Continuing with Joseph L. Allen’s descriptive information in
his book Exploring the Lands of the Book
of Mormon, that poses as Land of Promise discussion but really is meant to
solidify his Mesoamerican model.
While the Lord dictated to Moses what he wrote in Genesis,
including the dates of the Patriarchs, which give us the dates of the Flood
(2344-2343 B.C.), the Aculhua ruler, Ixtlilxochitl Ome Tochtli (left), who
lived in Mesoamerica in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries,
and the last of the native Mayan kings, who Mesoamericanists love to quote,
places the date of the Flood within 60 years of the above date.
The Flood lasted one year and 3 days, which means it was over
in 2343 according to the Biblical record.
Second, in
discussing the tower, the following dates are involved. Shem was 100 years old when Arphaxad was born,
two years after the Flood (Genesis 11:10), or 2341 B.C. Arphaxad was 35 years old when Salah was born
and 65 when Eber was born and 95 when Peleg was born. In the time of Peleg, who lived 239 years
(Genesis 11:18-19) the earth was divided.
Since the earth was divided after
the Tower (Genesis 11:8-9,16-17), the Tower was built and the language
confounded sometime between 2343 BC and 2247 BC. The latter date is the most
likely since Nimrod, the architect and chief builder of the tower, was Ham's
sixth son (Genesis 10:6-8). Nimrod had
to have been a man of some stature before building the Tower. He was a mighty
one in the earth, he was a mighty hunter, he became the leader of all the
people in the land (Genesis 11:1), his kingdom stretched across the land of
Shinar, including Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh (Genesis 10:9).
Thus, we can place the date of the Tower within a hundred
years, and likely close to 2250 BC. We
also know that the Jaredites were led across the wilderness, northward (Ether
1:42) into the valley called Nimrod (Ether 2:1), into a quarter of the land
where no man had ever before been (Ether 2:5), and across many waters large
enough to need barges to carry them (Ether 2:6). Obviously the earth had
already been divided by the time the Jaredites reached the Great Sea. This, then would put the Jaredite landing in
the Land of Promise during Peleg's time, from 2247 B.C. to 2008 B.C.. Splitting the difference, we have chosen to
use the date of 2100 B.C. for the Jaredite landing. which as we said above, is within 100 years of any date within that Peleg lifetime.
This suggests, then, that Jared (above left), his brother, and those
families that went with them whose language was not confused, lived for some
time either in their homeland, or in the wilderness between their homeland
(area of the Tower) and the Great Sea after their confounding of
languages. As an example, the
confounding of the language probably took place around 2250 B.C., and the
arrival of the Jaredites in the Land of Promise was probably around 2100 B.C.,
suggesting Jared, his brother, and friends, lived some 150 years between the
confounding of the language and their arrival in the Land of Promise. Given the
ages of these men as listed in Genesis and the Pearl of Great Price, such
longevity is well within reason.
Continuing with Allen’s comments, he writes: “The Book of Ether records a 30-generation
lineage count from the beginning to the end of the Jaredite history. The date
of the final internal battle, wherein the Jaredite nation fell, is not given in
the Book of Mormon. We do know that it has to be sometime between the coming of
the Mulekites, after the captivity of the Jews by the Babylonians (586 BC), and
the discovery of the 24 gold plates by the Limhi Expedition (121 BC)
First, Allen makes
an assumption that is not supported by scripture, i.e., that the Jaredite
demise happened after the Mulekites
landed in the Land of Promise. That, of
course, is a possibility, but not the only possibility. In the days of
Coriantumr, son of Moron, many prophets came among the Jaredites prophesying
their utter destruction and that the Lord
God would send or bring forth another people to possess the land by his power,
after the manner by which he brought their fathers (Ether 11:21). Notice
that Ether writes this in the future tense—others would be brought forth, not that the Lord already had and they were
already in the Land of Promise. Moroni
quotes Ether as seeing a vision in which Lehi should come to the Land of Promise (Ether 13:5), again using future
tense in Ether's time frame. Thus, we
might deduce that in Ether's day, his visions and understanding of the people
who the Lord would bring to replace the Jaredites in the Land of Promise had not, as yet, arrived.
At this point, Coriantumr was king over all the land and Ether
was the prophet of the Lord (Ether 12:1-2).
During this time, there were continual wars going on among the Jaredites
(Ether 13:15). But Coriantumr would not repent of these wars and try to bring
an end to them. In the second year of this last, great war, Ether was commanded
to deliver a prophecy to Coriantumr that
if he would repent, and all his household, the Lord would give unto him his
kingdom and spare the people (Ether 13:20). If they did not do this, then they should be destroyed and all his household
save it were himself. And he should only live to see the fulfilling of the
prophecies which had been spoken concerning another people receiving the land
for their inheritance; and Coriantumr should receive a burial by them; and
every soul should be destroyed save it were Coriantumr (Ether 13:21).
This should underline for all time the fact that Coriantumr
and the Jaredites were not aware of
any other group in the Land of Promise, were not in the Land of Promise at the
same time as the Mulekites and the Nephites, and that the Land of Promise was
for them if they would repent and live righteously. But Coriantumr did not
repent and the war went on and a great curse settled over the land (Ether
14:1), many thousands died by the sword (Ether 14:4), including women and
children (Ether 14:17,22) and Coriantumr continued to do battle with those who
tried to usurp his crown.
By the time Coriantumr remembered the words Ether spoke, there
had already been killed two millions of mighty men, plus their wives and their
children—a figure that could be upwards of 6 million dead: 2 million men and their wives (another 2
million) and their children (at least another 2 million or so). Though
Coriantumr was thinking of repenting, he was stirred up to anger by the people
(Ether 15:6) and the war continued.
After all the Jaredites were gathered in to battle (Ether
15:14), all were killed on both sides (Ether 15:23,25,) except for Coriantumr
and Shiz (Ether 15:29). In this single, hand-to-hand combat between the king
and the would-be usurper, Coriantumr was victorious (Ether 15:30) and remained,
as prophesied, the last survivor of his people—the last man standing.
What happened between the time Coriantumr killed Shiz and the
time he was discovered by the people of Zarahemla (Omni 1:21) is not
known. However, several possibilities
present themselves as has thoroughly been covered earlier in this work. One example could be found in Moroni surviving the final battle of 385
A.D., and at least living through 421 A.D., a total of 36 years, hiding and
avoiding the numerous Lamanite civil wars. Coriantumr would not be hiding from
anyone for there was no one left for him to fear, but he could have lived many years afterward.
The point is, it cannot be said that the Jaredite people lived until
sometime after Mulek landed. That Coriantumr did, is certain, but this could
have been in the circumstances previously outlined. One of the arguments against the Jaredite
demise prior to or at the time of Mulek's landing is the fact that copper and
brass breastplates were found in "sound" condition, when Limhi's
43-man expedition found the Jaredite remains.
Because of the condition of what was found, it might be assumed it was a
recent demise of the Jaredite civilization.
There are several answers to this concern:
(See the next post, “Where Do We Find Accurate Dates? – Part
V,” for more of Allen’s descriptive information that poses as Book of Mormon
discussion but really is meant to solidify his Mesoamerican model, and specifically how the weapons and armament of the Jaredites could have been "sound" when found by Limhi's expedition)
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