Internal Consistency throughout the Book of Ether

The Book of Ether offers perhaps the most complex example of internal consistency imaginable. In chapter 1, we encounter a list of the lineage of Jared, starting with the final member in that line (Ether) and extending back to Jared himself. 30 names are mentioned.

What follows in the next 15 chapters is a detailed account of the history of the Jaredite nation, complete with war, intrigue, murder, a description of their secret combinations, and finally their utter destruction.  This account is interrupted 5 times (three short and two long interruptions) by Moroni.

In addition, during the accounts of various kings and usurpers, approximately 30 additional names are mentioned as either place names or other actors in the narrative.  I call these "mingling names". I am not counting the 12 names associated with the narrative of the first king, nor am I including the 28 names that appear as part of the narrative of the last in the lineage.


Here's a fun set of challenges:

1. See if you can read Ether 1 and then recite back the names in order.  If you succeed, you have a better memory than I do.  
2. Now try it backwards, which is how we encounter them in the text.  
3. If all of that is too easy for you, add in 30 other unusual names in between each member of the list.  
4. Still not challenged? Make sure several of the additional names you include reference parts of the Nephite history.

Name (Reference)	“Mingling” names*	#	Interjections from Moroni
Jared (1:33-6)	“Brother of Jared” Nimrod Moriancumer Shelem Moroni Mosiah Israel John Gilgah Mahah Orihah Pagag	12	(2:9-12); (3:17-20); (3:25-6:1):
Orihah (6:14, 27, 30; 7:1-2)		0
Kib (7:3)	Corihor Nehor Moron Jared Shule	5
Shule (7:7-27; 8:1)	Ephraim Nehor Kib Noah Moron Cohor Nimrod Omer	8
Omer (8:1; 9:1-14)	Jared Heth Esrom Coriantumr “daughter of Jared” Akish Kimnor Cain Shim Ablom Nimrah Emer	12	(8:19-9:1)
Emer (9:14-21)		0
Coriantum (9:21-24)		0
Com (9:25)		0
Heth (9:25-10:1)	Zarahemla	1
Shez (10:1-4)	Shez (his son)	1
Riplakish (10:4-8)		0
Morianton** (10:9-13)		0
Kim (10:13-14)		0
Levi (10:14-16)		0
Corom (10:16-17)		0
Kish (10:17-18)		0
Lib (10:18-29)		0
Hearthom (10:29-30)		0
Heth (10:31)		0
Aaron** (10:31)		0
Amnigaddah (10:31)		0
Coriantum (10:31)		0
Com (10:31-34; 11:1-3)	Amgid	1
Shiblon/m*** (11:4-9)	“Brother of Shiblom”	1
Seth (11:9)		0
Ahah (11:10)		0
Ethem (11:11-14)		0
Moron (11:14-18)	“Descendant of the brother of Jared”	1
Coriantor (11:18-23)		0
Ether** (11:23; 12-15)	Coriantumr Moroni Moses Alma Amulek Nephi Lehi Ammon three disciples “brother of Jared” Zerin Israel Joseph Abraham Cohor Corihor Shared Gilgal Heshlon Akish Moron Lib Agosh Shiz Shurr Comnor Ogath Ramah	28	(12:6-13:13)

* (Names in italics are mentioned within an interjection)

** Chapter 1 states this person was a descendant of the previous name.

** Notice that Ether 1 mentions “Shiblon” and Ether 11 mentions “Shiblom”.

A few notes worth mentioning:

1. The "Shiblon/Shiblom" inconsistency needs to be explained. In the divine model, this seems very clearly to be an error that crept in through handwriting and recopying by someone who was unfamiliar with the earlier reference in Ether 1. In other words, Oliver perhaps didn't reference Ether 1 as he was copying Ether 11. In a naturalistic explanation, you could argue the same thing, I suppose, but it seems like the kind of thing you would notice if you had carefully planned out and/or memorized the text in advance.
2. I do not believe that it is reasonable to conclude that Joseph Smith spontaneously dictated a text as complex as this without either divine power (as he claimed) or careful notes. There is no evidence that he referenced notes during the miraculously rapid dictation of the text. The interjections by Moroni are very different in tone and content than the rest of the narrative account. This is complicated writing. 
3. It seems that Moroni was completing a task that had been started by his father, and could not restrain himself from interjecting doctrine and prophecies. 
4. Unlike most of the rest of the Book of Mormon, the Jaredite account in the Book of Ether has very few references to Jesus Christ. In fact, aside from the interjections by Moroni and the vision of the brother of Jared, there are no references to Jesus Christ in these 15 chapters.

Internal Consistency between Ether 11, Omni 1, Mosiah 8 and 21, and Alma 22 -- "Dry Bones"

Do you recall the subtle reference to prophets in the days of Shiblom, found in Ether 11:4-6?  Maybe not, but it's in there. Verse 6 reads:

6 And there was great calamity in all the land, for they [the prophets] had testified that a great curse should come upon the land, and also upon the people, and that there should be a great destruction among them, such an one as never had been upon the face of the earth, and their bones should become as heaps of earth upon the face of the land except they should repent of their wickedness.

The mention of "heaps of earth" is interesting and seems to refer to the manner of digging for precious metals described in Ether 10:23. This adds some poetic flair to the words of the prophets, along the lines of: "Just as you create these heaps of earth in search for your precious ore, the Lord will cause your bones to become as heaps of earth except you should repent."

There are numerous references in the Book of Mormon to the fulfillment of this prophecy, which we read about in gruesome detail in Ether 14:21-23:

21 And so great and lasting had been the war, and so long had been the scene of bloodshed and carnage, that the whole face of the land was covered with the bodies of the dead.
22 And so swift and speedy was the war that there was none left to bury the dead, but they did march forth from the shedding of blood to the shedding of blood, leaving the bodies of both men, women, and children strewed upon the face of the land, to become a prey to the worms of the flesh.
23 And the scent thereof went forth upon the face of the land, even upon all the face of the land; wherefore the people became troubled by day and by night, because of the scent thereof.

In Omni 1:22, we read:

22 It also spake a few words concerning his fathers. And his first parents came out from the tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people; and the severity of the Lord fell upon them according to his judgments, which are just; and their bones lay scattered in the land northward.

Mosiah 8 also has a reference to the bones:

8 And they were lost in the wilderness for the space of many days, yet they were diligent, and found not the land of Zarahemla but returned to this land, having traveled in a land among many waters, having discovered a land which was covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with ruins of buildings of every kind, having discovered a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel.

In Mosiah 21:26, we get another reference:

26 Nevertheless, they did find a land which had been peopled; yea, a land which was covered with dry bones; yea, a land which had been peopled and which had been destroyed; and they, having supposed it to be the land of Zarahemla, returned to the land of Nephi, having arrived in the borders of the land not many days before the coming of Ammon.

In Alma 22:30, there is yet another reference:

30 And it bordered upon the land which they called Desolation, it being so far northward that it came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed, of whose bones we have spoken, which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla, it being the place of their first landing.