Many different theories have been put forward by LDS authors relative to the chronological timetable “concerning the creation of the world … even to the great tower” (Ether 1:3). As with all chronological theories or geographical theories related to the Book of Mormon setting, it is not my purpose to decide the “winner,” nor is it my purpose to expose the “loser.” Rather it is my purpose to elucidate those ideas and factors which are at the heart of their chronological theories. The Book of Mormon is true; time will ultimately validate the chronological and geographical verses. In the meantime, for a more comprehensive charting of the various theories, the Book of Mormon student is referred to Appendix A (Chronology) of this volume. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
“The Great Tower”
According to Warren and Palmer, it is clear from the book of Ether’s reference to “the great tower” (Ether 1:3) that the initial geographical setting for the Jaredites was in Mesopotamia. The fertile area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was the heartland of great early cultures. The first settlers developed city-states and evolved the concept of the stepped-pyramid which we call today the ziggurat. In the Holy Bible and apparently in the Book of Mormon these pyramids were just called “towers.” Those that created these pyramids, after the Flood, were called Sumerians. The Hebrews considered themselves to be descendants of the Sumerians. Shem, the son of Noah, may well have been the founder of the Sumerian race at the end of the great Flood. The great Mesopotamian scholar S.N. Kramer (1963:288-9) presents linguistic arguments that would satisfactorily equate the name of Shem with Sumer (pronounced Shumer). The biblical word for Sumer is “Shinar.” [Bruce W. Warren and David A. Palmer, The Jaredite Saga, ch. 4, unpublished]
“The First Part of This Record Which Speaks Concerning the Creation of the World Even to the Great Tower”
According to Glenn Scott, Josephus (4:2) indicated that the original purpose of the tower of Babel was to unite the people in a vast project of constructing a refuge in case of another flood. That was to them a real and terrifying prospect in view of their recent past. The construction of such an artificial mountain on the flat alluvial plain, was an understandable response by those former hill people. However, through the years, the emphasis shifted to a “Mountain of God” or “Hill of Heaven” concept, perhaps from placing a temple on its summit, which permitted them to worship their God (or gods) on high places … The translator of the Book of Jasher, in a footnote, suggested that Nimrod’s desire to teach idolatry and to raise the tower was a means of uniting all peoples under his standard… . [Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust: New Light on an Ancient American Record, pp. 19-21]
Ether 1:3 The great tower ([Illustration] Conceptions of the Great Tower. A conceptional concept of the Great Tower named Babel (per Maurano). Also, the great ziggurat at Ur, a more likely design. Note the similarity to Mesoamerican pyramids. [Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust: New Light on an American Record, p. 20]
“The First Part of This Record Which Speaks Concerning the Creation of the World Even to the Great Tower Geography”
According to Glenn Scott, apparently Noah and his family disembarked from the Ark after the Flood waters began to recede down the sides of the Ararat mountain range. The Book of Jubilees states that the specific peak was Mount Lubar near the headwaters of the Euphrates River, although Josephus says that it was Mount Baris, and the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, calls it Mount Nisir.
Events between the Flood and the great tower are summarized in the Bible (IV) in only fifty verses, so to fill in the spaces from Noah to Jared we will refer to other ancient sources such as The Torah (Hebrew Old Testament) possibly dating to 457 B.C. when Ezra is thought to have codified the Scriptures; The Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) dating to at least 285 B.C.; The Book of Jubilees (an ancient Hebrew midrash) dated third century B.C.; The Book of Jasher (mentioned in Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18 IV; KJV); Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews; etc.
Jubilees 7:1 tells us that Noah “planted vines on the mountain on which the Ark rested, named Lubar, part of the Ararat range, and they produced fruit in the fourth year.” Genesis 9:27 IV; 9:20 KJV) says “And Noah … planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine and was drunken; and was uncovered within his tent,” which led to the tragic incident of Noah cursing his son, Ham, causing Ham’s youngest child, Canaan, to be born with a skin “of darkness” (Genesis 9:30 IV).
