Page 27 - Insights Into The Scriptures - The Jaredites

most common guess is south, and the third is east. But, in fact, the real
answer is north.

Ether 2:1 And it came to pass that Jared and his brother, and their families,
and also the friends of Jared and his brother and their families, went down
into the valley which was northward, (and the name of the valley
was Nimrod, being called after the mighty hunter) with their flocks which
they had gathered together, male and female, of every kind.

The reason it seems strange for them to go north is because that is
not the way you would expect them to go if they are heading to America.
East or west seems reasonable. Even south, as Lehi did, would get them to
a place to travel to America. But north? What is there northward to take
them closer to America?

Hugh Nibley said the Jaredites likely went north and then traveled
across the Asian steppes to modern-day China [5]. That would be the
Siberian pars of Russia today. Much of his reason for this claim was
because of the similarities between the Jaredites’ culture and that of the
Mongols and Chinese.

But when I was younger and read Hugh Nibley’s claims, I also read
some articles by scholars from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints who said that they felt it would be impossible for the group of
travelers to have crossed that inhospitable land. Still, for me, there was
reason to believe that they did make this journey. One was a key scripture
in Ether.

Ether 2:5 And it came to pass that the Lord commanded them that they
should go forth into the wilderness, yea, into that quarter where there never
had man been. And it came to pass that the Lord did go before them, and
did talk with them as he stood in a cloud, and gave directions whither they
should travel.

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