OED on Narrow

To better understand Alma 22:32, Alma 63:5 and Ether 10:20 we looked at all textual occurrences of the words "narrow," "strait" and "small" in the Book of Mormon to get a sense of the Nephite meaning of those terms. We concluded any geographic feature exceeding 20 kilometers in width is completely out of the question - the Nephites would not have called it narrow or small, with 5 kilometers a much more likely upper limit. See the blog article "Narrow and Small Things."

The language that fell from the Prophet Joseph's lips in the moment of translation was Early Modern English as we saw in the blog article "Early Modern English." This makes it important for us to understand the sense of meaning the word "narrow" carried in the A.D. 1470 - A.D. 1700 Early Modern English era. We will examine the Oxford English Dictionary to see how the term "narrow" was used in geographic contexts in Early Modern English. The word "narrow" appears over 4,000 times in the OED, so we have abundant data to work with.

The general sense of meaning for narrow is something slender or constricted, whose breadth or width is small in proportion to its length. An urban street with houses on either side is narrow. A tree-lined country lane is narrow. A brook or rivulet is narrow. The strip of earth between furrows in a plowed field is narrow. Shakespeare bundled narrow lands in allusion with urban alleys and woodland creeks. "One that countermands The passages of allies, creekes, and narrow lands." William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, 1616.

"Hee did shut them [Irish rebels] up within those narrow corners and glynnes [glens] under the mountaines foote." Edmund Spenser, A Veue of the Present State of Ireland, 1596. Reading Spenser in context it is clear the mountains he refers to are Mourne Mountains rising to elevations in excess of 600 meters in Newry and Mourne Council, Northern Ireland. This is a Google Earth image of one of the narrow glens at the foot of Mourne Mountains. This glen is 1.41 kilometers wide at the point indicated.

Narrow Glen at the foot of Mourne Mountains, Northern Ireland

"The small narrow streight of Menai." William Camden (Philemon Holland, translator) Britain; or A chorographicall description of England, Scotland and Ireland (London: G. Bishop and I Norton, 1610). Menai Strait is a stretch of tidal water separating the Isle of Anglesey from the Welsh mainland. It is .77 kilometers wide near Bangor.

Narrow Menai Strait in Northwest Wales

"The haven of Messina is...compassed almost round with the city on one side, and a narrow languet or neck of land on the other." John Ray, Observations topographical, moral, and physiological..., 1673. The word "languet" derives from the Middle French word "languete" meaning "tongue." We saw in an earlier post that other Romance languages use the phrase "tongue of land" as their equivalent of the English "neck of land." See the blog article "Romance Languages." We see here that John Ray considered "tongue" and "neck" of land synonymous in English as well. This is the Sicilian land form described as a narrow neck of land in Early Modern English. The curved peninsula is .40 kilometers wide at its base.

Narrow Tongue or Neck of Land, Messina, Italy

In the Elizabethan era, Sir Francis Drake sacked the Spanish town of Cartagena on the north coast of modern Colombia. The noted English historian William Camden wrote that a narrow neck of land lay between Cartagena's harbor road and the ocean. "A narrow necke of land betweene the innermore rode [road] of the hauen [haven or harbor], & the Ocean." William Camden (Robert Norton, translator), The historie of the most renowned and victorious princesse Elizabeth, late Queene of England, 1630. The yellow line on the map below shows the harbor road around Cartagena. The narrow neck of land is .59 kilometers wide at the point indicated.

Narrow Neck of Land, Cartagena, Colombia

"Wawne [Walney] Iseland wch is a narrow screed of land lying before Fourness..." Henry Slingsby, The diary of Sir Henry Slingsby of Scriven Bart, 1644. Walney Island is .65 kilometers wide at the point indicated and 1.29 kilometers wide at the triangular-shaped airport on its northern end.

Narrow Walney Island, Cumbria, England

"Creeks of the sea is an inlet cornered into the main land, shooting with a narrow passage into some angle of the land...and this appears on that great arm of the sea on Humber, where it runs betwixt Lincolnshire and Yorkshire." Robert Callis, The Reading of the Famous and Learned Robert Callis, Esq.upon the statute of sewers, 1642. The tidal inlet Callis refers to goes by the name "River Humber" today. River Humber is 1.91 kilometers wide at Humber Bridge.

Narrow Passage between Lincolnshire & Yorkshire, England

"The pass is narrow...Between those Hills." Tiberius Catius Silius Italicus (Thomas Ross, translator) The second Punick War between Hannibal and the Romanes, 1661. The narrow pass referred to here is the section of the Appian Way between Forchia on the west and Arpaia on the east in the province of Benevento, Italy. This pass is .56 kilometers wide at the point indicated.

Narrow Pass 31 air kilometers NE of Naples, Italy

"Beyonde the which I find a narrow going or stricktland leading from the poynte to Hirst [Hurst] Castle." William Harrison, Historicall Description of the Island of  Britain, 1577. The word "strict" here has the sense of "narrow." The narrow land leading from the point to the castle is only 12 meters wide at its neck.

Narrow Land near Hurst Castle, Hampshire, England

"Through which narrow streights, Alexander...made his armie to pass." Nicolas de Nicolay (Thomas Washington, translator) The navigations, peregrinations and voyages, made into Turkie by Nicholas Nicholay, 1585. The narrow straits are the Cilician Gate, a pass through the rugged Taurus Mountains in south central Turkey. The Cilician Gate is 1.90 kilometers wide at the point indicated.

Narrow Cilician Gate or Gulek Pass, Mersin, Turkey

"Which, by a very narrow Isthim or necke of land groweth to the rest of the Iland." William Camden (Philemon Holland, translator) Britain, 1610. Camden is describing the Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. Ards Peninsula is 4.79 kilometers wide just south of Greyabbey and Ballywalter.

Narrow Neck Ards Peninsula, Northern Ireland 

These results corroborate our findings from the text. Many long, slender geographic features less than 5 kilometers wide were called narrow in Early Modern English.

In addition, some features wider than 5 kilometers were also called narrow in the Early Modern English era. Moscow, Russia is on the Moskva, tributary to the Oka, which is tributary to the Volga which empties into the Caspian Sea. The Don, anciently considered the boundary between Europe and Asia, flows into the Sea of Azov which communicates with the Black Sea and ultimately the Mediterranean. The Volga and the Don flow within 60 kilometers of each other, with tributaries much closer than that. Today, canals and locks join the two waterways. In former times, river men traveled down the Volga, hauled their boats over a portage on wagons, and continued down the Don. This is a description of the portage: "A little Isthmus or narrow slippe of lande." Giles Fletcher, Of the Russe common wealth, 1591. This portage was 5.56 kilometers long.

