A Timeline of Mormon's Life

I thought today I would outline what we actually know about Mormon’s life.  We don’t have a lot of information about his day, and he expressed a desire to spare us some of the details of the blood and carnage he witnessed.  We know that his father was named Mormon and that his son was Moroni, but other than that we know nothing of his family. Here is an approximate timeline of the events of his life and the Nephites in his day (labeled based on the number of years after the birth of Christ):

·        311: Mormon was born in the land northward (based on Mormon 2:2).

·        321: Ammaron came to him at the age of ten years old and commissioned him to get the plates at the age of 24 from the hill Shim and Mormon was given this instruction: “Ye shall engrave on the plates of Nephi all the things that ye have observed concerning this people” (Mormon 1:2-4).

·        322: Mormon’s family moved from the land northward to Zarahemla in the land southward. A war commenced in that year between the Lamanites and the Nephites (Mormon 1:6-8).

·        326: Mormon recorded that at “fifteen years of age” he was “somewhat of a sober mind, therefore I was visited of the Lord, and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus.” He sought at this time to preach to the people but was forbidden (Mormon 1:15-16). Mormon further recorded that “in his sixteenth year” he “did go forth at the head of an army of the Nephites, against the Lamanites” and that “three hundred and twenty and six years had passed away” (Mormon 2:2).    

·        327-330: The Nephites, under Mormon’s command, were driven northward from Angola to David to Joshua where they finally held back the Lamanites who were under the command of Aaron (Mormon 2:4-9).

·        331-344: During this period the people “began to repent” but “they did not come unto Jesus with broken hearts and contrite spirits.” They apparently were still fighting the Lamanites for the Nephites “would struggle with the sword for their lives” and Mormon “saw thousands of them hewn down in open rebellion against their God.”  During this time, in about the year 335 when Mormon was 24, he would have gone to the hill Shim to get the record and start his own.  He wrote, “Behold I had gone according to the word of Ammaron, and taken the plates of Nephi, and did make a record according to the words of Ammaron” (Mormon 2:10-15, 17).

·        345: The Nephites fled from the Lamanites until they came to the land of Jashon (which apparently was near the hill Shim). They were further driven “northward to the land which was called Shem” where they gathered many of their people (Mormon 2:16-21).

·        346-349: The Nephites held back the Lamanites under Mormon’s command and drove them away until they had “again taken possession of the lands of [their] inheritance” (Mormon 2:22-28).

·        350-360: The Nephites made a treaty with the Lamanites and Gadianton robbers in the which they were given the land northward and there was a period of peace for ten years.  During this time Mormon recorded, “I had employed my people, the Nephites, in preparing their lands and their arms against the time of battle.” He also did cry repentance until the people “but it was in vain” (Mormon 2:28-Mormon 3:3).  The book Knowing Why, 127 MORE Evidences That the Book of Mormon is True suggests that it may have been during this period of peace that Mormon did much of his abridging of the Book of Mormon. 

·        361-362: The Nephites fought the Lamanites at the land of Desolation near the narrow pass and twice the Nephites beat their enemies.  This caused them to be lifted up in pride and Mormon thus did “utterly refuse from this time forth to be a commander and a leader of this people” (Mormon 3:7-12).

·        363-367: The Nephites were defeated when they went into the Lamanite lands and driven back to Desolation where they lost that city. They fled to Teancum where the Nephites drove back the Lamanites. The Nephites took Desolation again and the land was a “horrible scene of blood and carnage.”  The Lamanites took back Desolation and then Teancum, but then the Nephites drove them back again (Mormon 4:1-15).

·        375-380: The Lamanites came again against the Nephites and they “began to be swept off by them even as a dew before the sun.”  The Nephites lost Desolation and Boaz and fled before the Lamanites.  Mormon “did take up all the records which Ammaron had hid up unto the Lord” and he started to lead them again.  The Nephites held the city of Jordan for a time but “it was all vain” because the Lamanite numbers were so great, and the Nephites had to flee before them (Mormon 4:16-Mormon 5:7).

·        381-385: The Nephites gathered together to Cumorah and there the final battle took place.  Nearly all the Nephites were killed, and Mormon “fell wounded in the midst” but was not killed. Only 24 Nephites remained (Mormon 6:1-15).

·        386-400: After this, Moroni picked up the record, and the first date he gave us was 400 years after the coming of Christ, and he reported that “my father was killed” by the Lamanites.  So sometime between 385 and 400 Mormon died (meaning sometime between the age of about 75 and 90).

Amidst all of this fighting and destruction, Mormon abridged the Nephite record to give us most of the Book of Mormon text that we have today.  It is truly miraculous that he was able to remain faithful in such a tumultuous time and do so much good for his generation and ours.  Though he witnessed the end of his people and civilization, he was able to produce a book that would bless millions of lives in the latter days and stand as a witness of the Savior Jesus Christ whom He served with all his heart.