It appears that the number 8 was important to the Jaredites for some reason. This post is part of a series where I talk about this interesting detail.
If you ask anyone about the Book of Ether, and they’ve read it, they’ll probably tell you that it’s about a bunch of wars and kings in captivity and everybody dies.
And they wouldn’t be wrong. It is quite a bit of that. There are a lot of wars, and there are a lot of kings that are brought into captivity at one point or another.
Well, would it surprise you that in Ether, the number of times that a Jaredite king is captured and put into captivity is exactly 8?
At this point, it doesn’t surprise me at all because I’ve already written about how Jared had 8 hidden daughters, Orihah had 8 hidden daughters, the penultimate Jaredite war was 8 battles, the final Jaredite war was 8 battles, the final Jaredite battle was 8 days long, the Jaredites always named their 8th king Heth–if they got that far–which is the 8th letter of the Semitic alphabet, and how the Jaredite-inspired Nephite money system was base-8.
Yeah, there are a lot of eights in Ether.
I will someday share my theory on why the number 8 is so ubiquitous and so hidden in the book of Ether, but I’m not done documenting all the instances just yet. Stay tuned!
Anyway, below I list the verses showing that there are 8 instances where a reigning Jaredite king is stripped of his throne AND brought into captivity:
- Kib captured by Corihor (7:50)
- Shule captured by Noah (7:17)
- Omer captured by Jared (8:3)
- Kim captured by the brother of Kim (10:14)
- Hearthom captured by unknown usurper (10:30)
- Seth captured by unknown usurper(s) (11:9)*
- Moron captured by a descendant of the brother of Jared (11:18)
- Coriantumr captured by Shared (13:23)**
As far as I can tell, this list legitimately shows how many times this happened in the book of Ether, however a couple of things must be noted, as discussed below:
*A note must be given on the 6th king capture because we’re not explicitly told in the text that Seth ruled as king. However, it would seem safe to assume that as soon as his father, Shiblom, was killed, that Seth would have filled that position, albeit for a very short time before he was captured himself. Notice the sequence of events in Ether 11:9, following some wars, famines, and pestilences — “9 And it came to pass that Shiblom was slain, and Seth was brought into captivity, and did dwell in captivity all his days.” First Shiblom was killed, then Seth was brought into captivity. His reign may have been mere moments, but if he had been predesignated to inherit Shiblom’s throne, then he was king. He was not born in captivity.
**The 8th king captured, Coriantumr, is a special case since he is the only king in this list that does not seem to be a rightful heir to the throne through Orihah. The reason I say this is because it appears that Ether was the one who had the right to rule, but instead filled the role of prophet.
Now, of course these 8 kings were not the only Jaredite kings to serve in captivity. Many others lived their entire lives in captivity. However, these 8 kings are the only 8 that were captured as they were sitting kings.
Science Is True and the Church Is Too 
EDIT: Featured image for this post found here: https://pixabay.com/images/search/checkmate/
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It seems like you’re finding enough of these coincidences that you’re not merely drawing bull’s eyes after the fact. So when you get to the point where you’ve found about all of the “eights” that seem to exist (in the text) you should consider submitting a paper on the subject to Interpreter.
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Thanks Jack. I have thought about the Interpreter for sure. No plans as of yet to try to submit a paper though. I’m not sure I’m scholarly enough for it lol
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You may be aware of this already–but Jerry Grover has written a tome (eight hundred some-odd pages) on the possibility of Jaredite names having Sumerian roots. It’s a free book with a downloadable pdf format here:
http://bmslr.org/sumerian-roots-of-jaredite-derived-names-and-terminology-in-the-book-of-mormon/
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Yes, I have perused this book and others of his. I like his work a lot. Have you seen his translation of the Caracters document? Fascinating!
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Yes I have. I don’t have the strength or knowhow to comb through the finer details of the process he went through to get the translation. But the whole thing seems to be a product of rare genius. He’s made everything easily accessible at no charge–and he invites any and all to look at his methodology. My hope is that someone (or two or three) who has the necessary chops will take his challenge seriously and dig into his work and give us a second opinion. Maybe someone like Jeff Lindsay — who is also an engineer by profession and seems to have some ability with languages — would be a good candidate for the job.
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Ryan,
I hope this post isn’t too brazen–but I though you might be interested in this little project I’ve been working on.
I learned the other day the Jerry Grover has received some criticism of his translation because it fails to demonstrate a chiastic pattern that has been found in the original “caractors” document. So out of curiosity I looked for such a patter in his translation and found what looks like a possible chiasm in his first paragraph. And so I did a quick little “chiastic” breakdown of it.
First, I post his paragraph as is. Then break it down into what seem to be the basic building blocks of the chiasm. And finally provide more nuanced connections within each block by utilizing matching numbers.
That said, I think it’s important to note that Jerry had to fiddle with the language structure a bit to get it to read coherently in English–so that may account (at least in part) for why some of the internal details are not in the same order in the opposing blocks.
