The Jaredites Among the Nephites
In the article
I referred to yesterday, John Sorenson made an interesting conjecture about the
influence of the Jaredites on the Nephite society. He quoted Alma 46:22 in which captain Moroni
referred to “our brethren in the land northward,” and then commented, “The only
reason apparent to me why the term ‘brethren’ would be applied by Nephites to
Jaredites is because the former recognized that some of the people living with
them were descended from the Jaredites.”
He referenced an
article in the Improvement Era in 1902 in which Anthony Ivins suggested
that Coriantumr left descendants: “Coriantumr was found by the people
of Zarahemla, and lived for
the space of nine moons among them. During this period, he may have begotten children;
in fact, more so, when we consider the high
estimate placed upon
posterity by the
ancients, and the further fact that Coriantumr, being
the last of his
race, he would be desirous that
his name
be perpetuated; and
would take wives and beget children, thus preserving the race of which he was the
sole representative.” That’s certainly
an interesting suggestion, and we see at least some influence of the Jaredites
on the names of Nephite people after they came in contact with the Mulekites
who had lived with Coriantumr and left his writing.
One
name that possibly comes from the Jaredites is Moroni. Brother Sorenson suggested that “in Hebrew the
name Moroni means ‘one from Moron.’”
Moron was the “land where the king dwelt” among the Jaredites and
perhaps the name was passed along and used among the Nephites (Ether 7:6). Perhaps captain Moroni who called the
Jaredites their “brethren” was actually a descendant of Coriantumr and his name
refers back to the place of the Jaredites.
Of course we can’t know for sure, but it does seem that there are names
that originated at least with the Jaredites.
For example, Alma— who had the Jaredite record (the twenty-four plates)
and passed them along to his son Helaman—named one son Shiblon and another
Corianton. These match closely with
Jaredite names; there was a king named Shiblom (the spelling of his name was in
one place actually Shiblon) and another named Coriantum (Ether 1:12-13, 11:4,
10:31). So perhaps Alma was
intentionally using references to the Jaredites in the names he gave. Other Nephite names such as Morianton and
perhaps even the later Nephite generals such as Gidgiddonni also came from the
Jaredites.
Ultimately
whether or not the Jaredites are truly “extict” doesn’t really matter, but
understanding why they died is crucial for our society. Moroni reminded us what the Jaredite story
should really teach us “Whoso should possess this land of promise, from that
time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they
should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them” (Ether
4:8).
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