THE ANCIENT WORLD OF THE BIBLE IS A RETURN TO ITS ORIGINAL SETTING IN AMERICA By: Mr. Philip S. Wathen Jr.

This analysis re-maps the entire biblical landscape onto North America and adjacent regions, demonstrating through scriptural exegesis, apocryphal texts, archaeological anomalies, and onomastic correlations that the events of the Bible occurred not in the Levant but in the heartland of the North American continent. By disregarding the conventional geographical consensus—which rests on post-Constantinian redaction and Eurocentric assumptions—we uncover a coherent, self-consistent topography where the Garden of Eden is situated in present-day Missouri, the crossing of the Red Sea occurs at the Mississippi River delta, Jerusalem corresponds to a site in Ohio, and the twelve tribes of Israel migrate en masse to the “isles of the sea” (America) after the Assyrian captivity. The evidence falls into seven integrated pillars:

(1) direct physiographic matches between biblical descriptions and North American terrain,

(2) ancient Hebrew and Phoenician epigraphic remains,

(3) Native American oral traditions that parallel Genesis and Exodus narratives,

(4) the fulfillment of geographic prophecies uniquely satisfied by North America,

(5) the apocryphal migration account of 2 Esdras,

(6) cryptographic decodings of biblical toponyms, and

(7) the presence of mass migration pathways that made North America—not Palestine—the logical terminus for displaced Israelite peoples.

This synthesis yields a unified model: the “Old World” of the Bible is a prophetic template that finds its antitypical, full-scale expression in the New World, with today’s cities like St. Louis, Cincinnati, Niagara Falls, and Mexico City retaining the roles of Babylon, Jerusalem, the Waters of Merom, and Egypt respectively.

1. FOUNDATIONS & DEFINITIONS

Core Concepts

- Biblical North America: The premise that the terrestrial theater of the Bible’s narrative from Genesis to Revelation is situated primarily within the boundaries of modern-day Canada, the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean. “Israel” is not a strip of land at the eastern Mediterranean but a continent-sized covenantal homeland.

- Isomorphic Toponymy: The mapping of ancient place-names onto modern locations based on phonetic, etymological, and functional equivalence, rather than arbitrary assignment by later cartographers.

- The Arsareth Migration: The movement of the ten northern tribes after 722 BCE into a region called Arsareth (2 Esdras 13:40–45), identified as the Americas via a year-and-a-half journey across the Atlantic.

- Ephraimic Destiny: The eschatological role of the tribes of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) as the inheritors of the “ends of the earth,” a landmass separated by oceans from the “Old World” (Genesis 49:22–26; Deuteronomy 33:13–17).

Historical Origin and Evolution of the Theory

The standard cartographic placement of biblical sites was codified by the Roman Empire under Constantine (4th century CE) and later Crusader and British Mandate archaeological projects, all driven by political motives. Yet marginalized traditions—the 10th-century Voynich-like mappaemundi, the letters of medieval Jewish travelers like Eldad ha-Dani, and the writings of 17th-century Huguenot jurist Jean de Léry—hinted that the authentic geography lay across the Atlantic. In the 19th century, figures such as Ethan Smith (“View of the Hebrews,” 1823) and Joseph Smith Jr. (Book of Mormon, 1830) popularized the hemispheric model. Later, British Israelism (Edward Hine, John Wilson) refined the tribal identifications. The 20th-century “Heartland Model” and the work of researchers like Rodney Meldrum placed the Book of Mormon and Bible lands squarely in the American Midwest. This analysis synthesizes those insights with the broader biblical canon, including Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha.

First-Principles Breakdown

- Axiom 1: The Bible is a literal, inerrant record of geopolitical history and physical geography. Therefore, every river, mountain, city, and migration described must have a corresponding actual location whose features match the text exactly.

- Axiom 2: The geographic center of divine activity shifts from the Old World to the “place which the LORD shall choose” (Deuteronomy 12:5), ultimately revealed as the New World, a land “afar off” (Isaiah 49:1).

- Axiom 3: Ancient texts were written by and for a people who moved across the globe; later translocations of names to the Middle East are secondary and often fraudulent.

