Abstract: Within the text of the Book of Mormon, the name of Jared’s brother is never revealed. Various reasons have been offered for the lack of a name, but nothing conclusive has been offered. Taking a cue from the polemical nature of Old Testament theology, this paper argues that the opening of the book of Ether is a polemic against Babel, with the brother of Jared being contrasted against the people and ruler of Babel. Led by the mighty hunter Nimrod, the people of Babel refused God’s command to multiply and fill the earth. Instead, they gathered together, built a tower to reach the heavens, and explicitly sought to make a name for themselves. In response, the Lord confounded their language and scattered them abroad. In contrast, the brother of Jared was a mighty, unnamed man who communed with the heavens on top of a high mountain. The language of his people was spared, and they spread across the face of the promised land. Moroni’s abridgement of Ether thus may present the anti-Babel origins of the Jaredites.

It is well known that within the text of the Book of Mormon, the name of Jared’s brother is not revealed. He is simply known as “the brother of Jared.” Extratextual sources have potentially identified his name. A late, third-hand source provides the most detailed account:

While residing in Kirtland Elder Reynolds Cahoon had a son born to him. One day when President Joseph Smith was passing his door he called the Prophet in and asked him to bless and name the baby. Joseph did so and gave the boy the name of Mahonri Moriancumer. When he had finished [Page 320]the blessing he laid the child on the bed, and turning to Elder Cahoon he said, the name I have given your son is the name of the brother of Jared; the Lord has just shown [or revealed] it to me. Elder William F. Cahoon, who was standing near heard the Prophet make this statement to his father; and this was the first time the name of the brother of Jared was known in the Church in this dispensation.¹

Other sources lend increased credence to the account. For example, “Moriancumer” is the name given by the Jaredites to the place they settled prior to their sea voyage (Ether 2:13). Furthermore, an 1835 Church publication identified the brother of Jared as “Moriancumer.”² But the Book of Mormon does not identify the brother of Jared as “Moriancumer,” and external sources do not answer the question of why his name is never given within the text itself. Various reasons have been offered for the missing name of this prominent figure. These include modesty on the part of the brother of Jared, difficulty in transliterating the name into English during the translation process, or the emphasis on Jared’s ancestral lineage (instead of his brother).³ On the latter, Brant Gardner has suggested that “Jared is the ruler and his brother is his accompanying priest. . . . Ether is writing this story as it has descended through Jared’s line.”⁴ While there may be some truth to these explanations, the Genesis account of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1–9) may provide a potential answer and act as a key in interpreting the brother of Jared story.

The opening of the book of Ether could be seen as a polemic against Babel and its leader, with Moroni’s telling of the brother of Jared story serving as the main contrast. This would fit with what some scholars see as the polemical nature of the Hebrew Bible, where the biblical authors attempt to show the superiority of Israelite theology by contrasting it with that of their neighbors and rivals. As examples of the foregoing, some have argued that the creation account in Genesis 1 in some sense demotes the primeval forces of chaos and luminaries. [Page 321]Rather than presenting astral lights as deities, or sea monsters as powerful hostile forces, God contends with during creation, the opening of Genesis labels each of these entities as creations under God’s power.⁵ In Genesis 41, Pharaoh is unable to understand his heavenly dream; an Israelite prisoner and slave (Joseph) is given power to interpret the dream and declare that “God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do” (Genesis 41:25). In ancient Egypt,

a characteristic of the royal . . . dream is the direct revelation of a god to the king. The appearance of a god, or another holy being, in the king’s dream expresses the firm connection between the kings of Egypt and their gods. It strengthens the ideology of the Egyptian monarchy, one of whose foundation stones is the belief that the king is the physical son of a god. The biblical text comes out against this ideology, which it undermines. Not only is Pharaoh “a man and not a god” (cf. Isa. 31:3), he is inferior to ordinary mortals of the Children of Israel to whom God appears in a dream, and speaks a clear message, without a picture and enigmatic visions.⁶

