The Mulekite Homeland in the Land of Promise – Part XIII

Continued from the previous post regarding the Mulekite homeland, where they landed, where they settled, and who they were, and how numerous theorists have treated this subject erroneously; and continuing below with Sorenson’s remarks about co-mingling of the Jaredites and Mulekites/Nephites, some of which rationale is found in names as discussed in the last part in the previous post.
10. The Jaredites’ final destruction took place after the arrival of the Mulekites and the discovery of the 24-gold plates, probably around 350 B.C.
Quoting the account of Limhi’s 43-man expedition (Mosiah 8:7) which became lost and ended up discovering the Old Jaredite Lands (Mosiah 8:8) in which bones and rusted swords were found (Mosiah 8:11), Joseph Allen claims that these were by the seashore and as such, could not have lasted long in that condition. F. Richard Hauck agrees with this position. Therefore, they erroneously draw the conclusion that this destruction must have happened within a few years of the discovery. However, these scholars forget a simple fact—Jaredite bodies were strewn across the land, not just along the seashore!

The battle of the Jaredite Civil War raged across the land, as the two armies fled from one another from the south to the north, from the west to the eastern shore

According to Ether’s text, there had been an ongoing war in the Land Northward for many years prior to this last, great battle in which nearly two million soldiers had been killed (Ether 15:2) not counting women and children.
    That figure could be doubled when considering how many of the people of Shiz had also perished in these wars. These people had died all across the land (Ether 14:21), meaning, according to B.H. Roberts, there were between ten and fifteen million bodies lying all across the land. And so swift and speedy was the war that there was none left to bury the dead (Ether 14:22), leaving the bodies of men, women, and children strewn across the face of the land and the scent of death covered the entire face of the land (Ether 14:22-23).
    Now after these battles, Shiz pursued a retreating Coriantumr eastward, even to the borders of the seashore where they fought for three days (Ether 14:26), and so great was the death and destruction, that Shiz fled to the land of Corihor (Ether 14:28), killing anyone in his path who would not join his army (Ether 14:27). Coriantumr’s pursuing army pitched their tents in the valley of Shurr, which “was near the hill Comnor” (Ether 14:28). In this battle, so many men, women, and children were killed on both sides that Shiz broke off the engagement and did not pursue Coriantumr’s army further (Ether 14:31).
    In the next running battle, Coriantumr retreats to the waters of Ripliancum (Ether 15:7-8), then drives the army of Shiz southward to a place called Ogath (Ether 15:10), which is near the hill Ramah which is the same hill where Mormon hid up the records (Ether 15:11). It was in this last location where the final, great battle took place (Ether 15:15-30), a place where no mention of the seashore, west or east, is made.
    The conclusion can only be drawn that these bodies which Limhi’s 43-man expedition found could have been located anywhere “across the face of the land,” not just by the seashore as Allen claims, and certainly not that last, great battle near a seashore for the scriptures make no such claim. The fact that this area where the bones were found was called the Land of Desolation because of that destruction, it could be concluded that this land may well have been a type of topography and makeup that might preserve such remains for a very long time.
    Thus, depending upon the location and conditions of the land, both bones, metals, and weapons of war could have been maintained for a lengthy period, certainly long enough if left untouched and unmolested, for the space of almost any amount of time between the last of the Jaredites and their discovery by Limhi’s people.

Ether overlooking the battlefield 

Perhaps the most decisive argument against the Jaredites living in parallel time with the Nephites is found in Ether. He writes: (Ether 13:2) For he truly told them of all things from the beginning of man; and that after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord; wherefore the Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof;
    Note the past tense that relates to things already having happened as they relate to Ether’s time. From there, Ether switches to the future tense:
    (Ether 13:3-6) And that it was the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord. Behold, Ether saw the days of Christ, and he spake concerning a New Jerusalem upon this land. And he spake also concerning the house of Israel, and the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come—after it should be destroyed it should be built up again, a holy city unto the Lord; wherefore, it could not be a new Jerusalem for it had been in a time of old; but it should be built up again, a holy city unto the Lord; and it should be built unto the house of Israel. And that a New Jerusalem should be built upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type.
    Note the future tense so carefully chosen by Ether to write about things that had not yet happened, including Lehi not yet having been led out of Jerusalem and to this land of promise. Ether then switches back and forth from past to present tense, using 12 past tense expressions, and 17 future tense expressions between vs 2 and vs 12. Obviously, Ether saw the final destruction of his people (Ether 15:29) except for Coriantumr (Ether 15:31), the same Coriantumr that the people of Zarahemla discovered (Omni 1:21). With this setting of Ether’s time, the last Jaredite survivor other than Coriantumr, we see a time frame setting for the Jaredite collapse and destruction.
    (Ether 13:5) And he spake also concerning the house of Israel, and the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come. 
    In discussing where the old and new Jerusalem would be located, Ether tells us that Lehi had not yet left Jerusalem, and that the city had not yet been destroyed. Note that he speaks of these two events in the future tense, as he does of other events that had not yet taken place. A note should be made of the comment in verse 7 that Moroni, who is abridging Ether’s record, mentions that a seed of Joseph had already been led out of Jerusalem. Moroni is obviously thinking in the past tense from his vantage point in 400 A.D. to prove Ether’s point that the Lord does, in fact, look after his people, since Moroni already knew the completion of this promise of the Lord about which Ether wrote.  

The last Jaredite battle with Shiz and Coriantumr fighting to the death took place about the same time as Lehi was leaving Jerusalem with his family

The statement in verse 5 would suggest, then, that the last Jaredite battle took place around the time Lehi left Jerusalem, and that Coriantumr lived long enough to encounter Mulek and his early group in the land of Zarahemla before he, the last Jaredite survivor, died.    Using this scripturally based time frame, even giving the widest latitude for the incidents, it appears that the last Jaredite battle that saw Coriantumr kill Shiz (Ether 15:29) happened shortly after 600 B.C., and that Coriantumr lived about another dozen years to encounter Mulek and his people in the land of Zarahemla where he wandered, leaving the Land Northward which had been the scene of his evil, non-repentant ways and the total destruction of his people. 
    How appropriate to the Lord’s way of doing things that Coriantumr wandered for these years across the land and finding not another single soul alive. He would have come to understand Ether’s prediction that he would be the lone survivor—then, finally, after all this time in which he knew without a doubt that he was the last Jaredite survivor, to stumble across the people of Zarahemla, who the Lord had led out of Jerusalem to inherit the land of promise. How bitter and galling this would have been to Coriantumr—and how utterly exact had been the Lord’s promise to him through Ether.
(See the following post, “The Mulekite Homeland in the Land of Promise – Part XIV,” regarding the Mulekite homeland, where the Mulekites landed, where they settled, and who they were, as well as how numerous theorists have treated this subject erroneously)