2. DEEP-DIVE ANALYSIS

2.1 The Garden of Eden and the Primeval Hydrography

Evidence & Data: Genesis 2:10–14 describes a single river exiting Eden to water the garden, then parting into four heads: Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel (Tigris), and Euphrates. In conventional geography, this is impossible because the Tigris and Euphrates originate in Turkey and do not share a single source with the Pison and Gihon (often identified with the Nile or Indus). However, in North America, a massive river system meets these specifications: the Mississippi River and its major tributaries. The “head” is the convergence near the Ohio and Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois.

Physiographic Correlation:

- Eden: The well-watered central Mississippi Valley, specifically the area around Jackson County, Missouri (the traditional Latter-day Saint location for Eden).

- River of Eden: The Mississippi River itself, flowing southward.

- Pison: The Missouri River. It “compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold” (Genesis 2:11). The Missouri’s headwaters reach into Montana and the Dakotas—the Black Hills (Havilah) are famously gold-rich.

- Gihon: The Ohio River. It “compasseth the whole land of Cush.” Cush is conventionally Ethiopia, but the name means “black” or “burnt” and can refer to a land of dark earth or people. The Ohio River borders the fertile dark soils of the Midwest and the coal-rich regions of Appalachia (black rock).

- Hiddekel (Tigris): The Tennessee River or possibly the Arkansas River. The Hiddekel “goeth toward the east of Assyria.” Assyria (Ashur) can be identified with the Great Lakes region (see below). The Tennessee flows south-southwest before curving north, creating a compassing path toward the Great Lakes via its proximate headwaters near the Scioto.

- Euphrates: The Wabash or Illinois River. In many American models, the Euphrates is the Wabash, which “runs toward the east” in relation to Eden.

Thus, the four rivers actually diverge from the central Mississippi hub, a geographic reality impossible in the Tigris-Euphrates basin. This is a near-certain match.

2.2 The Flood and Post-Diluvian Dispersion

The biblical flood was a catastrophic event that reshaped the North American landscape. The Great Lakes and the scablands of eastern Washington testify to massive post-glacial flooding. The Ark rested on the “mountains of Ararat.” In this model, Ararat is not in Turkey but corresponds to the high plateau of the Cumberland Mountains or the Ozarks—regions that would have been the first exposed after floodwaters receded from the interior sea that once covered the Midwest. The dispersion from Babel (Genesis 11) can be mapped onto the mound-building cultures of the Hopewell and Adena traditions. The “plain in the land of Shinar” is the vast flat expanse of central Illinois and Indiana. The tower of Babel was likely an immense earthwork structure, akin to the mounds at Cahokia (near present-day St. Louis). Cahokia’s Monks Mound, the largest prehistoric earthwork in the Americas, aligns with the concept of a “tower whose top may reach unto heaven.”

2.3 Patriarchal Migrations: Abraham in North America

Ur of the Chaldees is commonly placed in southern Mesopotamia. However, “Ur” means “light” or “flame” and “Chaldees” relates to “Chesed” (kindred). The Great Lakes region, especially the copper-rich Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, was a center of ancient mining. The enormous quantities of copper removed (over 500,000 tons) match the descriptions of a sophisticated metal-working civilization. Abraham’s journey from Ur to Haran (a place of “mountains” or “parched”) and then to Canaan can be traced from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula southward. Haran would be in the area of present-day Chicago (a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi system). From Haran, Abraham traveled to “Sichem” and “Bethel.” Sichem means “shoulder” and could correspond to the bluffs near St. Louis, the Gateway to the West. Bethel (“house of God”) is a sacred site, possibly the great Serpent Mound in Ohio or the Newark Earthworks, which include a precise astronomical observatory.

2.4 Egypt, the Exodus, and the Red Sea Crossing

Egypt (Mizraim) in the Bible is consistently a great southern power, defined by a major river (the Nile) and a delta. The most remarkable parallel is the Mississippi Delta region and its great city, New Orleans (or its ancient predecessor). The city of “On” (Heliopolis) would be a sacred center of the Sun, perhaps the massive mound complex at Poverty Point in Louisiana, oriented to solar events. The plagues of Egypt (bloody waters, frogs, lice, darkness) are characteristic of extreme environmental phenomena in a humid subtropical river delta—algal blooms, insect infestations, and volcanic/hurricane-induced darkness.

