How Many in the Jaredite Expeditition

Let’s take a fresh look at the following:

Ether 6:14
14 And Jared had four sons; and they were called Jacom, and Gilgah, and Mahah, and Orihah.
Ether 6:15
15 And the brother of Jared also begat sons and daughters.
Ether 6:16
16 And the friends of Jared and his brother were in number about twenty and two souls; and they also begat sons and daughters before they came to the promised land; and therefore they began to be many.

These verses give us some idea of the size of the Jaredite party. There appear to be forty-four adults. The males would be the twenty two counted souls (plus Jared and the brother of Jared), and each would likely have a wife. Prior to the departure for the New World, they had sons and daughters. Some would have been born prior to leaving the Tower area, and some probably born in the four years in the wilderness. The brother of Jared has twelve children. If we assume that this is accurate, and perhaps typical, then we might also postulate that many of the men had more than one wife (although the numbers are suggestive that something else might be going on.

Taking this information to give us a probable maximum number, we would have twenty-for adult males, perhaps forty-eight adult females, and two hundred and eighty eight children. The total party would have a probable maximum of 360 people after arriving on the shores of the New World. That would constitute a reasonably large community.

These numbers, however, should be considered a maximum, and the actual party was probably less. For instance, it would be unlikely that every one of the twenty four adult males was able to afford or socially qualify for more than one wife, and that would reduce both the number of adults and the number of children. The high number of twelve children also comes from a count after they have been in the New World, so it would plausibly include children born after the transoceanic voyage.

Taking all this into account: Passengers — 120 min. to 360 max. Dividing by 8 barges = 15 to 45 per barge. (Perhaps the barges were a bit bigger than we first thought.)

Howard

The Voyage Begins

The following is from Bro. Mark E Peterson’s book — “the Jaredites”

THE VOYAGE BEGINS

In many respects the voyage of the Jaredites to America resembled the experience of Noah in the ark. Each voyage lasted about a year. In each case, the people had to build their own ships. Animals and birds were involved, together with all the problems of providing for their care over many months.

As only a miracle made Noah’s accomplishment possible, so it was with the Jaredites. The Lord gave similar attention to both. He had his own special purposes in each undertaking, and he assured their certain success.

The brother of Jared brought his luminous stones down from the mountain and placed one in each end of all eight barges. Then there was light.

“And it came to pass that when they had prepared all manner of food, that thereby they might subsist upon the water, and also food for their flocks and herds, and whatsoever beast or animal or fowl that they should carry with them—and it came to pass that when they had done all these things they got aboard of their vessels or barges, and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God.” (Ether 6:4.)

It is not certain how many people actually made this journey. The record says that Jared had four sons. The brother of Jared had both sons and daughters, but the number is not mentioned. “And the friends of Jared and his brother were in number about twenty and two souls; and they also begat sons and daughters before they came to the promised land.” (Ether 6:16.) So no definite number was mentioned.

The ships apparently were somewhat like submarines, for they could travel both on the surface of the sea and beneath it. They were not self-propelled, but were totally dependent on divine power to make the journey.

The Lord “caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.

“And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.

“And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters.

“And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind. . . . And no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water.”

Knowing that they must rely entirely on the Lord, not only to reach the Promised Land but also to preserve their lives, the people were humble and devoted. “They did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord.”

The sea voyage lasted for 344 days, and at last they landed on the shore of the promised land. “When they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them.”

Since they had brought seeds of various kinds as well as some animals, the people began to establish farms at once.

Sincerely grateful for their safe passage to America, they worshipped the Lord with great devotion, “and they were taught to walk humbly before the Lord.” Since the brother of Jared had such a close relationship with God, it is not surprising that the record adds, “And they were also taught from on high. And it came to pass that they began to spread upon the face of the land, and to multiply and to till the earth; and they did wax strong in the land.”

Diagram of a Jaredite Barge?

Click on diagram to open in new window

Painting of Jaredites leaving City of Babel

Review of Skousen’s First Thousand Years (part 2)

A  Review of Cleon Skousen’s “First Thousand Years”,
by Howard G Wood

In this review, I shall only cover the period of the Jaredites Leaving Mesopoptamia , confusion of tongues and onwards.

The Jaredites Depart  Babel–

Having been told to gather animals, birds, fresh-water fish, and the honeybee called “Deseret”. In addition, they were also to have gathered seeds for all types of domestic crops. Afterwhich, they started their travels in the valley northward called “the valley of Nimrod”. This wilderness apparently have not been occupied before.

