More Covino Comments Answered-Part XV- Width of Bountiful and Desolation

According to Peter Covino in his True Book of Mormon Geography website, claims that the passage in Alma 22:32, “And now, it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite, on the line Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea; and thus the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla were nearly surrounded by water, there being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward” means that the Land of Bountiful and the Land of Desolation were no wider than the narrow neck and both lands, as well as the narrow neck, could be crossed in a day and a half.

This is confirmed, he tells us, “by the Earliest Text Book of Mormon released by Royal Skousen on 9-9-9. Note the semicolon placement:

“And now it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite on the line between the land Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea;

“and thus the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla was nearly surrounded by water, there being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward.”

The placing of the semicolon, Covino claims, “makes it clear that the distance applies to the entire width of the land, not just the Narrow Neck.”

Actually it does not. And as long as Covino is going to talk grammatical use of the Book of Mormon language, let us consider the subject of this statement he erroneously claims is a “similar” statement. While a semicolon could be used in that manner, most commonly it is used to link two independent clauses. That is:

1) And now it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite on the line between the land Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea.

2) Thus the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla was nearly surrounded by water, there being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward.

Examples of narrow necks of land connecting larger land on either side

Gramatically, these two statements do not have to be related—they can be different from one another, and in fact, are. That is, the first statement about distance is entirely independent from the statement about being surrounded by water.

In this case, the word “thus” is a Conjunctive Adverb, and as such, is used between these clauses to compare or contrast the sequence of events listed, or show the cause and effect between them.

That is, because there was a narrow neck of land (narrow enough to cross in a day and a half) between the Land Bountiful (Land Southward) and the Land Desolation (Land Northward), the land to the south of this neck (Land Southward, i.e., Land of Nephi and Land of Zarahemla) were nearly surrounded by water. The only reason they were not completely surrounded by water was because of the narrow neck of land.

Perhaps a better way of understanding this is to see it written correctly according to the grammatical sense used:

And now it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite on the line between the land Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea. Thus the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla (to the south of this narrow neck) were nearly surrounded by water, there being this small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward that can be crossed in a day and a half by a Nephite.

There is no mention, nor should there be, of the Land Bountiful and the Land Desolation being the same width—a day and a half journey—as the narrow neck of land between them.

Left: A narrow neck, by definition, would have to be narrow. A neck, by definition, would have to be a small connector. Mormon’s Narrow Neck in the Land of Promise; Right: The same area today, after the rising of the Andes Mountains and eastern South America

In the case of a “narrow neck of land,” we are talking about, according to the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, “a narrow tract of land connecting two larger tracts.” And in this case, a narrow track of land connecting the Land Southward to the Land Northward, or more correctly, the Land Bountiful to the Land Desolation. Therefore, by definition, the narrow neck was narrow and connected two larger tracts, Bountiful and Desolation. Consequently, there is no way possible for Mormon’s description to have meant that Bountiful, the narrow neck, and Desolation were all the same width as Covino claims.

(See the next post: “More Covino Comments Answered-Part XVI- The Narrow Passage, for more differences between the scriptural record and Covino’s interpretation)