Many Waters

I had Jeff Faulkner from Phoenix in my office today. His study of the Nephite text convinces him the phrase "many waters" means salt water ocean. I took a look at the term "waters" back in 2014 in the article entitled "OED on Waters." Jeff's interpretation is certainly within the pale of possibilities.

National Geographic Photo of an Ocean Wave

"Many waters" is one of the few terms actually defined by the editor in the text itself. 1 Nephi 17:5 is explicit. Irreantum or many waters refers to the sea. The Book of Mormon Onomasticon entry for "Irreantum" gives possible Semitic and Egyptian etymologies for this word.

1 Nephi 13:10, 12-13, 29 is equally explicit. The term "many waters" in these verses refers to the Atlantic Ocean which separates Europe from the Americas.

1 Nephi 14:11-12 is unmistakable. The great and abominable church is a global institution whose dominion extends from sea to sea. "Many waters" in this context means the world's salt water oceans. See the blog article "What is the Great and Abominable Church?" for insights into this nexus of evil.

Ether 2:6 is clear. Jaredites crossed "many waters" in barges which traversed a sea Ether 2:7 and these barges were nearly identical Ether 2:16 to those that were sometimes submerged beneath the waves of the sea Ether 6:7.

The term "many waters" occurs 11 times in the text. The 9 instances described above all refer to one or more salt water oceans. What does that imply for the other two instances? The text of the Book of Mormon is so consistent in its usage patterns Royal Skousen coined the term "systematic phraseology" to describe its orderly repetition. The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), Editor's Preface p. xlv. Every time we see the phrase "many waters" in the text it likely refers to a salt water ocean. This means we should look for hill Ramah/Cumorah seaside.

Mosiah 8:8 says the land of Cumorah was located "among many waters" and Mormon 6:4 says Cumorah was a "land of many waters..." That probably means Cumorah had a salt water coastline. The fact that Ablom by the seashore is due east of hill Ramah/Cumorah Ether 9:3 strengthens this marine interpretation.

In 2016 and 2017, Warren Aston spent months in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala on multiple trips exploring many of the candidates that have been seriously proposed for hill Ramah/Cumorah. After looking carefully at more than half a dozen hills, he narrowed the list to two: Cerro Vigía and Cerro San Martín Pajapan, both in southern Veracruz. In my mind, 1,160 meter Pajapan is the stronger candidate. See the article Ramah/Cumorah. If the "many waters" phrase in Mormon 6:4 really does refer to the open ocean, then Pajapan is almost certainly hill Cumorah.

The Summit of San Martín Pajapan is 7 Air Kilometers from Salt Water

The NE slopes of Pajapan are ancient volcanic lava flows that extend right to the water's edge. The red arrow in the image below points to one of these lava flows jutting into the ocean.

Lava Flow from Eye Distance of 13 KM. Flowing Streams in Yellow

 And this is what that lava flow looks like from just offshore.

Ancient Lava Flow with San Martín Pajapan in the Background
Photo by Kirk Magleby, February, 2017 

The Olmec (and Aztecs) considered this particular hill the site of earth's original creation. According to Linda Schele, Complex C (The Great Pyramid) at La Venta was built as a model of San Martín Pajapan. San Martín Pajapan Monument 1, now in Museo de Antropología de Xalapa, was set atop the hill ca. 1,000 BC (the article "Linguistic Cumorah" includes a photo). This particular hill is clearly among and in a land of many (sea) waters.

The Hebrew behind the term "many waters" in Isaiah 17:13 (rabbim mayim) is generally interpreted as the sea. The sound described in Psalm 93:4, Ezekiel 1:24 and Revelation 1:15 implies the wave action of salt water oceans. In many of these passages, references to the sea is explicit and synonyms include great waters and mighty waters.