The Mulekites—Who Were They? Part IV

When those caring for Mulek fled Jerusalem a step ahead of discovery by the invading and conquering savagery of the Babylonians, they had no time to take much with them. Certainly, scriptural records would not have been at the top of their list of things to take. Probably they took some weapons, clothing, bedding and food if they had time for much at all. As a result, the people later identified as Mulekites would not have gone back to acquire records as did Lehi who sent his sons back for the plates of brass.

Thus, this first group of “Mulekites” left Jerusalem and eventually made their way to the Land of Promise without the benefit of any records. Nor, would it seem, they were record-keeping people for when Mosiah discovered them some 400 years later, “their language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and they denied the being of their Creator” (Omni 1:17).

Consider a people almost four hundred years after the death of those who had come out of Jerusalem, who had lost all knowledge of their beginnings, their heritage, and their founding beliefs. This was the state of Zarahemla and his people when Mosiah and the Nephites encountered them around 200 B.C. One might expect that they would be curious as to their beginnings, where they came from, what land far away had spawned their ancestors.

Suddenly, a group of people show up in the city with records of the Mulekite ancestors and claiming to know all these answers and many more. Obviously, the Mulekites were elated to have such information given them. “Now there was great rejoicing among the people of Zarahemla; and also Zarahemla did rejoice exceedingly, because the Lord had sent the people of Mosiah with the plates of brass which contained the record of the Jews” (Omni 1:14)

“And who believed those record which were brought out of the land of Jerusalem and also in the tradition of their fathers, which were correct, who believed in the commandments of God and kept them, were called the Nephites, or the people of Nephi from that time forth” (Alma 3:11).

“Now all the people of Zarahemla were numbered with the Nephites and this because the kingdom had been conferred upon none but those who were descendants of Nephi” (Mosiah 25:13).

Obviously, the Mulekites, the people of Zarahemla, were thrilled to know who they were, and who was the God of their fathers, and from what land they had come and what their ancient history had been, and to know that they had been led by the hand of the Lord to this land, a Land of Promise, and that they could share in that promise by joining with the Nephites.

No wonder they rejoiced at the coming of Mosiah and the Nephites. And no wonder they elected Mosiah their king, despite outnumbering the Nephites by a large population percentage.

Thus, we can see that the Mulekites, the people of Zarahemla, were originally Jews, having come out of the land of Jerusalem about ten or eleven years after Lehi left, and had among them an ancestry of the king of the Jews through the lineage of Zedekiah.

We should keep in mind that the Mulekites did not have the advantage of the training Nephi had. Nor did they have the ability in building to match that of the early Nephites. But they did built a city they called Zarahemla and occupied a large area of land referred to as the Land of Zarahemla. Once the Nephites arrived, no doubt the city was expanded and increased in size and capability. The current ruins cover a very large area with temples, pyramids, palaces, plazas and residential buildings.

It is just as obvious that the Mulekites, like the Nephites, were a people the Lord led to the Land of Promise. Through their focal leader, Mulek, though a child or baby, people of Jerusalem, whether all Jews or a combination of tribes, and whoever else was involved in that “journey through the wilderness and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters” in some similar manner as had been the Lehi Colony before them.

Differences between Nephite and Mulekite construction. Left, the Temple built by the Nephites in Zarahemla. Right, a wall built (stacked) by Mulekites)

(See the next post, “The Mulekites—Who Were They? Part VI” regarding the city of Mulek and its position within the Land of Promise)