Monday, November 25, 2019

Longevity of Enos and Jarom in the Book of Mormon


In Enos 1:25 etc. Longevity of Nephite Scribes the late John A. Tvedtnes addressed the following criticism:

In the Book of Mormon, Enos wrote that 179 years had passed away from the time that his grandfather, Lehi, left Jerusalem (Enos 1:25). Later, Enos’s son Jarom says 238 years had passed away (Jarom 1:13). It is unreasonable to expect that three generations (Lehi’s son Jacob, his son Enos, and his son Jarom) could have lived so long.

Interestingly, there are modern examples of such. In the following video from 2014, two children (at the time of recording, ages 92 and 93) of participants in the US Civil War (1861-1865) talk about their fathers, showing that such longevity of some Book of Mormon peoples is not unusual:





(*) my thanks to Jared Riddick for making me aware of this video

Another interesting video is how US President John Tyler (born 1790; died 1862) still has two living grandsons:

How President Tyler, born in 1790, still has two living grandsons





Update: My friend Bruce Webster shared with me something he wrote back in 2009 on this issue:

The Enos problem in the Book of Mormon