Ether 1:1-32
The IM has a pretty lengthy intro to the Book of Ether, but I think that it's profitable. The IM teaches, "The Book of Mormon is not arranged in chronological order. It it were, the book of Ether would be listed first. The Jaredite record begins approximately 2200 B.C. First Nephi begins in 600 B.C. The book of Ether covers over 1,700 years of history from 2200 B.C. down to the time of Coriantumr. We don't know exactly when Coriantumr lived, but it was somewhere between 500 and 250 B.C." Spoiler alert, and since Coriantumr is cursed to be buried by the next people who inhabited the land, who knows how long he lived for. The IM continues, "The rest of the Book of Mormon from the books of 1 Nephi to Moroni covers approximately 1,000 years of history. Following the Flood in Noah's day, many descendants of those who had been spared became wicked. One group of people attempted to build a tower 'whose top may reach unto heaven.' The story of the Jaredite nation began with the building of the Tower of Babel. The Lord dealt with the widespread wickedness by confounding the common language and by scattering the people across the fast of the earth. The brother of Jared pled with the Lord to preserve the language of his worthy friends and family. Demonstrating great faith and led by the hand of God, the brother of Jared was able to lead this group to another land. The story of this migration is filled with important principles that we can apply to our lives today. These principles include the exercise of faith to receive divine assistance and the role of prayer in accomplishing difficult tasks. As you study the life of the brother of Jared, you will learn of the blessings that come when individuals exercise strong faith." Some background information there, HN has quite a bit to say about this as well, beginning with "The word Ether, athira, means 'the one who left a trace, the one who left his mark or left a record.' In all Semitic languages it's the same, and it means 'to leave a track, to trail somebody.' He left his tracks in the sand, but it was the brother of Jared that left most of them. This takes us to a new setting, as we said. Imagine having finished 1 Nephi of how they trek through the desert. In that marvelous account of how they go through the desert, everything is very accurate. I've had large classes of nothing but Arab students at this school in the early days. When we had Point Four and President Harris was in charge, half the Near East came to BYU. They were required to take Book of Mormon, so the class had all these Arabs, and bot did they eat it up. Nephi was their boy. I mean, they knew everything. It was all familiar, and it was all correct." This is an interesting statement because of the experience that I had with that Arab guy who I told me that he had translated the Book of Mormon while in hiding in Beirut back in the 80's. He said that the Book of Mormon was an Arab record, that it totally made sense in the context of coming from the ancient Middle East. My sister also spent a lot of time in Jordan and she met with many Arabs there, to include Bedouin families, and they all said that they believed the Book of Mormon to be a true record because it follows their language and traditions and culture so closely, they know it's origins to be in Arabia, not from some white farm boy from the 1800s. HN continues, "But having done that, having made that epic story, what about changing the whole thing entirely, as we say here? Now imagine any man insane enough to try after such a colossal exertions to write another such story of equal length and detail (the book of Ether is about the same as 1 Nephi, you see,) but this time about a totally different race of people living in an age far removed from any other and in a wholly different geographical setting. Everything is different in the book of Ether, except the plot. The plot's the same, and it works out the same. So what's going on? Why is it the same? Because it's always been the same- we'll see that." I hadn't considered that the Book of Ether is a mini version of the entire Book of Mormon, and I also never considered that the Book of Ether was set in a different place, even though I know that it was thousands of years before the Nephites, I assumed that the Jaredites had originated from the area of Jerusalem, but like the Nephites did, but HN points out that that's not the case, so we'll be looking at some different geography here.
