I still maintain that Mosiah is one of the most confusing books in the Book of Mormon. With all of its interweaving timelines and stories presented out of chronological order, it’s very easy to get lost and lose your grip on what’s going on and why it’s important.
In trying to make sense of it all, I discovered a part of the story that I believe everybody has been getting wrong–or, at least, most of the people I’ve seen talk about it get it wrong, including the 1981 LDS edition of the Book of Mormon.
I’m talking about the story of Zeniff, who was the father of King Noah, and the founder of the colony that left the land of Zarahemla to return to the land of Nephi. He was a great leader that, despite making his own mistakes, effectively taught his people to rely on the Lord (I wrote more about him here).
You see, most chronologies I’ve seen have Zeniff reigning for 22 years in the land of Nephi when it should actually be 35.1
In this post, I will explain what needs to be fixed, and will show that by fixing it we gain greater insight into what was actually going on during the time period described by the book of Mosiah.
The problem lies in Mosiah 10:3–
And it came to pass that we did inherit the land of our fathers for many years, yea, for the space of twenty and two years.
People read that verse and assume that the total amount of time that the Zeniffites inherited the land under King Zeniff was 22 years, and they completely ignore verse 5, which says:
… thus we did have continual peace in the land for the space of twenty and two years.
At first glance, this appears to be redundantly saying the same thing as verse 3; but what’s different in verse 5 is that Zeniff has clarified that the 22 years he’s speaking of was a period of “continual peace.”
Consulting the Webster’s 1828 dictionary, we see that continual means:
Proceeding without interruption or cessation; unceasing; not intermitting… Perpetual.2
If we agree that Zeniff is using the word continual as defined by this dictionary, then the 22 years that he refers to in chapter 10 verse 5 must have been a time of uninterrupted peace…
This becomes a big problem when you reread Mosiah chapter 9 and realize that 12 years into Zeniff’s reign they have a bloody war with the Lamanites… which definitely disqualifies it from being “perpetual” peace.
And so, if Zeniff is telling the truth, then what must have happened is he reigned for 12-13 years, fought a war with the Lamanites, then lived in the land peacefully for an additional 22 years. This 22-year period of peace came to an end after the original Lamanite king passed away and the new ruler decided it was time to return to war with the Zeniffites (Mosiah 10:6-10).
Making this correction in Zeniff’s timeline results in the following chronology (using the information provided in Jerry Grover’s translation of the Caractors Document)3:
- 180 BC (420): Zeniff begins to reign
- 168 BC (432): Lamanites attack Zeniffites; 22-year period of peace begins
- 146 BC (454): 22-year period of peace ends when Lamanites attack; Noah becomes king
And what’s really interesting about making this correction is how well it corroborates with other events in the Book of Mormon.
According to the little, often overlooked one-chapter book named Words of Mormon, sometime after Benjamin took the throne in the land of Zarahemla, “the armies of the Lamanites came down out of the land of Nephi, to battle against his people.” (Words of Mormon 1:13).
Fascinatingly, the corrected Zeniff timeline shows that this attack on Benjamin’s people most likely occurred during the 22 years of peace for the Zeniffites… which actually makes tons of sense because while the Zeniffites were enjoying a long period of peace in the land of Nephi, the Lamanites apparently turned their attention toward the land of Zarahemla.
This battle with the Zarahemla Nephites probably took place in the first 18 years of Benjamin’s 40-year reign, between 164-146 BC, because it was around 146 BC that the Lamanites came back to war against Zeniff’s people. Apparently, after Benjamin had defeated the Lamanites and resolved some domestic issues at home, the Lamanites never returned to battle against the land of Zarahemla before the end of Benjamin’s kingship in 124 BC (see Omni 1:24, Words of Mormon 1:12-18, Mosiah 1:1); while on the other hand, from 146 BC until 120 BC, the relationship between the Lamanites and Zeniffites was tense and frequently violent.
