Zarahemla's population was ' a great number'
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
It is not known when or by whom the temple in Zarahemla was built. Most likely, Mosiah1, Benjamin's father, built it in the third century B.C.
The multitude that gathered to hear King Benjamin speak was so great he "could not teach them all within the walls of the temple, therefore he caused a tower to be erected, that thereby his people might hear [him]." (Mosiah 2:7.)In a chapter in Studies in Scriptures: 1 Nephi to Alma 29, Rodney Turner wrote, "At present, we cannot determine with any accuracy the extent of the land of Zarahemla, nor its population in 124 B.C. However, the fact that the people were given only a day's notice to gather indicates that no point was more than about 50 miles from the city. And although the population is described as being `a great number, even so many that they did not number them' (Mosiah 2:2), even with their tents, they were accommodated within, or adjacent to, the walls of the temple.
"Then, too, while the hastily built tower did not enable King Benjamin to be heard by everyone, such had been its purpose. Therefore, the people could not have been widely scattered. All this suggests that the population . . . at most, numbered in the thousands.
"Yet it was a vast number who gathered to offer sacrifice, give thanks for their blessings, and hear their king. Unable to be heard by everyone, King Benjamin had his words written and sent forth among the people. (Mosiah 2:8.)"
