This version of the Book of Ether is Moroni's summary of Ether's powerful writings recorded in the 24 Jaredite plates found about 600 years earlier by King Limhi's explorers.

Questions for Review:

1. What is the promise of the Lord to those who would live in the promised land now called the Americas? (Ether 2:8-12)

2. What kind of body did Jesus have at the time the Brother of Jared saw him? (Ether 3:16)

3. What statements can we make about faith? (Ether 3:19-20; 12:6)
 

The 24 Jaredite plates contained a full account of the creation, the fall of Adam, the flood, and the history of the world until the confusion of languages  (3-5)

The name of the Brother of Jared (read in the student manual, page 136, left column)

The brother of Jared had prior knowledge of the confusion of languages  (34-35; also read Amos 3:7)

Jared asks his brother to beg the Lord for special blessings  (34, 36, 38)

• To not have their language confounded
• To not confound the language of their families, their friends and their friends' families
• To take them to a choice land

 
Notice that the brother of Jared is the prophet of the Lord, but it is his brother who seems to "direct" him on what to do.
 
In 1983, Elder Jacob de Jäger--then a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy--stated in a conference of the Petrópolis Brazil Stake that a few years earlier, during the translation of the Book of Mormon into Thai (the official language of Thailand) the translators had a problem at this point of the narrative because there is no word for "brother" in Thai. That language has words for "older-brother" or "younger-brother," but no word for "brother."
Elder Jäger had been the "Executive Administrator" (residing general authority) for Asian countries at the time of the translation, and took the matter to President Spencer W. Kimball, who in turn received a revelation clarifying that the brother of Jared was Jared's younger brother. I know this because I was invited to attend that stake conference to serve as Elder Jäger's interpreter.
 
Therefore, until addition information is provided, we may conclude that Jared's apparent "coaching" of his prophet-brother could have been just a cultural trait in their society.

A lot of temporal work goes into receiving a promised land (1-3, 6, 16)

Conditions to receive the American continent (a.k.a. North, Central & South Americas) as a promised land (8-10, 12; 2 Nephi 1:5-11)

There seem to be other promised lands (see 1 Nephi 22:12), and the words in the above-mentioned verses combined with the prophetic words of Moses (Deuteronomy chapters 28-30) outline the conditions to receive a promised land from the Lord anywhere in the world

The Lord commands the colonists to build new barges, but there is no light nor fresh air in them (18-25)

The brother of Jared devises a plan to solve the problem of the lack of light in the barges (1,4)

Here is a long quote out of my book manuscript on Church leadership:

"What we have today as the Book of Ether ... is just an abridgement, a condensed version of about 1,600 years of Jaredite history made by Moroni. Since we do not have the details of what happened, we may assume that it probably took the Brother of Jared some time to figure out what to do. How long? Perhaps hours, or even days. Later, after he had developed an idea of what to do, he had to find the necessary materials, and build a furnace. He had to find the right type of rock, and who knows whether the mountain where he finally found it was nearby or far? And who knows how high it was? In those days, to achieve the high temperatures needed to melt the rocks, he and his associates probably had to work very hard, blowing the fire with bellows for many hours, perhaps day and night, until the right temperature was reached, and then they had to continue working hard to maintain that temperature until the process of melting was finished. Besides that, who knows whether the process worked fine at the first attempt? Who knows whether the temperature was correct or not; whether he found the right type of rock at first or not; whether the stones didn't break in pieces while solidifying?

By these suppositions I am not trying to find out exactly what happened in the experience of the Brother of Jared; I am just trying to suggest that besides praying, Moriancumer had to work very hard to solve his problem. The important part of this discussion is that in order to solve some of our most difficult problems we have to follow the same process."  (Marcus H. Martins, Insights on Church Leadership)

"Moriancumer did not ask the Lord something vague or uncertain like 'please, make these stones shine,' or 'if possible, make them shine.' Instead, he said: '... thou hast all power ... [thou] can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man ... touch these stones ... with thy finger ... thou canst do this ...'

Perhaps some of us might say: 'Well, this experience happened with the Brother of Jared, a great prophet and seer of old; maybe that would not happen with one of us, simple ordinary persons ...' In answer to this concern I would say that first, prophets, seers and revelators are also 'simple' persons; the difference between us and them is in the breadth of the callings they have received in comparison with our callings."  (Martins, ibid.)

The brother of Jared no longer had faith-he had perfect knowledge  (19-20)

The account of this ministration was hidden from the world  (21-24)

The magnitude of the revelations given to the brother of Jared (4)

The Lord promises great revelations, including the ones given to the brother of Jared and John, the Revelator (7-11, 13-16)

All that persuades to do good comes from the Lord  (12)

The Book of Mormon itself is a sign that the work of the Lord has started in our generation.  Therefore, it is time to repent.  (18-19)

Copyright © 1994-2007 - Marcus H. Martins
This web page was published only as a support for classroom discussion.
For more information, contact Dr. Marcus Martins at: martinsm@byuh.edu