Below is a chronology constructed by meshing the events of the Zeniffites with the Zarahemla Nephites, after correcting Zeniff’s reign to be 35 years. An asterisk (*) denotes a battle with Lamanites:
- 180 BC (420): Zeniff begins reign
- *168 BC (432): Lamanites attack Zeniffites; 22-year period of peace begins
- 164 BC (436): Benjamin becomes king in Zarahemla
- *??? BC: Lamanites attack Zarahemla (Omni 1:24, WM 1:13)
- *146 BC (454): 22-year period of peace ends when Lamanites attack Zeniffites; Noah becomes king
- *??? BC: Lamanites begin raiding and killing Zeniffites; Noah fights back and gains a great victory (Mosiah 11)
- ??? BC: Abinadi comes the first time
- ??? BC: Abinadi comes the second time and is executed
- *??? BC: Lamanites chase the people of Noah into the wilderness and put the survivors under strict tribute (Mosiah 19)
- *??? BC: Lamanites attack the Limhites to avenge their kidnapped daughters (Mosiah 20)
- *??? BC: Limhites challenge the Lamanites for their freedom (Mosiah 21)
- 124 BC (476): Benjamin’s speech; Mosiah 2 becomes king in Zarahemla
- 120 BC (480): Limhites migrate from the land of Nephi to Zarahemla
As you can see, the 22-year period of peace began in 168 BC, and King Benjamin took the throne 4 years later in 164 BC. It’s likely that after losing to the Zeniffites in 168 BC, the Lamanites took a few years off to recuperate before heading down to Zarahemla to give battle.
I’d guess that King Benjamin’s battles with the Lamanites probably happened in the first 10 years of his reign, or 164-154 BC. This gives at least 8 years for the Lamanites to once again recover enough strength to turn their crosshairs back onto the Zeniffites in the lands of Lehi-Nephi and Shilom.
In conclusion, a close reading of Mosiah 10:5 and chapters 9-10 at large reveals that Zeniff had 12 years of peace, then war, then 22 more years of peace, making in total his reign about 35 years long. This explains why the Lamanites came down to Zarahemla to battle Benjamin’s people when they did, and provides greater clarity and depth to the overall story of the book of Mosiah.
Not correcting the timeline results in the Lamanites attacking the Zeniffites first in 168 BC, then again in 158 BC, AND attacking King Benjamin’s people sometime between 164 BC and 154 BC.
This would make it far more difficult for the Lamanites by forcing them to fight multiple wars in multiple locations in the same time period.
To read more of my posts about the Book of Mormon, click here.
Sources and Notes
- The 1981 edition of the Book of Mormon (the version I grew up with) puts Zeniff settling in the land of Nephi at 200 BC (Mosiah 9:1), warring with the Lamanites in the 12th-13th year at 188-187 BC (Mosiah 9:11-14), and Mosiah 10:3 at 178 BC, making his total reign about 22 years long.
Jerry Grover puts Zeniff’s reign starting at 420 (years after Lehi left Jerusalem), the first Lamanite battle at 432, and Mosiah 10:3 at 442, making Zeniff’s total reign 22 years: TRANSLATION OF THE “CARACTORS” DOCUMENT, REVISED AND UPDATED, p 311-312, http://bmslr.org/translation-of-the-caractors-document/
This Evidence Central article essentially says Zeniff’s reign was 22 years: “In the 22nd year of Zeniff’s reign, after a new Lamanite king took the throne, the Lamanites again attacked the Nephites”; https://evidencecentral.org/recency/evidence/wordplay-on-shilom
This blogger says that after the initial Lamanite attack 12 years in, “For 10 more years they had peace,” thus putting Zeniff’s reign at 22 years: https://gospelstudy.us/everything-you-never-knew-about-zeniff/
But this timeline actually gets it right! They have Zeniff’s reign starting in 199 BC, the first Lamanite attack at 186 BC, then the last Lamanite battle of Zeniff’s career at 164 BC, making his reign to be about 36 years: https://time.graphics/line/202278 ↩︎ - https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/Continual ↩︎
- The numbers in parentheses signify the years after Lehi left Jerusalem ↩︎
Featured image found here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-stories-2024/16-mosiah-and-zeniff?lang=eng
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