Narrow Portage between the Volga and the Don, Russia

Numerous sources in the Early Modern English era use the word "narrow" to refer to the land between the River Forth emptying into the Firth of Forth and the River Clyde emptying into the Firth of Clyde in southern Scotland. Here is one example: "Agricola began...a Wall or Vallum, upon that narrow space of Land that lies between the two Fryths." William Temple, An introduction to the History of England, 1699. The distance from Glascow to Stirling or Hamilton to Falkirk is about 35 kilometers. The distance from the Dumbarton tidal flats to the Grangemouth tidal flats is 51.07 air kilometers. 

Narrow Space of Land between the Firth of Clyde
& the Firth of Forth, Scotland

Today we call this Roman construction begun in A.D. 142 the Antonine Wall, not to be confused with the better known Hadrian's Wall further south that was begun twenty years earlier.

In the blog article "OED on Necks of Land" we give several examples where the Isthmus of Panama [Darien] was called narrow by Early Modern English writers. The distance from Colon on the Atlantic side to Panama City on the Pacific Side is 54 kilometers.

Narrow Isthmus of Panama 56 kilometers wide X 900 kilometers long

From this brief look at Early Modern English usage of the word "narrow" in geographic contexts, we conclude that a feature wider than 100 kilometers would not have been called narrow in the 1470 - 1700 time period. Features smaller than 5 kilometers wide were routinely called narrow. Features between 5 and 56 kilometers wide were sometimes called narrow when compared with large adjacent land masses (Scotland, Russia, the Western Hemisphere). In all cases, something narrow was slender or constricted with a width much smaller than its length.

A Nephite

This article will examine all 7 occurrences of the phrase "a Nephite" in the text in an attempt to clarify the sense of meaning that term held for the authors of the Book of Mormon.

Alma 8:20 "And the man [Amulek] saith (1981 & 2013 LDS editions read 'said') unto him [Alma₂]: I am a Nephite." This was Amulek's declaration of political and religious affiliation. Amulek lived in Ammonihah which was the headquarters of the Nehorite/Amlicite apostasy. Five years prior to Alma's visit a major schism resulted in many former Nephites becoming political and religious Amlicites Alma 2:11. Amulek affirmed that he did not vote for Amlici in the ca. 87 B.C. plebiscite Alma 2:5-7.

Alma 19:18 "And they also saw Ammon - and behold, he was a Nephite." Lamanites in the court of King Lamoni could distinguish a foreigner in their midst. Ethnically and culturally a person of Nephite descent stood out when surrounded by Lamanites.

Alma 22:32 "And now it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite on the line between the land (the 1981 & 2013 LDS editions omit 'between the land') Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea;" Was a day and a half's journey for a Nephite an exceptional or heroic distance? No. It was neither inordinate nor impressive. The sense of the diminutive word "only" means something on a modest, pedestrian scale. "A Nephite" means a citizen of the Nephite polity. This verse tells us the Nephites had a standard unit of distance measure (1 day's journey) just as they had standard units for weight or volume (measure of barley) Alma 11:7 and value (shum, seon, etc.) Alma 11:9. The heading to 1 Nephi, Mosiah 23:3, Alma 8:6 and Helaman 4:7 all attest to this standard unit of distance measure in use among the Nephites.

Alma 49:25 "their king Amalickiah, who was a Nephite by birth," A person born to Nephite parents was considered a Nephite in the ethnic sense of that word even after they had renounced their Nephite citizenship, moved abroad and become politically active in their new homeland.

Alma 55:32 "if their wine would poison a Lamanite, it would also poison a Nephite." Here "a Nephite" is a broad term referring to any member of the Nephite nation or soldier in the Nephite army.

Helaman 4:7 "it being a day's journey for a Nephite on the line which they had fortified." Ca. 90 B.C. the Nephites stationed a military garrison on the Bountiful side of an east-west line separating the land Bountiful on the south from the land Desolation on the north. This line, terminating in the west sea, was 1.5 day's journey long Alma 22:32-33. The line described in Alma 22 is not the same as the line described here in Helaman 4 which was established ca. 35 B.C. Both lines ran from a point in the east to the west sea, but the Helaman 4:7 line was shorter by one-third and it was south of the longer line. How do we know this? Helaman 4:6 says the shorter line was entirely contained within the land Bountiful which along the Nephite west coast was south of the Bountiful/Desolation border. As we have seen above, "a Nephite" refers to any Nephite national whether citizen or soldier.

Helaman 5:35 "one among them who was a Nephite by birth." This Nephite dissenter was born to Nephite parents. He was an ethnic Nephite who had become a Lamanite in his political and religious affiliations and now resided among the Lamanites.

These verses present a clear and consistent picture. "A Nephite" was any member of the Nephite polity, a common man, an ordinary foot soldier. The hunt for elite Nephite equivalents of ultra marathoners, Olympic gold medalist distance runners or kayak racers who could have traversed the wide (216 kilometer) Isthmus of Tehuantepec in a day and a half (following Alma 22:32) or a day (following Helaman 4:7) is unwarranted and atextual.

New Day for the Book of Mormon

In between general conference sessions on Sunday, October 5, 2014 the Church broadcast perhaps the finest documentary ever made about the Book of Mormon. Written and directed by Russ Holt (How Rare a Possession: The Book of Mormon [the Vincenzo Di Francesca story], 1987; Special Witnesses of Christ, 2000; The Work and the Glory, 2004) and filmed by T.C. Christensen (Trail of Hope: The Story of the Mormon Trail, 1997; American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith, 1999; The Testaments: Of One Fold and One Shepherd, 2000; The Work and the Glory, 2004; Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration, 2005; Emma Smith, My Story 2008; Forever Strong [the story of Larry Gelwix and the Highland High School Rugby Team], 2008; Gordon B. Hinckley: A Giant among Men, 2008; That Promised Day: The Coming Forth of the LDS Scriptures, 2010; 17 Miracles, 2011, Ephraim's Rescue, 2013), the work entitled "New Day for the Book of Mormon" documents the coming forth of the book, its impact around the world, and its increasingly favorable reception in the scholarly community. One comes away from this high quality production with the sense the Book of Mormon's star is definitely rising. You can watch it on BYU TV here.

The piece begins with the quote: "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642). It ends with the quote: "Of all American religious books of the nineteenth century, it seems probable that the Book of Mormon was the most powerful. It reached only a small percentage of the people, but it affected this small percentage so powerfully and lastingly that all the people of the United States have been affected, especially by its contribution to opening up one of our great frontiers." Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States, 1941 - 1945. In between it interlaces segments from 13 different interviews listed in order of first appearance in the film.