Skousen is not certain if they travelled east or west, and that after the Flood, large inland seas were left in both directions. In order to cross these bits of water, they build barges and finally made it to the seashore, in which they camped for four years. At this point, the brother of Jared appoaches the Lord, and receives a severe rebuke. He then is told to prepare for an epic journey accross the large ocean.

They are told to build 8 barges, similar to their previous ones used to cross the minor waters. They were going to be similar to the Ark of Noah, but not nearly so large. The barges were to be extreamly water worthy, being submerged quite often. Food, livestock, and other provisions were then prepared for the journey.

The Epic Voyage Began —

A Furious Wind Blew —This wind blew towards the promised land, though tossed about and buried beneath the surface. “…and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.” The voyage took 344 days to cross the ocean. Animal life soon flourished and cities were built and a great civilization soon came into being. We also learn that they brought records with them so the teachings of the ancient patriarchs and the true history of the race was preserved among them.

Confusion of Tongues —

Sometime after their departure from Babel, a great calamity fell upon the city.

The confusion of tongues is described a bit differently by differect folks. Skousen tells  how a “simple psychological device known to the Lord several different systems of linguistic phonetics suddenly appeared among the people.” “The Confusion of Tongues was really a multiple ‘gift of tongues’ which conferred various languages upon the people so that they now expressed themselves by different linguistic  sounds from the ones they had originally learned.”

Skousen goes to to say “The psycological principle upon which the gift of tongues is based is not known to us, but Paul assures us that of all the special dispensations of heaven this is one of the most ordinary.”

Peoples Disperse —

Soon after their language had been changed, their “original spirit of unity among them disappeared.”  “Immediately they set out in groups to find new homes and new lands.” Skousen tell us that they had full knowledge that this is what God wanted them to do. “They had been warned that this calamity would fall upon them if they did not disperse and spread abroad in the earth.

“Now there began to be many nations. As the people spread abroad they are described as originally settling in many areas throughout the world. Skousen then lists these regions in his book p.238-239.

Specifically, Shem’s descendants sttled: Chaldea, Syria, Part of Armenia, Salem (Jerusalem), Damascus, Eastern Mesopotamia. Notice this is where Abraham (and perhaps Melchizadek) comes from.

Skousen goes on to say: “It should not be assumed, however, that these tribal settlements were exclusive to the nationalities designated. We know that there was a great mixing of all peoples; for example, even though Shem’s descendants occupied much of Mesopotamia, nevertheless Nimrod and other rebellious elements of the Hamitic tribe remained in that vicinity and built Babylon, Nineveh and other great cities.”

“Thus the foundations of nations were laid. Most of them afterwards lost track of their origins and filled in their histories with myths or distored versions of true history. Reasearch ahs revealed that neither their genealogies nor their fictionalized histories can be trusted.”

Hugh Nibley — BYU Book of Mormon Lecture ~ #109

Hugh Nibley

BYU Book of Mormon Lecture ~ #109

Text link

Audio link

 

The Flood of Winds —

After the waters of the flood had subsided, there came the great wind floods. There are the three great floods. The flood of water, the flood of wind, and the last will be the flood of fire. This was the great wind flood which converted large areas all over the world into sandy deserts…

…We get that in the book of Ether, too. These things are not only recorded, but they are recorded geologically. Historical reality is attested by wind-blown deposits being studied everywhere-especially by the Dutch, because all Holland was one of those deposits-can be broadly correlated in some of the major migrations of people. Well here I have a very long footnote with all sorts of references. When the ice thawed in the last Ice Age, great winds blasted out from that, carrying this fine glacial dust that was deposited as loess in China, and on the eastern side in the Hungarian Basin and in eastern Europe and in western China. There were these great deposits of lace from the dust being blown. But the thing is that we get a lot of this in [other places]-we certainly get it in Egypt.

