We continue to receive comments and questions about those theorists who claim that Mormon described what they perceive as fact that the Mulekites landed in the Land Northward where bones of dead warriors were found. As Mormon described in his insertion into the record: “And it [Bountiful] bordered upon the land which they [earlier Nephites] called Desolation, it [Desolation] being so far northward that it [Desolation] came into the land which had been peopled [Jaredites] and been destroyed [Jaredots], of whose bones [Jaredites] we have spoken, which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla [43-man expedition], it [land where the bones were found] being the place of their [Jaredites] first landing” (Alma 22:30, bracketed inserts added)
Mesoamerican theorists like to point to Alma 22:30 showing that the People of Zarahemla, who discovered the bones scattered in the Land Northward, were Mulekites and it was the place of their first landing in the Land Northward. While this is not a correct reading of that scripture as has been pointed out in numerous posts, the point here is that those involved in king Limhi’s 43-man expedition were not Mulekites.
Mosiah and Limhi discussing the existence of Zarahemla and that it had not been destroyed
After Mosiah discovered the people of Zarahemla, he found that they were the descendants of Mulek and those who came out of Jerusalem with him around 587 BC. After four hundred years of living in the land (Zarahemla) where Mosiah found them, having been brought across the great sea by the hand of the Lord to that spot (Omni 1:15-16), the Mulekites joined with the Nephites and were never again to our knowledge referred to as a separate group as were the Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites (4 Nephi 1:36).
In addition, the Mulekites would have had no knowledge of the Lamanites, no knowledge or any involvement or hereditary connection with the Land of Nephi or the city of Lehi-Nephi (Nephi’s City of Nephi). Thus, when it says that some of the Nephites wanted to go back to reclaim “the land of our fathers' first inheritance” (Mosiah 9:1), we need to understand that only Nephites would have had any connection to this land, where their fathers (ancestors) had lived for some 400 years. The Mulekites, the people of Zarahemla, would have had no knowledge other than what the Nephites of Mosiah might have told them, and certainly did not have any ancestry connected to the Land of Nephi or the city of Lehi-Nephi.
The term “reclaim the land,” strictly had reference to the Land of Nephi and the cities of Nephi, Shemlon and Shilom, not to mention other cities that would have been established after 400 years of Nephite occupation of the Land of Nephi. Reclaiming the land meant to get it back from the Lamanites who moved into the area after Mosiah left.
Zeniff, who gathered as many as would go with him to inherit the land, was the grandfather of “Limhi, the son of Noah, who was the son of Zeniff, who came up out of the land of Zarahemla to inherit this land, which was the land of their fathers, who was made a king by the voice of the people” (Mosiah 7:9). Thus we see that from Zeniff, the first to lead the descendants of earlier Nephites back to reclaim the land of their inheritance through two descendant kings, Noah and Limhi, the latter “being over-zealous to inherit the land of his father,” was obviously a Nephite.
It would also stand to reason that those who went with Zeniff would have been Nephites for they went to reclaim the land, and the leader of this first group angrily wanted to kill Lamanites (Mosiah 9:2). Obviously, no Mulekite would have had such an interest in destroying Lamanites since they were not their hereditary enemy as the Lamanites were to the Nephites,nor had they ever had any contact with them.
Those who went from Zarahemla back to the Land of Nephi, did so to inherit the land of their fathers. As was stated: “I, Zeniff, having been taught in all the language of the Nephites, and having had a knowledge of the land of Nephi, or of the land of our fathers' first inheritance” (Mosiah 9:1, emphasis added).
The initial group that went back to the Land of Nephi ended up in a civil battle among themselves
The initial group with Zeniff among them that went up to the Land of Nephi were an army and evidently made up of only men—who fought against one another regarding whether or not to attack the Lamanites (Mosiah 9:2). They were intent on returning from Zarahemla to the land of their fathers to reclaim the land. As he said, “I, Zeniff, having been taught in all the language of the Nephites, and having had a knowledge of the land of Nephi, or of the land of our fathers' first inheritance” (Mosiah 9:1, emphasis added).
In addition, Zeniff recounted the history of the Lamanites’ mis-treatment of the Nephites (Mosiah 10:13), something the Mulekites would not have known about nor had any interest in. Adding to this, Zeniff said: “[I] told all these things unto my people concerning the Lamanites, I did stimulate them to go to battle with their might, putting their trust in the Lord; therefore, we did contend with them, face to face” (Mosiah 10:19, emphasis added) and drove them out of the land. This does not relate to any Mulekite, since they would not have been stimulated to battle against Lamanites, having no history with them.
Only Nephites would have been so stimulated, and only Nephites would have been interested in the Land of Nephi and re-inheriting or reclaiming the land of their fathers’ first inheritance. “And he said unto them: Behold, I am Limhi, the son of Noah, who was the son of Zeniff, who came up out of the land of Zarahemla to inherit this land, which was the land of their fathers, who was made a king by the voice of the people” (Mosiah 7:9, emphasis added).
Limhi recounts the story of Zeniff and his complaint abut the mis-treatment the Nephites received from the Lamanites in the Land of Nephi
Zeniff, who was made king over this people, he being over-zealous to inherit the land of his fathers” (Mosiah 7:21, emphasis added). Thus, it seems obvious that the people who left Zarahemla and went back to reclaim the city of Lehi-Nephi in the Land of Nephi were Nephites, not Mulekites. This can also be seen in the speech of Abinadi, who would have been a Nephite because of his great knowledge of Jewish history in countering Noah’s false priests, and in Israelite history in quoting the life and history of Moses (Mosiah 12:19-27), something the Mulekites would not have known much about since they had no knowledge of anything on the Brass Plates when Mosiah arrived among them (Omni 1:17), nor could they have read them, their language being so corrupted Mosiah could not understand them upon first reaching them.
Obviously, as a result, two generations later when Zeniff’s grandson, Limhi was named king, he considered those of Zarahemla his brethren (Mosiah 21:24), and he recounted the story of the 43-man expedition he sent to find Zarahemla but who became lost and discovered a land full of bones of those who had peopled the land and been destroyed (Mosiah 21:25-26).
While Mesoamericanists claim the Mulekites had lived among the Jaredites, no one in the expedition knew not about the destroyed people and their bones, and thought them to be the Nephites in Zarahemla.
Had there been any Mulekites in the expedition, they would have known something about the Jaredites and their constant wars, since Coriantumr lived among them for nine months. Also, king Limhi would not have wondered who the people of the bones had been.
Thus, we can see that those who returned to Lehi-Nephi, and Limhi’s 43-man expedition from there later, whom Mormon refers to as the “people of Zarahemla” (Alma 22:30), were actually Nephites, not Mulekites, and that any reference to this group would be to Nephites.
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