And it came to pass
that Moroni had thus gained a victory over one of the greatest of the armies of
the Lamanites, and had obtained possession of the city of Mulek, which was one
of the strongest holds of the Lamanites in the land of Nephi; and thus he had
also built a stronghold to retain his prisoners. And it came to pass that he
did no more attempt to battle with the Lamanites in that year, but he did
employ his men in preparing for war, yea, and in making fortifications to guard
against the Lamanites, yea, and also delivering their women and their children
from famine and affliction, and providing food for their armies. (Alma 53:6-7)
In the above text, we have an example of the “mistakes of men” were are told about on the
title page of the Book of Mormon. In Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of
Mormon, Volume 4: Alma (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007), 683, we
read the following:
Translation: Verse 6 comments that "the city of
Mulek, . . . was one of the strongest holds of the Lamanites in the land of
Nephi." But Mulek is obviously in Zarahemla, not Nephi. Daniel Ludlow
proposes "three possible explanations . . .: (1) Perhaps this land is
being called 'the land of Nephi' by the Lamanites because they now possess it
as they also possess the land of Nephi in the south. (2) The Nephites could
have a 'land of Nephi' in the north, although such a land has not been
mentioned before and is not mentioned later. (3) The phrase 'in the land of
Nephi' might be used to identify those particular Lamanites mentioned in the
verse and to differentiate them from Lamanites living in other parts of the
country." [1]
Unfortunately, none
of these explanations is satisfactory. As for the first time, there is no
evidence whatsoever for a "land of Nephi" in the north. As for the
second, this is a Nephite record, and unlikely to use Lamanite names; indeed,
we cannot be sure that the Lamanites called their land the "land of
Nephi"--the term consistently used throughout Mormon's record--and their
antipathy to Nephi suggests that they would not.
Obviously, this is
simply an error.[2] Mulek is the land of the Nephites, not the “land of Nephi.”
I read it as Joseph’s slip, not as Mormon’s. If it had been Mormon’s, he might
have meant to write: “the city of Mulek, which was one of the strongest holds
of the Lamanites in the land of Nephites.” But Mormon would have been unlikely
to make the mistake of interchanging Nephite territory and the land of Nephi. “Nephite”
is not typically how Mormon referred to lands under Nephite control. The internal
reference to the political entity holding this land is “the land of Zarahemla.”
Mormon uses “Nephite” to designate a group of people, but not to refer to the
land. Thus this mistake would be a difficult one for Mormon, but an easy one
for Joseph, who was much less aware of these geo-political nuances.
Notes for the Above
[1] Daniel H. Ludlow,
A Companion to Your Study of the Book of
Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976), 236.
[2] J.N. Washburn, Book of Mormon Guidebook and Certain Problems
in the Book of Mormon (Bound in one volume and self-published, 1968), 52,
adds the possibility that Mormon confused “land of Nephi” for “land of the
Nephites.” Without actually saying so, Washburn agrees with my contention that
this is an error in the text. John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book/Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies,
1985), 286, assumes that the error was that of the “original scribe or Mormon.”