Thursday, August 22, 2019

Arabia Felix and Nephi's Bountiful, part 1

A reader pointed out the following:

Nephi recorded details of his journey from Jerusalem to the southern coast of Saudi Arabia. There, he and his brothers built a ship which carried them to the New World. While scholars don’t agree on the exact location of Nephi’s ship-building enterprise, multiple clues indicate that this event occurred along the coast of the Arabian Sea in what is now Oman and Yemen.

While not part of their Empire, the Romans called this area Arabia Felix. The literal translation is "fertile Arabia"... Nephi described his arrival in this location, “And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish.”

From Wikpedia:

The term "Fertile Arabia" is a translation of the Latin "Arabia felix". Felix means "fecund, fertile" but also "happy, fortunate, blessed." Arabia Felix was one of three regions into which the Romans divided the Arabian peninsula: Arabia Deserta, Arabia Felix, and Arabia Petraea. The Greeks and the Romans called Yemen Arabia Felix.

A little more detail on this topic in part 2, coming soon.