BoM Geo 101
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Alma 13 ~ ¶12-13 [last 2 paragraphs] |
Alma 22:26-35 |
and Deliniated Understanding |
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And it came to pass that when the king saw that the people were pacified, he caused that Aaron and his brethren should stand forth in the midst of the multitude, and that they should preach the word unto them. And it came to pass that the king sent a proclamation throughout all the land, amongst all his people which was in all his land, which was in all the regions round about, which was bordering even to the sea, on the east, and on the west, and which was divided from the land of Zarahemla by a narrow strip of wilderness, which ran from the sea, east, even to the sea west, and round about on the borders of the sea shore, and the borders of the wilderness which was on the north, by the land of Zarahemla, through the borders of Manti, by the head of the river Sidon, running from the east towards the west; and thus were the Lamanites and the Nephites divided. Now the more idle part of the Lamanites lived in the wilderness, and dwelt in tents; and they were spread through the wilderness, on the west, in the land of Nephi; yea, and also on the west of the land of Zarahemla, in the borders, by the seashore, and on the west, in the land of Nephi, in the place of their fathers' first inheritance; and thus bordering along by the seashore. And also there was many Lamanites on the east by the seashore, whither the Nephites had driven them. And thus the Nephites were nearly surrounded by the Lamanites; nevertheless the Nephites had taken possession of all the northern parts of the land, bordering on the wilderness, at the head of the river Sidon, from the east to the west, round about on the wilderness side; on the north, even until they came to the land which they called Bountiful. And it bordered upon the land which they called Desolation; it being so far northward that it came into the land which had been peopled, and had been destroyed, of whose bones we have spoken, which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla; it being the place of their first landing. And they came from there up into the south wilderness. Thus the land on the northward was called Desolation, and the land on the southward was called Bountiful; it being the wilderness which was filled with all manner of wild animals of every kind; a part of which had come from the land northward, for food. 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, was nearly surrounded by water; there being a small neck of land between the land northward, and the land southward. And it came to pass that the Nephites had inhabited the land Bountiful, even from the East unto the West sea, and thus the Nephites in their wisdom, with their guards and their armies, had hemmed in the Lamanites on the south, that thereby they should have no more possession on the north, that they might not overrun the land northward; therefore the Lamanites could have no more possessions only in the land of Nephi, and the wilderness round about. Now this was wisdom in the Nephites; as the Lamanites were an enemy to them, they would not suffer their afflictions on every hand, and also that they might have a country whither they might flee, according to their desires. And now I, after having said this, return again to the account of Ammon, and Aaron, Omner and Himni, and their brethren. [Without paragraph continuity of thought, division into verses lets careless quick 'verse' oriented readers cut up the continuity of thought into bits and peices of unrelated data. One such 'group' has criticized my pages, saying the 'day and a half' travel distance of verse 32 was Mormon speaking of the land of his day in 350-380 A.D. with no associated with the 90 B.C. date. I guess that segmented interpretation favors their Book of Mormon map model.] |
26 And it came to pass that when the king saw that the people were pacified, he caused that Aaron and his brethren should stand forth in the midst of the multitude, and that they should preach the word unto them. 27 And it came to pass that the king sent a proclamation throughout all the land, amongst all his people who were in all his land, who were in all the regions round about, which was bordering even to the sea, on the east and on the west, and which was divided from the land of Zarahemla by a narrow strip of wilderness, which ran from the sea east even to the sea westA, and round about on the borders of the seashore, and the borders of the wilderness which was on the north by the land of Zarahemla, through the borders of Manti, by the head of the river Sidon, running from the east towards the west—and thus were the Lamanites and the Nephites dividedB. 