Limited Geography Model - Limited Geography and Book of Mormon Population

Limited Geography and Book of Mormon Population

The Book of Mormon describes a journey by a group of people led by a prophet named Lehi from the Old World to the New World in approximately 600 B.C. The Book of Mormon also describes the journey of 2 other groups to America. One group was the people of Mulek (supposed by Bible authors to have died), who was the son of Zedekiah. The group left Jerusalem within a few years of Lehi's departure, but was not known to the people of Lehi until some time between 323 and 130 B.C. Another group described in great detail in the Book of Mormon, particularly in the Book of Ether (within the Book of Mormon) is called the Jaredites. According to the Book of Mormon, the Jaredites came from the Tower of Babel in barges and inhabited the Western Hemisphere until their complete destruction through civil war, which occurred after the people of Mulek arrived in the New World. The only Jaredite to encounter the people of Mulek was named Coriantumr and he dwelt with them for "nine moons" before his death. The history of the Jaredites was recorded by a Jaredite prophet named Ether. His record was abridged by prophet Moroni (son of Mormon) many hundred years later and included in the Book of Mormon as the Book of Ether.

Given that the Book of Mormon clearly describes inhabitants of the New World long before Lehi's arrival, LDS scholars have long taken a critical view regarding the assumption that no other people were present in the New World at the time of Lehi's arrival.

• In 1927, Janne M. Sjödahl stated that "students of the Book of Mormon should be cautioned against the error of supposing that all the American Indians are the descendants of Lehi, Mulek and their companions" (Smith & Reynolds 1997, p. 263).
• In 1938 a church study guide for the Book of Mormon stated that "the Book of Mormon deals only with the history and expansion of three small colonies which came to America, and it does not deny or disprove the possibility of other immigrations, which probably would be unknown to its writers" (Smith & Reynolds 1997, p. 263).
• From 1952 onward, LDS scholar Hugh Nibley repeatedly argued that the assumption that there were no other people present in the New World at the time of Lehi's arrival might be incorrect.
• In 1980 Nibley, referring to archaeological evidence, stated that the assumption of an empty New World represented a "simplistic reading" of the Book of Mormon (Smith & Reynolds 1997, p. 263).
• Early in the twentieth century RLDS (Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) members proposed a limited Mesoamerican geography for the Book of Mormon. By the middle of the twentieth century, most LDS authors shared the belief that the Book of Mormon events took place within a limited region in Mesoamerica, and that others were present on the continent at the time of Lehi's arrival (Smith 1997, p. 264). This geographical and population model was formally published in the official church magazine, The Ensign, in a two-part series published in September and October 1984. This was followed by a book on the subject by LDS anthropologist John L. Sorenson in 1985 (Sorenson 1985).

In the 1920s, LDS General Authority and historian B.H. Roberts questioned the assumption of a hemispheric geography and population model for the Book of Mormon. In his critical examination of the Book of Mormon, eventually published in 1985 under the title Studies of the Book of Mormon, Roberts states:

ould the people of Mulek and of Lehi...part of the time numbering and occupying the land at least from Yucatan to Cumorah...live and move and have their being in the land of America and not come in contact with other races and tribes of men, if such existed in the New World within Book of Mormon times? To make this seem possible the area occupied by the Nephites and Lamanites would have to be extremely limited, much more limited, I fear, than the Book of Mormon would admit our assuming (Roberts 1985, p. 93).

A view supported by Hugh Nibley:

The overall picture reflects before all a limited geographical and cultural point of view—small localized operations, with only occasional flights and expeditions into the wilderness; one might almost be moving in the cultural circuit of the Hopi villages.

The proposal of a limited geography is coupled with the proposal that the American continents were already populated at the time of the arrival of Lehi's group. The presence of inhabitants on the American continents long before the arrival of Lehi's party is well supported by existing archaeological data. The exact date of arrival of these early inhabitants is still debated among archaeologists, with a common theory being an arrival via a land bridge in the Bering Strait approximately 14,000 years ago (Coe 2002, p. 41).