Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Arza Evans (2003): The River of Laman and Bountiful being Evidence Against the Book of Mormon(!)

  In a book published in 2003, Arza Evans wrote the following against the geography of 1 Nephi:


Imaginary Geography

 

The Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea is one of the oldest inhabited areas on earth. If there had been a river flowing into the Red Sea at this point, there would probably have been a major city located there, just as there was where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flowed into the Persian Gulf. The River Laman has never existed except in the fertile imagination of Joseph Smith.

 

. . .

 

Bountiful

 

Then another incredible thing happened to Lehi and his family. They found themselves in a land with “much fruit” and “wild honey.” Lehi named this place “Bountiful.” Strangely, this fertile area on the Persian Gulf, just south of Babylonia, the cradle of civilization, was uninhabited! Why hadn’t anyone ever discovered this remarkable Garden of Eden? Bountiful also happened to have iron ore, coal, tar, timber, and all of the other things that Nephi would need to make tools and construct a ship that could sail half way around the world. (Arza Evans, The Keystone of Mormonism [Ashland, Ohio: Keystone Books, Inc., 2003], 32, 34-35)

 

Sadly for Evans, the River of Laman/Valley of Lemuel and Boutiful were discovered before he published his book (see Jeff Lindsay's summary of these issues, for e.g.) The Astons, for e.g., published their book In the Footsteps of Lehi in 1994 (documenting NHM and Bountiful). To quote Cheryl Tunt: womp womp






Blog Archive