Context and Timelines for the Book of Ether, the record of the Jaredite people in the Book of Mormon

I made some timelines and maps for the Book of Ether that I shared during my Sunday School lesson last week. I thought I'd share a few of them here.

Click to view any of these charts larger.

This chart shows the journey of Jared and his people to the Promised Land, as guided by the Lord and by the prayers of the Brother of Jared. You can see that they crossed water multiple times, not just at the end when they built their famous barges that were tight like a dish. Also, that they stayed for four years by the seashore. 

The chart below shows that it was almost 1500 years after the Brother of Jared prayed that their language not be confounded and the Lord directed them to the Promised Land, that their destroyed civilization was found, along with their 24 gold plates. It was then another 400 years before Moroni, the son of Mormon, the last Nephite alive, abridged those records into the Book of Ether (although he only abridged the part about the Jaredites as the book covered a lot of history that was already covered elsewhere).

This is not geographically accurate in size and exact placement but just gives a general reminder of how the plates came to be found and translated.

A summary of what you are seeing above, from the Book of Mosiah:

1. First, Zeniff left Zarahemla with his family and friends to reclaim Nephite land, believing the Lamanites were friendly. He was wrong about the Lamanites and his people spent most of their remaining years there fighting of Lamanite invasions.

2. Zeniff's son, King Noah was wicked, but had a son Limhi, who was not.

3. King Limhi sent 43 men to look for how to get back to Zarahemla. The men got lost but they found the remains of the Brother of Jared's descendants and a record (24 plates) that they couldn't translate. 

4. King Mosiah in Zarahemla sent Ammon to look for the people of Zeniff. Ammon and his men were successful in finding them. He brought King Limhi and his people back to Zarahemla, along with the 24 gold plates. That's how King Mosiah ends up with the 24 gold plates that Mormon's son, Moroni, abridged years later.