1:1-5 - Moroni has mentally checked himself out of the record of his fathers and now will "proceed to give an account of those ancient inhabitants who were destroyed by the hand of the Lord upon the face of this north country. And I take mine account from the twenty and four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ether." The IM gives us a little brush up on what exactly Moroni is talking about, saying, "While the people of Limhi were in bondage, King Limhi sent out an expedition of 43 men to search for the land of Zarahemla. Though unsuccessful in finding Zarahemla, the search party found a land covered with the bones and remains of a people who had been destroyed. The searchers discovered a record of 24 gold plates, which they took back to King Limhi. When Limhi's people eventually escaped from bondage, these plates were given to King Mosiah to translate." Some good back story there. What comes next is really interesting though because Moroni is explaining to us what exactly is in the record and what he's including in his abridgment, saying, "As I suppose that the first part of this record, which speaks concerning 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, is had among the Jews- Therefore I do not write those things which transpired from the days of Adam until that time; but they are had upon the plates." I can't find it exactly, but I thought I remembered Nephi saying this same thing, that he was going to skip over the record from Adam to his time because he believed that we would have the record in some other way. What's tragic though is that we don't have that record, in fact our knowledge of that time is limited to such an extent that it's a real stumbling block for some people. I also think it's interesting that this is the second record that is mentioned just among the Nephites of the record of the beginning of time, there was a record in the brass plates and now there's a record among the gold plates by the Jaredites. It makes me wonder just how many records from Adam on there is in the world, and even though the people have strayed from the truthfulness of the gospel contained in the record, I wonder if this record among many peoples is the reason for so many similarities between the religions across time and location. For instance, the concept of "the one who will save us all," is so universally recognized that it's recognition extends from the earliest Pagan worship ceremonies to Harry Potter and Star Wars. The IM teaches, "It is significant that the book of Ether informs us that an account of the Creation, Adam, and a history of God's children down to the time of the Tower of Babel existed well before Moses's day. This account may have become lost through apostasy and wickedness, thus necessitating a restoration of this knowledge through revelation to Moses so we might have the record today." That's interesting, is this statement inferring that the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price is the record from Adam onward? I've read the book of Moses before but I didn't think that it was that comprehensive. I will have to read it and study more intensely again.
1:6-32 - Moroni now gives a detailed generational history from Ether to Jared. The IM gives some good insight by saying, "Ether 1 gives a genealogy of the prophet Ether. This genealogy is a rare occurrence in the Book of Mormon and is explained by the following commentary: 'Genealogies are common in the Bible. The Hebrew people took great interest in their family histories, and genealogies seem to have been carefully kept; the number in the scriptures is an index to their importance. Notice those in Genesis 5, 11, 46; Numbers 26; 1 Chronicles 1-9; read also the accounts in Ezra 9-10 which gives an indication of the importance of keeping family histories. The Book of Mormon, however, contains only one example of an extended genealogy, that found in Ether 1:6-32. It gives the genealogy of Ether, the last prophet of the Jaredite people, whose lineage is traced back twenty-nine generations or more to Jared, who left the Tower of Babel with his family at the time of the confounding of the language of the people. Aside from this example, only scattered references of genealogical interest are found.'" Really interesting point that the long line of genealogies is not really found in the Book of Mormon but they are very significant in the Bible. HN has some really interesting insights here when he says, "Moroni is giving the 'account of those ancient inhabitants who were destroyed... upon the face of this north country.' See, they make the north crossing. They belong in the north country. He took them from the 23 plates of the book of Ether. The first part of the record he's leaving out- that's biblical... Then he gives this long genealogy, but notice occasionally he says, as in verse 16, 'And Aaron was a descendant of Heth, who was the son of Hearthom.' Descendants- you could introduce 20 generations between if you wanted to. Then you come down to verse 23: 'And Morianton was a descendant of Riplakish.' Riplakish- there's a good archaic name, 'lord of Lakish.' He was a descendant of Riplakish." I can't find it in the transcript but in the audio version HN goes on to say that there are lands named Lakish all over the place in the ancient world, and the "Rip" means "lord of." Pretty interesting cultural insight there.
