Ether, a prophet, prepared this record; but his information clearly came from the official record. Prophets come from outside the Jaredite political system, which accords with the Old Testament model and highlights the unusual Nephite system of prophet/rulers. Nevertheless, Ether had some access to his lineage history.
The prophets chastise the people for “wickedness and idolatry.” Idolatry as a problem only three generations from their arrival again supports the existence of other inhabitants whose religious culture included idols. Had the Jaredites been alone in the land, there would be little opportunity for completely new religious forms to become established in that short a time period. The Jaredites, like the Nephites hundreds of years later, began to adopt more than the political structure from their neighbors. Since the underpinnings of ancient kingship are almost always religious, the religion associated with kingship came along with their politics. The Jaredites became Mesoamericanized, and Yahweh sent prophets to warn of these dangerous worldly ways.