The burans of Asia are terrible at all times. Ancient and modern travelers tell almost unbelievable but uniform tales of those appalling winds that almost daily shift vast masses of sand, dust, and even gravel from one part of the continent to the other. Of course, nobody goes out at 4:00 p.m. in the summertime in Egypt because of the violent winds. The khamsin is going to begin now, the fifty-day wind that blows the sand and the gravel. That’s why there’s [only] heavy sand left. You walk on a crust of very coarse sand because all the fine stuff has been blown for thousands of years. And it has exposed all the stuff lying around. The great loess deposits on the eastern and western fringes of the vast area bear witness to even more dreadful dust storms (just after the Flood) that accompanied the drying up of the land after the glacial epic. But it is when the world’s weather gets out of hand, as it has a number of times in the course of history, that the blowing sands of Asia bring mighty empires to ruin, bury great cities almost overnight, and scatter the tribes in all directions to overrun and submerge the more favored civilizations of the east and west.

…It is only in recent years that men have begun to correlate the great migrations of history, with their attendant wars and revolutions, with those major weather crises such as the great wind and drought of 2300-2200 b.c., the terrible droughts of 1700 b.c., the world floods of 1300 b.c., the great drought of 1000 b.c., the Fimbulwinter of 850 b.c., or the terrible winter of 1600 at the time of Elizabeth I, when the Thames seems to have frozen right to the bottom.

…Remember Abraham; the famine waxed sore throughout all Abraham’s land. There was corn in Egypt. That was the only place where there was corn, so everybody went to Egypt. Just as suddenly, calamity struck and overtook an Asian village in 1927, we’re told. “When the storm laid itself to rest, the flying sand solidified again and the terrified nomads found the whole face of nature changed into new shapes.” …

The Tower of Babel Traditions —

And, of course, Babylon or Babel, the city of the tower, has left behind the richest deposits of legend and tradition. I give various examples here.:

Quoting from Theophilus of Antioch:] “But when the threats of the great God were fulfilled, of which he had warned mortal men at the time, they built a tower in the Assyrian land. They all at once spoke the same language and wanted to mount up to the starry heavens. But forthwith the Immortal One laid great stress upon the blasts, so that the wind overthrew the mighty tower, and drove mortals to strive with one another. And when the tower had fallen, the languages of men were divided up into many dialects, so that the earth became filled with different kingdoms of men.” You form dialects when people come together and when people separate. Both those effects are what change language, of course. You get new language when people come together. You get new language when people separate. Both happened at the tower.

And from the Book of Jubilees: “The Lord sent a mighty wind against the tower and overthrew it upon the earth, and behold, it was between Asshur and Babylon in the land of Shinar, and they called its name ‘Overthrow.’ “

My favorite source, the zealous learned Persian Thaclabi, records that the people were scattered from the tower by an awful drought accompanied by winds of such velocity as actually blew down the tower. Bar Hebraeus, who was the great collector of Central Asiatic lore from the Middle Ages, said that forty years after the tower had been finished God sent a wind, the tower was overturned, and Nimrod died in it. There’s no reason for doubting that a great city called Babel once long ago suffered the same fate as the people of cAd, and Thamud, of Lou Lan, Etsingol, or the Nasamonians and others.

Jaredites to Build Ships — Their Departure

So we have in the history of the Jaredites a very freakish state of things. The Lord commanded Nephi to build a ship, you know, but it was an ordinary ship. Lehi’s people had to cross water at least twice as much-probably three or four times as much-as the Jaredites. They took the short North Pacific route. But the Jaredite ships were altogether unusual vessels. The Lord gave the builder special instructions for every detail. They had to be submersible yet ride very lightly on the surface of the waves. They were small, and they were light upon the water, we’re told, yet built to stand terrific pressure-exceedingly tight, tight like unto a dish, with special sealed vent holes that could not be opened when the water pressure on the outside was greater than the air pressure within. The Lord explained that it would be necessary to build such peculiar vessels because he was about to loose winds of incredible violence that would make the crossing a frightful ordeal at best. Any windows, he warned, would be dashed to pieces. Fire would be out of the question. Ether 2:24 -25: “Ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you.…Ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?”

See, the book of Ether enters right into the scene. This is exactly the situation we find, this violence etc., and the Lord talking. You say, well how could they endure? Ether 6:8 says, “The wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters.” That’s 344 days of these violent winds. Verses 5-6: “And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters,…and they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.”

The Brothr of Jared —

Verse 34: “And the brother of Jared being a large and mighty man [notice, this is the brother of Jared who is going to be the hero now] highly favored of the Lord, Jared, his brother said unto him: Cry unto the Lord.” See, he has to ask his brother to do it, but it’s by way of command. He’s the one who gives orders here. He said, “Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us.” Our words will only be confounded if we’re confounded. Confound means “to mix up together.” If we get mixed together with other people (of course they’re speaking different dialects and languages), we’ll have an awful time trying to understand each other. It’s very much like the ward in Cairo where we have a dozen African languages there, and some of them speak nothing else. We have services in Arabic, and we’re confounded and mixed up. We have an awful time understanding each other. That’s what they’re talking about here-what happened at the tower when people were forced to move. “Cry again unto the Lord.” Notice, this is going to be a large migration, and he is going to get a company. He’s not like Lehi, a family job. This is something else.

