Continued from the Previous post regarding the sea that” divideth the land” and how theorists either ignore this statement, or completely misunderstand it.
As an example: Moroni, when abridging the Jaredite record (Book of Ether), states that “they built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land” (Ether 10:20, emphasis added). Now this sea that divided the land was located at the narrow neck of land, just south of the Land Northward, thus, the waters or sea that ran on either side of the narrow neck was evidently larger on one side, thus providing a type of Bay or Gulf that divided the land—that is, it divided the land from the two main land masses, i.e., the Land Southward from the Land Northward.
As an example of misunderstanding, or being deliberately misleading, Ralph A. Olsen, in his book A More Promising Land of Promise, states: “"What should someone do when a long-held hypothesis fails? In seeking a setting for Book of Mormon events that matches the text's descriptions, one Latter-day Saint found himself looking in a very surprising part of the world. According to my reading of the Book of Mormon, sometime between 3000 and 2500 BC, the Jaredites walked to Nimrod (Ether 2:1) near the upper Tigris River. They built barges on which they floated down the 'many waters' of the river (Ether 2:6) to the Persian Gulf, 'the sea which divideth the lands' (Ether 2:13).
There are four problems with this single entry:
1. Sometime between 3000 and 2500 BC
These dates are inconsistent with the dates shown in Genesis and the Pearl of Great Price, which places the date between 2200 and 2100 BC.
The Upper Tigris is about 520 miles north of Babylon
2. The Jaredites walked to Nimrod (Ether 2:1) near the upper Tigris River
Nowhere does it state that the valley of Nimrod was near the upper Tigris River in Moroni’s abridgement of the Book of Ether, which does say they: “went down into the valley which was northward, (and the name of the valley was Nimrod, being called after the mighty hunter) with their flocks which they had gathered together” (Ether 2:1) also…” And it came to pass that when they had come down into the valley of Nimrod the Lord came down and talked with the brother of Jared” and “the Lord commanded them that they should go forth into the wilderness, yea, into that quarter where there never had man been. And it came to pass that the Lord did go before them…and gave directions whither they should travel.
It does seem pointless, however, for the Lord to lead them 520 miles to the north, then after being in the valley for preparation of the coming their journey, to backtrack that 500 miles on their way to the Persian Gulf.
3. They built barges on which they floated down the 'many waters' of the river (Ether 2:6)
They built barges, but not to float down a river, but to cross the many waters they encountered. Nor is “the many waters of the river” suggested, mentioned or inferred. It merely states “many waters.”
4. To the Persian Gulf, 'the sea which divideth the lands' (Ether 2:13).
Yellow area is land; blue area is the Sea (Sea of Arabia) which flows inland and divides the land; however, it is the sea or ocean (Indian Ocean which is politically divided to form the Sea of Arabia—but is actually one sea (the sea that divides the land)
The reference does not mention or suggest the Persian Gulf. It states: “the Lord did bring Jared and his brethren forth even to that great sea which divideth the lands.”
While the Persia Gulf does divide lands, those lands are not along the shores of the “Great Sea.” The Persian Gulf has always been a gulf, with an original name of Arabic Baḥr Fāris (Gulf of Arabia), or Persian Khalīj-e Fārs (Gulf of Persia, or Persian Gulf). Historical documents show a unanimity on the term Persian Gulf, which it is claimed dates back to the Persian king Darius in the fifth century BC. Today it is called the Persian Gulf by Iranians (Persians) or the Gulf of Iran, and the Arabian Gulf by Arab nations.
The Persian or Arab Gulf is 615 miles in length and between 15 and 35 miles wide, containing 93,000 square miles, and lies inland from the Gulf of Oman, which is between the Persian Gulf and the Great Sea or ocean—the Persian Gulf is not, however, the Great Sea as this theorist claims.
In fact, in reading the account in Ether, Moroni makes it quite clear what sea the Jaredites reached: “For behold, it came to pass that the Lord did bring Jared and his brethren forth even to that great sea which divideth the lands. And as they came to the sea they pitched their tents; and they called the name of the place Moriancumer; and they dwelt in tents, and dwelt in tents upon the seashore for the space of four years” (Ether 2:13). There are several points that make Moroni’s statement quite clear and Olsen’s theory and claims quite inaccurate:
1. Lands, not land is mentioned—if it were the Persian Gulf, it is a single land area that is divided by the gulf, not multiple lands as written.
2. The Great Sea could hardly be the Persian Gulf since it is connected to the huge Sea of Arabia and Indian Ocean beyond.
When the Earth was divided into many lands
3. When the earth was divided, before the time of Jared, it was broken up into various land masses of assorted sizes. Therefore, it would be the ocean, or great sea as it is also called, thus when “the Lord did bring Jared and his brethren forth even to that great sea which divideth the lands,” it could only mean the ocean coast or shore of the “great sea.”
4. Seashore is strictly related to the seas (oceans). The 1828 dictionary states of this: “[sea and shore.] The coast of the sea; the land that lies adjacent to the sea or ocean (Sea in this dictionary is: “A large body of water, nearly inclosed by land, as the Baltic or the Mediterranean...Seas are properly branches of the ocean, and upon the same level. Large bodies of water inland, and situated above the level of the ocean, are lakes,” and “The ocean; as, to go to sea. The fleet is at sea, or on the high seas.” The word “ocean” is defined as: “The vast body of water which covers more than three fifths of the surface of the globe, called also the sea, or great sea.”
Thus “seashore” would not relate to the Persian Gulf, but to the coast of the Sea of Arabia.
5. Joseph Smith is quoted as saying, "Lehi went down by the Red Sea to the great Southern Ocean, and crossed over to this land.” From Arabia, the 'great Southern Ocean' extends eastward to the Malay Peninsula but not to the Americas.
This statement by Ralph A. Olsen,
retired professor at Montana State University, is
found in Sunstone Magazine (March 2004, pp30-31). Joseph Smith’s quote is from Joseph
Smith Jr., Teachings of the Prophet
Joseph Smith, and compiled by Joseph
Fielding Smith (Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 1938,
p267), and is not connected in any manner with each other, i.e., Joseph Smith’s
comment about the Southern Ocean is not the southern ocean Olsen describes.
The oceans of the world: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern—the strongest current in the world—and the Arctic
First of all, the Southern Ocean was first discovered and named by Bartolomeo Diaz, the first known explorer to have reached the Southern Ocean, when he circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope in 1487. In 1770, Captain James Cook searched for land in the Southern Ocean but found none. By 1830, the term “Southern Ocean” would have been known among mariners around the world as the southern current which runs from west to east unimpeded around the world south of Australia, across the Pacific, through the Drake Passage and across the southern Atlantic, south of Africa, and past Australia.
The Southern Ocean has no islands or any other land according to the British explorer and sea captain, James Cook, who spent 12 years sailing around the South Pacific. Olsen can claim the Southern Ocean “extends eastward to the Malay Peninsula but not to the Americas,” but such is simply not the case and meant to bolster his own theories and location for where Lehi landed.
(See the next post for a continuation of the comments of theorists that show how they misunderstand the “Sea the divides the Land.”)
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