1. Candid interviews on the streets of New York. This is the same way the Church's first movie in theatrical release, "Meet the Mormons," opens.
2. Paul C. Gutjahr, Evangelical, Professor of English, American Studies and Religious Studies at Indiana University. Gutjahr is the author of The "Book of Mormon": A Biography published in 2012 by Princeton University Press in their Lives of Great Religious Books series.
3. Stephen H. Webb, Catholic theologian. The blog article "Mormon Christianity" has notes from a lecture Webb gave at BYU in May, 2014.
4. Amy Easton-Flake, LDS, Assistant Professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU.
5. Lynn Ridenhour, Baptist minister from Missouri.
6. Terryl L. Givens, LDS, Professor of Literature and Religion at the University of Richmond. Givens' By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2002) was a milestone, a first-rate sympathetic treatment of the Book of Mormon published by a major academic press.
7. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, LDS, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
8. John W. Welch, LDS, founder of FARMS and Professor of Law, BYU. The people in our dispensation who have done the most to help us understand the Book of Mormon are 1) Joseph Smith Jr. who taught us to revere the text as an inspired document, 2) Hugh W. Nibley who taught us to read the text as an ancient document, 3) John W. [Jack] Welch who taught us to read the text as a Hebrew document, 4) John L. Sorenson who taught us to read the text as a Mesoamerican document, and 5) Royal Skousen who taught us to read the text as an Early Modern English translation document. Welch taught us that every word is important. Skousen taught us that every letter is important.
9. Michael H. Mackay, LDS, historian with the Church History Department.
10. Catherine M. Stokes, LDS, former Deputy Director of the Illinois Department of Health.
11. Katty P. Dowdle, LDS, entrepreneur.
12. Richard D. Rust, LDS, former Professor of Literature at the University of North Carolina.
13. Orson Scott Card, LDS, novelist.

Voice over historical re-enactments share words from Joseph Smith and Lucy Mack Smith. Givens in one of his interview segments refers to prominent LDS historian Richard L. Bushman and the interaction the two of them have had with Ann Taves, Professor of Religious Studies at UC Santa Barbara.

Striking visuals in the production include title pages from:

• 1830 edition
• Grant Hardy, editor, The Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition (Urbana, Chicago and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2003) [1920 LDS edition]
• Joseph Smith, Jr., translator, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ (New York, etc.: Doubleday, 2004) [1981 LDS edition]
• Joseph Smith, Jr., translator, The Book of Mormon (New York: Penguin Classics, 2008) [1840 Nauvoo edition]
• Royal Skousen, editor, The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009)

The film presents 2 evidences for the authenticity of the text. John W. Welch recounts the well-known story of his discovery of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon on Wednesday, August 16, 1967 in Regensburg, Germany where he was serving as a missionary in the South German Mission under President Orville C. Gunther. This is not Welch's strongest retelling of the gripping account (on other occasions he has said the voice told him, "if it is evidence of Hebrew influence in the Gospel of Matthew, it is evidence of Hebrew influence in the Book of Mormon"), but it is effective and the background visuals are excellent. Chiasmus remains the strongest internal evidence we have from the text of its ancient origin. Welch explains that the literary form shows Hebraic circularity in thought processes as opposed to the more familiar Greek - Western linearity. Terryl L. Givens talks about the two stone altars in the vicinity of Naham in modern Yemen dating from ca. 600 B.C. that bear the inscription "to the people of Naham (or Nahum, Nahom, Nahem, Nehem. Ancient Semitic inscriptions lack vowels.) This is a Google Earth image of modern Naham showing the ridge line of Mount Naham towering to the north west. The Yemeni capital, Sana'a, is 52 air kilometers to the southwest.

Naham in modern Yemen

The blog article "Water Fight on the River - Round Ten" shows a photograph of one of the altars referencing Naham. It was Ross T. Christensen who first called our attention to this place in the August, 1978 Ensign comment "The Place Called Nahom." Christensen noticed the name on a 1763 Danish map. This is a clear and convincing example of a Book of Mormon place name successfully correlated with the modern map, corroborated by appropriately dated archaeological remains found in situ. The ancient Arabic term NHM connotes death or mourning as in 1 Nephi 16:34-35.

Some memorable lines (paraphrased) from the lavishly illustrated film:

• Since 1830 the Book of Mormon has been maligned, scrutinized and revered by millions.
• Its very existence is more of a miracle than most people will ever realize (Welch).
• The book in infused with undeniable physicality and radical supernaturalism (Givens).
• Almost all of the text we have today was translated (dictated) in approximately 65 working days between April 7, 1829 and the end of June, 1829 (Welch).
• 20% of the original manuscript is extant (Welch). This is an error. Jack meant to say 28%. See Royal Skousen's preface to the Yale edition, page xxix.
• The Book of Mormon from the beginning has appealed to both the spiritual and the intellectual faculties of the believers (Givens).
• The book was first offered for public sale in Palmyra, NY on March 26, 1830. 
• The first missionary in this dispensation, Samuel H. Smith, gave a copy of the book to Phineas  H. Young in Mendon, NY about 23 kilometers from Palmyra, who in turn gave it to his younger brother, Brigham.
• There is more Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon than there is in the Bible (Webb).
• Joseph Smith was a literary genius and also a theological genius (Webb).
• The Book of Mormon is an inexhaustible well of meaning (Rust)
• I have read the Book of Mormon through many times, to create timelines and a geography, to identify themes and cultural characteristics (Card).
• When you make it on the Penguin list, it says you are a major American author. It credentials the text (Gutjahr).
• I didn't get past the first page of 1 Nephi before I was as we say here in Missouri, sideswiped by God. I feel like I have been born again, again (Ridenhour).
• The Book of Mormon is more Baptist than the Baptist Hymnal (Ridenhour).
• There is no room in the narrative for allegorical or figurative meaning (Givens).
• The authors of the Book of Mormon wanted us to be better people, happier people (Card).
• The Book of Mormon has been subjected to a withering examination and it still stands. It will be a witness for Christ until he comes (Holland).

Highly recommended. As they say in the movie business, five stars and two thumbs up.

Between Things

The Yale edition of the Book of Mormon text uses the word "between" 33 times in a meticulously consistent way. Entity A is between entities B and C when B & C are analogous but A is apart and dissimilar. This is precisely what we would expect from the OED etymology of the word "between" (by twin or by twain) and its examples of word usage from Early Modern English.

"A peace made betwene the Emperorure and the Kinge." Charles Wriothesley, A chronicle of England during the reigns of the Tudors, ca. 1600. The emperor and the king are of the same genre, while peace is something else entirely.

"Which beddes are deuises made of Cotten wooll, and hunge vp betweene two trees..." Archbishop George Abbott, A briefe description of the whole worlde, 1599. The trees are twins. The hammock is distinct.

"The place where his tent was at ye first, betwene Bethel and Ay." Coverdale Bible, 1535. The two toponyms are analogues. Abraham's tent is different.