Verse 37: “And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon their friends and their families also, that they were not confounded [it’s going to be a large group that moves out].…Go and inquire of the Lord whether he will drive us out of the land, and if he will drive us out of the land, cry unto him whither we shall go [if he does]. And who knoweth but the Lord will carry us forth into a land which is choice above all the earth?” When they looked for a promised land, they didn’t very often find it. That’s when they wandered. Remember, he visits the queen in Carthage, and he says, “Through various violent experiences, through rough clashes and wars, struggles against nations, so many showdowns and fights, we are looking for a place where we can find a quiet place to settle [which is to become glorious Rome], whose empire will terminate only with the bounds of the ocean and whose glory shall reach beyond the stars.” This is the promised land theme. They all have this promised land theme, because if you were wandering, you were cast out, you’d want to go to a better land. You’d want a good one and would say, for heaven’s sake, when can we settle? When will we be in Zion? When will we reach there? So this happens again. They’re doing it all the time. Will it be a land choice above all the others? Verse 40: “And it came to pass that the Lord did hear the brother of Jared [and this is what he says]:…Go to and gather together thy flocks.” Notice they move on a vast front.

We have from the thirteenth century b.c. marvelous accounts of the coming of the people of the sea along the north coast of Africa and along the coast of Europe. They came from the West, because the climate drove them, and we have pictures of them. Their ships followed along by sea, and they followed along by land. They went clear up into Palestine. They were beaten by Merneptah in a battle at the delta, so they couldn’t settle in Egypt. But they came by the thousands with these huge oxcarts loaded, along with their families and all the goods they owned. They lumbered along the coast while their ships accompanied them. That’s the way the Vikings used to do, too. Thousands of years later our own ancestors did the same thing. They [the people of the sea] settled clear down in Italy, and they got to Palestine. It’s funny these things that go on. You say, this is where I came in. This is the same old story again. Well, this is a part of history we can’t afford to ignore.

So he goes on in this first chapter, “Gather together thy flocks, both male and female, of every kind; and also of the seed of the earth of every kind; and thy families; and also Jared thy brother and his family [get everybody together you can-see, this is going to be a big crowd].…Thou shalt go at the head of them down into the valley which is northward.” Then it says “where there never had man been.” I’m leaving out all sorts of things here. Verses 42-43: “And there will I meet thee…and raise up unto me . . a great nation. And there shall be none greater.” This is what they wanted.

Ether 2:1 : So they “went down into the valley which was northward,” which was the valley of Nimrod. It’s very interesting that in the north end of Mesopotamia all the places bear the name Nimrod. There’s Bir Nimrod and dozens of Nimrod names up north in Mesopotamia where you go through. Then you go east and what do you do? You cross many waters. “And they did also lay snares and catch fowls of the air; and they did also prepare a vessel, in which they did carry with them the fish of the waters [we give examples of these things]. And they did also carry with them deseret, which, by interpretation, is a honey bee.” We mentioned the fact that deseret is the mystic, secret name given to the honey bee by the Egyptians, too. The Egyptians were moving in the same direction. They moved with the honey bee. He was their leader when they moved in the other direction. They moved toward the southwest, and these people moved toward the northeast in opposite directions. Remember, it was the descendant of Noah, Egyptus, who led her people into Egypt. They settled there in the opposite direction at this time, and deseret was their beacon, their sign.

You can see the family about ready to depart; they’ve packed all the baggage and everything for all these people. Somebody is running around among the wagons saying, “What happened to little deseret?” Deseret always gets lost when they’re going to go. It means “hives of bees,” and they do take hives of bees with them. It’s a very interesting thing. You remember there were no bees in the New World. There were no bees in Mesopotamia until quite late. Bees were first found in Palestine and Egypt. They’re not spread around universally, as you might think. In the Chilam Balam you’ll find them in the New World when they were brought here. It’s very interesting, the distribution of bees. There’s been a good deal written about that.

