Jared
This dilemma comes from the 2nd installment of our series the Demonic and Ungodly Names in the Book of Mormon. Take a look at what the Book of Mormon teaches about the Tower of Babylon and what God says in His word. The two examples couldn’t be more contradictory of each other.
This story is interesting because it shows two different accounts of what God did with the people involved with the tower of Babel. It seems that God is a god of confusion with his people if you believe the Mormon version.
As it turns out, Jared and his family are the only ones in the whole world that didn’t have his language confounded when God scattered the people at the time of the tower of Babel. After Jared told his brother to pray that God wouldn’t confound their language, they somehow miraculously realized that God heard the brother of Jared’s cry. It’s also interesting to note that Jared’s brother never seems to have his own name.
Joseph Smith claims the people that descended from Jared are called the Jaredites. The Jaredites had grown to become a great god-fearing nation which moved to the Americas, thus the Book of Mormon.
After many generations and hundreds of years they were destroyed by civil wars caused from the disobedience unto the Lord.
Ether 1:33-4 says; “Which 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. And the brother of Jared being a large and mighty man, and a man highly favored of the Lord, Jared, his brother, said unto him: Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we may not understand our words.”
Verse 35 tells us their language wasn’t confounded. Then they prayed even their friends’ language wouldn’t be confounded and theirs was spared as well. The Bible has always told us two things for sure:
God is not the author of confusion. 1 Corinthian 14:33 says; ‘For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.’ And then in Acts 10:34 we have Peter telling us that God is no respecter of persons.
With these two simple things in mind, why would God decide the rules were different for some and not all? What was so different about Jared and his non-named brother that they and their friends didn’t have the same treatment?
The story of the tower of Babel can be found in Gen. 11. Verse nine says; “Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of ALL the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth”.
Did you notice what it said in Ether 1:33? Let’s take a look at it again! It says; “…at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered.”
Two more things come to mind when I read this passage.
1-God can’t be trusted. If God ‘swore in his wrath’ that they would be scattered and he confounded the language then went back on what he said, it’s likely that he could be bought off the next time I sinned.
2-Did he or did he not confound the language? If he confounded the languages and then Jared’s brother started praying, did God have to give them back their languages? Call me picky, but I think that knowing the God I worship is a serious business and I want to make sure I know it intimately!
Again, only difficult if you refuse to actually consider things.
First of all, the book of Genesis contains over two thousand years of history in fifty chapters. There is no way you can expect every detail to be found in this account.
Second, according to the Book of Mormon the Jaredites separated themselves from everyone else early on, so it is not unreasonable that a record of them would not be contained in Genesis, as it contains only a record of lineage of Abraham. Brief genealogies of the other sons of Noah are given, but no detail.
As to the confounding of the language, this one just needs a little more understanding of word meanings. First, does the Genesis account mean that every single person began speaking a different language than everyone else? This would be a foolish idea as there has never been that many language in existence. It is much more logical to say that groups of people retained similar language, but the confusion between groups was sufficient to disperse those seeking to build the tower.
Bearing this in mind it is not at all unreasonable to say that Jared and his brother and their friends could have been one of these groups. As such their language was not confounded, as they could still communicate with each other, but all the languages of the earth were effectively confounded.
Lastly, the brother of Jared was a great prophet, so the idea that he was warned of the forthcoming confounding is not unreasonable either. Especially considering that Amos tells us that God does nothing until he reveals it to his prophets (3: 7). So, the faithful obviously knew what was going to happen, and with this warning Jared told his brother to ask God to allow them and their friends to keep a similar language.
Nothing is truly contradicted, and with a little bit of reason the two accounts are seen to be in perfect harmony.