Analyzing Ether 10:19-21---the “great city” and “the place where the sea divides the land”

[BookofMormonArchaeologicalForum]

Analyzing Ether 10:19-21—the “great city” and “the place where the sea
divides the land”

Until about the middle of the twentieth century, the scholarly world
of archaeologists maintained that the Maya were the “mother culture”
of the Americas. However, after an archaeological conference in Mexico
City in 1941, Mesoamerican archaeologists began recognizing that the
so-called “Olmecs” are the mother culture of the Americas. Their
geographic “heartland” was located in the Mexico states of Veracruz
and Tabasco in the crescent-shaped territory adjoining the Gulf of
Mexico. That territory is bisected by the northern half of the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec.

Perhaps no archaeological evidences from the New World support the
veracity of the Book of Mormon more than the archaeological
discoveries associated with the Olmecs. The evidences are so strong
that most Book of Mormon scholars today believe that the Mesoamerica
Olmec civilization and the Book of Mormon Jaredite civilization are
one and the same.

When Moroni abridged the twenty-four gold plates containing a record
of the Jaredites, he said that the Jaredites “built a great city by
the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the
land” (Ether 10:20). Most Book of Mormon scholars today propose that
the narrow neck of land alluded to by Moroni is the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec in Mexico.

If that proposal is correct, readers of the Book of Mormon might
naturally want to know the location of the “great city” and “the place
where the sea divides the land,” both of which must be located in near
proximity to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec/narrow neck of land. Scholarly
opinions, however, differ on the locations of these geographic
features.

Click on http://www.bmaf.org/node/405 for an article about the “great
city” and “the place where the sea divides the land.” This article,
“Analyzing ‘The Place Where the Sea Divides the Land’ and the ‘Great
City’ of the Jaredites,” contains the latest research about these
geographic pointers of Ether 10:20.

Archaeological evidences from Mesoamerica continue to accumulate in
verifying that the Olmecs and the Jaredites are the same people. If
the Book of Mormon is indeed a real account about real people who
lived in the New World, the Olmec archaeological evidences from
Mesoamerica should give positive evidence in support of the Book of
Mormon. That is, at some point, we should be able to “marry”
Mesoamerican Olmec archaeological evidences with Book of Mormon
Jaredite information. Potential possibilities for that outcome might
be found in connection with Ether 10:19–21. We invite you to click on
the link above to read the results of our research. And we invite you
to communicate with us if you have comments or questions.

Ted Dee Stoddard (tms...@comcast.net)
Lawrence L. Poulsen (pou...@mail.utexas.edu)
BMAF (bmaf...@gmail.com)

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