Other than Nephi himself, Amaron is the only writer on the small plates to pass them horizontally to a brother rather than vertically to a son, presumably because he had no eligible son. Although this is the only occasion on the small plates, we will see both plate transmission and leadership transmission to brothers in Mormon’s text, as well as in Mesoamerican political tradition. (See commentary accompanying Alma 52:3–4 and Mormon 1:2.)
Chronology: The next date appears in Mosiah 6:4 at the coronation of Mosiah2. At that point, 476 years had passed since Lehi left Jerusalem, making the date 124 B.C. In the 156 intervening years—about thirty years longer than the time between Jacob and Enos—seven people are involved in the narrative: Amaron, Chemish, Abinadom, Amaleki, Mosiah1, Benjamin, and Mosiah2. Amaron and Chemish are brothers, suggesting a relatively brief stewardship for Chemish. Amaleki’s life begins in the “days” of Mosiah1, and he dies during the reign of Benjamin, before 124 B.C.
The plate tradition for this period includes five people, and four generations: Amaron/Chemish, Abinadom, Amaleki, and Mosiah2. If each generation were the same length, the plates would be in the hands of each writer thirty-nine years (including the time to Mosiah2’s coronation). This cannot be the correct distribution of years, however, as Amaleki has the plates through much of the life of Mosiah1 and sees the coronation of Benjamin, which would have occurred only after Benjamin had reached an appropriate age—perhaps, to hypothesize on the youthful side, twenty.
Since Amaleki uses the phrase “began to be old” (v. 25), a phrase that meant their seventies or later for Nephi, Jacob, and Enos (Jacob 1:9, 7:26; Enos 1:25; see commentary accompanying Jacob 1:9), we can reasonably assume that Amaleki was about seventy when he died. This figure, however, leaves about eighty-six years when the plates were in Chemish’s and Abinadom’s possession and further assumes that Mosiah2’s coronation happened immediately after Amaleki gave the plates to Benjamin, which is unlikely.
Benjamin was old when he transferred the kingdom to Mosiah2; he died three years later (Mosiah 6:5). If we assume that Benjamin had the plates at least twenty years before effecting the transfer, then Benjamin and Mosiah possessed the records jointly for sixty-six years or perhaps thirty-three years apiece. This span is much shorter than that of the other recordkeepers. Perhaps the frequent wars had something to do with short lives.