| Book of Mormon |
Annotations |
|
The record of the Jaredites, taken from the twenty-four
plates found by the people of Limhi in the days of King Mosiah.
|
|
|
Chapter 1
|
|
|
1 And now I, Moroni, proceed to give an account of those ancient
inhabitants who were destroyed by the hand of the Lord upon the face of this
north country.
|
|
|
2 And I take mine account from the twenty and four
plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of
Ether.
|
Ether 1:2-5
Moroni tells us here that his account of the Book of Ether is from the 24
Jaredite plates, but it is only an abridgement. He is leaving out the “things
which transpired from the days of Adam until that time [of the great tower].”
He tells us later in Ether 15:33 that he has not written a hundredth part of
the record of Ether. The abridged version known as Book of Ether is 15
chapters long and goes from page 487 to page 518 of the current edition of
the Book of Mormon, or 31 pages. Some of the 31 pages is commentary by
Moroni. There are 16,629 words in the Book of Ether (not counting chapter
summaries). Taking out Moroni’s commentary, I come up with 13,293 words. That’s
79.9%. Taking 79.9% of 31 pages gives 24.8 pages of the Book of Ether without
Moroni’s commentary.
Summary:
The abridgement of the 24 Jaredite plates which does not contain the first
part of the 24 plates (history from Adam until the tower) and is not a
hundredth part of the record of Ether, translates to 24.8 pages in the
current English version.
|
|
3 And as I suppose that the first part of this record,
which speaks concerning the creation of the world, and also of Adam, and an
account from that time even to the great tower, and whatsoever things
transpired among the children of men until that time, is had among the Jews—
|
Annotation for Ether 1:2-5 above
|
|
4 Therefore I do not write those things which
transpired from the days of Adam until that time; but they are had upon the
plates; and whoso findeth them, the same will have power that he may get
the full account.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:2-5 above
|
|
5 But behold, I give not the full account, but a part
of the account I give, from the tower down until they were destroyed.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:2-5 above
|
|
6 And on this wise do I give the account. He that wrote
this record was Ether, and he was a descendant of Coriantor.
|
Ether 1:6-32
Moroni is supposedly writing an abridgement, but he takes 27 verses to supply
this genealogy, so we can do what with it?
Also consider that there are 29 generations between Ether and Jared. Doing
the math from 600 BCE (roughly when Ether put his book together) back to
Jared, we’d have to assume an average age difference between the fathers and
sons listed of about 55 years in order for the math to work out to place
Jared at the tower of Babel at about 2200 BCE.
Now it’s possible that in Ether 1:23 where it says “Morianton was a
descendant of Riplakish,” multiple generations were left out. That’s doubtful
from the beginning to me, because it would be like saying “It’s important to
have all these son/father relationships listed, but not for this one span of
generations.” In addition, in the other two instances in this genealogy,
where it says “was a descendant of” we know the author means “was a son of.”
Ether 1:6 says Ether “was a descendant of Coriantor.” Then in Ether 11:23 we
learn that, “Coriantor begat Ether,” so we know that in this case “was a
descendant of” means “was the son of.” Same for Aaron and Heth in Ether 1:16
and Ether 10:31.
|
|
7 Coriantor was the son of Moron.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
8 And Moron was the son of Ethem.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
9 And Ethem was the son of Ahah.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
10 And Ahah was the son of Seth.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
11 And Seth was the son of Shiblon.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
12 And Shiblon was the son of Com.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
13 And Com was the son of Coriantum.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
14 And Coriantum was the son of Amnigaddah.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
15 And Amnigaddah was the son of Aaron.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
16 And Aaron was a descendant of Heth, who was the son of
Hearthom.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
17 And Hearthom was the son of Lib.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
18 And Lib was the son of Kish.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
19 And Kish was the son of Corom.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
20 And Corom was the son of Levi.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
21 And Levi was the son of Kim.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
22 And Kim was the son of Morianton.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
23 And Morianton was a descendant of Riplakish.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
24 And Riplakish was the son of Shez.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
25 And Shez was the son of Heth.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
26 And Heth was the son of Com.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
27 And Com was the son of Coriantum.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
28 And Coriantum was the son of Emer.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
29 And Emer was the son of Omer.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
30 And Omer was the son of Shule.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
31 And Shule was the son of Kib.
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
32 And Kib was the son of Orihah, who was the son of
Jared;
|
Annotation for Ether 1:6-32 above
|
|
33 Which Jared came forth with his brother and their
families, with some others and their families, from the great tower, at
the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, and swore in his
wrath that they should be scattered upon all the face of the earth; and
according to the word of the Lord the people were scattered.
|
This declares the Tower of Babel account a literal and
factual event. If true, this would mean that until about 4,200 years ago
(according to Bible chronologies I’ve seen including those at www.churchofjesuschrist.org)
there was only one language on the earth, then at the Tower of Babel event,
all languages were confounded (except for the Jaredites). This is not
compatible with what we know about the evolution of language. (See also the
second paragraph to the Introduction to the Book of Mormon, Omni 1:22, Mosiah 28:17, Helaman 6:28)
|
|
34 And the brother of Jared being a large and mighty man,
and a man highly favored of the Lord, Jared, his brother, said unto him: Cry
unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we may not understand our
words.
|
|
|
35 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry
unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon Jared; therefore he did not
confound the language of Jared; and Jared and his brother were not
confounded.
|
|
|
36 Then Jared said unto his brother: Cry again unto the
Lord, and it may be that he will turn away his anger from them who are our
friends, that he confound not their language.
|
|
|
37 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry
unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon their friends and their
families also, that they were not confounded.
|
|
|
38 And it came to pass that Jared spake again unto his
brother, saying: Go and inquire of the Lord whether he will drive us out of
the land, and if he will drive us out of the land, cry unto him whither we
shall go. And who knoweth but the Lord will carry us forth into a land which
is choice above all the earth? And if it so be, let us be faithful unto the
Lord, that we may receive it for our inheritance.
|
|
|
39 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry
unto the Lord according to that which had been spoken by the mouth of Jared.
|
|
|
40 And it came to pass that the Lord did hear the brother
of Jared, and had compassion upon him, and said unto him:
|
|
|
41 Go to and gather together thy flocks, both male and
female, of every kind; and also of the seed of the earth of every kind; and
thy families; and also Jared thy brother and his family; and also thy friends
and their families, and the friends of Jared and their families.
|
|
|
42 And when thou hast done this thou shalt go at the head
of them down into the valley which is northward. And there will I meet thee,
and I will go before thee into a land which is choice above all the lands of
the earth.
|
|
|
43 And there will I bless thee and thy seed, and raise up
unto me of thy seed, and of the seed of thy brother, and they who shall go
with thee, a great nation. And there shall be none greater than the nation
which I will raise up unto me of thy seed, upon all the face of the earth.
And thus I will do unto thee because this long time ye have cried unto me.
|
|