Josephus 4:1 tells us that after the death of Noah, Japheth, Shem, and Ham “descended to the plains, which they called Shinar, and fixed their habitation there.” They persuaded others to follow them though many were reluctant fearing another great flood.
Jubilees 8:6 provides more detail by relating that Salah (the great-grandson of Shem) had a son named Eber (Heber), and Eber had a son named Peleg. Yes, this is the famous and controversial Peleg, of whom Genesis 10:16 IV; 10:25 KJV says, “in his days was the earth divided.” (A commentary on this “division” of the earth will follow, but not immediately.) [Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust: New Light on an Ancient American Record, pp. 13-15]
Ether 1:3 The first part of this record, which speaks concerning the creation of the world … even to the great tower [[Illustration] Conceptions of Noah’s Ark [Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust: New Light on an Ancient American Record, p. 12]
“The First Part of This Record Which Speaks Concerning the Creation of the World Even to the Great Tower”
John Tvedtnes notes that according to Jewish tradition, Nimrod’s rebellion consisted in the building of the city and tower of Babel. Genesis 11:1-9 says that the tower was designed to reach unto heaven. This may explain the name by which the city was known to its local inhabitants, Bab-ilu, generally understood to mean “gate of the gods.” That Nimrod built Babel is confirmed in Genesis 10:9-10, though the Bible never ties him to the tower itself.
According to Chronicles of Jerahmeel 31:20, Nimrod forced the people to acknowledge him as a god and counseled them to erect the city and tower of Babel to rebel against God. Thereafter, everyone who revelled against the Lord was compared to Nimrod. Chronicles of Jerahmeel 30:6 indicates that those who built the tower of Babel did so to reach and break open the firmament of heaven, preempting another flood from God. They sought to “wage war with those in heaven and establish themselves as gods.” This was also Satan’s intention. The thought of ascending to heaven attributed to Lucifer in Isaiah 14:13 is the same one that brought about the fall of the tower of Babel (the origin of Babylon) in Genesis 11:1-9. Indeed, according to Helaman 6:28, it was Satan who inspired the building of the tower.
If the early Jewish traditions have a basis in fact, then Nimrod seems to have been inspired by Satan to build the city and tower of Babel, in direct disobedience to the Lord’s instructions that the people should disperse and fill the earth (Genesis 9:1). It is significant that some early stories indicate that Nimrod named his son Bel, which is a title of Marduk, and that Bel’s son Ninus is said to have erected an idol of his father (Chronicles of Jerahmeel 32:2-5). The story is evidently intended to explain how the worship of Bel or Marduk began in Babylon. In Book of Jasher 7:47-48 and 11:7, Nimrod’s son is Mardon, a name that derives from the same root as Nimrod and means “rebel.”
It is interesting to note that while the devil is expelled from the mountain of God in Isaiah 14:13 and Ezekiel 28:14 and 16, in Ezekiel 28:13 he is said to have been in Eden, the garden of God. In early Jewish tradition, the garden was situated atop a mountain. Some early traditions indicate that the tower of Babel (built by Nimrod, inspired by Satan, in an attempt to ascend to heaven) was an imitation of the holy mountain of Eden. [John A. Tvedtnes, “Lucifer, Son of the Morning,” in The Most Correct Book, pp. 145-147, 159]
“The First Part of This Record Which Speaks Concerning the Creation of the World Even to the Great Tower”
According to Glenn Scott, there has been, in the church, the assumption that the continents were physically torn apart in the days of Peleg (see previous commentary and illustration). Let‘s see why that assumption doesn’t fit the facts.
Most scientists agree that the surface of the earth is made up of tectonic (rocky) plates, miles thick, that float on the earth’s molten core and that at some time in the remote past all of these plates were clustered together in one super-continent, which they call “Pangea.” Tectonic geologists R.D. Nance, T. Worsley, and J. Moody have written that these plates “will move back together eventually, reforming the super-continent.” Thus, scientific evidence supports the Doctrine and Covenants 133:24 which says, “He shall command the great deep and it shall be driven back into the north countries, and the islands shall become one land … and the earth shall be like as it was in the days before it was divided.”
