From the Book of Mormon, we learn the following about a group of people whom we have come to call Mulekites: 1. ( Hel. The Book of Mormon records that the Mulekites spoke a language that was largely unintelligible to the Nephites. (See Omni 1:20–21.) Robert F. Smith suggested that the Mulekites got to America with Phoenician help. The Route of the Mulekites We now turn our attention to another group of Jewish refugees who also made their way to America at about the same time as Lehi, the Mulekites. The Nephite prophet King Mosiah I was able to translate a large stone with engravings that gave an account of … Located on the northern portion of the land Southward. 6:10.). About 120 BC. However, the limited account of their escape from Jerusalem and journey to the promised land clearly shows that it followed a divine plan. 21:3–6.) Mulekites. The plates of Mormon were created to come forth in the latter days. All the indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere came from Israel at one time or another. 8:21.). Even less is known about their history or their journey to America. The connection of the Cherokee and the Phoenician is amazing information. Jehoiakim had reigned only eleven years when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, overthrew the Egyptian rule and took control of the Kingdom of Judah. The journey takes “many days.”. Recently an academic paper from an Evangelical Christian was brought to my attention. The original settlement was founded by Mulekites. They were at first suspected of being enemies, but after gaining an audience with King Limhi and explaining their purpose in coming, the people rejoiced in anticipation of their release from Lamanite bondage. Most LDS scholars, however, incorporating the tools of scholarship, science, and a closer reading of the Book of Mormon, suggest that the Book of Mormon peoples occupied a small area of Mesoamerica This current flows northward along the western coast of South America until it reaches the 30º South Latitude where the winds and current come to nearly a standstill in what is called the Tropic of Capricorn. They were also involved in the fulfillment of a third series of prophecies, which will be mentioned later. Alma travels eight days to Helam, then twelve days to Zarahemla. Limhi sends forty-three explorers to find Zarahemla; instead, they find the destroyed Jaredite civilization and return with the twenty-four gold plates of Ether. and came to the Americas. This remarkable conversion came largely to a people who only a few generations earlier were a spiritually darkened, atheistic society. Ammon leads King Limhi and his people back to Zarahemla. "[7], The last surviving Jaredite, Coriantumr, encountered the Mulekites, "and he dwelt with them for the space of nine moons" before he died.[8]. ), Seeing the condition they were in, Mosiah set out to rectify the situation. Feature Article WinnerThis Jewish remnant plays a greater role in Book of Mormon history than many realize. Around A.D. 400, the last Nephite survivor, Moroni 2, abridged the record of Ether and appended his summary to the account of the Nephites that had been prepared by his father, Mormon. Well, Israel, of course, silly! ), During the reign of Jehoahaz, Pharaoh-nechoh came from Egypt and dethroned Jehoahaz and placed Jehoiakim (also known as Eliakim) on the throne. These nationalistic leaders seemed to have made only a superficial covenant with Nebuchadnezzar, for in 593 B.C., shortly after the Babylonian armies had departed, ambassadors from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Tyre, and Sidon came to Jerusalem to plan a rebellion against Babylon. Where Did the Mulekite Culture Come From? Apparently, moral corruption had also attended the alteration of language—partly due to the fact that they had taken no scriptural record with them when they left Jerusalem: “And at the time that Mosiah discovered them, they had become exceedingly numerous. Mosiah commissioned sixteen men, led by a Mulekite named Ammon, to go up to the land of Lehi-Nephi to inquire concerning their brethren. From these references, we surmise that Mulek and his people landed near the civilization of the Jaredites, settling south of them. The Mulekites were elated to have access to Nephite records, since their own language and traditions had been distorted in the absence of historical documents. The Book of Mormon tells of three relatively small parties (the Jaredites, Lehites, and Mulekites) that left their native homeland in the Old World at different times and through divine guidance traveled to a new promised land, on the American continent. This would make the journey from the land of Nephi to the land of the Mulekites a total of twenty days. 216.) And to follow that same thought, if Ether gave Coriantumr the U&T to give to the Mulekites, why didn't he give them the records as well? and 130 B.C. The word Mulekite, after Mulek, is commonly used to refer to his group. It was very well written. The Mulekites’ language seems to have been “corrupted” too quickly for natural language evolution. 