The age of Enos issue and
resolution
One calendrical issue that is resolved by using the uncorrected lunar calendar is an issue that involves the age of Enos. In Enos 1:25 Enos indicates that he began to be old, and that 179 years had passed since the departure of Lehi from Jerusalem. Enos received the plates from his father Jacob (Jacob 7:27) and was of sufficient age to be capable of understanding his father’s instructions regarding the plates, and to have been instructed in the language of his father (Enos 1:1). Jacob was the younger brother of Nephi1 and was born during the eight years (1 Nephi 17:4) that the Lehites sojourned in the wilderness in the Old World (2 Nephi 2:1) and was the “first-born” of the last two children born in the wilderness. A younger brother, Joseph, was also born in the wilderness (1 Nephi 18:7).
The chronological issue arises
when one assumes that the latest that Jacob could be born in the wilderness is
around 2 years before the end of their sojourn, since Joseph was also born in
the wilderness, which would be year 6, meaning that the combined father and son
generation (Jacob and Enos) was at least 173 years. If one assumes that age 12
is the youngest Enos could have been to be trained in the language by Jacob,
and thus even if Jacob sired Enos at the very late age of 80 and trained him
into his 90’s, that would leave Enos at the age where he “began to be old” at
the age of 93. If Jacob and Joseph were twins, then it would have been age 91.
It does seem likely that Jacob
and Joseph were twins, as when on the boat to the promised land, both were
still nursing to some extent (1 Nephi 18:19). From a Biblical typology
perspective, Jacob being a twin is consistent with the Biblical type of Jacob
and Esau, as well as the Biblical type of the mother Sariah corresponding with
Abraham’s wife Sarai/Sarah, who bore Isaac at an advanced age. Sariah is also
mentioned at the time of the boat incident as being “stricken in years” (1
Nephi 18:17). Based on these facts, a potential birth year for Jacob in the
wilderness is at the very end of the eight-year sojourn in the wilderness.
Sariah was still nursing after being on the boat for “the space of many days”
(1 Nephi 18:9).
The issue of Sariah’s age at
Jacob’s birth must then be considered. Her four oldest sons were of marriageable
age at the time of departure as each took a wife soon after arriving at Lehi’s
camp (1 Nephi 16:7). Looking at the youngest reasonably possible age for Sariah
at Jacob’s birth, assuming a one-year separation in age of the four oldest
brothers, Laman1 (the oldest) was likely 22 years old at departure and assuming
Sariah’s age at Laman’s birth was 16, then her age at departure would have been
38, with her age at the arrival in Bountiful then 46, thus it is still possible
for her to give birth to Jacob given the normal time that a woman can bear a
child. That does seem a bit young to be classified as “stricken in years.” In
modern times, the oldest verifiable natural birth for a woman is 59 years old,
so Sariah may have been older than 46, but it all is not inconsistent with
Jacob and Joseph being twins. It is also a possible textual interpretation that
the eight years mentioned that they sojourned in the wilderness (1 Nephi 17:4)
might be interpreted to have occurred after Nahom as the chronological
statement was made after their stop in Nahom. With this interpretation, the
actual time prior to Bountiful may have been longer than eight years, which
would also mitigate the issue involving the age of Enos.
With regards to the possibility of a set of twins being still young enough to be nursing on the boat, the length of stay in Bountiful must not have been long. It is not overtly clear from the text whether the stay at Bountiful is included in the eight-year period of the sojourn in the wilderness, although the text implies that the arrival there was after the eight-year wilderness sojourn (1 Nephi 17:4-5). Although the text indicates that Nephi1 was in the land Bountiful “many days” before starting to construct a ship (1 Nephi 17:7), it does not appear that they remained in Bountiful for even a growing season as Bountiful was characterized with the name Bountiful because of its “much fruit and wild honey” (1 Nephi 17:5) and the specific provisions that they took with them into the ship were not grown crops, it was “much fruit,” “meat from the wilderness,” and “honey in abundance” (1 Nephi 18:6). Nephi noted at the end of the wilderness sojourn that they lived upon meat in the wilderness (1 Nephi 17:2), so it appears they may even have taken meat with them that was obtained prior to them arriving in Bountiful. There is no mention of agricultural crops, and the fact that the seeds that they planted when they reached the New World were from the “land of Jerusalem” (1 Nephi 18:24 is indicative that they did not plant and regenerate new seed stock in Bountiful).
In either interpretation as to
whether the period at Bountiful is included in the eight years in the wilderness
or afterwards, assuming the maximum a child would be nursed is four years, the
period of time in Bountiful would be four years or less. If measuring after the
eight-year period, since the twins were born in the wilderness, the maximum
time between their birth and the event on the ship where they were still
nursing would be a maximum of four years. If assuming that the time in
Bountiful was included in the eight years in the wilderness, then it would have
to be less than four years as there are other things that were done previous to
arrival in Bountiful. which it seems would take more than four years.
If one considers that a year
is an uncorrected lunar year, then the apparent Enos anomaly is resolvable, as
the effective equivalent solar years to lunar years (171) of the generation is
166, which would have Enos at age 86 instead of age 93, making Enos’ statement
more tenable, especially if “began to be old” is indicating physical condition
as opposed to a defined age. (Jerry D. Grover, Jr., Calendars
and Chronology of the Book of Mormon [Tecumseh, Mich.: Challex Scientific
Publications, 2023], 153-54)