So far so good--all of the above is true. However, the problem arises when one makes the easy assumption that the above truth, and the truth recorded in Genesis 10:25 KJV, refer to the same event. In other words, making the unjustified assumption that the division referred to in the Doctrine and Covenants is the same division mentioned in Genesis 10:25, which reads:
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.
If the serious student looks to science for support, he should realize that the division of the continents has been going on for a very, very long time. In fact, they are still being divided today, at the rate of about four inches a year.
An excellent example of how unrealistic a vast wrenching apart of the continents would be was the great Alaskan earthquake of March 27, 1964, which registered 8.3 on the Richter scale and has been classed as “one of the most violent ever recorded in North America.”
That tremendous quake was cased by the Pacific plate shifting a mere ten feet to the northwest as it bumped along the western edge of the North American plate. Now if entire coastal communities were wiped out by a shift of a mere ten feet, try to conceive the immeasurable destruction that would result if the continents were suddenly torn apart by thousands of miles! Life on earth could not survive such a sudden and catastrophic division!
However, such a drastic explanation is not required. If the serious student will read on to Genesis 10:32, he will find the real explanation, “These were the families of the sons of Noah … and by these were the nations divided on the earth, after the flood.”
If that is not clear enough, Jubilees 8:8 is more explicit, “For in the days when he [Peleg] was born, the children of Noah began to divide the earth among themselves; for this reason he called his name Peleg.” Josephus says that Heber’s son Phaleg (Peleg) was so named because “Phaleg among the Hebrews signifies division.”
Hugh Nibley wrote, “It is legitimate to think of the days of Peleg as the time when as the old Jewish writers describe it, the children of Noah began to divide the earth among themselves, without the least authority to visualize the rending apart of the terrestrial globe” (Nibley 1988, World of the Jaredites, 173)
Jubilees 8:10 continues, “And it came to pass … they divided the earth into three parts, for Shem and Ham and Japheth, according to the inheritance of each.” Jubilees 8:12-20 tells more:
To Shem … the whole land of the Red Sea, and the whole land of the east and India … all the land of Lebanon … and the mountains of Ararat" [obviously the Middle East].
And for Ham came forth the second portion beyond the Gihon [Nile] towards the south … and toward the west to the Sea of Atel [the Atlantic], towards the north to … the Great Sea [the Mediterranean] of God [Sythia] and to all of the country east thereof … This is the land which came forth for Japheth and his sons … for their generations forever … a great land in the north but it is cold [obviously Asia].
[Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust: New Light on an Ancient American Record, pp. 17-18]
According to Hugh Nibley, Ether has the support of the latest conclusions, based on Genesis 10, that when the tower was built, the people had already been “spread abroad in the earth after the deluge” for some time. [Hugh Nibley, The World of the Jaredites, p. 160]
Thus symbolically, the idea of a “division” of the earth into lands of inheritance might have some connection with covenants related to “a promised land.” The reader should remember that a very similar scenario was being played out in the time of Lehi. While the House of Israel was being “scattered” from their “lands of inheritance” by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, Lehi’s family (with Ishmael’s family) was being guided through a wilderness to a new “land of inheritance” or a “promised land” where all his people would be able to speak the same language (the language of the true gospel) and take upon them a name (the name of their God--Christ). [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
Ether 1:3 The first part of this record, which speaks concerning the creation of the world … even to the great tower [[Illustration] Related Species from a Single Source [Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust: New Light on an Ancient American Record, p. 16]
Ether 1:3 The first part of this record, which speaks concerning the creation of the world … even to the great tower (Geography) [[Illustration] Map I--Ancient Mesopotamia & Armenia [Randall Spackman, The Jaredite Journey to America, p. 19]