But anyway, the Lord talked with the brother of Jared, and they went “forth into the wilderness, yea, into that quarter where there never had man been.” Well, you get the idea that there’s quite a world population at this time, but they went into virgin territory where there’d never been anyone. As they traveled in the wilderness, they built shallow barges. A very recent National Geographic, which I wish I’d brought along, shows the shrinking of the great Aral Sea in Central Asia. It’s just east of the Caspian, which is practically shrinking to nothing. That’s a huge sea. There were these huge shallow seas. Then you go further west, and there are many seas. All of western Asia was drying out at this time. In 1906 Raphael Pompelli-we have his vast work published by the Smithsonian here-made an exploration of those central Asiatic regions, and it was all shallow water. It was all under water. Well, they still tell you in documentaries about a wandering lake in central Asia. Because of the winds the lake actually wanders around. It’s so shallow. It was full of shallow water, and at the time of the Jaredites, just after the flood, they seemed to be much deeper, but they built these barges of shallow draft because they had to cross a lot of water on their passing. Then when they got to the ocean they had to build a different type of boat entirely. But all these things that he’s talking about are geographically correct. You get Pompelli’s book. I might put it out.

Oh, I was going to tell you what subject we’re going to write about. These things are really quite remarkable that Joseph has given us here, you know. The Lord talked to him, and they built their many barges. But you’ll notice (verse 7), he “would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness.” They had to cross the Caspian, which was a vast sea at that time, twice as large, at least 2,000 miles long. It was huge, and after they’d crossed it, he said they had to keep going. They hadn’t arrived yet. So that’s the picture we get.

History of Jaredites — Orson Pratt, 1873

 Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt (vol. 16),
delivered in the Tabernacle, Ogden, Sunday Morning, May 18, 1873.
Reported by James Taylor.

 

The Tower —

 

We come down to the days of the building of the Tower of Babel, soon after the flood.

 

About the time of Abraham the Tower of Babel was built. The people being of one language, gathered together to build a tower to reach, as they supposed, the crystalized heavens. They thought that the City of Enoch was caught up a little ways from the earth, and that the city was within the first sphere above the earth; and that if they could get a tower high enough, they might get to heaven, where the City of Enoch and the inhabitants thereof were located.

 

They went to work and built a tower. They had this tradition, that there had been a translation of people from the earth, and they were anxious to become acquainted with them; but the Lord saw that they were one, and that they all had one language, and that nothing would be restrained from them which they imagined to do; and, as a curse, he sent a variety of tongues—took from them their own mother-tongue. The language of Adam was all forgotten in a moment; and independently of taking away from them the knowledge of their own tongue, he gave them a multitude of other tongues, so that they could not understand one another.

 

Jaredites Departure /with Records —

 

In those days there were a few righteous individuals living at the Tower, among whom was Jared, a very good man, and his brother. When they understood, by the spirit of prophecy, that the Lord was about to scatter the people to the four corners of the earth, the brother of Jared called upon the Lord, by the request of Jared, that the Lord might lead them to a choice land.

 

Did they come upon this great western hemisphere without a knowledge of God? No.

 

Without any written record? No. Read the Book of Mormon, page 530, or, in other words, the Book of Ether, and you will find there recorded, several generations after the Israelites came from the Tower of Babel and landed upon this continent, that there was a certain woman, the daughter of one of the ancient men of note, that referred her father to those records which their fathers brought from the Tower of Babel; told her father what was recorded in them. “Hath my father not read the record which our fathers brought across the great deep? Behold, is there not an account concerning them of old; that they, by their secret plans did obtain kingdoms and great glory.” She put it in the heart of her father, Jared, to follow those wicked acts which were entered into by Cain. It shows that the Jaredites did not come here without a record of the things from the days of Adam, down; they had it with them. They kept it with them, and multiplied copies in the midst of their nation.

 

Jaredites’ Records

 

But you may ask, how do we know about this first colony that came to this continent? How came we in possession of this knowledge? It was by the records which they themselves kept. The Jaredites, acquainted with the art of writing, kept their records. And among the host of records kept by them, were twenty-four plates of pure gold, which were kept by the Prophet Ether, some 1,600 or 1,800 years after their colony came to this land, from the Tower of Babel. He kept a record. These records were carried by Ether from the hill Ramah, afterwards called Cumorah, where the Jaredites were destroyed, as well as the Nephites. He carried them forth towards South America, and placed them in a position north of the Isthmus, where a portion of the people of King Limhi, about one hundred years before Christ, found them. I will read you a little description of their being found.