28 Now, the more idle part of the Lamanites lived in the wilderness, and dwelt in tents; and they were spread through the wilderness on the west, in the land of Nephi; yea, and also on the west of the land of Zarahemla, in the borders by the seashore, and on the west in the land of Nephi, in the place of their fathers’ first inheritance, and thus bordering along by the seashore.C 29 And also there were many Lamanites on the east by the seashore, whither the Nephites had driven them. And thus the Nephites were nearly surrounded by the Lamanites;D nevertheless the Nephites had taken possession of all the northern parts of the land bordering on the wilderness, at the head of the river Sidon, from the east to the west, round about on the wilderness side; on the north, even until they came to the land which they called BountifulE. 30 And it [Bountiful] bordered upon the land which they called Desolation, it [Bountiful] being so far northward that it [Bountiful] came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed, of whose bones we have spoken, which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla, it being the place of their first landingF. 31 And they [people of Zarahemla] came from there up into the south wilderness [Zarahemla]. Thus the land on the northward was called Desolation, and the land on the southward was called Bountiful, it being the wilderness which is filled with all manner of wild animals of every kind, a part of which had come from the land northward for food. 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 southwardG. 33 And it came to pass that the Nephites had inhabited the land Bountiful, even from the east unto the west sea, and thus the Nephites in their wisdom, with their guards and their armies, had hemmed in the Lamanites on the south, that thereby they should have no more possession on the north, that they might not overrun the land northward. 34 Therefore the Lamanites could have no more possessions only in the land of Nephi, and the wilderness round about. Now this was wisdom in the Nephites—as the Lamanites were an enemy to them, they would not suffer their afflictions on every hand, and also that they might have a country whither they might flee, according to their desiresH. 35 And now I, after having said this, return again to the account of Ammon and Aaron, Omner and Himni, and their brethren. Note: It would seem that Mulek's party landed just north of then narrow neck on the border of Desolation and Bountiful. Read verses 30 and 31. |
It is well attested that the whole of the land's description, which Mormon provided here in Alma 22, related as a 'period discription' about 90 B.C. era, for in its original full paragraph form, you just cannot take is out of being a part of the same topic and time period as that being discussed in the complete paragraph renditions of the 1830 edition. Even the very sentence which begins the 'lands discription' is in the very same sentence of the Lamanite King's proclamation of the 90 B.C. era's concerning the missionary sons of Mosiah and the proclaimed acceptance of them by the whole of the Lamanites people. This marries the land description and fully deliniates it as being that of the 90 B.C. period. Perhaps Mormon even took a part of his applicable text of description from what was in the proclamation statement of the land of the Lamanites into his abridged paragraph. He also gives a picture of the whole of that period, both from a Lamanite and Nephite perspective of the land. But certainly none of it spoke of Mormon's time in 350-380 A.D. after the Lamanites had been given the whole of the land south of the narrow neck by treaty by Mormon in 350 A.D. The Bible does have '¶' paragraph markers in its text that helps to keep scriptural thought continuity together if one pays attention to them. It would be a beneficial thing to put the 1830 ¶ paragraph markers into our mordern Book of Mormon texts but that would cause a bit of a problem. When Orson Pratt divided the text into verses, he did what has also happened in the Bible. Some paragraph continuity got divided into separate chapters and not only that, even sentences, as long as they are in the Book of Mormon, got split into several verses, even mid sentence and between chapters. So some renumbering of not only chapters but verses as well would have to be adjusted. Wouldn't that make the Mormon critics happy. They'd find even more subjective fault with the Book of Mormon. I've noted the various features of the land for study opposite various prepared maps. The features notes are in light blue color and noted from 'A' to 'H'. The wording in the Book of Mormon text is a bit awkward and not easily read for meaning as Mormon and Moroni appoligized for their weakness in writing in their reformed Egyptian language. But with visual aid and taking it through a feature at a time, it does present a very well put together picture of the division of the lands of Zarahemla of