Living in Seattle affords me the blessing of having an abundance of seafood, namely halibut. The downside to living near any fresh halibut is that you only have two seasons; summer and winter. Summer begins on the 5th of July and lasts all the way to mid September in warm years. Woo-hoo! All joking aside, in addition to Boeing, Microsoft and Amazon this area is known for shipping and sailors and if you stick around long enough you’re sure to learn a little about the latter. After living in the Pacific Northwest for twenty years I’ve learned how long it takes to get from the Port of Seattle through the Behring Strait to Alaska or to one of my favorite hideaways in the San Juan Islands.
The seafaring ways of the locals got me to thinking about those seafaring Jaredites in the Book of Mormon and why it took them so long to get from the Med to the northeastern coast of America.
The Book of Mormon claims the Jaredites were blown by a fierce wind to the Americas while sailing along in barges circa 2,600 BC. Ether 6:5-11 is where we’re retrieving our information from so let’s take a closer look shall we?
vs. 5; “And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.”
The dictionary describes furious as intensely violent so those winds had to be pretty strong.
vs. 6; “And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.”
Again, using the dictionary it defines tempests as violent windstorms with rain, hail or snow. The visual we’re given here is pretty graphic so there’s no misunderstanding of how tumultuous these winds must have been on these barges. If you’ve ever lived through a strong Nor’easter, a tornado or hurricane you can appreciate a ferocious wind I’m sure.
vs. 8; “And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind.”
Being driven forth before the wind implies they weren’t facing a head wind and from what our text says furious tempests blew non-stop.
vs. 11; “And thus they were driven forth, three hundred and forty and four days upon the water.”
Just three weeks shy of an entire year these people were sealed up tight in a barge and sailed 5,000 miles. I say let’s do the math.
Because the Book of Mormon doesn’t give any indication of just how fast those winds were blowing we can’t determine their definition of furious or tempest, but we can look at a map and figure out this doesn’t make sense!
If you’re sailing along at a leisurely 10 mph you could sail from the middle of the Mediterranean Sea to the upper coast of North America ten times in that 344 day time period.
Traveling from the Middle East to say the New York area for 344 days means you’re putzin’ along at 14.5 mph or 16.67 knots. Their definition of tempest must mean the wind was blowing them to America at 14.5 mph. Sigh.
How reasonable is the story of the Jaredites once we take a close look at each passage? Is it believable that a fierce tempest means a 16 knot wind? What about sailing around for a year and meting out a paltry 5,000 miles?
The circumference of the earth is 24,901.55 miles. Traveling at 10 mph it would only take a third of the time to navigate at 104 days.
We’re posting this in all humility and asking our Mormon friends to take an intellectually honest look at what Joseph Smith wants for you to believe. Please, take the time to do the homework for yourself and I’m 100% convinced you’ll see the many problems these stories present. If someone like me can figure this out, anyone can.
What I do know is how to use maps, a calculator, dictionaries and concordances. You don’t need to be a genius to have spiritual discernment – that’s a gift from the Lord and all you need to do is ask Him and He’ll give abundantly!
With Love in Christ;
Michelle Grim
This blog has never been a source of logical information, but the logic here is laughable. The post here assumes that boats travel the same speed as the wind, which is utterly false. Not even sailboats move as fast as the wind that powers them. If the boat doesn’t contain sails, as the Book of Mormon account certainly infers, its very possible that a 60 mph wind would result in less than a 10 mph clip.
Hey Brian – good to see that you know math.
If this blog has never been a source of logical info then tell me Brian why do you keep coming back?
As for boat sails…who goes on the water without a motor, paddles or sails?
Where is the archaeological evidence for all those Nephites here on the American Continent?
Michelle
Yet you still haven’t edited your post… You lied by inferring that boats (even without sails) move as fast as the wind. Why haven’t you corrected yourself?
I’m not wrong. I retrieve my info from the BoM. If they’re wrong take it up w/ the church.
Michelle