Book of Mormon Geography: Jershon and Antionum

Alma 27 records a major change in ZARAHEMLA. The sons of Mosiah, just returned from NEPHI, bring word to the Nephites that the converted Lamanites are being slaughtered. The people of Nephi responded by giving them their own inheritance in ZARAHEMLA and promising to protect them from the Lamanites. This inheritance is the land Jershon.

In verse 22, Mormons says Jershon “is on the east by the sea, which joins the land Bountiful, which is on the south of the land Bountiful.” The Nephites promised to “set [their] armies between the land Jershon and the land Nephi.” Impulsive interpretations place Jershon along the east sea.

Mormon’s descriptions of Antionum, a new land established by the apostate Zoramites, provide some clarification of Jershon’s location. Alma 31:3 says Antionum is “east of the land of Zarahemla,” lies “nearly bordering upon the seashore,” is “south of the land of Jershon,” and borders “the wilderness south.” These descriptions place Antionum along the west sea, between Jershon and the south wilderness. It is outside the borders of ZARAHEMLA, and thus described to its east. This also places Jershon along the west sea, not the east sea.

Further evidence that Jershon borders the west sea, not the east sea, comes from Alma 35. When the Zoramites and Lamanites prepared for war against the Nephites, “the people of Ammon departed out of the land of Jershon, and came over into the land of Melek, and gave place in the land of Jershon for the armies of the Nephites.” The combined Zoramite/Lamanite army gathered in Antionum, and the battle with Moroni’s forces began “in the borders of Jershon” (43:18). Defeated in Jershon, the Zoramite/Lamanite army retreated through Antionum “into the wilderness, and took their journey round about in the wilderness, away by the head of the river Sidon, that they might come into the land of Manti” (43:22).

Finally, the Stripling Warriors, the sons of the people of Jershon, are always associated with the war campaign “on the west sea, south” (Alma 53:8). Mormon also phrases it as “in the borders of the land on the south by the west sea” (Alma 53:22). The reason the Stripling Warriors engaged in the war against the Lamanites is because the people of Jershon felt so bad about so many Nephites giving their lives to protect them (Alma 53:13).

Collectively, these descriptions require placing Jershon along the west sea, not the east sea. Jershon is simply the colonization of the west wilderness from Bountiful to the southern border of ZARAHEMLA. This location certainly places Jershon east of Bountiful, along the sea, and south of Bountiful, just as Mormon described in Alma 27:22.