What do we know about the Book of Mormon geographical setting? Perhaps less than we think. We continue below on some of the atypical statements introduced and covered. But first, some information on that previous post:
The family having a meal in the wilderness
Many claim that old Jerusalem was just called Jerusalem, and that referred to all of Israel; however, in Israel, as Jeremiah shows, who was a contemporary of Lehi and Nephi, it was also called the Land of Jerusalem and even the Lands of Jerusalem. With the Egyptians, the Hebrews called it Bit Lahmi, actually the “Birthplace of David” anciently—and not the city (it had not been built at the time of the birth of David).
In addition, the wordage of who was in Lehi’s Company is not clear. Surely, there would have been servants who lived on Lehi’s property arranged in families, as well as those who helped provide in farming, gardening, food preparation and other necessities. The view into Lehi’s tent appears murky beyond Lehi and his immediate family and that of Ishmael.
There were many people in Lehi’s Company not mentioned in the scriptural record. Did Lehi have daughters? If so, how many did he have? And how many marriages were there before Lehi found the Liahona?
the daughters of Lehi until long after everyone else and in such a manner as to be ambiguous (2 Nephi 5:6)
So although the beginning of Nephi's record only mentions Lehi having sons, according to Joseph Smith, Lehi had two daughters that married two of Ishmael’s sons. He states that this information was in the lost 116 pages, called the Book of Lehi (Sydney B. Sperry, Improvement Era, vol.55, September 1952, pp 642-694; Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Book of Mormon Questions, Brookcraft, Salt Lake, pp1967, pp9-11).
According to Apostle Erastus Snow, in a discourse delivered by him in Logan, Utah, on May 6, 1882, Joseph Smith informed us that “…Ishmael was of the lineage of Ephraim and that his sons married into Lehi’s family, and that Lehi’s sons married Ishmael’s daughters.”
This strongly shows that Father Lehi had daughters—at least two-who had married the sons of Ishmael. Obviously then, Lehi was the father-in-law of Ishmael's sons. This fact would clearly account for the casual and taken-for-granted attitude of Nephi when he mentions Ishmael and his family—a clearly an inter-family view, and clearly Oriental view.
Nephi and his future wife reach Lehi’s tent in the valley of Lemuel with whom she will be part of his family after marrying Nephi
In addition, in the Orient, in the days of Lehi, and for many centuries after, the marriage of a son meant that his bride left her own family and joined the family of her husband. Thus, Lehi’s two older daughters were not part of his family at the time he left Jerusalem, but part of Ishmael’s family.
Following is the continuation of some of the lesser known facts:
2. Kept from the knowledge. “It is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance” (2 Nephi 1:8). Just before his death, Lehi spoke to his family and one of the things he told them was a prophecy he received as part of a promise the Lord gave him (2 Nephi 1:9), “I, Lehi, have obtained a promise” (2 Nephi 1:9).
It should be kept in mind that when the Lord makes a promise, the only one that can break it is the person or people to which was directed—the Lord does not break promises! Lehi well understood this and was warning his posterity, not just Laman and Lemuel to not stray if they wanted o benefit from the promise:
“that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem [there were those who came like Lehi and Ishmael not out of Jerusalem but out of the Land of Jerusalem] shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever.”
Who could take their land? Those who wanted it!
Ship after ship would head for the Americas
• First it would be the lifting of the protective secrecy of the location [Columbus/Europeans]—no nations had been given a knowledge of Lehi’s Land of Promise area, thus no other nation or people had yet been led there and none were then living there [in Lehi’s Land of Promise]. Thus Columbus was inspired to find his way to the Caribbean and South America, believing it was the route to India, China, Japan and the Spice Islands;
• Second, the retribution of the land. This required payment for past injury. Lehi’s party would be blessed with their singular possession of the land and enjoy all the benefits of a blessed land, as long as they obeyed and kept the Lord’s commandments, and
• Third, they would be able to remain in the land as long as they lived the gospel, but if not they would be swept from the land—which is where they now stand, with the Lamanites, or the Quechua people, in small numbers in South America.
3. Huge shipping industry. “But behold, a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people, yea, the account of the Lamanites and of the Nephites, and their wars, and contentions, and dissensions, and their preaching, and their prophecies, and their shipping and their building of ships… cannot be contained in this work” (Helaman 3:14, emphasis added).
• In addition to Hagoth’s ship yards along the West seacoast mentioned in the scriptural record, four additional docks and wharfs have been found by archaeologists south of Lake Titicaca at Puma Punku. These had been along the east seacoast, and had been built at the Sea East, whose surface had grown now having risen to 12,500 after the crucifixion when the Andes rose and achieved their present height of 12,500-feet at Puma Punku. Once, before these events, these docks and wharfs were capable of docking at least a hundred ships each way which obviously would only be necessary for an ocean-going shipping fleet, probably made up of both commercial and private boats, used for fishing, hauling, and transporting goods and products from one end of the land to the other, certainly from the Land of Zarahemla to the Land Northward, and around the island from the Sea West to the Sea East and back.
In the last century B.C., when large numbers migrated into the Land Northward (Alma 63:9; Helaman 3:8), they found there was limited timber available in the land. “And the people who were in the land of Desolation of the Land Northward did dwell in tents, and in houses of cement, and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the face of the land that it should grow up, that in time they might have timber to build their houses, yea, their cities, and their temples, and their synagogues, and their sanctuaries, and all manner of their buildings. And it came to pass as timber was exceedingly scarce in the Land of Desolation, they did send forth much by the way of shipping” (Helaman 3:9-10). In addition, ships were used to transport people into the “Land which was northward” (Alma 63:6-7).
Mormon must have considered the shipping industry of such import to the Nephites that he mentioned it twice in his abridgement of Alma and Helaman, letting us know the extensive shipping of the Nephites, from building large ships, to their involvement in shipping as an industry. Obviously, when you have an eastern seaport that can handle over 200 ships, you are looking at a very large industry.
Very valuable post. THANKS!
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