According to Peter Covino in his True Book of Mormon Geography website, in discussing the
destruction mentioned in 3 Nephi and prophesied elsewhere, Moroni was wrong. He writes:
1.
Covino: “The Hill Ramah is not the Hill Cumorah.
The Jaredites were not destroyed where the Nephites were. Nearly every Book of
Mormon authority has made this interpretation incorrectly.”
An
interesting comment. Let’s see what the scriptural record has to say:
“And
it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the land
of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon, began to be old; and knowing it to be the last
struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not
suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were
sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would
destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid
up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the
hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni
(Mormon 6:6).
O.K., so Mormon, while he was in the
Land of Cumorah, he took all the records and hid them up in the hill Cumorah.
That seems pretty clear.
“And
it came to pass that the army of Coriantumr did pitch their tents by the hill
Ramah; and it was that same hill where my father Mormon did hide up the records
unto the Lord, which were sacred” (Ether 15:11).
So
the hill Ramah is the same as the hill Cumorah. Both Mormon and Moroni say it.
So what is the controversy in Covino’s mind?
Covino:
“The furthest point they could have fought on the east was the Genesee Gorge
(East Sea); and on the north Lake Ontario (Waters of Ripliancum).
The Genesee Gorge, sometimes called
the Grand Canyon of the East, has the Genesee River, which flows north out of
Pennsylvania and into the Finger Lakes of New York State, and eventually
empties into Lake Ontario. This narrow river is what Covino calls the Sea East!
In addition, as one can see, there is no “seashore,” though the term is used in
the scriptural record (Alma 22:29;31:3;50:9,13-15;25;51:22,25-26; etc.)
Following
is Covino’s rationale for not accepting this rather clear and concise comment
by both Mormon and Moroni:
1)
Covino: “A common misunderstanding among Book of Mormon enthusiasts is that the
final Jaredite battle occurred at the Hill Cumorah, or "where my
father Mormon did hide up the records."
The
common understanding is based on Mormon saying he buried the plates in the Hill
Cumorah and Moroni telling us the Jaredite Hill Ramah was the same hill where
his father buried the plates.
2)
Covino: That's not what it says. Mormon identified the hill (Verse 11) as
"Ramah," and if it was the "Hill Cumorah", he would
have said so. The same holds true for the account of Omer.”
Moroni
was translating and abridging the Jaredite Record. He was, naturally, using
Jaredite place names, and relating some of them to the areas of the Nephites
for the reader’s clearer understanding. After all, Moroni wrote: “the
army of Coriantumr did pitch their tents by the hill Ramah; and it was that
same hill where my father Mormon did hide up the records unto the Lord” (Ether
15:11). Yes, he could have written: “the army of Coriantumr did pitch their
tents by the hill Ramah; and it was that same hill as the Hill Cumorah, where
my father Mormon did hide up the records unto the Lord.” But that would have
been superfluous, and completely unnecessary. What he wrote is correct English,
correct grammar, and the proper use of language. Unfortunately, for Covino, it
does not agree with his model, so, like in other instances, he has to change
the meaning of the scripture.
As
for Omer, “Omer departed out of the land with his family and traveled many days
and came over and passed by the hill of Shim and came over by the place where the Nephites were destroyed
and from thence eastward and came to a place which was called Ablom" (Ether 9:3).
To cloud the issue, Covino claims: “Note, he did not say "where the
Jaredites were destroyed," nor did he refer to it as "Ramah." This was the second
opportunity for Moroni to identify it as Ramah;
plus every time the word "Cumorah" was used, and yet
the word "Ramah"
only occurs once!”
What Covino neglects to consider is that the Jaredites
were not destroyed at the Hill Ramah. It was the last major fight in an ongoing
battle that covered several years and probably thousands of square miles. And
the final fight of that battle did not take place at Ramah at all—Coriantumr
fled for an entire day, and on the following day (Ether 15:29), evidently far
from Ramah, they battled again and Coriantumr killed Shize and became “the last
man standing.” Thus, it would not have been accurate to say “where the
Jaredites were destroyed” nor did Coriantumr kill Shiz at Cumorah.
Covino: “It is clear we know almost nothing of these
people, in the Land Northward,
and their records were stored somewhere else - not entrusted to Mormon - in Ramah.”
Actually, the opposite is clear. Covino's trying to cloud
the issue does not change the scriptural record at all. The records were hid in
the Hill Cumorah by Mormon, the same hill Moroni tells us the Jaredites called
Ramah!
Yet, Covino is not finished. See the next post to see how he wants us to believe that Mormon hid all the other records--and hid them in a hill east of the East Sea!
Yet, Covino is not finished. See the next post to see how he wants us to believe that Mormon hid all the other records--and hid them in a hill east of the East Sea!
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