In this part of the record, Moroni refers to Ether as a descendant of Coriantor, yet later in Ether 11:23, Moroni states that “Coriantor begat Ether”, making Ether a son of Coriantor. There is one other paired example of this type in the book of Ether:
Here in Ether 1, there is a third instance of descendant, but for that example the later reference in Ether also uses the word descendant, not begat:
Since the word descendant includes the meaning ‘son’, as in the first two examples, it is possible that Morianton was a son of Riplakish. This conclusion is further supported by two other paired examples where Ether 1 refers to Y as the son of X but then later in the book we find that Y is referred to as a descendant of X:
In contrast to all these examples, there is one case in Ether where descendant is used in the sense that we expect in modern English:
In this case there are many generations between this unidentified mighty man and the brother of Jared.
Here in Ether 1, the text uses the phraseology “Y was the son of X” 26 times in specifying the genealogy. Brian Garner (personal communication, February 1994) has suggested that there might be a textual problem with the use of the word descendant in Ether 1; perhaps the three instances of a descendant in Ether 1 (or at least the first two) are errors for the son, given the language later in Ether 10–11. (And, of course, we could extend Garner’s proposal to the two cases of a descendant in Ether 10–11.) Yet there is no evidence elsewhere in the text for mix-ups between the words descendant and son (or more specifically, between a descendant and the son), in either the manuscripts or the printed editions, nor would one expect such since both words are so distinct. For whatever reason, the word descendant appears to be fully intended whenever it is used in Ether 1 and in Ether 10–11.
Summary: Maintain in the genealogy in Ether 1 the three instances of descendant (which, in at least two cases, is equivalent to ‘son’); despite the unusual use of descendant in Ether 1, no textual error seems to be involved; the same conclusion holds for two more instances of descendant in Ether 10–11 where the meaning is equivalent to ‘son’.