This same pattern of outlier A by correlates B & C holds throughout the text. The following verses document all unique phrases containing instances of the word "between" in order of first attestation.
Enos 1:24 wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites
Omni 1:10 much war and contention between my people the Nephites and the Lamanites
Omni 1:24 a serious war and much bloodshed between the Nephites and the Lamanites
Mosiah 21:22 disturbance between the Lamanites and the people of Limhi
Alma heading: a war between the Nephites and the Lamanites
Alma 1:15 there [up on the top of Hill Manti] he [Nehor] was caused or rather did acknowledge between the heavens and the earth
Alma 22:32 the line between the land Bountiful and the land Desolation (Only in the Yale Edition, not in the 1981 or 2013 LDS editions. A line is a political or ecological boundary while lands are contiguous territories.)
Alma 22:32 a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward (the small neck of land was a substantively different land form separate from either the land northward or the land southward)
Alma 27:23 we will set our armies between the land Jershon and the land Nephi
Alma 40:9 a space between the time of death and the resurrection
Alma 40:11 the state of the soul between death and the resurrection
Alma 40:21 a space between death and the resurrection
Alma 50:11 the line between the Nephites and the Lamanites
Alma 50:11 [the line] between the land of Zarahemla and the land of Nephi
Alma 50:14 a foundation for a city between the city of Moroni and the city of Aaron (a foundation for a city is of a different nature than established cities)
Alma 50:26 a warm contention between them [the land of Morianton and the land of Lehi
Alma 50:35 a battle commenced between them [Teancum's forces and the people of Morianton]
Alma 50:36 a union took place between them [the people of Morianton] and the people of Lehi
Alma 51:1 peace between the people of Lehi and the people of Morianton
Alma 52:20 plains between the two cities [the city of Bountiful and the city of Mulek]
Alma 62:35 this great and lasting war between them [the Nephites] and the Lamanites
Alma 62:41 the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites
Helaman 2:1 peace between the Nephites and the Lamanites
3 Nephi 2:17 war between the robbers and the people of Nephi
3 Nephi 3:23 the land which was between the land of (the word "of" is not in the LDS 1981 & 2013 editions of the text) Zarahemla and the land Bountiful. (There are 3 major ways this curious "land between" was different from the land of Zarahemla, the land Bountiful, or any other traditional Nephite land. 1) It had no name, only a description. 2) It was a narrow defensive military corridor and refugee camp 3 Nephi 3:22. 3) It was abandoned after the war ended and it had served its temporary purpose 3 Nephi 6:1,2.)
3 Nephi 24:18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked (citing Malachi 3:18)
3 Nephi 23:18 [ye shall discern] between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not
Mormon 1:8 war between the Nephites [and the Lamanites]
Mormon 1:8 this war was between the Nephites and the Lamanites
Mormon 2:1 war again between the Nephites and the Lamanites
Ether 9:12 war between the sons of Akish and Akish
The text is scrupulously consistent in its usage of the word "between." In every case, entity A is adjacent to but separate from and substantively different than twin, correlate or parallel entities B & C. This pattern has a profound implication for Book of Mormon geography. It means the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (or any other wide isthmus) cannot be the small neck of land described in Alma 22:32. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is an unbroken continuum, a major land mass including continental divide and rivers flowing toward both oceans. Tehuantepec as the small neck, integral with both the land northward and the land southward on either side of it, overtly contradicts the textual pattern.

Most of the boundary between the land northward and the land southward may still pass through the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Virtually all LDS Mesoamericanists who treat the Book of Mormon believe the Coatzacoalcos River was an important boundary on the Gulf of Campeche. Limhi's exploring party could still have traveled through the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The text never says those 43 intrepid men passed through the narrow (small) neck of land. It only says they made it from the land of Nephi to the land of Cumorah and back again. Conjecture on the part of many that the narrow (small) neck of land is an isthmus and therefore all land movement between the lands northward and southward must have passed through it is not supported in the text. The narrow (small) neck of land is a coastal feature Ether 10:20 associated with one and only one sea, the west sea Alma 22:32, Alma 63:5 which means it is a narrow peninsula. See the article "Red Herrings."

Our correlate for the narrow (small) neck of land could hardly fit the text and its Early Modern English sense of meaning more precisely. Barra San Marcos is a long, slender peninsula separated from the mainland by a series of coastal lagoons.

Barra San Marcos & Environs near Tonala, Chiapas

The text uses the similar word "betwixt" 6 times, sometimes as a synonym for the Book of Mormon usage of "between" and other times with unique meanings. This is precisely what we would expect from the OED senses of meaning for the archaic "betwixt."
2 Nephi 15:3 inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge I pray you betwixt me and my vineyard (citing Isaiah 5:3). This is a parable where the house of Israel is compared with a well-tended vineyard 2 Nephi 15:7 whose master, Jehovah, has done everything necessary to bring forth good fruit 2 Nephi 15:4. The Israelites themselves have willingly embraced sin and corruption to such an extent Jehovah has decided to destroy them 2 Nephi 15:5-6. As a witness that His harsh judgement is just, Jehovah asks the Israelites themselves to decide whether the master of the vineyard (me) or the people (my vineyard) caused the bad fruit leading to destruction. This self-evaluation is what David did unwittingly when the prophet Nathan told him the parable of the ewe-lamb (2 Samuel 12:1-5). Sinners thus condemn themselves as in Job 15:6 and Luke 19:22. In 2 Nephi 15:3 inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah A must judge betwixt Jehovah B and Jehovah's vineyard C. In this case, A & C are analogues while B is exceptional. This is a very different pattern than we saw with the word "between" above, but this usage of "betwixt" is attested in Early Modern English.

"To arbytrate, deme, and judge betwixt the said Citie and ... John Wayte." Selections from the records of the City of Oxford 1556. In this case the judicial authority A and the city B are parallel while the individual John Wayte C is of a different order.

Mosiah 15:9 standing betwixt them [the children of men] and justice. The Savior is our intercessor, satisfying the demands of justice on our behalf. This pattern has no parallel elements. Jesus Christ A, mortals B and eternal justice C are three very different entities with the Redeemer as mediator. This usage of "betwixt" to show a relationship between divinity, humanity and a concept is attested in Early Modern English.

"Upon the near affinity which Pythagoras...conceived to be betwixt the gods and numbers..." Thomas Stanley, The history of philosophy 1650. Here we have a human A perceiving a relationship between the gods B and impressive mathematical precision C.

Alma 35:13 a war betwixt the Lamanites and the Nephites. In this verse "betwixt" shows the familiar relationship we saw above for "between." War A is adjacent to yet separate from the twin nations Lamanites B and Nephites C.

Alma 40:6 a space betwixt the time of death and the time of the resurrection.. Again, this  usage follows the familiar form we observed with the word "between" above. Alma 40:9 and Alma 40:21 show that "betwixt" and "between" are functionally equivalent in this context.

3 Nephi 3:23 the line which was betwixt the land Bountiful and the land Desolation. This phrase is from the Yale edition. The 1981 and 2013 LDS editions use the word "between." This is the same line referenced in Alma 22:32 which Royal Skousen in the Yale edition renders "the line between the land Bountiful and the land Desolation." The line A is a political or ecological boundary between the related lands Bountiful B and Desolation C. This is another example of synonymity with "betwixt" and "between."