 

On page 161, Book of Mormon, it appears that the people of Limhi were a certain colony that had left the main body of the Nephites, and had settled in the land where Nephi built and located his little colony, soon after their landing on the western coast of South America. After landing, and after the death of his father Lehi, Nephi was commanded of God to take those who would believe in the Most High, and flee out from his brethren. And they traveled many days’ journey to the northward, and located in a land which they called the Land of Nephi, and dwelt there some four hundred years. And then because of the wickedness of the people they were threatened with a great destruction.

 

The Lord led Mosiah out of the Land of Nephi, and led him still further north, some twenty days’ journey, and they located on the river Sidon, now called Magdalena, which runs from the south to the north. And there they found a people called the people of Zarahemla. And some of the Nephites desired to return to the Land of Nephi, which they did. In about a century afterwards, there being no communication between the colonies, they sent out a number of men to see if they could find the people of Zarahemla. And they were lost, and came to a part of a country covered with bones. This is what I am going to read. And as a testimony that these things were true they brought twenty-four plates of gold, and breastplates of brass and copper, and swords, &c.

“And now I, Moroni, proceed to give an account of those ancient inhabitants who were destroyed by the hand of the Lord upon the face of this north country. And I take mine account from the twenty and four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ether. And as I suppose that the first part of this record, which speaks concerning the creation of the world, and also of Adam, and an account from that time even to the great tower, and whatsoever things transpired among the children of men until that time, is had among the Jews—Therefore I do not write those things which transpired from the days of Adam until that time;” (Now notice the next sentence;) “but they are had upon the plates; and whoso findeth them, the same will have power that he may get the full account.”

Book of Ether = 1/100th of Jaredite Records

. . . We have the Book of Ether, that is not one-hundredth part of the contents of those twenty-four plates. But a very short account. Whose findeth these twenty-four plates will have power to get the full account; for they give a history from the days of Adam through the various generations to the days of the flood, from the days of the flood down to the days of Peleg, and from the days of Peleg to the Tower, which was very nearly cotemporary with Peleg. And from that time for some sixteen or eighteen centuries after they landed on this continent. The prophecies of their Prophets in different generations, who published glad tidings of joy upon the face of all the northern portion of this continent. Their records and doings are all to come to light, and these will help to fulfill the words of our text that the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep.

 

 

Jaredite History — Orson Pratt, 1868

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt (vol.12),
delivered in the Old Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Dec. 27, 1868.
Reported by David W. Evans.

Post Flood & the Tower —

A few hundred years after all these things had transpired on this Continent, and Noah and his family, the only survivors of the Flood, had been wafted away to distant lands,and had peopled a portion of Asia, the descendants of Noah undertook to build a great tower that they might make themselves a great name, instead of fulfilling the purposes of the Almighty, in spreading forth, and occupying and subduing the earth. The Lord was very much displeased with them on that occasion, because of the wickedness that existed in their midst, which was calculated to be strengthened through their unity. Hence He made a decree, according to the old Book—the Bible, that they should not dwell thus, together. He confounded their language, and swore in His wrath that they should be scattered. A portion of the people from that tower came to this Continent.

Jared Heeds the Warnings of: Counfounding of Languages & Scattering

There is something very remarkable in connection with the colonization of our Continent by people from that tower. I said they were a righteous people. Perhaps this may surprise some, especially if they have drawn the conclusion that all the people who engaged in building of that tower were wicked.

But there were some few families among them who served the Lord their God, and when they learned the decree of Jehovah, that their language was to be confounded, and the people scattered to the four winds of heaven, they had considerable anxiety on the subject. They were anxious that they might be favored of the Lord and that He would lead them to a choice portion of the earth. They made it a subject of earnest prayer, and God heard them, and the language of the righteous portion of the people was not confounded.

Jaredites Depart —

And God gave them a commandment to go down from the tower to a valley that was northward, called the valley of Nimrod, named after a mighty hunter who existed in those days. After they had come down into this valley by the command of the Lord they collected seeds and grain of every kind, and animals of almost every description, among which, no doubt, were the elephant and the curelom and the cumom, very huge animals that existed in those days, and after traveling and crossing, we suppose, the sea that was east of where the Tower of Babel stood, and traveling through the wilderness many days, with their flocks and herds, their grain and substance, they eventually came to the great Pacific ocean, on the eastern borders of China or somewhere in that region.