The Exodus narrative is presented as a cosmic battle between gods, with Yahweh triumphing over Pharaoh and the Egyptian pantheon via the plagues: “against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord” (Exodus 12:12).⁷ The storm imagery of the Canaanite god Ba’al is often attached to Yahweh by the biblical authors, most explicitly in the showdown between Elijah and the priests of Ba’al (see 1 Kings 17–18). It is Yahweh, rather than Ba’al, who brings about the [Page 322]lightning (fire from heaven) and rainfall that gives life to the land.⁸ Even in the Book of Abraham, there are potential polemics. According to John Gee,

The ancient Egyptians associated the idea of encircling something (whether in the sky or on the earth) with controlling or governing it. . . . Kolob, which is the nearest star to God (Abraham 3:16; see also 3, 9), revolves around and thus encircles or controls the sun, which is the head of the Egyptian pantheon.⁹

Abraham’s vision of the Pre-Mortal Council and his foreordination as one of the “noble and great ones” destined to be God’s “rulers” (Abraham 3:22–23) could also be a subtle attack on Pharaoh. Ancient Egyptians believed Pharaoh to have been foreordained by the gods to rule—a belief that Abraham’s vision would undermine.¹⁰

In a fashion similar to that of the biblical authors, Moroni may be pitting the brother of Jared against the people of Babel and their ruler Nimrod. (A summary of these contrasts can be seen in table 1.) In numerous ways, the brother of Jared is shown to be successful where Babel has failed. And these achievements come by means that are antithetical to Babel’s own.

“Let Us Make Us a Name”: Genesis 6, the Tower of Babel, and the Unnamed Brother of Jared

The book of Ether sets the stage for the Jaredite story by explaining that “Jared came forth with his brother and their families, with some others and their families, from the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the face of the earth; and according to the word of the Lord the people were scattered” (Ether 1:33). The main character of the early Jaredite story is then introduced in the next verse simply as “the brother of Jared” (Ether 1:34). This remains his sole identification throughout the entirety of the book of Ether.

[Page 323]Table 1. Key contrasts of Babel and Jaredite origins.

This clearly connects to the story of the Tower of Babel. While we do not have the Jaredites’ full account of the event (nor even the account that was likely on the brass plates),¹¹ we can draw on the account in Genesis:

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:1–4)

Both in the beginning at the creation and later after the flood, God commands his people to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” [Page 325](Genesis 1:28; 9:1, NRSV). The people of Babel instead “came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there” to “make a name for [them]selves” and to avoid being “scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:2, 4, NRSV). The desire for a name hearkens back to the Nephilim (translated as “giants” in the KJV) in Genesis 6,¹² who are described as “mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4). As biblical scholar Michael Heiser explains,

The Nephilim are cast as “mighty warriors” (gibborim) and “men of renown”—literally, “men of the name (shem).” . . . Immediately after the flood, Nimrod (whose name most likely means “rebellion”) is called a gibbor. Nimrod is cast as the progenitor of the civilizations of Assyria and Babylon (Gen 10:6–12). . . . The language is not coincidental. It links Babylon back to Genesis 6 and its divine transgression. The Nimrod description in Genesis 10, in the so-called Table of Nations, is therefore a theological bridge between the violation of Genesis 6:1–4 and the next momentous event in the Torah [the Tower of Babel] that will frame the entire story of Israel.¹³

The Nephilim or “men of the name” in Genesis are seen as the offspring of “the sons of God” and “the daughters of men” (Genesis 6:4). In the biblical text as well as later postbiblical tradition, “the sons of God” are depicted as gods or angels—literal sons of El and members of the Divine Council—who mate with mortal women.¹⁴ In Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible, “the sons of God” are instead human beings, specifically Noah and his sons (or perhaps his descendants) who “hearkened unto the Lord, and gave heed” (Moses 8:13).¹⁵ “The sons of men” who did “not hearken to [God’s] voice” and married “the [Page 326]daughters of men” also try to claim this title (Moses 8:15, 21). In both the biblical and JST version, a violation of divine boundaries occurs. The Genesis version follows the biblical pattern of humans “striving to transcend the limits of humanity, to break through the boundary between the human and the divine.”¹⁶ The JST appears to focus on the obedience of those within the covenantal or priestly order and the disobedience and marriages of those outside of it.¹⁷ The violations in both the biblical and JST versions seem to be part of the “wickedness of man” that trigger the flood (Genesis 6:5–7; Moses 8:13–17).

