Zarahemla
Encyclopedia
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
. The Book of Mormon is revered by members of various Latter Day Saint churches
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
as sacred scripture.
Some LDS speculate that the name “Zarahemla” is a compound Biblical Hebrew name זֶרַע חֶמְלָה meaning "seed of compassion". Others interpret the name differently.
Some interpret Doctrine & Covenants 125:3 as suggesting that the Book of Mormon’s Zarahemla coincides with an 1841 Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
settlement within the borders of the state of Iowa, west of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. Others point out that LDS scripture does not actually state that the settlement “Zarahemla” was established on the same spot as the notable Book of Mormon city or land. Mormons have similarly given Book of Mormon names to other towns.
Story
According to the Book of Mormon narrative, the NephiteNephite
According to the Book of Mormon, a Nephite is a member of one of the four main groups of settlers of the ancient Americas. The other three groups are the Lamanites, Jaredites and Mulekites. In the Book of Mormon, the Nephites were a group of people descended from or associated with Nephi, the...
Mosiah
King Mosiah I
According to the Book of Mormon, Mosiah I was a Nephite prophet who led the Nephites from the land of Nephi to the land of Zarahemla and was later appointed king. He was the father of King Benjamin, the first of two individuals in the Book of Mormon with that name...
and his followers “discovered that the people of Zarahemla came out from Jerusalem at the time that Zedekiah king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon” (about 587 B.C.) The Book of Mormon relates that the surviving seed of Zedekiah
Zedekiah
Zedekiah or Tzidkiyahu was the last king of Judah before the destruction of the kingdom by Babylon. He was installed as king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, after a siege of Jerusalem to succeed his nephew, Jeconiah, who was overthrown as king after a reign of only three months and...
“journeyed in the wilderness, and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters” to the Western Hemisphere. The book of Omni in the Book of Mormon tells how Zarahemla and his people came to settle the land of Zarahemla in the New World. Mosiah and his refugee people presumably united with the people of Zarahemla sometime between 279 and 130 B.C. “Mosiah was appointed to be their king.” Mosiah thereafter presided in the land of Zarahemla over a people called collectively “the Nephites”. The Land of Zarahemla was the Nephite
Nephite
According to the Book of Mormon, a Nephite is a member of one of the four main groups of settlers of the ancient Americas. The other three groups are the Lamanites, Jaredites and Mulekites. In the Book of Mormon, the Nephites were a group of people descended from or associated with Nephi, the...
capital for many years.
Notable Book of Mormon descendents of the leader Zarahemla include Ammon
Ammon (Book of Mormon)
This article is about the prominent Book of Mormon missionary. For the Book of Mormon explorer, see Ammon Ammon is a missionary in the Mormon religious text, Book of Mormon and a contemporary of Alma the Younger. The Book of Mosiah describes his original antipathy toward the Nephite Church of God...
the venturer and Coriantumr
Coriantumr
In the Book of Mormon, Coriantumr is the name of three figures that appear throughout the book's narrative. Chronologically, these three are: one of the sons of Omer, a deposed Jaredite king later restored to his throne by his sons Esrom and Coriantumr; the last of the Jaredite kings, who lived to...
the dissenter. Ammon led a quest in search of a colony that had left the land of Zarahemla in order to resettle a city named Lehi-Nephi
Lehi-Nephi
In the Book of Mormon, the land of Lehi-Nephi is the homeland of the Nephites in the early times of the Book of Mormon. The land is later conquered by the Lamanites and the remaining Nephites flee to the land of Zarahemla, home of the Mulekites...
. The dissenter Coriantumr
Coriantumr
In the Book of Mormon, Coriantumr is the name of three figures that appear throughout the book's narrative. Chronologically, these three are: one of the sons of Omer, a deposed Jaredite king later restored to his throne by his sons Esrom and Coriantumr; the last of the Jaredite kings, who lived to...
led the Lamanites in battle against the Nephites in the first century B.C.
At some point before Mosiah discovered Zarahemla, the people of Zarahemla had discovered Coriantumr
Coriantumr
In the Book of Mormon, Coriantumr is the name of three figures that appear throughout the book's narrative. Chronologically, these three are: one of the sons of Omer, a deposed Jaredite king later restored to his throne by his sons Esrom and Coriantumr; the last of the Jaredite kings, who lived to...
(not to be confused with the later Nephite dissenter of the same name). According to the Book of Mormon, Coriantumr was the last of a destroyed nation called the Jaredites. Coriantumr stayed with the people of Zarahemla "for the space of nine moons" (Omni
Book of Omni
The Book of Omni is one of the books that make up the Book of Mormon. The book contains only one chapter although it covers more than two centuries of Nephite history ....