Also, I should mention that whether or not Jerry’s first paragraph was intended to be a chiasm in and of itself (assuming for the sake of argument that his translation is correct) it seems to reflect the overall chiastic structure of the portion of the record that it summarizes.
And finally, I could be reaching for things that aren’t really there. In which case, it would not be out of character for silly me. 😀
***
In the nineteenthth regnal year of Mosiah I, the Nephites traveled over the mountains to the foreign speaking people of Mulek. These twenty thousand ‘children of Mosiah’ traveled downriver on the east side of the River Sidon [Grijalva] for eighty days and reached Zarahemla. And then it came to pass that after ten years thus began the period of the Seven Tribes. After the space of twenty‐one more years had passed, Zeniff, with sixty of his people, departed. Fifty‐three more years then passed; then the Limhiites obtained twenty‐four plates from the west in the Land of Desolation, returning upriver on the River of Lamanite Possessions [Usumacinta]. After their return upriver, seven years later, the Limhiites traveled west, bringing the pure gold Jaredite plates to Mosiah (II), which he translated.
***
A: In the nineteenthth regnal year of Mosiah I, the Nephites traveled over the mountains to the foreign speaking people of Mulek.
B: These twenty thousand ‘children of Mosiah’ traveled downriver on the east side of the River Sidon [Grijalva] for eighty days and reached Zarahemla.
C: And then it came to pass that after ten years thus began the period of the Seven Tribes.
D: The period of the Seven Tribes?
C: After the space of twenty‐one more years had passed, Zeniff, with sixty of his people, departed.
B: Fifty‐three more years then passed; then the Limhiites obtained twenty‐four plates from the west in the Land of Desolation, returning upriver on the River of Lamanite Possessions [Usumacinta].
A: After their return upriver, seven years later, the Limhiites traveled west, bringing the pure gold Jaredite plates to Mosiah (II), which he translated.
***
A:
1) Nineteenth regnal year
2) Mosiah I
3) The Nephites traveled over the mountains
4) foreign speaking
5) People of Mulek
B:
1) Twenty thousand ‘children of Mosiah’
2) traveled downriver on the east side of the River Sidon
3) Zarahemla.
C:
1) After ten years thus began the period of the Seven Tribes.
D:
0) The period of the Seven Tribes?
C:
1) After the space of twenty‐one more years had passed, Zeniff, with sixty of his people, departed.
B:
1) Limhiites obtained twenty‐four plates
2) Returning upriver on the River of Lamanite Possessions
3) The Land of Desolation
A:
1) Seven years later
2) Mosiah (II)
3) The Limhiites traveled west
4) Translated
5) Jaredite
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Jack, this is amazing! So well done! I was unaware that there were criticisms of the translation due to lack of chiasm, but it looks like you nailed it. Do you have a blog where you put your research?
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Thanks, Ryan. No, I don’t have a blog. That’s why I “brazenly” posted this on yours. 😀
And another more important reason for posting it here is because I wanted your feedback. I was afraid that I might’ve been seeing things. So, thanks again.
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Haha feel free to post whatever you would like. I don’t mind at all.
I thought it was very interesting how in your chiasm A5 you matched up Mulekites with Jaredites, and in B3 the land of Zarahemla with the land of Desolation. This intrigues me in light of our conversation earlier about how the Mulekites may have been influenced by the Jaredites.
But anyway, if you would like to guest-post your Caractors document research here in a dedicated blog post you are welcome to. No pressure though!
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Wow–I didn’t even think of that connection between the Mulekites and Jaredites. That’s cool.
And thanks for your kind offer. I don’t really know anything about how blogs work–would I just email the stuff to you?
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That’s an easy way to do it. But also, if you have a WordPress account, I think I can “add” you as an author for a guest post. That way it will clearly show the post as being written by you to give you credit. I’ll do some research on the process and get back to you.
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With your email address, I can add you as a Contributor to this blog, which I think would prompt you to create a username and password, then you could write a post and I would thereafter publish it in your name. We could definitely do this if you’d like.
But the easiest way would probably be for you to email me your post and I would publish it, stating clearly it was your work being hosted on my site. If that’s something you’d like, send me a message through the Contact page on this site (so the whole world doesn’t have to see our email addresses) and we’ll make it happen!
You could just send what you’ve already written in the comments here, or a revised version. Whatever you’d like to do!
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Thanks, Ryan. I sent you an email through the contact page. The easier way of doing things is usually the best way to go for one such as I. 😀
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Great! I don’t see that an email has come in, but I do see an email address associated with your comments. Is that the one you use? A yahoo.com address?
My guess is the blog contact page has a small character limit and maybe didn’t actually send your message. But if that’s your email I’ll send you a quick message from mine and you can send me whatever you’d like via email directly.
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Yes–that’s my email.
And just so you know I commented on your “Adam” page. I love that subject.
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