The Mystifying Rationale of Mesoamerican Directions – Part XX

Continuing with Brant A. Gardner’s rationale of the Mesoamericanists’ skewed Land of Promise, and the various meanings of words that Joseph Smith used in the translation and their accuracy, and which are literal statements and which are metaphorical and actually factual statements
Gardner: “And they began to know that the Son of God must shortly appear; yea, in fine, all the people upon the face of the whole earth from the west to the east, both in the land north and in the land south, were so exceedingly astonished that they fell to the earth. (3 Ne. 1:17).”
Response: Gardner uses this example to say that the sun rises in the West and sets in the East. However, as it says, from the west to the east, both in the land north and in the land south—this is a description of the Land of Promise, not the movement of the sun.
Gardner: “And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east. (Hel. 3:8).” 
Response: Again, this is a description of the Land of Promise. The face of the whole earth refers to the Land of Promise when the Nephite prophets are talking. In numerous locations this phraseology is used and when reading it, the context is generally quite obvious. As an example: “And there was also a great and terrible tempest; and there was terrible thunder, insomuch that it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder” (3 Nephi 8:6) and “because of the tempest and the whirlwinds and the thunderings and the lightnings, and the exceedingly great quaking of the whole earth” (3 Nephi 8:12), both of these refer to the calamity that struck the Land of Promise, where “highways were broken up, and the level roads were spoiled, and many smooth places became rough” (3 Nephi 8:13).
    It has nothing at all to do with the rising and setting of the sun as Gardner claims.
Gardner thren makes a weak attempt to clarify his point, acknowledging the verses seem like they are about the land and not the sun.
Gardner: “Although the “from-to” construction implies movement, the cases of “from the west to the east” do not come in connection with any movement but rather with descriptions of “the face of the whole earth.” With only two examples it is a weak hypothesis, but I suggest that there was a literary reversal used in describing the “whole earth.” I believe that by reversing the known path of the sun, it placed “the face of the whole earth” firmly in the metaphorical rather than the physical realm.”

“Confucius say, “Man who stand on weak hypothesis stand on very shaky ground”

Response: How can you rest your argument on “a weak hypothesis”? Also, to make sure we understand Gardner, a metaphorical statement is “a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.” In other words, Gardner is telling us the destruction in 3 Nephi did not really happen, but the disciple Nephi was merely giving us a comparison of events, or that the filling up of the Land of Promise was not really happening, but the prophets were using a metaphor—an example of something else, like a symbol or progress.
    Should we then consider this directional statement as a metaphor? “And now, behold, the Lamanites could not retreat either way, neither on the north, nor on the south, nor on the east, nor on the west, for they were surrounded on every hand by the Nephites” (Helaman 1:31). Should we then interpret this as a metaphor and that the Lamanties were not really surrounded, but that there were Nephites around them?
    Who decides what is literal and what is metaphorical?
Gardner: “In contrast to the movement implied when using the phrase “from the east to the west,” the common usage for the other two “directions” is “on the north/on the south.” (3 Nephi 1:17, Helaman 3:8) There are no instances of “from the north to the south” or “from the south to the north,” not even in the verses describing the whole earth.”
Response: That is inaccurate. There are two from the north to the south verses: “From the land southward to the land northward,” and “from the north sea to the south sea,” which is no different than from the east to the west sea, or the east sea to the west, etc.
    Mormon tells us: “And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east” (Helaman 3:8, emphasis added). That is such a simple statement, that no amount of comment from Gardner or other Mesoamericanists trying to skew directions can change it. Nor can a case be made that it is different from the east to the west or the west to the east statements Gardner cited earlier.

Joseph Smith translating with Emma as scribe—his education and grammar would have been weak at a time when there were few rules for grammar; however, Nephi, wrote in plainness and instructed others to do the same

The point is these are simple statements in the scriptural record, translated into English by a person who never basically went to high school, let alone college, who translated as a prophet whose “soul delighted in plainness” and command those who followed him to write in the same manner. When today’s academicians get into the matter, they feel professionally bound to find interpretations not warranted and write in depths never intended by Mormon and the others. This Book of Mormon was never meant for the elite, professionals, or highly educated  and professional clergy, to dissect to look for meanings that were never intended. It was meant for the common man. Academicians and scholarly writers of today would do well to remember the scriptural record does not need their professional interpretations—just an understanding of the simple plainness in which Nephite delighted.
Gardner: “For example, Alma 46:17: “And it came to pass that when he had poured out his soul to God, he named all the land which was south of the land Desolation, yea, and in fine, all the land, both on the north and on the south—A chosen land, and the land of liberty.”

After making his title of liberty banner, Moroni prayed earnestly for guidance and success

Response: This is one of the great misunderstood and misinterpreted verses in all of the Book of Mormon by Mesoamericanists, about which we have written several articles. Not to be redundant about it, but the Land Northward at the time of this event in Nephite history, 73 B.C., had not yet been settled—they actually don’t start moving into that northern area until those who went in Hagoth’s ships (Alma 63:6) and those who went overland (Alma 63:9), as well as those who went eleven years later in 46 B.C.” (Helaman 3:3). In this cited scripture, Captain Moroni, who will die about 16 years later, makes his famous “liberty speech,” in which he declares all the land in the known Land of Promise at the time, the Land Southward, a land of liberty.
    Nor does he ignore the Land of Nephi in his speech—calling it the Land South, and the Nephite lands, the Land North, i.e., he divides the Land of Promise—the Land Southward at the time, into the two basic divisions that then existed, the land of the Nephites (land North) and the land of the Lamanites (Land South), which is the same division mentioned in Helaman: “Now the land south was called Lehi and the land north was called Mulek, which was after the son of Zedekiah; for the Lord did bring Mulek into the land north, and Lehi into the land south” (Helaman 6:10).
    That is, Mulek was brought into the land where Mosiah found them, i.e., Zarahemla (Omni 1:16), and Lehi into the land in the far south: “on the west in the land of Nephi, in the place of their fathers' first inheritance, and thus bordering along by the seashore” (Alma 22:28).
(See the next post, “The Mystifying Rationale of Mesoamerican Directions – Part XXI,” and the continuation of Gardner’s rationale of the Mesoamericanists’ skewed Land of Promise, and the various meanings of words that Joseph Smith used in the translation and their accuracy, and which are literal statements and which are metaphorical and actually factual statements)