Book of MormongeographypopulationMesoamerica

Limited Geography and Population

How could a handful of people fill two continents?

Bible

The Bible answers

Bible · Deuteronomy 7:7

KJV + NRSVUE

King James Version
The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people.

NRSVUE
It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples.

Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon answers

Mormon 1:7
The whole face of the land had become covered with buildings, and the people were as numerous almost, as it were the sand of the sea — a local land, intensely occupied, not two empty continents.

Faithful answers

FAIR / Interpreter

A limited Book of Mormon geography

John L. Sorenson / Brant Gardner

Internal distances in the Book of Mormon are a few weeks’ march, not transcontinental treks. Others are already on the land (Jacob 7; Alma 31; Mosiah 25). A Mesoamerican-scale setting is a model, not a dogma — but it is the model that lets the wars, directions, and populations make sense.

The Book of Mormon is the story of a covenant people in a land, not a gazetteer of the Western Hemisphere.

Travel times in the text imply a compact theater of war.
Other peoples are on the land from early on.
Limited geography resolves the population and DNA questions together.

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