1:21) before dying and being buried by them (Ether
Book of Ether
The Book of Ether is one of the books that make up the Book of Mormon. The Book of Ether tells of an ancient people , descendants of Jared and his companions who were led by God to the Americas shortly after the confusion of tongues and the destruction of the Tower of Babel...
13:21).
Benjamin succeeded his father Mosiah as the second Nephite king of Zarahemla. King Benjamin
King Benjamin
According to the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin, son of King Mosiah the first, was the second Nephite king to rule over Zarahemla. An account of his life and teachings are recorded in both the Words of Mormon and the Book of Mosiah...
was victorious in driving Lamanites enemies from the Zarahemla region.
The Book of Mormon indicates that Nephite cites were built of timber. There is no explicit reference in the Book of Mormon to any Nephite city or building made of hewn stone. At the time of the crucifixion of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
, the Book of Mormon records that “there were exceedingly sharp lightnings, such as never had been known in all the land. And the city of Zarahemla did take fire.” The Book of Mormon indicates that “the great city of Zarahemla” was rebuilt sometime in the first century A.D. As his doomed nation retreated northward from their enemies, the 4th century prophet and historian Mormon recorded that Nephite “towns, and villages, and cities were burned with fire.”
Some Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
writers identify the Lamanites with the Mayans. This tradition can be traced back to two early Mormon sources: (1) the exaggerated hemispheric setting for the Book of Mormon promoted by some LDS (e.g. Orson Pratt
Orson Pratt
Orson Pratt, Sr. was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles...
), and (2) the later influence of John Lloyd Stephens
John Lloyd Stephens
John Lloyd Stephens was an American explorer, writer, and diplomat. Stephens was a pivotal figure in the rediscovery of Maya civilization throughout Middle America and in the planning of the Panama railroad....
’ 1841 bestseller, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. Other LDS emphasize the unmistakable connection made in LDS scripture between peoples identified as “Lamanites”, and North American tribes of the Great Lakes region, including the mound builder (people). The Book of Mormon does not indicate that the city of Zarahemla survived to be occupied by Lamanites after the destruction of the Nephite nation.
Local setting
The Book of Mormon consistently describes the land of Zarahemla and its adjoining lands as localized. The name of only one "river" is given in the New World Book of Mormon setting. The northward flowing river Sidon, east of the city of Zarahemla, is described as originating in highlands to the southeast. According to the Book of Mormon, the river Sidon ultimately flows into a “sea”. The river Sidon is never mentioned in lands north of Zarahemla. Identifying the fishery river SidonSidon
Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...
is crucial to locating the land of Zarahemla. The Book of Mormon does not indicate that the river Sidon
River Sidon
The River Sidon is the only river mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon. It was near the city of Zarahemla. There were several battles fought in and around this river. These include the battle between Captain Moroni and the Lamanite leader Zarahemna. This battle was ostensibly fought near the...
was an impressively large or mighty river. In Book of Mormon antiquity, the river Sidon was shallow enough to cross on foot, yet deep and swift enough to carry away semi-buoyant human carcasses.
The borderline between the lands of “Bountiful” and “Desolation” (north of the land of Zarahemla) is described as “only the distance of a day and a half’s journey” from east to west. The Book of Mormon narrative consistently uses “up” and “down” in describing relative elevation differences between its proximal lands. The lands of Desolation, Bountiful, Zarahemla and Nephi are so localized that, elevation steadily rises as one travels southward from the land of Desolation, up to the wilderness of Bountiful
Bountiful (Book of Mormon)
Bountiful is the name of two places described in the Book of Mormon, a religious narrative dictated in 1829 by Joseph Smith, Jr. The first location is set in the Old World near Jerusalem, and the second location is set somewhere in the Americas...
., and from there, further south through the land of Zarahemla to the land of Nephi
Lehi-Nephi
In the Book of Mormon, the land of Lehi-Nephi is the homeland of the Nephites in the early times of the Book of Mormon. The land is later conquered by the Lamanites and the remaining Nephites flee to the land of Zarahemla, home of the Mulekites...
. According to the Book of Mormon, a journey from the southern land of Nephi “down” to the land of Zarahemla could be covered on foot in under 21 days.