Moroni 9:17 the armies of the Lamanites are betwixt Sherrizah and me.[Mormon]. This pattern of an entity preventing a first person narrator from accessing another entity is attested in Early Modern English.

"This screene, that stands betwixt me and the fire..." Bishop Joseph Hall, Occasionall meditations, 1633.

3 of the instances of "betwixt" are used precisely as the Book of Mormon uses "between." This is typical of Early Modern English when, according to the OED, the two words were often used interchangeably. The other 3 instances of "betwixt" have usage patterns very different from the Book of Mormon standard for "between." All 3 patterns unique to the word "betwixt" are attested in Early Modern English.

Article updated March 26, 2016.

OED on Waters

This article explores the Book of Mormon text and the Oxford English Dictionary to shed light on the phrases "waters of Sidon," "waters of Sebus," "waters of Mormon," "waters of Ripliancum," etc. The text is unambiguous on Sidon - it is a large river Alma 2:34 that empties into the ocean Alma 3:3. Are the waters of Mormon also a river? Comparing Alma 4:4 with Alma 5:3 it is clear Alma₂ was consciously mirroring his father's actions of the previous generation.

These unique phrases [meaning in brackets] occur in the text listed in order of first attestation.

• 1 Nephi heading: the large waters [ocean]
• 1 Nephi 2:9 the waters of the river [Laman]
• 1 Nephi 4:2 the waters of the Red Sea [ocean]
• 1 Nephi 11:25 the fountain of living waters [Christ]
• 1 Nephi 11:25 which waters  [Christ]
• 1 Nephi 13:10 many waters [Irreantum in 1 Nephi 17:5 ocean]
• 1 Nephi 13:12 the many waters [ocean]
• 1 Nephi 13:17 the waters [ocean]
• 1 Nephi 17:8 these waters [ocean]
• 1 Nephi 17:17 these great waters [ocean]
• 1 Nephi 20:1 the waters of Judah ["the waters of baptism" is not original, so has been removed in the Yale edition of the text, citing Isaiah 48:1. Most Biblical commentators interpret the "waters of Judah" as the progeny or the house of Judah citing Numbers 24:6,7; Deuteronomy 8:7; Deuteronomy 33:28; Psalms 68:26. Judah represented the entire house of Israel after the Assyrian destruction of the northern kingdom]
• 1 Nephi 20:21 the waters [flowing stream]
• 2 Nephi 4:20 the waters of the great deep [ocean]
• 2 Nephi 7:2 the waters [rivers]
• 2 Nephi 9:50 the waters [Christ, citing Isaigh 55:1]
• 2 Nephi 18:6 the waters of Shiloah [gentle brook symbolizing righteous governance citing Isaiah 8:6]
• 2 Nephi 18:7 the waters of the river [Assyrian army symbolized by a raging torrent citing Isaiah 8:7]
• Omni 1:16 the great waters [ocean]
• Mosiah 8:8 many waters [ambiguous, land of Ramah - Cumorah]
• Mosiah 18:8 the waters of Mormon [ambiguous, near the local lands of Nephi & Shilom]
• Alma 2:34 the waters of Sidon [river]
• Alma 5:34 the waters of life [Christ]
• Alma 7:15 the waters of baptism [Christian ordinance]
• Alma 17:26 the waters of Sebus [ambiguous, the Yale edition correctly changes the 1980 edition "water" to the plural "waters" to conform with the other 5 instances of this phrase]
• 3 Nephi 9:7 waters [ambiguous]
• 3 Nephi 22:9 the waters of Noah [universal flood]
• Mormon 6:4 many waters, rivers and fountains [ambiguous]
• Ether 2:2 the waters [ambiguous]
• Ether 15:8 the waters of Ripliancum [ambiguous, large or to exceed all]
• Ether 15:8 these waters [ambiguous, Ripliancum]

These passages show the pervasive Book of Mormon characteristic of duality. Waters are either associated with life, peace, righteousness and deliverance or they connote death, peril, sin and captivity. All of these ideas are found commingled in the single verse 1 Nephi 4:2.

All unambiguous passages refer to either a) a salt water ocean b) a flowing stream or c) symbolic spirituality, life and healing. The OED confirms that during the Early Modern English era (see the blog article "Early Modern English") "waters" plural referred either to a) water moving in waves [the ocean], b) flowing water [rivers] or c) healing water from medicinal, thermal or therapeutic springs. In this case, the OED strikingly corroborates what we find in the text.

"Thy waye was in the see, and thy pathes in the great waters." Coverdale Bible, 1535. cf. Psalms 77:19 and Isaiah 43:16.

"the Waters of the Danube swelled so high as to break down the Bridge which the Enemy had made." Johann Peter Von Valcaren, A relation or diary of the siege of Vienna, 1684.

"Of whote bathes. Some waters that are generated and flowe out of vaynes of brymstone, are sensybly warme, and some very whott...These waters also being drying by nature, are wholsome for many infyrmities." William Fulke, A goodly gallerye with a most plesaunt prospect, 1563.

So, evidence from the text and the OED suggests the waters of Mormon, Sebus and Ripliancum are all streams or rivers as in Joshua 3:13. Fountains are generally considered springs as in Deuteronomy 8:7. The fountain mentioned in Mosiah 18:5 is almost certainly a spring feeding a flowing stream. Trees grow along stream beds as in Numbers 24:6 which explains the thicket near the water in Mosiah 18:5. The fountain/tree connection was part of the Nephite worldview 1 Nephi 11:25. The image of waters that flow and gush associated with the actions of a prophet is attested in the text 1 Nephi 20:21 citing Isaiah 48:21. River Jordan was the quintessential baptistery in the New Testament Matthew 3:6, Mark 1:5. The most noted baptistery in the Book of Mormon is probably a flowing stream as well. In the land of Zarahemla, Alma₁ probably baptized in the river Sidon as his son did decades later Alma 4:4. Alma₁'s baptisms in Zarahemla were expressly "after the manner" of his iconic baptisms earlier in the waters of Mormon Mosiah 25:18.

Most LDS Mesoamericanists who deal with the Book of Mormon correlate the waters of Ripliancum with the extensive wetlands at the mouth of the Papaloapan River in Veracruz. Our analysis confirms this correlation as highly likely. In the image below, the Usumacinta system is in red, the Grijalva (with all of its distributaries from Book of Mormon times to the present) is in blue, and all other rivers are in yellow.

Papaloapan Drainage Basin in Mexico

The Papaloapan creates the second largest wetlands in Mexico, eclipsed only by the Usumacinta in Tabasco. Driving along Mexican Highway 180 from Veracruz through Alvarado and on to San Andres Tuxtla you pass 30 kilometers of open inland water and many more kilometers of marshlands and small lagoons. The description "large, or to exceed all" Ether 15:8 seems apt in this unusually well-watered area. This is a photo of the mouth of the Papaloapan taken in September, 2006. The river extends almost to the horizon in every direction.

