The Jaredite Records

One of the themes that we find in the story of the Jaredites in the Book of Mormon is the importance of sacred records.  When Jared and his brother left the tower of Babel, they clearly had sacred records of writings from the early prophets back to Adam with them.  This is not explicitly stated, but Moroni told us that the record he was abridging from contained information about “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” (Ether 1:3).  Also, when the daughter of Jared was devising a way to get the throne back for her father, she said, “Hath he 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?” (Ether 8:9)  So Jared and his brother had some kind of record of those prophets who had preceded them back to Adam—comparable to the first chapters of Genesis that we have—and this account was then re-recorded on their own record that was eventually found by the Nephites.  Surely this sacred account was a major factor in helping to preserve the righteousness of the Jaredite nation for many generations.  

               In addition to the record that they brought with them, the records the Jaredite prophets were commanded to keep of their own experiences were of major importance.  After the brother of Jared had his marvelous vision of the Savior, he was told to “write the things which he had seen” even though it would be kept sealed for a time (Ether 4:1).  Not much is said during most of the remainder of Moroni’s abridgement of the Jaredite history, but obviously prophets were writing down and preserving their history so that the Nephites would eventually get it.  When Ether arrived on the scene “he dwelt in the cavity of a rock” and “made the remainder of [his] record” (Ether 13:14).  He observed the entire destruction of the people, and Moroni summarized Ether’s actions this way: “And he went forth, and beheld that the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled; and he finished his record; (and the hundredth part I have not written) and he hid them in a manner that the people of Limhi did find them” (Ether 15:33).  Without Ether we would not have the history of their people and we would not have the incredible account of the brother of Jared and his vision of the Lord.  That the Lord would preserve Ether during this tumultuous time in order to create the record and then miraculously lead the people of Limhi to find “twenty-four plates which are filled with engravings” is a testament to its importance for us (Mosiah 8:9).  And the way that the records were passed down among the Jaredite prophets until Ether, hid up in a way that the Nephites would find them, passed down for hundreds of years among the Nephite prophets, abridged by Moroni into the Book of Mormon, and then finally translated by Joseph Smith 1400 years later is to me a miraculous transmission of these sacred stories into our hands.  We still have so little of the stories of the Jaredites—with the unparalleled vision of the brother of Jared still sealed from us and only 1/100^th of the records from Ether actually abridged by Moroni for us—and yet the incredible way the story we do have has come to us should inspire us to hearken and heed the teachings the book of Ether gives us.