The Origin of Sherem

The first verse of Jacob 7 in the Book of Mormon gives a somewhat enigmatic introduction to Sherem: “And now it came to pass after some years had passed away, there came a man among the people of Nephi, whose name was Sherem.”  Jacob gave no other introduction than this—Sherem just walked onto the scene and started preaching. Where did he come from?  One theory I’ve heard proposed is that he was a native of the land and not from Jerusalem.  Could that be, or was he a Nephite?  Or perhaps he was a Lamanite?  Or could he have come down from the Mulekites?  We certainly don’t know, but I think it is interesting to think about the possibilities. 

               We don’t have any specific details about the timing of Sherem’s appearance among the Nephites.  Jacob was a young child when they got to the promised land around 590 BC.  Since it was the last event that Jacob wrote about—he had already finished in record in Jacob 6:13 before adding to it the story of Sherem—the experience with Sherem likely took place when Jacob was fairly old and near death.  So we are probably safe in saying it was somewhere between 60-90 years after the arrival of Lehi and his group to the promised land.  This was plenty of time for the Nephite group to grow in numbers, probably to the amount of several hundred.  There are a few clues that might help us identify who Sherem was.  First, he “had a perfect knowledge of the language of the people”—so either it was his native language or he had spent much time among the people learning their language (Jacob 7:4).  He also knew about and was an advocate for the law of Moses: “Ye have led away much of this people that they pervert the right way of God, and keep not the law of Moses which is the right way” (Jacob 7:7).  It seems fairly unlikely that if Sherem were from the native peoples on the land that he would have believed so strongly in the religious system developed through the law of Moses.  We know that he had some understanding of the scriptures for he told Jacob that he believed them, and he admitted after he received the sign that he “believed the scriptures” and that they did in fact testify of Christ.  He also called Jacob “brother,” another sign that he was from the same people as Jacob was (Jacob 7:6).  These facts seem to make it quite unlikely that he was a native of the land. 

               That Sherem could have been from the Mulekites is an interesting possibility.  The first meeting of the groups that we know of came at the time as King Mosiah, but they would have already arrived up north and so he could have found the Nephites as a wanderer from the Mulekites.  The Mulekites didn’t take records with them as far as we know, but since Sherem came only a few decades after his people arrived he may have still understood the law of Moses and the commands of the Lord.  He certainly would have spoken their language and understood their customs.  Obviously it makes little difference to the message of the Book of Mormon to know precisely where Sherem came from, but his message against Christ is found as easily today was it was then.  The Book of Mormon stands as a warning of what the world will try to teach us about Christ.