land of Promise, and specifically the land controlled by the Lamanites and where it was located in comparison with the Land controlled by the Nephites. Unfortunately, this insert has caused much confusion in the minds of many theorists who try to bend Mormon’s writings and meanings in the following 8 verses, which make up 25 lines and 486 words, to fit their own ideas, beliefs, and location models, rather than the intent of Mormon’s writing.

(left) King Lamoni and (center) Ammon in Lamoni’s chariot; (right) King Lamoni’s father, the great king over all the lands of Nephi and the Lamanites

Now, before doing so, we need to set the stage just for a moment. First of all, there are two kings involved at this time, the high Lamanite king or chief king, and his son, Lamoni. The Chief King is king over all of the Lamanite Kingdom except for the land called Ishmael. King Lamoni is the king over just the Land of Ishmael within that Lamanite Kingdom, which was where Ammon had been laboring.
    Mormon’s view of this land is given around 350 A.D., long after numerous earlier prophets and writers had given a full account of this area, especially the sons of Mosiah who had labored there in their lengthy mission. For the moment we will dispense with why Mormon is giving the layout of the land, and simply state what he says and its meaning:
1. [22:27] And it came to pass that the king sent a proclamation throughout all the land, amongst all his people who were in all his land,”
    In 1828, proclamation meant “the public or official announcement of an important matter,” “a clear declaration of something,” “an announcement by authority.”
    This proclamation went to every Lamanite living in the land the king controlled, called the Land of Nephi. Whether this proclamation was written, or heralded by king’s men who traveled through the land is not stated.
2. “which was bordering even to the sea, on the east and on the west,”
    The Lamanite kingdom spread throughout the land and across from the Sea East to the Sea West…
3. “and which was divided from the land of Zarahemla by a narrow strip of wilderness, which ran from the sea east even to the sea west”
    The Lamanite kingdom was divided from the Nephite lands by a narrow strip of wilderness (an unoccupied tract of land) that ran the entire width of the Land of Promise, from the Sea East to the Sea West.

4. “and round about on the borders of the seashore…”
    The narrow strip of wilderness curved up (round about) to run along the seashore both on the west and on the east coasts for a significant distance.
5. “and the borders of the wilderness which was on the north by the land of Zarahemla,”
    (“on the north” in this case is from the orientation of the Land of Nephi, which is what Mormon is describing—the narrow strip of wilderness is “on the north” of the Land of Nephi—or between the Land of Nephi and the Land of Zarahemla)
    The Nephi land of Zarahemla ran along the northern boundary of the narrow strip of wilderness, thus the Lamanite land, or Land of Nephi, ran along the southern boundary, with the narrow strip in between—the width of the narrow strip is not given other than “narrow.”
6. “through the borders of Manti, by the head of the river Sidon, running from the east towards the west”
    Manti is in the east, and south of Zarahemla. That is, Manti is up in the hills (mountains) south of Zarahemla, but north of the Land of Nephi. Thus, the border of the wilderness ran through the Land of Manti and across the river Sidon, the border of Manti running from the east towards the west.
7. “and thus were the Lamanites and the Nephites divided.”
    On the north of this narrow strip of wilderness was the Land of Zarahemla and the Land of Manti and the head of the river Sidon. On the south of the narrow strip of wilderness was the Land of Nephi.
    Thus the Nephites and Lamanties were divided by, and only by, that narrow strip of wilderness. This is what Mormon is writing about. Everything south of this narrow strip was the king’s land and to whom the proclamation was written and distributed. Remember, Mormon, above all, spent his entire life (70 of 85 years) as a field commander of the entire Nephite military forces. Today we would call him a 5-star General (General of the Armies). From this and the many battles he fought against the Lamanites throughout the Land Southward, Mormon is in a unique position to know and write about the land over which he fought and in which the Nephite nation existed.

Again, this narrow strip of wilderness area was, along with its wildernesses on east and west coast that curved upward (round about), i.e., toward and into the Nephite lands (Land of Zarahemla), the single most important geographical area for the first 500 years between these lands until we are introduced to the narrow neck of land during Moroni’s time, which he spent a portion of his time defending against anyone getting through it to the land Northward. However, even Moroni spent a lot of time reinforcing the northern line of the narrow strip of wilderness building forts and resorts, etc. It was that critical of an area and Mormon spends time here—one entire verse (originally it was one paragraph talking about the same thing—the narrow strip of wilderness).
8. Now, the more idle part of the Lamanites lived in the wilderness, and dwelt in tents;
    Obviously, the more active part of the Lamanites lived in the cities the Nephites built before vacating them when Mosiah left. Probably the Lamanites the Nephites would have known most about were these idle ones dwelling in tents, since they were on either side of them along the seacoast and were evidently the ones Enos described (Enos 1:20).
9. “and they were spread through the wilderness on the west, in the land of Nephi; yea, and also on the west of the land of Zarahemla,

 

These idle, more barbaric Lamanites lived along the entire west coast, from the area of the city of Zarahemla in the Land of Zarahemla all the way to the south, past the narrow strip of wilderness and along the coast of the Land of Nephi.
(See the next post, “The Deeper Meaning in Alma 22 – Part II,” for more information and a deeper understanding of the relationship of areas mentioned by Mormon in Alma 22)