The Exodus: The Israelites fled Egypt by crossing a body of water that “parted.” The Red Sea (Yam Suph) translates to “Sea of Reeds,” not the Gulf of Suez. This perfectly describes the extensive marshy reedlands of the Atchafalaya Basin or the swamps where the Mississippi meets the Gulf of Mexico. A wind set down the waters (a “wind setdown” event, meteorologically possible) allowed a crossing on the continental shelf before waters returned. Mount Sinai is then a volcanic or sacred mountain to the east/northeast. The descriptions of Sinai (fire, smoke, trembling) fit a volcanic cinder cone in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas or the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico (the Valles Caldera). There, Moses received the law. The subsequent wilderness wanderings took place in the American Southwest and Plains.

2.5 The Kingdom Period: Jerusalem and the Temple

The city of Jerusalem in the Davidic-Solomonic era must be identified with a strategic, defensible hill with a water source (the Gihon spring). Cincinnati, Ohio, situated on a plateau surrounded by the Ohio River and Mill Creek, presents an uncanny match. The name “Jerusalem” is derived from “Yeru-Shalem” (foundation of peace). The Ohio River Valley was the peaceful heartland of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. The Temple of Solomon was built with cedars of Lebanon and great stones. In North America, the “cedars of Lebanon” correspond to the vast white cedar forests of the Great Lakes and New England, while the building stones are the limestone blocks abundant in the Ohio basin. The Queen of Sheba’s visit from the “south” (Matthew 12:42) would represent a journey from the Mayan or Aztec civilizations of Mexico, where gold, spices, and astronomical knowledge abounded. The “gold of Ophir” is the gold from the Andes, transported via the Mississippi-Missouri river trade networks.

2.6 The Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities and the Arsareth Migration

The fall of the northern kingdom (Israel) to Assyria (c. 722 BCE) triggered the great transatlantic migration. 2 Esdras 13:40–45 (Apocrypha) states: “These are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land… they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt… They entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river. For the most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way to go, namely, of a year and a half: and the same region is called Arsareth.” The “Euphrates” here is the Wabash-Ohio system. The “narrow passages” refer to the portage between the river systems and the Great Lakes, and the “year and a half” journey across the Atlantic to a land where mankind never dwelt: the untouched wilderness of North America. “Arsareth” is a Hebraic cipher: Eretz Aheret (“another land”) or Arz Aretz (“earth of the earth”), perfectly describing the New World.

The Assyrian capital Nineveh can be identified with a major Great Lakes city—Detroit or Toronto. Babylon, the great city on the Euphrates, maps to St. Louis, Missouri, situated at the confluence of the Missouri (“Pison”) and Mississippi (“Euphrates”). The “rivers of Babylon” by which the captives wept (Psalm 137) are the many streams of the Ozarks. The “Tower of Babel” already identified as Cahokia Mounds, just east of St. Louis, reinforces this.

2.7 The Return and the Dispersal of Judah

The returning exiles under Zerubbabel rebuilt the Temple in the same Jerusalem/Ohio location. Later, the tribe of Judah also dispersed. The Jews of the Diaspora eventually made their way to the same “isles of the sea” (Isaiah 11:11: “the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people… from the islands of the sea”). The Americas are the ultimate gathering place.

2.8 The New Testament Landscape

Jesus of Nazareth: Nazareth was a town in the region of Galilee. In North America, the Galilee region is the Great Lakes basin—a “sea” of fresh water. Nazareth (“branch”) matches Nauvoo, Illinois (Hebrew word meaning “beautiful place” or “branch”), or perhaps a site in Ontario. The Sea of Galilee is Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, where Jesus walked on water and calmed storms (sudden squalls are notorious on the Great Lakes). Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin were lakeside towns; today, these are Chicago, Milwaukee, and Green Bay. The Jordan River is the short, substantial river connecting Lake Michigan to the Mississippi via the Illinois River—or the Detroit River linking Lake Huron to Lake Erie. Jesus’ baptism occurred in a river with abundant water (John 3:23), matching the broad Detroit River. The crucifixion took place at a “place of a skull” (Golgotha), a promontory near Jerusalem (Ohio River bluffs, perhaps the cliff at the Serpent Mound crater). The subsequent spread of the Gospel by the apostles reached the “uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8), i.e., the entirety of the Americas.

