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Book of Mormon/Geography/Location of Zarahemla
< Book of Mormon | Geography
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Contents
Did Joseph Smith place the location of Zarahemla near Nauvoo, Illinois?
Claim
- It is claimed that the location of the city of Zarahemla was provided to Joseph Smith through revelation and that it was located on the Mississippi River opposite where Nauvoo is located today.
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here
==Answer
==
General authorities have indicated that no one knows the location of Zarahemla.
Detailed Analysis
In 1929, Anthony W. Ivins, member of the First Presidency, said in General Conference:
There is a great deal of talk about the geography of the Book of Mormon. Where was the land of Zarahemla? Where was the City of Zarahemla? and other geographic matters. It does not make any difference to us. There has never been anything yet set forth that definitely settles that question. So the Church says we are just waiting until we discover the truth. All kinds of theories have been advanced. I have talked with at least half a dozen men that have found the very place where the City of Zarahemla stood, and notwithstanding the fact that they profess to be Book of Mormon students, they vary a thousand miles apart in the places they have located. We do not offer any definite solution. As you study the Book of Mormon keep these things in mind and do not make definite statements concerning things that have not been proven in advance to be true.[1]
Harold B. Lee also did not show any awareness that the location of Zarahemla had been revealed through Joseph Smith:
Some say the Hill Cumorah was in southern Mexico (and someone pushed it down still farther) and not in western New York. Well, if the Lord wanted us to know where it was, or where Zarahemla was, he'd have given us latitude and longitude, don't you think? And why bother our heads trying to discover with archaeological certainty the geographical locations of the cities of the Book of Mormon like Zarahemla?[2]
Notes
- ↑ {CR1|author=Anthony W. Ivins|date=April 1929|start=16}}
- ↑ Harold B. Lee, "Loyalty," address to religious educators, July 8, 1966, Charge to Religious Educators, second edition (Salt Lake City: Church Educational System and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1982), 65, cited in Dennis B. Horne (ed.), Determining Doctrine: A Reference Guide for Evaluation Doctrinal Truth (Roy, Utah: Eborn Books, 2005), 172–173.