The Name of the Brother of Jared

Arguably the greatest prophet in the Book of Mormon, besides of course the Savior Himself, was the brother of Jared.  Moroni recorded the incredible event when the brother of Jared saw the premortal Messiah in which the Lord told him, “And never have I showed myself unto man whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast” (Ether 3:9).  Though others had previously seen God before this, somehow the brother of Jared’s experience was even greater because of his singular faith.  After describing the event, Moroni wrote, “there never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared” (Ether 4:4).  Moroni wrote this knowing of course the marvelous revelations that the Lord had given to other Book of Mormon prophets like Nephi and his own father Mormon.  It appears that there is simply no greater revelation available than that which the brother of Jared received.  The brother of Jared is also the only one in the Book of Mormon who is recorded to have moved a mountain with his faith: “For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove—and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it would not have moved” (Ether 12:30).  So given all of that, the question I asked myself this morning is this: why did Moroni not call the brother of Jared by his name?  If he had such marvelous faith and received such incredible revelations, why is not even known by his real name in the Book of Mormon?

            We do know the name of the brother of Jared from the prophet Joseph Smith.  An account in the student manual records, “While residing in Kirtland Elder Reynolds Cahoon had a son born to him. One day when President Joseph Smith was passing his door he called the Prophet in and asked him to bless and name the baby. Joseph did so and gave the boy the name of Mahonri Moriancumer. When he had finished the blessing he laid the child on the bed, and turning to Elder Cahoon he said, the name I have given your son is the name of the brother of Jared; the Lord has just shown [or revealed] it to me. Elder William F. Cahoon, who was standing near heard the Prophet make this statement to his father; and this was the first time the name of the brother of Jared was known in the Church in this dispensation.”  So his name was Mahonri Moriancumer, and part of the name is in fact in the text of the Book of Mormon, for during their journey to the promised land we read, “And as they came to the sea they pitched their tents; and they called the name of the place Moriancumer” (Ether 2:13).  So it would appear that the people were in fact calling the name of the place where they dwelt after the brother of Jared.  There is no dialogue between the people and the brother of Jared, so we don’t know what they called him but, but it seems unlikely that they called him “brother of Jared.”  We even have the name of his son, Pagog but for some reason Moroni chose to not call the brother of Jared by his real name in the book of Ether (see Ether 6:25)  

There is no way to know for sure why Moroni did not use his real name instead of the brother of Jared, but perhaps there is at least some symbolism in it.  That one of the greatest figures in the Book of Mormon should be called by the name of “brother” to me is symbolic of our fundamental responsibility in life to be a brother to those around us.  In the gospel of Jesus Christ we say, contrary to Cain, that indeed we are our brother’s keeper.  We should treat all those around us as the Savior did, and even He is sometimes spoken of as our Brother.  So perhaps it is not surprising that the one in the Book of Mormon most noted for his faith in Jesus Christ is also known to us with the appellation of brother.  Perhaps there may also be symbolism in the name Jared, which is believed to mean something like descent or coming down.  Christ was of course the one who “came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:3).  So we might think of the brother of Jared, one who was like Christ in his faith and good works, as the brother of He who came down, even the brother of Christ.  And as we seek to have the attributes of the brother of Jared (as the Lord invited us to have in Ether 4:7) we too should seek to be both a brother of all mankind and a brother of Christ in doing the will of our Father.