Nibley’s Asian Steppes and the Jaredites – Part I

The most popular belief among Book of Mormon scholars is the one submitted by Hugh Nibley, and currently found in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, namely, that the Jaredites were “from the warring steppes of Asia issuing forth from the well-known dispersion center of the great migrations in western Asia and moved across the central plains, crossing the shallow seas (left over from the last ice age) in barges and… reaching the great sea.”

First of all, these Steppes cover an area stretching from the western borders of Hungary to the eastern borders of Mongolia, including the area of western Russia and the Ukraine. This huge area runs east and west between the Siberian Plain on the north and the Turanian Plain on the south, from the Black Sea on the west, north above the Caspain and Aral seas to the mountains and plateau of Mongolia in the east. The closest part of the steppes to Mesopotamia is across the entire country of Iran about eleven hundred miles (about 1600 miles to the center of the steppe region). This means that Hugh Nibley in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism places the Jaredites over a thousand miles to the north from the region of the Tower of Babel where the Book of Ether places them (Ether 1:33).

For the Jaredites to then travel toward the Pacific Ocean (Nibley’s “great sea”), the journey, would begin somewhere around the Caspian or Aral seas in western Kazarkhan (the steppes), a country twice the size of Alaska, at near sea level, cross thousands of miles to where the current borders of China, Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan come together, then climb through the Altai mountain range then drop down onto the Mongolian plateau through gradual minor plateaus to the Gobi Desert.

After crossing the thousand mile wide Gobi Desert, with its frequent thousand square mile dust storms, they would reach the area of Tianjin along the northwestern coast of the Bay of Chihli, which would have taken them past the area of present-day Beijing on their 4000 mile journey, traverse mountain passes as high as 9,000 to 10,000 feet and a daily temperature swing of over 100-degrees.

Then, once at the sea and barges built, these small, lightweight vessels would have to cross the currents of the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, then the widest point of the Pacific Ocean, around the 30º north latitude, which runs a little north of Hawaii and a little south of San Diego, a total distance of more than 7,500 sea miles—the entire way against all known sea and wind currents.

If, once into the East China Sea they picked up the Kuroshio Current, they would travel with the current and winds up past Japan, east of the Kuril Islands, south of the Aleutians, and down the western coast of America, to about the 30º north latitude (northern Baja California) and then back out to sea by the north equatorial current in the constant ocean gyre of the North Pacific. Again, a trip of some 7,500 miles, with no sea or wind currents to drive them into either Central or South American shores.

Obviously, what may seem logical looking at a map, is not always quite so easy in actual travel—in fact would have been quite impossible in 2100 B.C.

While many scenarios might be possible relating to the Jaredite migration in 2100 B.C., only 220 years or so after the Flood, there are some significant problems with Hugh Nibley’s idea of the Jaredites being from the Steppes area. (See Part II for this information)