Page 19 - Insights Into The Scriptures - The Jaredites

Ether 1:23 And Morianton Ether 10: 9 And it came to pass after the
was a descendant of space of many years, Morianton, (he being
Riplakish. a descendant of Riplakish) gathered
together an army of outcasts, and went forth
and gave battle unto the people; and he
gained power over many cities; . . .

Twice when it says descendant it later says begat. Though the word
begat usually means the person is a child of that man, according to
Answers in Genesis, it sometimes might take on the meaning of a
descendant after multiple generations [11][WL]. But for Morianton being
a descendant of Riplakish, it uses the same phrase of descendant both times
in the book. It also uses the phrase “after the space of many years…”
Riplakish had been a wicked king, forcing his people to pay heavy
taxes, imprisoning and forcing people to work who could not afford to pay
the taxes. The people hated him, eventually killing him and driving his
descendants out of the land. Morianton, one of his descendants, came back
later. The scriptures say it was many years later (Ether 10:4-12). It could
even have been generations later.

The main point is, we do not know for sure the lineage from father
to son. We likely have a gap in the lineage record with Riplakish and
Morianton, and possibly with the other two as well. There are 30 men
listed in Ether 1, and if our estimate of 1600 holds for these men, that
would be over 53 years for each generation. There is usually a lot of
overlap between generations. Answers in Genesis says that about 40 years
defines a generation [11][WL]. At 40 years per generation, for 30 men,
that would suggest a time length of 1200 years. If our assumption of a
minimum of 1600 years is correct, that would likely mean some in the
generation list are missing. This gives us three options to consider. Either
some are missing from the generation list, the Jaredite nation existed for
less than 1600 years, or there were more than 40 years per generation. The
most likely option is that men are missing from the lineage list. Ludlow
[12] also considers this to be a strong possibility.
In final, what this means is that trying to use the lineage list as a
means of determining the length of time the Jaredites existed as a nation
would likely not be an accurate measure.

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