“The Time of the Jaredites Part III

Continuing from the last post, the Prophet Joseph Smith used the dates given by Moses as a basis for one of his lectures in the second lesson of Lectures on Faith in his School of the Prophets. These dates are the same as the dates used by Moses to describe the birth of each prophet and that of his son in the patriarchal order.

Thus, after reading Genesis, Moses, Abraham and the Second Lecture delivered by Joseph Smith, we should be able to provide a realistic and accurate date for the beginning time of the Jaredites. Obviously, with such records at our disposal, we do not need to look for historical data as scholars are wont to do—we need only understand the dates as God has had them set down for our use. The one assumption made is the time of Adam’s “birth,” that is, when Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden and his age began in earthly terms, which most scholars set at about 4000 B.C.

• Adam 130 when Seth was born, year 3870 B.C. (Genesis 5:3/Moses 6:10)

• Seth 105 when Enos was born, year 3765 B.C. (Genesis 5:6/Moses 6:13)

• Enos 90 when Cainan was born, year 3675 B.C. (Genesis 5:9/Moses 6:17)

• Cainan 70 when Mahalaleel was born, year 3605 B.C. (Genesis 5:12/Moses 6:19)

• Mahalaleel 65 when Jared was born, year 3540 B.C. (Genesis 5:15/Moses 6:20)

• Jared 162 when Enoch was born, year 3378 B.C. (Genesis 5:18/Moses 6:21)

• Enoch 65 when Methuselah was born, year 3313 B.C. (Genesis 5:21/Moses 6:25)

• Methuselah 187 when Lamech was born, year 3126 B.C. (Genesis 5:25/Moses 8:8)

• Lamech 182 when Noah was born, year 2944 B.C. (Genesis 5:28-29/Moses 8:12)

• Noah 450 when Japheth was born, year 2494 B.C. (Moses 8:12)

• Noah 492 when Shem was born, year 2452 B.C. (Moses 8:12)

• Noah 500 when Ham was born, year 2444 B.C. (Genesis 5:32/Moses 8:12), and also when the Ark was started (Genesis 6:14)

• Noah 600 when the Flood came, year 2344 B.C. (Genesis 7:6)

Thus, in the year 2344 B.C., 1656 years after Adam left the Garden of Eden, the floods began according to this biblical chronology, supported by both Moses and Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price, and in Joseph Smith’s School of the Prophets. Eventually, the floodwaters ceased to rise and then slowly receded until one year and three days after they began, “the face of the ground was dry,” and in 2343 (Genesis 8:14), the earth was dry once again.

Thus we can conclude that in the year 2343 B.C., Noah left the Ark (Genesis 8:18). Now the Tower of Babel was built sometime after this (Genesis 11:4), for Noah’s son Ham had Cush, and Cush had Nimrod (Genesis 10:6-8), and Nimrod built Babel (Genesis 10:10) and a great tower (Genesis 11:4). This means that the tower was built within two generations of Noah after the Flood, or somewhere between 50 and 100 years, making the latest date 2243 B.C. Sometime in the next few years, God confounded the language of those at Babel and scattered them abroad (Genesis 11:7-9). This was the period Jared and his brother left the area of the tower: “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” (Ether 1:33).

So how is it that Sorenson can write: “Latter-day Saints have accepted a date of around 2200 B.C. for the tower event, actually there is no adequate basis in the Bible for such a date”? Is this not being disingenuous? And why would Hunter and Ferguson claim “3513 B.C. for the Flood”? Is this not denying the scriptural record?

The choice each person has is whether to accept the scriptural record, or to use sectarian history with all its errors and man-included information. To anyone looking for the truth, the answer seems quite simple—though it obviously is not to these Mesoamerican theorists.