In "New Information about Mulek, Son of the King," Robert F. Smith noted that
A prominent non-Mormon ancient Near
Eastern specialist declared recently of the Book of Mormon’s naming “Mulek” as
a son of Zedekiah, “If Joseph Smith came up with that one, he did pretty good!”
He added that the vowels in the name could be accounted for as the Phoenician
style of pronunciation. He found himself in general agreement that “MalkiYahu,
son of the King” might very well be a son of King Zedekiah, and that the
short-form of the name could indeed be Mulek.
I
asked him if he could provide more information about this. That is what he
wrote in an email dated June 6, 2024 (shared with his permission):
Hi Robert,
I had that conversation privately with
Freedman in early 1984 while crossing the old bridge from the Wilkinson Center
to the BYU Law School. We were headed to
Jack Welch's office in the Law School.
Freedman was an old friend of mine, whom I had first met in the Fall of
1969 at the American School of Oriental Research in East Jerusalem when I was
an archeology student at the Hebrew Univ.
Freedman was then Director of ASOR, Jerusalem. He was always easy to talk to.
I wrote down his comments within a few
minutes and added them to a piece I was already writing on Mulek. Jack quickly approved it, and it became our
monthly FARMS Update (Feb 1984).
I kept those comments anonymous during
Freedman's lifetime so as not to embarrass him.
Of course, Jack knew all along who I was referring to.