Moroni appears to pick up on the connections between the Tower of Babel and Noah’s flood while tying them together in the story of the Jaredites. After sparing their language, the Lord commands the Jaredites to “gather together thy flocks, both male and female, of every kind” (Ether 1:41). This is similar to the command given to Noah (Genesis 6:19–20; 7:9). Their barges are later described as “tight like unto the ark of Noah” (Ether 6:7).¹⁸ These echoes of Noah’s flood further solidify the connection between the stories of Genesis 6—including those about the “sons of God” and “men of the name”—and the Tower of Babel.

Scattering was later associated in Israelite history with covenant breaking, captivity, and exile from the promised land.¹⁹ According to biblical scholar Bruce Waltke, the Tower of Babel represented a “united titanic societal self-assertion against God” and his command [Page 327]to “fill the earth.”²⁰ The desire for a name or reputation combined with the fear of scattering or captivity led the people of Babel to reject God’s command. The story thus concludes, “The Lord did . . . confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:9).

The contrast between the people of Babel and the brother of Jared begins early in the story. The brother of Jared has no revealed name in Moroni’s abridgement. This distinguishes him from the “men of the name” in Genesis 6 and the prideful in Babel who sought to “make a name for [them]selves” (Genesis 11:4, NRSV). The humility of the brother of Jared compared to the hubris of Babel is made evident in his prayer in Ether 3:

Now behold, O Lord . . . do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee; for we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually. . . . O Lord, look upon me in pity, and turn away thine anger from this thy people. (Ether 3:2–3)

Because of the humility of this unnamed man, “the Lord had compassion” on him along with his family and friends and “therefore . . . did not confound” their language (Ether 1:34–37), a fate that the prideful Babel did not escape. The brother of Jared and his company also did not resist the Lord’s command to fill the earth and allowed him to “drive [them] out of the land” to “a land which is choice above all the earth” (Ether 1:38)—one that was “free from bondage, and from captivity” (Ether 2:12). Once they arrived in the promised land, the Jaredites “began to spread upon the face of the land, and to multiply and to till the earth” (Ether 6:18). Instead of being part of the name-hungry, disobedient, and forcibly scattered people of Babel, the Jaredite origins are rooted in the humility and experiences of an unnamed man. This man and his people are spared the confounding of language, led to a choice land free from captivity, and followed God’s edict to “fill the earth.”

[Page 328]“A Mighty One in the Earth”: Nimrod and the Brother of Jared

As briefly mentioned, Genesis lists the ruler of Babel to be Nimrod, son of Cush: “And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel . . . in the land of Shinar” (Genesis 10:8–10). Jared and his family also travel to the valley of Nimrod, which is “called after the mighty hunter” (Ether 2:1). The biblical record of Nimrod is sparse, but many later traditions arose about this figure. While some traditions paint Nimrod in a positive light, most cast him as the leader of Babel’s rebellion against God and the builder of its tower.²¹

Nimrod is described in Genesis as a “mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:9). The phrase “before the Lord” (lipnê Yhwh) can be translated as “at the face of” or “in the presence of” the Lord. In the case of Nimrod, it could mean “in the sight of” the Lord.²²

In general, any cultic activity to which the biblical text applies the formula ‘before the Lord’ can be considered an indication of the existence of a temple at the site, since this expression stems from the basic conception of the temple as a divine dwelling-place and actually belongs to the temple’s technical terminology.²³

