The Mulekite Homeland in the Land of Promise – Part IV

Continued from the previous post regarding the Mulekite homeland, where they landed, where they settled, and who they were.A scriptural reference and two of the four answers were given in the previous post, here with continue with the third and fourth answer:
    Despite the simplicity of these scriptures pointed out in the earlier posts, scholars insist that the Mulekites landed in the Land Northward to satisfy their Mesoamerican model. They claim: “It is possible to draw an incorrect conclusion from vs. 16—Alma may appear to believe that the people of Zarahemla had arrived in the Land Southward and remained there ever since” (Michael M. Hobby, The Mulekite Connection, Zarahemla Foundation Press, Salt Lake City, 1992, p13). Note Hobby’s wordage: Alma may appear to believe.  Alma? First of all, Alma did not write that—Amaleki wrote it (Omni 1:16). Secondly, as an eye witness, Amaleki was present when these discussions between Mosiah and Zarahemla took place. Now, Hobby, who was not there and has no idea what was said or meant, is telling us that he knows more than Amaleki and is correcting Amaleki’s mistake.

Amaleki, who came with Mosiah I and discovered Zarahemla

Consequently, whatever Amaleki wrote, he not only believed it to be true, he had Zarahemla and the other Mulekites to ask for clarification if there was any doubt! It seems the only incorrect conclusion drawn in this question is by the Mesoamerican Theorist himself. And as if to support this thought, Hobby goes on to write: “Yet nowhere does the Book of Mormon identify any other Mulekite city as such.”
    Obviously, because there were none!
    Thus, when one looks at the two scriptures typically quoted by these scholars to claim the Mulekites landed in the Land Northward and eventually migrated southward until they reached the land of Zarahemla, the oft-cited scriptures actually say nothing of the kind—especially when compared with the scripture in Omni.
2. Coriantumr was discovered by the Mulekites while in the Land Northward.
F. Richard Hauck claims that Coriantumr was found in the Land Northward by the Mulekites (Hauck, Deciphering the Geography of the Book of Mormon Lands, p105). He also claims that the Mulekites not only encountered the Jaredites in the Land Northward, but (p162) that the Jaredites influenced the Mulekites’ decision to colonize the land of Zarahemla, even though the land of Zarahemla was far south of the narrow neck and an area completely unknown to the Jaredites.
    Hugh Nibley also wrote of this, saying, “The Jaredites made a permanent cultural impression on the Nephites through Mulek” (Nibley, Lehi in the Desert and The World of the Jaaredites, p244), even though there is no reference to it in the scriptures, other than Coriantumr’s name appearing many centuries later in a Nephite dissident, who was a descendant of Zarahemla. However, there is no scriptural reference to why this man had a Jaredite name, or why his dissenting nature existed, and no connection other than the name being the same as the last Jaredite king.

Red Circle: Jaredite lands and sphere of influence; White Circle: Nephite and Mulekite lands until the last century BC, when Nephites moved into the Land Northward; Yellow Circle: Lamanite lands until the final war in the 4^th century AD when they conquered and annihilated the Nephites

Whether “this shows the Jaredite influence reaching the Nephites through Mulekite channels” or not is unknown—however, it is a huge reach to suggest any Jaredite influence over either the Mulekites or Nephites, the former knowing only one man—Coriantumr—and the latter never knowing any of the Jaredites or their culture other than what they might have learned from Ether’s record that Mosiah interpreted.
    No, it is far more likely that the name he received was after the custom of the Hebrews and Jews of naming their children after great men in their history or of whom they knew. In the Old World, they especially used the names of Egyptians for such, and those within their own culture. In the case of the Nephites, Lehi named his third and fourth sons after Egyptians, and his last two sons Jacob and Joseph, after the patriarchs of his lineage; Mormon named his son after Captain Moroni who he read about in the Nephite record he abridged and for whom he had great admiration; Helaman named his sons Nephi and Lehi after his progenitors as a way of transferring his heritage to his sons, naming them after their noble ancestors to help his sons remember their righteous works (Helaman 5:6-7); and Mormon’s father was named after the man who settled the Land of Mormon in the old Land of Nephi (3 Nephi 5:12). The point is, because someone has a name given him does not mean there was a connection between the namesake and the original name holder— other than an admiration of a man later in life.
    Coriantumr was a great leader, the last king of the Jaredites, who fought valiantly and bravely against many who sought to usurp his throne, and who died, the last of his nation, among the people of Zarahemla, who might not even had considered his evil ways.
    Where the idea came from that the Jaredites as a people, or as a remnant, lived among the Mulekites and influenced their society, and how it was arrived at, is not stated by these Theorists, but it is certain there is no scriptural evidence to indicate anything of the kind. And with Amaleki’s writing (Omni 1:16-17), and to start with, we can state that the Mulekites were never in the Land Northward.

Coriantumr’s journey from the Hill Ramah/Cumorh and the last battle of the Jaredites to Zarehamla where he encountered the people of Zarahemla (Mulekites)

Thus, it was Coriantumr who wandered southward from his homeland after the last, great battle where he killed Shiz (Ether 15:29-31) and became, except for Ether (Ether 15:12), the last Jaredite (Ether 13:21). Obviously, Coriantumr stumbled into Zarahemla where he stayed for nine months to fulfill Ether’s prophecy that before dying, Coriantumr would live long enough as the last Jaredite survivor to see another people inherit the land of promise (Ether 11:21; 13:21)
3. The Mulekites knew of the Jaredite people, and both co-mingled and intermarried with them.
Again, there is no evidence of this in the scriptures. In fact, it would be far easier to make a case for non-contact between the Jaredites and the Mulekites/Nephites than for contact.  Consider the following four examples:
• Since the Mulekites were taught the Nephite language (Omni 1:18), and they joined with the Nephites (Omni :19; Mosiah 25:13) to become one people, one seed (Alma 3:17), it would seem strange if Jaredites were among the Mulekites in any capacity, that no mention of any Jaredites also joining the group is mentioned;
• When Mosiah reached Zarahemla, the Mulekites brought out the large stone upon which Coriantumr had engraved a brief history of the slain of his people (Omni 1:20-21). Mosiah then interpreted this stone for the people of Zarahemla by the gift and power of God. If, as these Mesoamerican Theorists claim, Jaredites lived with the Mulekites in the land and city of Zarahemla, why did they not already interpret those engravings of their own Jaredite language? 
    The engravings were written by a Jaredite, not the Mulekites, and the Jaredites were fully capable of reading and writing throughout their entire history in the land of promise as evidenced by the fact that Ether, at the close of the Jaredite period, wrote his record, and that Coriantumr, the last Jaredite, wrote epistles to his adversary Shiz (Ether 15:4).
(See the next post, “The Mulekite Homeland in the Land of Promise – Part V,” regarding the Mulekite homeland, where they landed, where they settled, and who they were)