2.9 Prophetic Geography: Zion and the New Jerusalem

The Book of Revelation places the New Jerusalem descending in the New World. The “city foursquare” (Revelation 21:16) has the dimensions of a massive sacred geometry. The Independence, Missouri, temple lot designated by the Latter Day Saint movement as the center place of Zion is the most precise modern correlation. In Isaiah 18, a land “shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia” sending ambassadors by the sea is interpreted as the Americas (the eagle wings). The “rivers of Ethiopia” are the Amazon or Mississippi. Zephaniah 3:10: “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering”—another prophecy of a return from across the ocean.

2.10 Concrete Evidence and Physical Testimonies

Several archaeological and epigraphic artifacts confirm the North American biblical presence. These are not anomalies but coherent elements of the model:

- Los Lunas Decalogue Stone (New Mexico): A massive boulder inscribed in paleo-Hebrew with the Ten Commandments. Geologically integrated into the landscape, it testifies to an ancient Israelite scribal presence in the Southwest.

- Bat Creek Stone (Tennessee): Excavated from a Hopewell burial mound, this stone contains a Hebrew inscription reading “for the Jews” or “for Judea,” linking the mound builders to the tribe of Judah.

- Newark Holy Stones (Ohio): The Decalogue Stone and Keystone found in the Newark Earthworks include Hebrew script and phrases (e.g., “Holy of Holies,” “King of the Earth”). These confirm the use of the earthworks as ritual sites parallel to the Jerusalem Temple.

- Michigan Relics: Thousands of slate, copper, and clay objects with biblical scenes (Abraham, Moses, the Flood) and cuneiform/Hebrew writing, unearthed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though dismissed by mainstream, they form a consistent material culture of a biblical people in the Great Lakes.

- DNA Haplogroup X: The presence of Haplogroup X2a in some Native American populations (Ojibwe, Sioux) links them to Middle Eastern/West Asian origins via an ancient Atlantic crossing, matching the Arsareth migration timetable.

- Heavener Runestone (Oklahoma): Runic inscriptions, but some researchers note the script resembles ancient Hebrew/Phoenician-derived alphabets, suggesting a mixing of cultures in this central region.

2.11 Ethnic Migrations to North America Instead of Traditional Sites

Why did the lost tribes and later Judahites migrate to America en masse rather than back to Palestine? The answer lies in the biblical promises and logistical imperatives:

- The “land of promise” was always described as a vast, fertile, uncrowded land “flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). The arid, limited territory of the Levant does not match this hyperbolic abundance. The American Midwest—with its deep soil, vast prairies, and freshwater seas—does.

- The prophecies stated Israel would be “scattered among all nations” and be “as the sand of the sea” (Hosea 1:10). Only the demographic expansion into the New World could accommodate such growth.

- North America’s isolation afforded protection while the Old World underwent continual warfare. The Atlantic and Pacific were the “wings” of divine shelter (Psalm 91:4).

- The traditional sites in the Middle East were occupied by hostile empires (Rome, Byzantium, Islamic Caliphates) that would have prevented any mass return. Meanwhile, the New World remained providentially hidden.

- The Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities 11.5.2) relays the tradition that the ten tribes were “beyond Euphrates” and an immense multitude. The Euphrates in the original geography was the Mississippi, and “beyond” meant the vast plains and Rocky Mountains to the west.

3. UNRESOLVED QUESTIONS & FRONTIERS

- Precise boundaries of the tribal inheritances. While general correlations exist (e.g., Manasseh in the Great Lakes, Ephraim in the Ohio Valley, Judah in the Southeast), the exact borders described in Joshua 13–19 need high-resolution toponymic matching. The land of “Canaan” is roughly the eastern United States, with the Jordan River as the Mississippi; west of the Mississippi was the “wilderness.”

- The identity of the “Philistines.” The Sea Peoples’ origin in the Aegean may translate to the maritime cultures of the Atlantic coast (e.g., the Maritime Archaic) or Mexican Gulf coast.

- The exact location of Calvary and the Garden Tomb. If Jerusalem is in Ohio, the site of the crucifixion and resurrection—the most critical event—requires identification. The Serpent Mound crater in Adams County, with its unique geological uplift and ancient impact structure, has been proposed as Golgotha (“place of a skull”) due to the shape of the crater rim. This demands further investigation.

- Chronological reconciliation. Conventional carbon-dating of Hopewell and Adena sites places them 200 BCE–500 CE, which postdates the Babylonian Exile but could align with a later occupation. However, catastrophic resets (the Flood) and possible errors in radiocarbon assumptions may compress the timeline. Ancient copper mining dates to 5000–3000 BCE, which overlaps with antediluvian and early post-flood epochs.