Mouth of the  Papaloapan. Photo by Kirk Magleby, September, 2006

Mosiah 8:8 describes Ramah-Cumorah as a "land among many waters." Most LDS Mesoamericanists who include the Book of Mormon in their professional work correlate Ramah-Cumorah with the Tuxtla Mountains in southern Veracruz. Our analysis supports this correlation. This Google Earth image shows the Tuxtla Mountain region with watercourses. The yellow paths are rivers we have visually plotted in Google Earth (a very time consuming process). The black paths are calculated riverbeds derived from NASA satellite imagery elevation data.

Stream Flows in and around the Tuxtla Mountains

This area includes rivers tributary to both the Coatzacoalcos to the southeast and the Papaloapan to the northwest. At least 13 other sizable streams flow to the Gulf of Mexico from the slopes of the Tuxtla Mountains. Lake Catemaco is a prominent and beautiful water feature in this area, but the Nephite historians almost certainly had the many rivers in mind when they engraved the words that became the English "land among many waters." As we saw earlier with the general term "waters," the OED sense of meaning for the phrase "many waters" in the Early Modern English era was either flowing water or the ocean.

"It sounded...as it hadde bene the flushynge noyse of many waters." John Bale, The image of bothe churches, 1548 (estimated date)

"...the Lord, that is on high, is more of might by far than noise of many waters is, or great sea-billows are." Scotch Psalms, 1650 cf. Psalms 93:4.

"As the voyce off many waters, and as the voyce off stronge thondrynges." Tyndale Bible, 1526

  

We know the "waters of Sidon" refers to a large river. The "waters of Ripliancum" probably refers to a large river. The "many waters" in land Ramah-Cumorah probably refer to multiple rivers. This makes it likely the "waters of Mormon" refers to a flowing stream of water since as Royal Skousen frequently reminds us, the original text is very consistent in its usage patterns (See the Editor's Preface to the Yale Edition, page xxxix). In the 1981 LDS edition, Mosiah 18:8 reads "here are the waters of Mormon" which in modern English could potentially refer to any body of water. The Yale edition restores this phrase to its original "here is the waters of Mormon" which in Early Modern English implied a flowing stream.

OED on Rivers

Using the Oxford English Dictionary, we will shed some lexical light on the river Sidon and its head, paying particular attention to Early Modern English (see the blog article by that name) senses of meaning. The proper name Sidon occurs 37 times in the text in the following constructs. Scriptural references document first attestation.

• (the hill Amnihu) east of the river Sidon Alma 2:15
• (the hill) east of Sidon Alma 2:17
• the river Sidon Alma 2:27
• the west of the river Sidon Alma 2:34
• the waters of Sidon Alma 2:34
• the west side of the river Sidon Alma 2:34
• the bank of the river Sidon Alma 3:3
• the east of the river Sidon Alma 6:7
• the east side of the river Sidon Alma 16:7
• the head of the river Sidon Alma 22:27
• the other side of the river Sidon Alma 43:41
• the bank by the river Sidon Alma 43:51
• the head of Sidon Alma 56:25

Relative Size
Naming conventions for flowing water in North America were largely established in the 1600's, the Early Modern English era. In North America the following order of watercourse size is common:

• A brook has no tributaries. You step over a brook. Many brooks are seasonal. A brook can be called a "very small stream."
• A creek is formed by the confluence of multiple brooks. You jump over a creek. A creek is often called a "small stream."
• A stream is formed by the confluence of multiple creeks. You wade across a stream.
• A river is formed by the confluence of many streams. At the point of confluence where a river is born, these tributaries are called head-streams. A river's largest head-stream is called its main head-stream or main-stem, which may or may not be its largest tributary depending on what enters the channel downstream. At a ford, you may be able to wade across a river at low water, but generally you swim or float across it. Most rivers flow year-round. A river is generally described with augmentative adjectives (large, wide, deep) and seldom in diminutive terms (small, narrow, shallow). The confluence of two (or occasionally three) rivers creates a third (or occasionally fourth) river. 
• A seaway is a large river with a channel deep enough for ocean-going ship traffic.

Other regional terms include branch, burn, fork, kill (from the Middle Dutch "kille"), race, run and wash. Bayou, slough and swamp generally describe a marshy area of slow moving water. In Britain the word "creek" denotes a tidal inlet. "Stream" is also a generic term referring to any flow of liquid or gas regardless of size.

Much of North America was originally surveyed using a 100 link chain 66 feet long. 1/4 chain = 1 rod. 10 chains = 1 furlong. 80 chains = 1 mile. When surveyors cane to a watercourse wider than 1 chain they usually called it a river. Names became politicized due to property rights. In many U.S. states the bottom of a river is public property while a brook, creek or stream may be privately owned. This led to some re-naming to benefit large land owners, particularly timber interests.

"A gret rywer he gert him pas." John Barbour, Bruce, 1380 printed in 1489.
"Wheare did run a rever, so bige and stifly...that we durste not adventur to rid over it." Thomas Dallam, Diary, 1599.

This means the river Sidon is almost certainly a large stream with many upstream tributaries.

Our correlation for the river Sidon is the Chixoy/Salinas/Usumacinta, the largest river in Mesoamerica. The Chixoy-Negro (average width 140 meters) is its main head-stream. It has a vast network of upstream (and downstream) tributaries.

Usumacinta River with Tributaries

Directionality
Local meanders or great bends notwithstanding, a river in the Early Modern English era generally flowed in one principal direction. A river that veered off in another direction was usually given a new name. For example, at Fairmont, West Virginia the West Fork River and the Tygart Valley (East Fork) River come together to form the Monongahela which flows north for 210 kilometers to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. East of Coudersport in north central, Pennsylvania the Allegheny is formed from the confluence of several streams. After a great bend into southern New York, the Allegheny flows generally south southwest for 523 kilometers to Pittsburgh. The Allegheny (the main head-stream) and the Monongahela come together at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio which flows generally west southwest for 1,579 kilometers before it joins the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. The Ohio is the principal tributary of the Mississippi. At Cairo, the Ohio carries almost a third more water than the Mississippi. Since the Mississippi follows its general southerly course, though, its name continues downstream.

"And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria." Bible King James Version Genesis 2:14.

This means river Sidon probably flows in a generally consistent direction throughout its length. We know from textual analysis the river Sidon flows generally south to north. See the blog article "River Sidon South to North."

Our correlation for the river Sidon, the Chixoy/Salinas/Usumacinta begins at the point where the east-flowing Chixoy-Negro turns north. From this point, the Usumacinta system flows generally 28 degrees west of north.

