In the

Book of Ether The Book of Ether () is one of the books of the List of Book of Mormon prophets, Book of Mormon. It describes the Jaredites, descendants of Jared (founder of Jaredites), Jared and his companions, who were led by God to the Americas shortly after ...

in the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi''. The book is one of ...

, Jared was the primary ancestor of the

Jaredite The Jaredites () are one of four peoples (along with the Nephites, Lamanites, and Mulekites) that the Latter-day Saints believe settled in ancient America. The Book of Mormon (mainly its Book of Ether) describes the Jaredites as the descendan ...

s. He is not to be confused with another Jared, a later Jaredite king who dethroned his father, Omer.

Biblical Jared

The Book of Mormon Jared has the same name as the

antediluvian The antediluvian (alternatively pre-diluvian or pre-flood) period is the time period chronicled in the Bible between the fall of man and the Genesis flood narrative in biblical cosmology. The term was coined by Thomas Browne (1605–1682). The n ...

biblical patriarch Jared ( ''Yéreḏ'', in

pausa In linguistics, pausa (Latin for 'break', from Greek παῦσις, ''pâusis'' 'stopping, ceasing') is the hiatus between prosodic declination units. The concept is somewhat broad, as it is primarily used to refer to allophones that occur in ...

''Yā́reḏ'', "to descend"),The etymology "to descend" is according to

Migration

According to the narrative Jared, along with family and friends came to the "promised land" (the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

) shortly after the great

Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language migrates to Shin ...

. When the language of the people was confounded, Jared asked his brother to ask God not to confound their own language, that of their friends, and that of their immediate families. This means that they arrived much earlier than Lehi and Nephi and their families did. The

Brother of Jared In the Book of Mormon, the Brother of Jared is the most prominent person in the account given in the beginning (Chapters 1–6) of the Book of Ether. The Brother of Jared's name is not given in the text of the Book of Mormon, but Joseph Smith sta ...

(not named in the text, but later referred to as "Mahonri Moriancumer" by Joseph Smith) is also a significant character. Jared's group, the ancestors of the

Jaredites The Jaredites () are one of four peoples (along with the Nephites, Lamanites, and Mulekites) that the Latter-day Saints believe settled in ancient America. The Book of Mormon (mainly its Book of Ether) describes the Jaredites as the descend ...

, were guided through the wilderness by God, and then fled across the ocean on unusual barges and established an ancient civilization in the Americas. They also brought with them animals and food. The recorded length of the miraculous trip was 344 days. The Book of Ether's mention of a "narrow neck of land" has led some to posit various locations for their point of arrival. Some of these include "necks of land" in Central America or modern-day Mexico. Others favor a location which spanned from the

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

to the

Eastern United States The Eastern United States, often abbreviated as simply the East, is a macroregion of the United States located to the east of the Mississippi River. It includes 17–26 states and Washington, D.C., the national capital. As of 2011, the Eastern ...

such as

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. However, neither of these are certain, and are not supported by mainstream archeology.

Mormon apologist Apologetics (from Greek ) is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and recommended their faith ...

s link this story to various traditions similar to that of the tower of Babel said to be found in Central America. Some writers connected the

Great Pyramid of Cholula The Great Pyramid of Cholula, also known as (Nahuatl for "constructed mountain"), is a complex located in Cholula, Puebla, Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. It is the largest archaeological site of a pyramid (temple) in the world, as well as the largest ...

to the Tower of Babel. The

Dominican friar The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilian priest named Dominic de Guzmán. It was approved by Pope Honorius ...

Diego Durán Diego Durán (c. 1537 – 1588) was a Dominican friar best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, ''The History of the Indies of New Spain'', a book that was much criticised in ...

(1537–1588) reported hearing an account about the pyramid from a hundred-year-old priest at Cholula, shortly after the conquest of Mexico. He wrote that he was told when the light of the sun first appeared upon the land, giants appeared and set off in search of the sun. Not finding it, they built a tower to reach the sky. An angered Lord of the Heavens called upon the inhabitants of the sky, who destroyed the tower and scattered its inhabitants. The story was not related to either a flood or the confusion of languages, although Frazer connects its construction and the scattering of the giants with the Tower of Babel. Another story, attributed by the native historian

Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl, more generally known as Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, born between 1568 and 1580, died in 1648, was a nobleman of partial Aztec noble descent in the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain, modern Mexico; he is k ...

(c. 1565–1648) to the ancient

Toltecs The Toltec culture () was a Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula (Mesoamerican site), Tula, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoam ...

, states that after men had multiplied following a great deluge, they erected a tall ''zacuali'' or tower, to preserve themselves in the event of a second deluge. However, their languages were confounded and they went to separate parts of the earth.

Question of succession

As death was approaching Jared and his brother, Mahonri Moriancumer, gathered together the people to ask them what they desired of them before they died. The people then requested that they anoint one of their sons as king. This was grievous to them, and the Mahonri Moriancumer remarked that "surely this thing leadeth into captivity." Despite Mahonri's misgivings, Jared pressed him to allow the establishment of a Jaredite kingship at which suggestion the brother of Jared yielded.Ether 6:24

Family

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jared Book of Mormon people Tower of Babel