Following are more comments or questions we have received from various readers of this blog.
Comment #1: “Did the Nephites who migrated north on Hagoths ships and their descendants also all perish? Or did any descendants live on after Book of Mormon times since they were not living in the areas of the hill Cumorah battles?” David K.
Response: When it comes to the Book of Mormon, we have two groups of Nephites to consider. The first, and the one the scriptural record is about, those living their lives out in the Land of Promise, all died as far as we know, or at least based on Mormon and especially Moroni’s record, between 385 A.D. and 421 A.D., ‘for the Lamanites hunted down any that survived Cumorah’ and Mornoi tells us they were ‘all killed.’ How he knew that, unless it was through being told by the Spirit, I do not know but I accept his report.
Two other sailings
The other group of Nephites sailed to at least two destinations: 1) to a land which was northward, as indicated in Alma 63, numbering 5400 men, plus their wives and children (or at least some portion of that number); and a ship that went somewhere else that Mormon did not know, assumedly that would have been West, since it was not north and would not have been south into Lamanite lands, and West would have taken them down into Polynesia as Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki drift voyage showed. These latter Nephites lived out their lives and to what degree or amount they survived in the north, we do not know other than Joseph Smith indicated they inhabited North America, as well as Lamanites (who also were in those groups). It is possible that the others made up the nucleus of the Polynesians of today.
Comment #2: “I do not recall reading that the narrow neck of land which separates the Land Northward from the Land Southward, is sandwiched between two seas, as you claim.” Robt Mc.
Response: There is only one direct reference to this when Mormon tells us that in describing the flight of Morianton to the "borders of the land Desolation" and Moroni's march to intercept them, he adds: "and they did head them, by the narrow pass which led by the sea into the land northward, yea, by the sea, on the west and on the east" (Alma 50:34).
By the way, to make his inaccurate direction map work, John L. Sorenson (and many other Mesoamerican theorists) have labeled the Gul of Mexico, which is to the north of Mesoamerica, the “Sea East,” and the one on the south, the Pacific Ocean, the “Sea West,” as though changing the name makes his inaccurate map and location accurate.
Another reference, though less obvious, is the description Mormon give us in his insertion in Alma 22:32 when, in part, he writes: “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,” which seems to verify that there was water on both sides of the narrow neck.
In addition, we find that Hagoth built ships in this area of the narrow neck of land between the land Bountiful and the land of Desolation, and launched those ships into the west sea (Alma 63:5). Thus, it seems rather clear that there was a west sea and an east sea flanking the narrow neck, which, by the way, is never called a transportation corridor in the scriptural record. It was F. Richard Hauck in his 1988 book Deciphering the Geography of the Book of Mormon, that the term “transportation corridor” was used.
Comment #3: “Hugh Nibley claimed that the Book of Mormon mentions the rising and sinking of the land, forming new "hills and valleys" (3 Nephi 9:5-8)—with no mention of major mountain ranges,” Allyson.
“Mountains whose height is great,” suggests that such mountains would “look” high as well as “being” high for the prophecy to be understood by the Nephites at the time the mountains rose up
Response: Nibley, for all his marvelous achievements, was not always correct about the Book of Mormon. When Samuel the Lamanite got upon the city walls of Zarahemla and began preaching the words the angel had given him, he said, “And behold, there shall be great tempests, and there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great" (Helaman 14:23).
First of all, a mountain “whose height is great” can never be called or referred to as a hill! Secondly, it is not clear what Nibley thought a mountain range included, but mountains is stated in the plural, both in those laid low and those that rose to a great height. Mountains make up a range, and if it is correct that these mountains were the result of tectonic plate movement, which geologists tell us are the cause of forming mountains, then we might suggest with some certainty that a mountain range rose up, “whose height is great.”
Comment #4: “Some scholars feel that to be consistent with the overall context of the Book of Mormon, it should be assumed that the Land North in Helaman 6:9-10, 12, is synonymous with the term Land Northward that is used throughout the Book of Mormon text, and that the Land South is synonymous with the term Land Southward. However, you separate these descriptive locations, why?” Jacob B.
Response: It has been shown here in the past many times and in the scriptural record as well why they are separate terms. However, we will quote two verses here to make the point that these are separate terms and mean separate locational boundaries: 1) When the war with the Gaddianton Robbers was concluded around 26 A.D., the gathered Nephites returned to their own lands throughout the Land of Promise. In stating this, Mormon writes: “And it came to pass that they had not eaten up all their provisions; therefore they did take with them all that they ad not devoured, of all their grain of every kind, and their gold, and their silver, and all their precious things, and they did return to their own lands and their possessions, both on the north and on the south, both on the Land Northward and on the Land Southward” (3 Nephi 6:2).
The Land North and the Land South are two divisions of the Land Southward, which is where the war was waged (3 Nephi 3:24). When the war concluded, they returned to their homes in the north and in the south of the Land Southward, and also to their homes in the Land Northward.
2) “When Moroni, angered at the evil Amalikiah had done, poured out his soul to God, and 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” (Alma 46:17, emphasis added). He then goes on to say of this land south of Desolation was all of the Land Southward, which he then adds that all the land to the south of the narrow neck, had two divisions, the Land North and the Land South.
No comments:
Post a Comment