1 Hugh Nibley did also, noting that there are names in the Book of Mormon that may have Phoenician ties. [7] (Mosiah 1:10; italics added.). ), With the exception of King Josiah, all of the kings following Hezekiah caused great wickedness in the kingdom of Judah. The "Mulekites" John L. Sorenson Follow this and additional works at:https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq ... constructing a ship of their own as nephi did or the hand ofthe ... there remains a slight possibility that they could have come via the pacific since neither a route nor a coastal landing point is 8:21.) The Mulekites “At this time,” explained John W. Welch, “the land of Zarahemla had become a very diverse place because of several major demographic changes.”2 First, there had been the merger of the Nephites and the Mulekites two generations earlier (Omni 1:12–19). Hugh Nibley relates the name to his royal origins, and states: They kept traveling until they arrived at the land of the Jaredites and there found the twenty-four gold plates that Ether had left. So no. Zeniff and followers return to Lehi-Nephi. The Nephites taught the Mulekites their language and united to become one people, appointing Mosiah to be their king. By about 225 B.C. (See Omni 1:14–21.) Much of the prior Mulekite history was lost because of their lack of records. The people of Zarahemla had come from the land of Jerusalem under the leadership of Mulek, the only surviving son of King Zedekiah. These forty-three explorers had found a destroyed civilization and feared the worst—they mistakenly thought that the land they had found was Zarahemla. The Book of Mormon states that after escaping from Judah, Mulek traveled to the Americas and established a civilization there. Mulek, a son of King Zedekiah, led a group from Jerusalem in about 587 B.C. Hugh Nibley relates the name to his royal origins,[11] and states: Of the Mulekites, he says they are the "Mulekiah, which means 'the king people'". So, any name La Venta carried in Book of Mormon times is much more likely to have been Jaredite or Mulekite than Nephite. Nevertheless, they had had many wars and serious contentions, and had fallen by the sword from time to time; and their language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and they denied the being of their Creator; and Mosiah, nor the people of Mosiah, could understand them.” (Omni 1:17. (See Mosiah 28:11–17. If such were the case, it would explain the use of Jaredite names and words among the Mulekites-something that Hugh Nibley observed in his book Lehi in the Wilderness and the World of the Jaredites. It may explain the tradition of secret combinations among the Mulekites, as … Zarahemla, capital city west of the river Sidon which ran through the land of Zarahemla. Mulek is a nickname derived from melek (Hebrew, king), a diminutive term of endearment meaning "little king." When taught the Nephite language, the Mulekites recounted their descent from Mulek, which was then recorded. They may have come into the possession of the Mulekites, who founded the city of Zarahemla, and then passed to Mosiah’s grandfather when he became king of that land.” I agree with Tvedtnes’s plausible provenance. The Mulekites arrived in the New World ca. 20:17–18. Without this brief record we would know little concerning the conversion of the Mulekites from an atheistic people into some of the most faithful Saints in the entire Book of Mormon. the Nephites had become wicked, so Mosiah 1 led a group of righteous Nephites to Zarahemla and Until the Book of Mormon was published in 1830, history had remained silent about any surviving son of the last of the twenty-one kings of Judah. From the stone, Mosiah learned of a man named Coriantumr and how his people, the Jaredites, were slain. Perhaps worst of all, he shed innocent blood until it “filled Jerusalem from one end to another.” (2 Kgs. Then, being warned of the Lord, they “fled eight days’ journey into the wilderness” and established the community called Helam. 1:4.). [5] The people of Mulek established their capital at Zarahemla, north of where Lehi and his people landed. Mosiah would have then received the stones among the ritual items featured during the merger of the Mulekites and Nephites. (See Ether 13:20–21.). [2], According to the Book of Mormon, when Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon, during the reign of Zedekiah, all of the sons of Zedekiah were killed except Mulek. From elsewhere, we learn that these “Mulekites,” as we have come to call them, descended from a colony that included or was led by one Mulek, son of Zedekiah, king of Judah, who reigned at the time Lehi left Jerusalem (Mosiah 25:2; Helaman 6:10; 8:21). (See Mosiah 23:3, 19.) ), Almost like two old acquaintances meeting after a long separation, the people of Mosiah and the people of Zarahemla “rejoiced exceedingly” to see each other. Our Book of Mormon overview continues by looking at what DNA tells us about Native Americans, and how that impacts the Book of Mormon's claims of being a literal, historical record of the descendents of the Native Americans. Alma baptizes Limhi and all his people. The Book of Mormon chronologist dates this divinely arranged reuniting of these two escaped remnants of Jerusalem sometime between 279 B.C. Perhaps under the circumstances of their escape there was no time to gather them—to return to the city would have meant death at the hands of the Babylonian army. They received Mosiah with open arms because the Lord had sent him to them with the brass plates that contained a record of