1:1-5 - Moroni has mentally checked himself out of the record of his fathers and now will "proceed to give an account of those ancient inhabitants who were destroyed by the hand of the Lord upon the face of this north country. And I take mine account from the twenty and four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ether." The IM gives us a little brush up on what exactly Moroni is talking about, saying, "While the people of Limhi were in bondage, King Limhi sent out an expedition of 43 men to search for the land of Zarahemla. Though unsuccessful in finding Zarahemla, the search party found a land covered with the bones and remains of a people who had been destroyed. The searchers discovered a record of 24 gold plates, which they took back to King Limhi. When Limhi's people eventually escaped from bondage, these plates were given to King Mosiah to translate." Some good back story there. What comes next is really interesting though because Moroni is explaining to us what exactly is in the record and what he's including in his abridgment, saying, "As I suppose that the first part of this record, which speaks concerning 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, is had among the Jews- Therefore I do not write those things which transpired from the days of Adam until that time; but they are had upon the plates." I can't find it exactly, but I thought I remembered Nephi saying this same thing, that he was going to skip over the record from Adam to his time because he believed that we would have the record in some other way. What's tragic though is that we don't have that record, in fact our knowledge of that time is limited to such an extent that it's a real stumbling block for some people. I also think it's interesting that this is the second record that is mentioned just among the Nephites of the record of the beginning of time, there was a record in the brass plates and now there's a record among the gold plates by the Jaredites. It makes me wonder just how many records from Adam on there is in the world, and even though the people have strayed from the truthfulness of the gospel contained in the record, I wonder if this record among many peoples is the reason for so many similarities between the religions across time and location. For instance, the concept of "the one who will save us all," is so universally recognized that it's recognition extends from the earliest Pagan worship ceremonies to Harry Potter and Star Wars. The IM teaches, "It is significant that the book of Ether informs us that an account of the Creation, Adam, and a history of God's children down to the time of the Tower of Babel existed well before Moses's day. This account may have become lost through apostasy and wickedness, thus necessitating a restoration of this knowledge through revelation to Moses so we might have the record today." That's interesting, is this statement inferring that the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price is the record from Adam onward? I've read the book of Moses before but I didn't think that it was that comprehensive. I will have to read it and study more intensely again.
1:6-32 - Moroni now gives a detailed generational history from Ether to Jared. The IM gives some good insight by saying, "Ether 1 gives a genealogy of the prophet Ether. This genealogy is a rare occurrence in the Book of Mormon and is explained by the following commentary: 'Genealogies are common in the Bible. The Hebrew people took great interest in their family histories, and genealogies seem to have been carefully kept; the number in the scriptures is an index to their importance. Notice those in Genesis 5, 11, 46; Numbers 26; 1 Chronicles 1-9; read also the accounts in Ezra 9-10 which gives an indication of the importance of keeping family histories. The Book of Mormon, however, contains only one example of an extended genealogy, that found in Ether 1:6-32. It gives the genealogy of Ether, the last prophet of the Jaredite people, whose lineage is traced back twenty-nine generations or more to Jared, who left the Tower of Babel with his family at the time of the confounding of the language of the people. Aside from this example, only scattered references of genealogical interest are found.'" Really interesting point that the long line of genealogies is not really found in the Book of Mormon but they are very significant in the Bible. HN has some really interesting insights here when he says, "Moroni is giving the 'account of those ancient inhabitants who were destroyed... upon the face of this north country.' See, they make the north crossing. They belong in the north country. He took them from the 23 plates of the book of Ether. The first part of the record he's leaving out- that's biblical... Then he gives this long genealogy, but notice occasionally he says, as in verse 16, 'And Aaron was a descendant of Heth, who was the son of Hearthom.' Descendants- you could introduce 20 generations between if you wanted to. Then you come down to verse 23: 'And Morianton was a descendant of Riplakish.' Riplakish- there's a good archaic name, 'lord of Lakish.' He was a descendant of Riplakish." I can't find it in the transcript but in the audio version HN goes on to say that there are lands named Lakish all over the place in the ancient world, and the "Rip" means "lord of." Pretty interesting cultural insight there.
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