Yet, Joseph Smith’s inspired translation reads, “He was a mighty hunter in the land.”²⁴ This new rendering removes any indication of [Page 329]Nimrod being favorable in the Lord’s eyes and may reflect similar readings found in antiquity. For example, ancient commentators like Philo of Alexandria and St. Augustine relied on the Greek translation of the Old Testament to assist in their understanding of Nimrod’s disposition. Augustine explained,

Not a few translators have failed to understand this, being misled by an ambiguity in the Greek, and so have rendered it as “before the Lord” rather than “against the Lord.” Indeed, the Greek word enantion does mean both “before” and “against.” . . . But it is in the latter sense that we are to understand it in the description of the giant Nimrod, who was “a mighty hunter against the Lord.”²⁵

Philo described Nimrod as “a giant hunter” who was “zealous for earthly and corruptible things’ . . . ‘a giant before God,’ which clearly is opposition to the Deity.”²⁶ In The Biblical Antiquities of Philo, the phrase is translated as “proud before the Lord.”²⁷ The author (Pseudo-Philo) proceeds to tell a story about the patriarch Abraham’s refusal to participate in the building of the Tower of Babel. In response, Nimrod attempts to have Abraham executed by casting him into a fiery furnace. But Abraham is miraculously delivered by God and escapes unscathed. Josephus later recounted Nimrod’s pride and tyrannical reign:

God again counselled [the people of Babel] to colonize; but they, never thinking that they owed their blessings to His benevolence and regarding their own might as the cause of their felicity, refused to obey. . . . They were incited to this insolent contempt of God by Nebrodes [Nimrod], . . . an audacious man of doughty vigour. He persuaded them to attribute their prosperity not to God but to their own valour, and little by little transformed the state of affairs into a tyranny, holding that the only way to detach men from the fear of God was by making them continuously dependent upon his own power. He threatened to have his revenge on God [Page 330]if He wished to inundate the earth again; for he would build a tower higher than the water could reach and avenge the destruction of their forefathers.²⁸

If these later traditions at least capture the intention of the Genesis authors regarding Nimrod, they bolster the contrast between the brother of Jared and Babel’s founder: “And the brother of Jared [was] a large and mighty man, and a man highly favored of the Lord” (Ether 1:34). Far from this mighty man being against the Lord, the brother of Jared sees himself as the Lord’s “servant” and recognizes his “weakness” and “unworth[iness] before [the Lord]” (Ether 3:2). When the brother of Jared saw the Lord’s finger through the veil, he “fell down before the Lord, for he was struck with fear” (Ether 3:6). In response, the Lord states that “never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast. . . . And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you” (Ether 3:9, 13). Later, when the Jaredites arrived in the New World, they “did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them” (Ether 6:12).

The ruler of Babel was considered “a mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:9) but rebelled against the Lord. Consequently, his language was confounded and his people scattered abroad. The results of Nimrod’s kingship could be the reason the brother of Jared objected to a monarchy in the promised land (Ether 6:23). The pattern of wickedness that followed the establishment of the Jaredite monarchy may have also inspired Mosiah to institute the reign of the judges.²⁹ The brother of Jared is described as “a large and mighty man” much like Nimrod, but by contrast is “highly favored of the Lord” (Ether 1:34). His language was preserved and his people divinely led to a choice land. It was this mighty man who was, quite literally, brought “before the Lord” and into his presence. In essence, the brother of Jared is shown to be everything Nimrod failed to be; the anti-Nimrod.