the Jews, whereas the Mulekites had brought no records with them. The Mulekites were initially introduced to the gospel under King Mosiah and then continued to be taught under his son, King Benjamin. (See Alma 5:1; Alma 6:1; Alma 27:20.) Separates Water & Dry Land; Members; 200 (Omni 1:14–15.) Amaleki referred to them as the “people of Zarahemla,” after their leader Zarahemla. When they had been gathered (verse 5) he had the records of Zeniff’s people read to those who had gathered. In any case, he was not a king or a ruler who would have had followers to carry him away in secret. One reason that readers of the Book of Mormon get confused about the Mulekites is that the name Mulekite is never used. Well, Israel, of course, silly! This is correct as the text indicates the Mulekites language had become corrupted to due a lack of records. The Mulekites lived thenceforth among the Nephites, enjoying separate-but-equal status and ultimately outnumbering the descendants of Nephi (Mosiah 25:1-4, 13). Although they were more populous than the Nephites-by-descent, only a handful of statements in the scripture give explicit information about them. It's not like Coriantumr had any need for gold, being alone. And Mormon referred to the Mulekites by the name of Mulek, the son of King Zedekiah who came out of Jerusalem with them. There is a good reason why the Mulekites would have stopped in Iowa, across from Nauvoo. He then left Mattaniah, renamed Zedekiah, in charge and returned to Babylon. This indicates that their language was being mixed with another language or languages from outside groups (Omni 1:17). They found Coriantumr. There Zedekiah’s sons and the nobles of Judah were slain before his eyes. Before his death, King Benjamin sent a proclamation “throughout all this land among all this people, or the people of Zarahemla, and the people of Mosiah who dwell in the land” to be gathered together for him to speak to them. In fact, it indicates that it was only the righteous who went with Mosiah to the land of Zarahemla. Jeremiah’s promises apparently fell on deaf ears, for Zedekiah continued to listen to his nationalistic friends. Amaleki continues: “And they journeyed in the wilderness, and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters, into the land where Mosiah discovered them; and they had dwelt there from that time forth.” (Omni 1:16; italics added.) Or perhaps there were few records available to take. Nebuchadnezzar was not a brutal conqueror and was willing to give Jerusalem every opportunity to prove their loyalty to his empire. They were discovered by Mosiah (Omni 1:14) several centuries after their arrival. When Mosiah was commanded by the Lord to leave the land of Nephi he and his group traveled in the wilderness, being led by the Lord, until they found the land of Zarahema. Nephi, a prophet who lived just prior to the time Christ visited the American continent, underscored the prominence of the Mulekites by asking a simple question, yet one with profound meaning for our day as we reestablish the Church among the children of Lehi: “Yea, and do ye not behold that the seed of Zedekiah are with us?” (Hel. His people's arrival in the New World is one of three recorded migrations from the Old World. Mosiah 1. The Mulekites removed all doubt concerning the truthfulness of Lehi’s prophecies (see Hel 8:21) and confirmed the truth of the Book of Mormon. The city soon fell, and the Babylonian generals entered the gates. (See Mosiah 7. They found Coriantumr. The Mulekites arrived in the New World ca. During the nineteen-month siege, Jeremiah went to Zedekiah with a promise from the Lord: “If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then … this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house: “But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.” (Jer. The Book of Mormon begins its story of the Mulekites where the Old Testament story of Zedekiah ends. 5- Did Joseph Smith “Know” the geography of the Book of Mormon? Alma, in describing the city Bountiful, wrote that Bountiful was “so far northward that it came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed … , which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla the Mulekites, it being the place of their first landing.” (Alma 22:30. (See 2 Kgs. The people were filled with the Holy Ghost and received a remission of their sins, took upon them the name of Christ, and covenanted to keep God’s commandments. The “people of Zarahemla” referred to in the Nephite record remain enigmatic to Latter-day Saint readers. After Alma began teaching and baptizing at the waters of Mormon, he and his followers were discovered by the servants of King Noah. ), Thus, the once spiritually benighted and degenerate society of the Mulekites became the ecclesiastical and political capital of the Nephites, at least until the time of Christ. After the people of Limhi emigrated to Zarahemla and joined the church established there, Mosiah translated these plates through the use of “interpreters,” or seer stones, divinely preserved and empowered for just such a purpose. Mulek plays a minor but important role in the Book of Mormon. 322.) 39:1–9.) The Mulekites told them that Coriantumr had died some nine months after he had come to live with them. 1987, 60. 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