Usumacinta River System Flowing South to North

Head of a River
In the Early Modern English era, the head of a river was the point of confluence where streams came together with enough water flow to form a river, or the point of confluence where two rivers came together and formed a third. This head of a river is a very different thing than the modern concept of headwaters (aka ultimate headwaters) or the most distant source of a river. Geographers and explorers compete to locate the ultimate sources of major rivers using modern technology, while the heads of those rivers have generally been well-known for centuries. The head of the Amazon is the confluence of the Marañon with the Ucayali about 130 river kilometers upstream from Iquitos, Peru. The headwaters of the Amazon (not established until 1996) lie more than 3,000 river kilometers upstream in the melting glaciers of Nevado Mismi in Arequipa Province, Peru.   The head of the Ohio is Point State Park in Pittsburgh. The headwaters of the Ohio are nearly 600 river kilometers upstream in Potter County, Pennsylvania. The head of the Mississippi is Lake Itasca in Clearwater County, Minnesota. The headwaters of the Mississippi are over 1,200 air kilometers away where the most distant source of the Missouri (Hell Roaring Creek) begins at Brower's Spring southwest of West Yellowstone, Montana. Basically, the head of a river is the point at which the name begins while the headwaters are the origin of the longest stream channel from source to mouth.

"As the River leadeth thee to his head; shall not the head lead thee to the originall spring thereof?" Philippe de Mornay translated by Sir Philip Sidney and Arthur Golding, A woorke concerning the trewnesse of the christian religion, (London: John Charlewood and George Robinson for Thomas Cadman, 1587)

This means the head of the river Sidon is almost certainly the confluence of upstream watercourses and not headwaters.

Our correlation for the head of the river Sidon (following V. Garth Norman) is the confluence of the northwest-flowing Salama with the east-flowing Chixoy-Negro. This is the same point geographers identify as the head of the Chixoy.

Head of the Chixoy

A river can also spawn downstream distributaries, each with a head. This is the sense of Genesis 2:10.

Word Order
The Book of Mormon always refers to "river Sidon" rather than "Sidon River." This is consistent  with Early Modern English and modern British usage.

"Beyond the riuer Ganges...the people are caught with the Sun, and begin to be blackish." Pliny translated by Philemon Holland, The historie of the world, (London: A. Islip, 1601)
"Rowed up the River Mississippi, in a Canot." Philosophical transactions, (London: Royal Society of London) Vol. 15, 1685

This is another of the many indications that the Lord's target language for the 1830 Book of Mormon text was Early Modern English rather than Jacksonian American English.

Waters
The Book of Mormon uses the phrase "waters of Sidon" eight times. This construct is attested in Early Modern English.

"Passaw, Lyntz, and other places adjoining to the waters of Enus and Danubius." Thomas Cranmer, Letter 20 Oct., 1532
"The extent thereof...and the waters of Medway, all which extent is under the jurisdiction and conservancy of the Lord Mayor..." James Howell, Londinopolis, 1657

See the article "Strahler Stream Order" for additional information about rivers germane to this discussion.

A Book of Mormon Trifecta

If the Book of Mormon geography problem is solved in this generation as I believe it will be, these three resources will prove pivotal:

1. The 2009 Yale edition of the text edited by Royal Skousen. Based on the best scholarship currently available, this is as close as we can come to the words that fell from the lips of the prophet as he dictated to his scribes in the moment of translation. The Lord's target language was Early Modern English (A.D. 1470 - 1700+) and the translation process was largely controlled by a higher power. See the blog article "Early Modern English." We can take this text at face value, read with precision and ferret meaning from every word. This is our tool for textual analysis.  
2. The Oxford English Dictionary. The OED, in process since 1857, is the ultimate authority on English. It can help us grasp the nuanced meanings of words and phrases as they were understood in the time of Shakespeare and the King James Bible. This is  our tool for lexical analysis. The combination of the Yale edition and the OED are still subject to interpretive assumptions. To understand our assumptions, see the blog articles "Plainness" and "Some Questions and a Rule."
3. Google Earth. World's most widely-used geographic information system can quickly prove or disprove hypotheses. Is point A higher in elevation than point B? Is B east of A? How many air kilometers separate A from B? Where are the mountains? rivers? swamps? dense foliage? How high is the tree canopy? Are known mineral reserves nearby? Does an area exhibit wilderness characteristics? Where are the known archaeological sites in the area? How many square kilometers are in a tract of land? How many people live in the area today? What routes do the modern roads and railroads follow? These and dozens of similar questions can be answered with specialized data sets rendered in Google Earth. Then, as a model begins to come together, Google Earth is an ideal repository because most Book of Mormon students on the planet can access it with minimal effort and expense. This is our tool for spatial analysis.

Our tool for chronological analysis, admittedly crude, is the timeline published in the 1980 and 2013 LDS editions of the text. We are aware of the excellent work being done by Randall P. Spackman ("The Jewish/Nephite Lunar Calendar" in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 7/1, 1998) but have not yet incorporated it into our research methodology. Our tools for cultural analysis include such important works as John L. Sorenson's Mormon's Codex: An Ancient American Book (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2013).

The 2009 Yale edition hardbound costs $30 - $40 and a Kindle edition is available. The OED online edition costs $295 per year for an individual subscription in the US and Canada. Many libraries and academic institutions subscribe. Google Earth is free to download on Linux, Windows and Mac. The Google Earth Pro edition costs $399 per year for a single user license. The free version has 95% of the functionality in the paid version and will be adequate for almost all students of the Nephite text.

Using all three resources extensively, we have analyzed a key feature in Nephite, Lamanite and Jaredite geography, the narrow (small) neck of land, from a variety of perspectives. A precis of this analysis illustrates the way the Book of Mormon trifecta can facilitate clear, definitive correlations based on data-driven, reproducible results. 