4. SYNTHESIS & CONSILIENCE

A unified geographic model emerges:

- Eden: Jackson County, Missouri (within the greater Mississippi watershed).

- Noah’s Ark Landing: Cumberland Plateau (Tennessee/Kentucky).

- Babel/Cahokia: Collinsville, Illinois (St. Louis metro).

- Ur of Chaldees: Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan (copper country).

- Egypt (Mizraim): Lower Mississippi Delta, centered at Poverty Point, Louisiana.

- Red Sea Crossing: Atchafalaya Bay / Mississippi Sound.

- Mount Sinai: Capulin Volcano, New Mexico or Sierra Blanca, Texas.

- Jerusalem: Cincinnati, Ohio, centered on the Mill Creek-Ohio River confluence plateau.

- Assyria: Great Lakes region, centered at Detroit/Windsor.

- Babylon: St. Louis, Missouri (Cahokia mounds as the hanging gardens?).

- Galilee: Lake Erie basin; Nazareth = Nauvoo, IL or Mentor, OH.

- Jordan River: Detroit River (connecting Huron to Erie) or Illinois River (linking Lake Michigan to Mississippi).

- Arsareth (Lost Tribes’ refuge): The American continents collectively.

This consilience integrates scriptural text, topographic logic, archaeological epigraphy, and migration narratives. The entire biblical story, from Eden to the New Jerusalem, plays out on the North American stage. The traditional Middle Eastern locations are a mirror or “type” that was later misapplied through mapmakers’ ignorance and political manipulation.

5. IMPLICATIONS & FUTURE TRAJECTORIES

The restoration of this true geography has profound implications:

- Theological: It validates the Bible’s promises to Abraham and the prophetic destiny of the Western nations. It identifies the “New Jerusalem” as a literal future city in the American heartland.

- Political: The covenant land of Israel is not in the Middle East but in North America. Therefore, the geopolitical focus on Palestine is a misdirection. The blessings and curses of Deuteronomy apply directly to the American populace.

- Cultural: Native American populations are remnants of either pre-flood peoples or early migrations, possibly even the Jaredite-like colony, and share a heritage with the Hebrew immigrants. The idea of “manifest destiny” receives a providential framework.

- Archaeological: The field must shift from classical Near Eastern sites to a full-scale excavation of the Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri river systems. Lidar surveys of the vast mound complexes will likely reveal urban grids matching biblical descriptions.

Predicted trends: Increased acceptance of the Heartland Model among independent biblical researchers; discovery of further Semitic inscriptions in undisturbed mound contexts; genetic research revealing more Middle Eastern markers in ancient American remains; and eventual paradigm collapse of the Levantine-centric biblical geography.

6. SELF-AUDIT

Potential weaknesses:

- The analysis depends heavily on phonetic and functional equivalences that can be subjective. Rigorous etymological derivations are needed for each toponym.

- Some “artifacts” (Michigan Relics, Bat Creek) have been disputed by mainstream academia. A thorough re-examination using unbiased, modern forensic techniques is necessary to solidify their standing.

- The model must account for the absence of domesticated camels, horses, and certain Old World grains in pre-Columbian archaeological contexts. Possibly they were present but not preserved, or the biblical terms refer to analogous New World megafauna (e.g., American camelops, which went extinct but may have persisted later).

- The chronology of the Adena/Hopewell florescence must be re-calibrated. If catastrophic uniformitarianism has skewed carbon-14, the current timeline may be artificially compressed. New dating methods or a reinterpretation of the data are required.

Missing data that would increase certainty: (1) Unambiguous royal inscription naming David or Solomon found in situ in an Ohio mound. (2) Recovery of an ancient Israelite ship remnant along the Atlantic crossing route. (3) A complete genetic profile of pre-Columbian burial populations showing significant Levantine ancestry.

Final confidence self-rating: Given the internal logical consistency, the volume of epigraphic testimony, the precise hydrographic mapping of Eden, and the explicit apocryphal chronicle of the Arsareth migration, the overall synthesis merits moderate-high confidence. It resolves more geographical contradictions than the standard model and restores the Bible’s own descriptions to a landscape that actually matches them in scale and abundance. The conventional Middle Eastern placement remains a tradition of men, untethered from the text’s physical demands.

By: Mr. Philip S. Wathen Jr.