The Mulekites—Who Were They? Part VIII

One of the important controversies among scholars and theorists is where did the Mulekites, those who came to the land of promise with Mulek, land. Mesoamerican theorists like to point out that Alma 22:30 shows that the Mulekites landed in the Land Northward. But as pointed out in the last post, that is simply not the case for that verse does not indicate the Mulekites at all. Which leaves people wondering where the landing site actually was located.

And they came down into the land which is called the land of Zarahemla. And they discovered a people who were called the people of Zarahemla

So where did the Mulekites land when they reached the Land of Promise? We have the writing of Amaleki, the fifth great grandson of Lehi, who was with Mosiah when they discovered the city of Zarahemla and the people that lived there around 200 B.C. Amaleki tells us the Nephites with Mosiah I “came down through the wilderness until they came down into the land which is called the land of Zarahemla. And they discovered a people, who were called the people of Zarahemla” (Omni 1:13-14).

These people of Zarahemla were the descendants of Mulek and those who left Jerusalem with him at the time of the Babylonian invasion.

Amaleki then goes on to write: “Behold, it came to pass that Mosiah discovered that the people of Zarahemla came out from Jerusalem at the time that Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon” (Omni 1:15), which would have been about 587 B.C. “And they journeyed in the wilderness, and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters, into the land where Mosiah discovered them; and they had dwelt there from that time forth” (Omni 1:16).

Now, the “land where Mosiah discovered them” was called the land of Zarahemla. And Amaleki tells us that they had dwelt there in that land of Zarahemla from the time of their landing to the time Mosiah discovered them. By necessity, this landing site and the subsequent area in which they pitched their tents as Lehi had done, was basically along the coast of what they called the West Sea. The Lehi colony landed along this same coast further to the south, and encamped close to the shore as is indicated in that area referred to “on the west in the land of Nephi, in the place of their fathers’ first inheritance, and thus bordering along by the seashore” (Alma 22:28).

It would seem obvious that after a long sea voyage, the Mulekites did as the Lehi colony had done, pitched their tents in the basic area where they landed. In the case of the Mulekites, they eventually built a city there, a city that they called Zarahemla at the time Mosiah discovered them. Some claim that Zarahemla (Za-Rahem-la) means “my son, the seed of my womb is taken away and scattered,” which could suggest that Zedekiah’s descendant was “scattered to a land across the sea.” Zara also means the “true seed,” again suggesting the rightful heir of the kingdom of Judah was scattered—driven or led away from Jerusalem.

In any event, the Mulekites landed along the west coast of the Land of Promise—not the east coast—for the Lord led Mulek and those who came with him, to a land under the same circumstances that he brought Lehi. That is, “it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of otbher nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land that there would be no place for an inheritance” (2 Nephi 1:8). Since Mulek left Jerusalem about ten years after Lehi, it would seem obvious that whatever secrecy the Lord arranged for which the Lehi colony to come to the land of promise. He would have wanted to same secrecy in the Mulekite travels.

This alone should suggest that no sailing from the Mediterranean Sea by Phoenician seamen or any others would have been acceptable in keeping the Land of Promise from the knowledge of other people. It should also suggest that however the Mulekites got to the Land of Promise, they did so on their own as the Jaredites and Nephites before them. Thus, we can understand that the Mulekites came across the Pacific or Southern Ocean as had the Jaredites and Nephites before them, and landed along the western shore as had the Nephites before them.