From the East to the West: The Problem of Directions in the Book of Mormon
Brandt Gardner wrote:The 1985 publication of John L. Sorenson’s An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon presented the best argument for a New World location for the Book of Mormon. For all of its strengths, however, one aspect of the model has remained perplexing. It appeared that in order to accept that correlation one must accept that the Nephites rotated north to what we typically understand as northwest.
Joseph Smith, including (Nephi, Alma, and Mormon) never rotated north or made it to be anything other than true north. North is north and always has been and always will be just as the North Star. If Lehi was said to travel in a SE direction down into Arabia to reach the sea then we can conclude a return direction is NW. There is no skewing of that line! Lehi came from the NW to go to the SE and what determined that line was the difference between true NORTH and true SOUTH.
Brandt Gardner wrote:There was just that little problem of north not being north.
That’s not a little problem! It’s as big as the whole world from pole to pole.
Brandt Gardner wrote:The result is a way to understand Book of Mormon directions without requiring any skewing of magnetic north.
Nephi understood directions and never skewed magnetic north -- not once! He had no reason to skew any direction including south, east, and west. Nor did his successors. Neither did Alma or Mormon. The white and delightsome descendants of the Jews had no reason to skew any direction, period. The sun always rose in the east and set in the west, every single day!
Brandt Gardner wrote: In addition to his work on the geography, Sorenson expanded his correlation to include the relationship between the available historical and cultural information for that region and the descriptions and events in the Book of Mormon.
The historical and cultural information of today’s Mesoamerican region has absolutely nothing to do with Nephi, Alma, and Mormon’s definition of direction as translated by Joseph Smith who understood their directions the same as his own. Cardinal directions reported in the Book of Mormon are the same cardinal directions reported by the Jews in the Bible.
Brandt Gardner wrote: I propose that if Mesoamerica is a good fit for the Book of Mormon’s real world geography, then information about Mesoamerica may be used to reexamine and refine the nature of that fit.
Absolutely not! You cannot fit a square peg into a round hole. Nephi, Alma, and Mormon were a round hole in their own times and reported the cardinal directions exactly as they had always done since Lehi made the SE journey to the Arabian Sea. The directions of the Jews were the directions of the Nephites. The Mesoamericans who came later are a square peg and had nothing to do with what Nephi, Alma, and Mormon wrote as translated by Joseph Smith.
Brandt Gardner wrote: In short, an understanding of the Mesoamerican directional system offers an explanation for the way that Book of Mormon directions correspond to that geography, without recourse to an artificial shift in the directions.
Absolutely not! The Mesoamerican directional system was not known to Nephi nor was it passed down to Alma and Mormon. The directional system used by those characters is the same system they inherited from Lehi and the Jews. Mesoamerican ideas came later and is an apologetic red herring. Nothing in Mesoamerica can change the cardinal directions as understood by Lehi and Nephi who passed all their knowledge and wisdom they received from the Jews down to their own posterity. Alma embraced the knowledge of what he inherited as did Mormon. What was north & south to Lehi was also north & south to Alma and Mormon. What was east & west to Nephi was east & west to Alma and Mormon. And that is exactly what Joseph Smith translated as he understood it!
Mesoamerican directional systems are a red herring used by apologists to take our eye off the ball. The only ball we need to keep our eyes on is that of white and delightsome Nephi, Alma, and Mormon, as translated by Joseph Smith. Mesoamerican culture and history that followed have absolutely nothing to do with Book of Mormon cardinal directions. Brant Gardner is making stuff up out of thin air. He can’t transform cardinal directions of Nephi, Alma, and Mormon as
translated by Joseph Smith any more than John Gee can read a king’s name in Facsimile No. 3. Gardner’s apologetic is DOA and is a dishonest approach in understanding Book of Mormon geography. How sad, what a waste of time and talent.