They were commanded of the Lord to build vessels. They went to work and constructed eight barges. They did not understand the art of Navigation as we do in these days. They had no astronomical instruments by which they could ascertain the altitude of the sun, or the altitude of the moon and stars, by which they could determine their position on the great and mighty ocean.

Crossing the Ocean

But the same God who had led them from the Tower of Babel and had gone before them in a bright cloud by day, and had hovered over their camp and had directed them in their journey through the wilderness, was their navigator in crossing the ocean. They entered these eight barges, about the construction of which it may be well to say a few words. A great many opposers of the Book of Mormon, in reading the account of these vessels, have really supposed that there was an insurmountable difficulty connected with the building of these barges because there happened to be a hole in the top, and another hole constructed in the bottom to enable the beings shut up in them to be watertight. These vessels were built, not in the form of a tea saucer as has been represented by some “anti-Mormons” in their discussions; butthe Book of Mormon informs us that they were peaked at the ends, and enlarged as they came to the middle, and they were tight like a dish on the water, and were very light, like to the lightness of a fowl.

They were exceedingly strong, and the length of a tree. This is a phrase very similar to one used by Isaiah who says, “the age of His people shall be as the age of a tree.” Isaiah does not say what kind of a tree. It was simply a way the ancients had of comparing a great many things. Now these vessels were so constructed that when furious winds should blow upon the face of the great deep, and the waves should roll mountains high they could without imminent danger plunge beneath the waves, and be brought up again to the surface of the water during tremendous hurricanes and storms.

Now to prepare them against these contingencies, and that they might have fresh air for the benefit of the elephants, cureloms or mammoths and many other animals, that perhaps were in them, as well as the human beings they contained, the Lord told them how to construct them in order to receive air, that when they were on the top of the water, whichever side up their vessels happened to be, it mattered not; they were so constructed that they could ride safely, though bottom upwards and they could open their air holes that happened to be uppermost. Now all our ships at the present day are constructed with holes in the bottom as well as in the top. I have crossed the ocean twelve times, but I never saw a ship yet that did not have a hole in the bottom for the convenience of passengers, and it is one of the simplest things in the world to have holes in the bottom of a ship if you only have tubes running up sufficiently high above the general water mark. These were so constructed that when the waves were not running too high, air could be admitted through unstopping the holes which happened to be uppermost.

But the most wonderful thing concerning the first colonization of this country after the flood was the way that they navigated the great Pacific ocean. Only think for a few moments of the Lord our God taking eight barges, launched on the eastern coast of China, and bringing them a voyage of three hundred and forty-four days and landing them all in the same neighborhood and vicinity and at the same time. This was a miracle. This was not done by the aid of steam, or by the navigator’s art, but it was by the power of the Almighty God. He it was who controlled these vessels; He it was who governed the winds of heaven; He it was who brought them up out of the midst of the deep, when they were swallowed up, and He it was who guided them safely to this American shore.

Arrival in the “Promised Land”

They landed to the south of this, just below the Gulf of California, on our western coast. They inhabited North America, and spread forth on this Continent, and in the course of some sixteen hundred years’ residence here, they became a mighty and powerful nation. Although they became a great and mighty people, they were oftentimes very much chastened because of their sins. Here let me observe that before they arrived on this land the Lord said to them, “I design to lead you forth to a land that is choice above all other lands on the face of the whole earth; and this is my decree concerning the land which you are to occupy, that whatever nation shall possess the land from this time henceforth and forever shall serve me, the only true and living God, or they shall be swept off from the face thereof whenthey are fully ripened in their iniquity.” The Jaredites had this decree before them, before they set foot on this Continent. It was before them during the whole term of their existence here, that inasmuch as they would serve God they would be prospered, and inasmuch as they would not serve Him great judgments were upon them. Hence they were afflicted oftentimes because of their wickedness.

Their Decendants Survive

On a certain occasion there were a very few individuals, Omer and his family and some few of his friends, that were righteous enough to be spared out of a whole nation. The Lord warned them by a dream to depart from the land of Moran, and led them forth in an easterly direction beyond the hill Cumorah, down into the eastern countries upon the seashore. By this means a few families were saved, while all the balance, consisting of millions of people, were overthrown because of their wickedness. But after they were destroyed the Omerites, who dwelt in the New England States, returned again and dwelt in the land of their fathers on the western coast.