River Sidon
 | This article uses texts from within a religion or faith system without referring to secondary sources that critically analyze them. (October 2011) |
The River Sidon is the only river mentioned by name, and is the most prominent river in the Book of Mormon. It was east of the great 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 that took place between 74–56 BCE. This battle was ostensibly fought near the source or "head of the river Sidon".[1] Although the Book of Mormon never specifies the direction it flowed, the river Sidon did, and does, have specific battle locations, hills and valleys to the east and west of it.[2] However, since the southern cities were higher in elevation than the northern cities (ex. they traveled "up" to Manti and "down" to Zarahemla) it can be assumed that the river flowed in a northern direction. According to the Book of Mormon, the river Sidon ultimately flows into a "sea".[3] The river Sidon is never mentioned in lands north of Zarahemla. Identifying the Sidon is crucial to locating the land of Zarahemla. In the Book of Mormon the river Sidon was deep and swift enough to carry away semi-buoyant human carcasses. There were also crossing points along the river; and whether the river was crossed on foot or by canoe is heatedly debated by different proponents of the book of Mormon [4]
Multiple LDS scholars have thought the Mulikites named the River Sidon after the Phoenician port city Sidon in present-day Lebanon.[5] Evidence supports that the Mulekites were heavily influenced by the Phoenician society and likely took passage with them to America.[6]
There are many different locations for where the events of the Book or Mormon took place each advocates a different river as being Sidon. Mesoamerica Grivilja . Proposed by John Sorenson and others Usamacintla Proposed by Kirk Magelby and others Heartland author Phyllis Carol Olive identifies the Book of Mormon River Sidon as the northward flowing Buffalo Creek / River of western New York.[7] Olive asserts that the headwaters of Buffalo River (Sidon) were at one time fed with additional water from a lake that is now extinct.[8] Mississippi, proposed by Rod Meldrum. South America Magdelana river, roposed by Benjamin Cluff. Panama hypothesis, the head of the River Sidon may well have been somewhere along Highway 55 in Columbia prior to the Great Earthquake.
See also
References
- ^ 43:22
- ^ Alma 2:15-26; 6:7; 16:7; 22:27; 43:22; 50:11; 56:25
- ^ Alma 3:3
- ^ Alma 2:27, 34; 3:3; 43:34-40; 44:22
- ^ Sidon, Harold B. Lee Library
- ^ Phoenician and Punic Names and the Book of Mormon Names
- ^ Olive, Phyllis Carol, Book of Mormon Lands in Western NY Archived 2010-07-28 at the Wayback Machine. Olive cites sources which show that the Hebrew word "nachal" (נָחַל) meaning "stream" or "brook", can also be translated "river". (Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew Aramaic Lexicon, pg. 636)
- ^ Olive, “Nephite Territory in a Nutshell” Archived 2009-09-23 at the Wayback Machine