the Nephites, and Nephi of the Lamanites. When you start to put it together with a real land setting that actually fits, then things really begin to click. The Nephite Zarahemla locations have been put in relative to Alma's missionary work in Zarahemla, which is contemporary with that of the sons of Moisah in Lamanite Nephi. I'll attempt a short statement: 'The lands of Zarahemla and Nephi were divided by a south divide of a narrow strip of land. The Nephites of Zarahemla placed themself in communities along their inland river waterways and not much on the coastal sea shores. This allowed the tent dwelling Lamanites to enter north beyond the narrow strip of land both on the west coast and east coast and thenc round about until reaching the land of Bountiful, at least on the east. I suspect the swamp and mangroves of the west coast was a deterant to any military threat along the west coast, though by using the 'wilderness' round about, one group of western Lamanites were able to 'creap around' and surprise and destroy Ammonihah and attack the city of Noah and take many Nephite prisoners as the 'round-about' map allows to be readily seen. The land area of Bountiful being up north into the narrow neck to the land of Desolation acted as a 'cork' and protection to the Lamanites attaining access to the land Northward and thereby totally surrounding the Nephites at the 90 B.C. juncture. |
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B) And that narrow strip of wilderness was on the north by the land of Zarahemla, through the borders of Manti and the head of the river Sidon from the east to the west. Thus Were the Lamanites and Nephites Divided. C) Idle Lamaites live in test along west coast of Zarahemla, Nephi, and in Land of First Inheritance west of Land of Nephi on the west sea coast. D) Many Lamanites on east sea shore coast of Zarahemla where driven there by the Nephites. E) Nephites had taken possesstion of all northern parts of the land bordering on the wilderness up to head of river Sidon south of Manti from east to west and round about on wilderness side even until land of Bountiful. F) Bountiful bordered upon Desolation, Bountiful being so far northward that it came north into the land which had been destroyed (Jaredites) [there being the place of the Mulekites first landing. G) A day and a half from east to west on the border line [it was only a 'border line' (3 Nephi 3:23)] between Bountiful and Desolation. And the land of Nephi and Zarahemla were nearly surrounded by water there just being that small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward. [Have you ever wondered about Onidah, the hill and/or place of arms. Was it one or two, what purpose did is serve as the place of arms for Lahonti's Lamanites who had refused to go and fight the Nephites? Or how did Captain Moroni's Nephites beat the Zoramite/Lamanite army to Manti? The 'red' colorful mountain range (^^^) in the picture left is a hint, the word Onidah is a link.] |
The solid line above the Land of Nephi is the sea to sea line of the narrow strip of wilderness. The line above that is dashed on both ends and represents the porous nature of the uninhabited wilderness on the west and east of the Nephite land. That allowed the idle wandering Lamanites to flow through into those coast and on the sides of the Nephites. This was a dangerous situation. The Nephites had allowed themselves to become nearly surrounded by the Lamanites who had encraoched upon the east and west wilderness, round about to the borders of Bountiful on the north. The Nephite population only grew up to the wilderness boundry and not beyond, due to the nature of the rain forest and the wild animals that it contained, at least Hermounts on west and on the north between Zarahemla and Bountiful. Only at the Manti location of the head waters of Sidon were the Nephites able to maintain their southern border at this period. Where there were no Nephites, the Lamanites would come in. That would be a difference betwen the hunter-gatherers who could readily wander (migrate) and the rancher-farmer who was tied to the land that had been clear to maintain themselves. [Tidbit hint: When the sons of Mosiah were returning to Zarahemla with their 'Lamanite' converts, they met Alma and Amulek making their way south to Manti from Gideon (Alma 17:1). Alma and Amulek may have been returning from the land of Jershon by way of the Gideon plateau and valley which allowed them to by pass Zarahemla with a straight shot to Manti from Gideon. So what? The hint relates to Captain Moroni, who found himself in the same position after the Lamanite/Zoramite army did not engage for fear of the heavily armed Nephites. Moroni found out they were headed for Manti. How could Captain Moroni beat the Zoramite/Lamanite army to Manti? (Alma 43:19-23)] |
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