The story of the Tower of Babel is the essential connection between the Jaredites and the Old World. Their authority to become a people and to carry with them God’s blessings is given origin at that point. Understanding that there was a separation of peoples to come, Jared commands his brother (apparently the prophet, compared to Jared’s more formal role as a leader) to pray that they would not be separated because of language. Jared, his brother, and his people retain their language, their identity, and, therefore, their heritage. Nevertheless, they are still separated. They will be divided off, and removed to a new location.
The brother of Jared, “being a large and mighty man,” joins other “large and mighty men” in the Book of Mormon. Coriantumr “was a large and a mighty man” (Helaman 1:15). Others do not get that particular designation, yet are “large in stature” (Nephi, in 1 Nephi 2:16; and Mormon in Mormon 2:1). Such designations would have indicated someone perhaps larger than expected, but the impact of the statement was to suggest that they were somehow outstanding. In the ancient Mediterranean, such epithets were indicative of qualities, not necessarily of physical build. We should not assume that any peoples of the Book of Mormon were much different than their surrounding populations.