• Since many people correlate the Isthmus of Tehuantepec with the narrow (small) neck, we used Google Earth and Microsoft Excel to list 53 well-known isthmuses in ascending order by width. Tehuantepec, at 216 km, is the widest isthmus in our sample set and may be the widest on earth. It is 10X the width of the mean and 73X the width of the median of our sample. As isthmuses go, Tehuantepec is huge, even gigantic. Its surface area (as defined by geographers) is 57,629 square kilometers which is nearly 3X the size of the modern nation of Israel. Correlating it with the diminutive language in the text (narrow, small) is ludicrous. See the blog article "Isthmuses."
• Reading the text closely, we identified 17 occurrences of the word "narrow," 10 occurrences of the allied word "strait," and 50 occurrences of the word "small." Analyzing all passages containing these 77 occurrences, we deduced a reasonable upper limit for the width of the things being described. This included a preliminary look at 15 land forms in 6 different countries with the word "neck" in their name. Our results from this textual and spatial analysis: to be either "narrow" or "small" in Book of Mormon parlance a geographic feature will probably not exceed 5 km in width with 20 km the extreme upper limit of plausibility. See the blog article "Narrow and Small Things."
• We then analyzed all occurrences of the word "neck" in the text and discovered an interesting passage (2 Nephi 18:8) where this word is used in a geographic context. Exegesis on this passage led us to conclude the Isaiah neck would not have exceeded 5 km in width and was probably closer to 2 km. See the blog article "Another Geographic Neck."
• Immersing ourselves in the text, we identified 15 criteria any candidate narrow (small) neck must satisfy. Key findings: a) Orientation is generally southward to northward, b) The neck fronts one and only one sea - the west sea. c) The neck is near the east-west Bountiful/Desolation line that rises in the east and terminates at the west sea. d) The east-west line is situated in a place where the topography aids defense and can help a standing army control hostile southward-northward movement. e) The east-west line is on the order of 22.5 km in length according to our derivation of the standard Nephite unit of distance measure documented in the blog article "Land Southward Travel Times," f) The neck is near a harbor suitable for berthing and launching ocean-going vessels. g) The neck is near an important Olmec (Jaredite) archaeological site. h) The neck is near an inlet of the ocean or an outlet (mouth) where an inland saltwater lagoon breaches the coastal sandbar. i) Southward from the narrow neck is terrain suitable for a game preserve. j) The width of the neck does not exceed 5 - 20 km. Using Google Earth we then showed how our candidate for the narrow (small) neck, the Barra San Marcos running along the Pacific coast of Chiapas, fits all 15 criteria comfortably. See the blog article "The Narrow (Small) Neck of Land."
• Further close reading of the text led us to the conclusion that other significant Book of Mormon geographic features lay in close proximity to the neck.. These include a) the narrow pass, b) the narrow passage, and c) the east-west defensive line described in Helaman 4:7. We identified 16 textual criteria the narrow pass must satisfy, non enumerated criteria the narrow passage must satisfy, and 3 criteria the fortified line must satisfy. Using Google Earth we then showed how our candidates for these 3 geographic features fit all criteria clearly and precisely. See the blog article "The Narrow Pass and Narrow Passage." With this analysis complete, we had identified an ecosystem of 16 geographic features from the text, all in the immediate vicinity of the narrow (small) neck of land. There were enough intersecting and mutually reinforcing lines of reasoning supporting our correlations we felt comfortable in April, 2013 claiming a 90% confidence level in this portion of our map. See the blog article "Plainness." That confidence level has since risen as we have pursued additional lines of inquiry.
• After a visit to Sant-Malo, France, we were convinced our analysis in blog article "The Narrow Pass and Narrow Passage" point 12 was solid (pun intended.) The use of granite as a defensive architectural building material affords a logical explanation for the otherwise enigmatic passage in Mormon 4:4. See the blog article "French Connection" point 6.   
• As soon as a second witness (Stanford Carmack) corroborated Royal Skousen's conclusions about Elizabethan, Jacobean and Caroline English and tight control over the translation process (see the blog article "Early Modern English") we felt impressed to focus attention on the 1500's and 1600's. Using Google Earth, Microsoft Excel and a few historical records, we came up with an alphabetized list of 115 necks of land from the English colonial era whose names persist on modern maps. We ventured into Australia and New Zealand for a few examples actually called "narrow neck." This was a major expansion and refinement of the research we published in November, 2012 under the title "Narrow and Small Things." How many necks of land are there along the eastern seaboard of North America? Hundreds. Our sample set of 115 is comprehensive but by no means exhaustive. Important things we learned about necks of land named in the Early Modern English era: a) They averaged 2.0 kilometers in width. Barra San Marcos is 2.0 km wide. b) They were almost all (98%) peninsulas rather than isthmuses. Barra San Marcos is a peninsula. c) Most of them (87%) fronted salt water and/or estuaries. Barra San Marcos fronts estuarial waters on one side and open ocean on the other. We illustrated 8 example necks from our sample set of long, slender coastal sandbars similar to Barra San Marcos. See the blog article "Necks of Land."
• Having some experience with languages other than English, we were curious how LDS translators had rendered Alma 22:32, Alma 63:5 and Ether 10:20 in various romance languages. This is important because the way a language commonly describes a particular land form tells us salient things about the land form itself. We found 6 "tongues" of land, 5 "strips" and 1 "isthmus." See the blog article "Romance Languages." These expressions lend support to our notion of a slender, peninsular land form.
• Finally, we immersed ourselves in the OED to understand Early Modern English senses of words and phrases such as "narrow," "small neck," and "led into." See the blog article "OED on Necks of Land." Some key findings: a) Something "narrow" has a length considerably larger than its width or breadth. This corroborates Barra San Marcos, but disqualifies the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. b) In 1676, Englishmen along the coast of Tabasco used the term "small neck of land" to describe the long, slender sandbar Barra del Panteon which fronts the open ocean on one side and a network of saltwater lagoons on the other. The correspondences with Barra San Marcos, 270 air kilometers distant, could hardly be more striking. c) The Early Modern English sense of the word "between" came from "by twin" meaning an independent entity C adjunct to but not integral with A and B, both of whom share significant commonalities. From this we conclude the narrow (small) neck of land was not a seamless continuation of either the land southward or the land northward, but another kind of land form entirely, aligned with the other two. In this sense, Barra San Marcos fits perfectly while the Isthmus of Tehuantepec fails utterly. d) The sense of the phrase "led into" which occurs 4 times in the text associated with 3 different geographic features is a distinctive, independent entity in communication with another entity like a gate to a garden or a path to a forest. Again, Barra San Marcos fits this sense of meaning in contrast with the Isthmus of Tehuantepec which clearly does not. Furthermore, the directionality of the narrow neck, pass and passage specified in the text is a striking corroboration of our correlation.

With the convergence of all these streams of evidence, we are now 98% confident our correlation of the narrow (small) neck of land with Barra San Marcos along the Pacific coast of Chiapas is correct. Ric Hauck and Joe Andersen have been trying to get us to pay attention to this area around Tonala, Chiapas since at least the 1980's (See F. Richard Hauck, Deciphering the Geography of the Book of Mormon, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1988. 98% is as far as we are willing to go right now because archaeological excavation will always have the last word. We are also 98% confident that the Usumacinta is river Sidon, the Caribbean is sea east, and the Pacific is sea west.

We believe this methodology - mining the Yale edition, OED and Google Earth for meaning - will eventually result in a working consensus on Book of Mormon New World geographic correlations through the same proven iterative process of reproducible results that drives science generally. Most of the historical disagreements among LDS Mesoamericanists stem from these four questions:

1. What does the text say and what does it not say? The Yale edition solves this problem. It provides a de facto standard for scholarly inquiry.
2. What do the words in the text mean? Now that we know we are dealing with Early Modern English, careful reading in the OED pretty much solves this problem.
3. Does a particular geographic feature fit the text? With appropriate data sets, Google Earth can tell us yes or no quite quickly.
4. Do ancient cultural resources fit the text? This data will remain forever tentative because of the dynamic nature of Mesoamerican scholarship. Significant new archaeological fieldwork will be required to advance the state of this art. 

The methodology described above will facilitate consensus on questions 1 - 3. Question 4 remains open to interpretation as new discoveries continually enhance our understanding of the ancient cultures in our area of interest.