consiglieri wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 11:34 pm
Thanks for pointing this thread out to me!
I recall reading some research by Jack Welch many years ago trying to trace Book of Mormon Jacob’s lineage up to Mosiah.
As I recall, the generations were so skewed Welch had to create at least one missing record keeper so as to make the math come out right.
And thank you, consiglieri, for taking a peek and providing that apologetic reference. I’m sure that Welch’s reasonings are complicated and riddled with cross referencing and loads of supposed data that will back up whatever explanation he is attempting to express. Apologists have a habit of burying their explanations and excuses under a mountain of dirt and it can be difficult to dig through.
So, I’d like to introduce an apologist who is simple and gets to the point --
Gramps. Apparently, someone wrote him and asked for an honest explanation of why the generation of Jacob & Enos was so long and how to account for an estimated 179 years. Gramps responds and say’s,
“Indeed, 179 years seems to be a little long for one generation to pass. However, there are some explanations which may help.”
So, what did Gramps say about this generation that seems
“a little long”? I’ll bet his explanation is much simpler than what Welch offers which is undoubtedly loaded with distractions and cross-references that supposedly back up the assertions he is proposing.
Gramps wrote:One explanation is that, in Jacob 7:27, Jacob “said unto my son Enos: take these plates”. This establishes that Jacob had a son named Enos to whom he gave the plates before dying.
Right, Jacob had a son named Enos. We get that! Gramps acknowledges that Enos extolled his father, but because he doesn’t specifically mention the name “Jacob”, it’s therefore possible that Enos’s father may be someone
other than the Jacob of the Book of Jacob, and thus provides his
first possible explanation:
Gramps wrote:In Enos 1:1, Enos writes “it came to pass that I, Enos, knowing my father that he was a just man – for he taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord – and blessed the name of my God for it”. Here, Enos claims his father was a righteous man, but he does not say the name of his father or that his father was Jacob. In fact, the name “Jacob” does not appear anywhere in the Book of Enos.
Thus, the apologist is willing to deny that Jacob (brother of Nephi) in the Book of Jacob is the actual Father of Enos even though the very last verse prior to Enos introducing himself is Jacob saying
“goodbye” (in French).
Gramps wrote:The explanation is, there was an Enos the elder and an Enos the younger, similar to Alma the elder and Alma the younger. Jacob gave the plates to Enos the elder, who was Enos’ father referred to in Enos 1:1, and then Enos the elder gave the plates to Enos the younger, who wrote the Book of Enos. Who knows – maybe there were several generations in there!
So now we have an Enos the elder to go along with Enos the younger. This is pure invention on the apologist’s part! Gramps suggests that Jacob gave the plates to his son Enos who then gave the plates to his son Enos – and presto, we have an extra man to help fill in the years. Then, Gramps actually seems to chuckle and suggests that there may be several Enos’s, who can say?
Is Gramps reading from the same Book of Mormon as I? His explanation is off the rails! Nonetheless, he continues with yet providing another possible explanation (if you can believe it):
Gramps wrote:Another explanation is simply that Jacob and Enos lived a long time. Jacob was not born until about ten years after Lehi left Jerusalem. (See 1 Nephi 1:18.) This would leave us with 169 years to account for. If Jacob then had Enos when he was 70 years old (not as uncommon of a situation as one would think – I had a man in my last ward have children at this age after marrying a much younger wife), taught Enos until Enos was 20 and Jacob died at 90, then Enos lived to be 100, it is certainly plausible that this time period lasted one generation.
Sigh.
Now, Gramps somewhat relents but also exaggerates and says:
Gramps wrote:The bottom line is we don’t know for certain how to account for the 179 year gap, but there are several explanations which could have occurred.
Several Explanations? It seems to me that Gramps provided just two explanations and that is NOT
several. There is however, a third explanation: Joseph Smith lied and made it all up.
I'll go with the third explanation.