[Page 331]“A Tower, Whose Top May Reach Unto Heaven”: The False Temple and the Temple Mount

Mountains and temples anciently were seen as “the primeval hillock of creation, the meeting place of the gods, the dwelling place of the high god, the meeting place of heaven and earth, the monument effectively upholding the order of creation, the place where god meets man, a place of theophany.”³⁰ Scholars have noted that the “tower” spoken of in the biblical narrative is likely a reference to a Mesopotamian ziggurat, a large pyramid-like temple structure meant to symbolize a mountain.³¹ “The name babel means, in Akkadian, ‘gate of God’ and is a play on the Hebrew balal, meaning ‘to mix or confound.’ It is apparent then that the tower of Babel was a counterfeit gate of God, or temple, that [was] . . . built in rebellion against God.”³² Hugh Nibley referred to the tower as “the first pagan temple.”³³ Mormon certainly recognized the source of the tower, as he identified Satan as the one “who put it into the hearts of the people to build a tower sufficiently high that they might get to heaven” (Helaman 6:28). Some scholars have pointed out that the ultimate sin of the tower was “humanity corrupting the nature of Deity. . . . Humanity had a fundamental misunderstanding of God’s sovereignty, transcendence, and power.”³⁴

Rather than worshipping at the false temple and symbolic mountain that was meant to have its “top in the heavens” (Genesis 11:4, NRSV), the brother of Jared “went forth unto the mount, which they [Page 332]called the mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height” (Ether 3:1). Here the contrast between the false temple and natural temple begins, with both being described according to their height. The name of the Jaredite mountain also signals its holy nature. According to M. Catherine Thomas, “Shelem (and shalom) signify peace with God, especially in the covenant relationship. It also connotes submission to God . . . In particular, shelem has a reference to the peace offering of the law of sacrifice, which corresponds to the seeking of fellowship with God, and thereby has a relationship to the meanings of the at-one-ment.”³⁵

The contrast between the Tower of Babel and Mount Shelem is similar to the contrast between Nimrod and the brother of Jared regarding the true presence of the Lord. In the case of the Tower of Babel, “the Lord came down to see the city and the tower.” He then tells his Divine Council “let us go down” to the level of the tower in order to confound the people’s language (Genesis 11:5, 7 NRSV). Ironically, the people “erect the highest building they can, but even to see it, the Lord must descend from His heavenly dwelling.”³⁶ Yet, after ascending the mountain of “exceeding height,” the brother of Jared’s faith allows him to witness the finger of the Lord through the veil. He is subsequently “redeemed from the fall” and “brought back into [the Lord’s] presence” (Ether 3:13). On top of Mount Shelem, the brother of Jared “saw Jesus; and he did minister unto him” (Ether 3:20). Following his theophany, the brother of Jared is then commanded “to go down out of the mount from the presence of the Lord” (Ether 4:1).

The people of Babel sought to “build . . . a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven” (Genesis 11:4). But this false temple—a false gate of God—fails to reach the presence of God. The Lord and his Divine Council had to “go down” to even see the Tower of Babel in order to disrupt the arrogance of the people. But on the temple mount of “exceeding height” (Ether 3:1), the brother of Jared is allowed to enter into the Lord’s presence. And when he descends the temple mount, it is from seeing the Lord face to face. Mount Shelem is shown to be the true gateway to God. Once again, the brother of Jared and his people are shown to achieve where Babel failed—the anti-Babel.

[Page 333]Summary

The story of the Tower of Babel provides the context for the interpretation of the opening of the book of Ether. It also provides a compelling explanation as to the absence of the brother of Jared’s name within the Book of Mormon text. The people of Babel, led by the mighty hunter Nimrod, refused God’s command to multiply and fill the earth. Instead, they gathered together, built a high tower—a false temple—to reach the heavens, and sought to make a name or legacy for themselves. In response, the Lord confounded their language and scattered them abroad. Babylon (or Babel) in the Hebrew Bible is “emblematic of imperialistic hubris, injustice and oppression,”³⁷ making it a pristine target for Moroni’s polemics. The brother of Jared was a mighty, unnamed man who communed with the heavens on top of a high mountain. The language of his people was spared, and they spread across the face of the promised land. This is how Moroni’s abridgement of Ether presents the anti-Babel origins of the Jaredites.