The book of Alma in the Book of Mormon describes the lands of Zarahemla and Nephi as flanked on the east and on the west by bodies of water called seas. Curiously, the term “lake” is never used in the Book of Mormon to describe a body of water. The use of the word “sea” in the Book of Mormon and in the Bible does not mean Ocean in every instance. One Book of Mormon verse definitely refers to an inland body of water, as a “sea”. The Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
, Sea of Galilee
Sea of Galilee
The Sea of Galilee, also Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret, or Lake Tiberias , is the largest freshwater lake in Israel, and it is approximately in circumference, about long, and wide. The lake has a total area of , and a maximum depth of approximately 43 m...
and Dead Sea
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
are essentially inland bodies of water bordering the land of Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
. More than one author recognizes a parallel between New World seas mentioned in the Book of Mormon and the seas bordering the Promised Land
Promised land
The Promised Land is a term used to describe the land promised or given by God, according to the Hebrew Bible, to the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. The promise is firstly made to Abraham and then renewed to his son Isaac, and to Isaac's son Jacob , Abraham's grandson...
of the Bible.
Between the lands of Zarahemla and Nephi “a narrow strip of wilderness” runs east and west dividing Nephite territories on the north and Lamanite
Lamanite
According to the Book of Mormon, a Lamanite is a member of a dark-skinned nation of indigenous Americans that battled with the light-skinned Nephite nation...
lands to the south. This strip of wilderness is not the same as the “small” or “narrow neck of land” north of Zarahemla. The “narrow pass” having water “on the west and on the east” connects with “the land northward”, that is, with lands north of Zarahemla and Bountiful
Bountiful (Book of Mormon)
Bountiful is the name of two places described in the Book of Mormon, a religious narrative dictated in 1829 by Joseph Smith, Jr. The first location is set in the Old World near Jerusalem, and the second location is set somewhere in the Americas...
.
Cumorah
Cumorah is a drumlin in Manchester, New York, where Joseph Smith, Jr...
resides. It is pointed out that the lands of Cumorah and Zarahemla are near enough to each other, that travelers from the land of Nephi in the south could confuse the general vicinity of Cumorah for the land of Zarahemla. Some interpret an LDS scripture to indicate the land of Cumorah being in the Finger Lakes
Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes are a pattern of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York in the United States. They are a popular tourist destination. The lakes are long and thin , each oriented roughly on a north-south axis. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in...
region of Western New York.
Zarahemla in Mormon culture
The name “Zarahemla” was given to a small Mormon settlement across the Mississippi RiverMississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
from Nauvoo
Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...
. In August 1841 a conference was held there during which John Smith
John Smith (1781-1854)
John Smith , known as Uncle John, was an early leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ....
was sustained as president of the stake in Iowa, with David Pettigrew and M. C. Nickerson as his counselors. The stake was dissolved three years later; a second stake for Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
would not be organized until 1966.
In 2003, a board game, The Settlers of Zarahemla
The Settlers of Zarahemla
The Settlers of Zarahemla is a licensed adaptation of the German board game The Settlers of Catan by Klaus Teuber, based on the Book of Mormon...
, was produced. This game was intended to be similar to The Settlers of Catan
The Settlers of Catan
The Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber and first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag as Die Siedler von Catan. Players assume the roles of settlers, each attempting to build and develop their settlement while trading and acquiring resources...
, another popular board game, but targeted at a Mormon audience and set in a Book of Mormon setting. It was published by Inspiration Games in conjunction with the German company that owns the rights to Catan.
Zarahemla was also the original name of Blanchardville, Wisconsin
Blanchardville, Wisconsin
Blanchardville is a village in Iowa and Lafayette Counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 806 at the 2000 census.The Iowa County portion of Blanchardville is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, founded in the 1840s by Strangite Mormons. The village received its present name after it was platted in 1857.
The name has also been adopted by Zarahemla Books, according to publisher/owner Christopher Bigelow, because it's "instantly recognizable to any Mormon insider, but it’s just an exotic-sounding name to any outsider."
Passage to Zarahemla
Passage to Zarahemla
Passage to Zarahemla is an adventure film directed and written by Chris Heimerdinger. It tells the story of a young pair of siblings seeking to find a new life following the abrupt death of their mother. Their exploits lead them to a relative's home in Utah and eventually a thrilling...
is an adventure film directed and written by Chris Heimerdinger
Chris Heimerdinger
Chris Heimerdinger is an American author and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who has written sixteen novels for young people and adults, the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series, most of which center on religious themes familiar to Latter-day Saints.-Early life:Heimerdinger's...
. It tells the story of a young pair of siblings seeking to find a new life following the abrupt death of their mother. Their exploits lead them to a relative's home in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
and eventually a thrilling confrontation with their past and the merger of time.