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Cover image: “Lehi Announces Departure” by Owen Richardson.
Yea, even six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem, a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jewsâeven a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world.â 1 Nephi 10:4
The Know
The modern chapter heading of 1 Nephi 1 indicates that the opening events began âabout 600 BC.â For hundreds of years, the Nephites measured time by how long it had been since Lehi left Jerusalem.1Knowing exactly when Lehi left would go a long way in figuring out the timing of many other Book of Mormon events.
Is it possible to be more specific about the when Lehi left Jerusalem? Scholars have used the information in the Book of Mormon to suggest a few different possibilities.
597â596 BC
Lehi began his ministry âin the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiahâ (1 Nephi 1:4).2The Bible reports that King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah as king of Judah, after Nebuchadnezzar took the city of Jerusalem and deposed Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:9â17; 2 Chronicles 36:9â10; Jeremiah 37:1). Records reporting the activities of Babylonian kings provide the very day Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem: March 10, 597 BC.3 This leads many Book of Mormon scholars to conclude that Lehi left around 597â596 BC, within the first year of Zedekiahâs reign (cf. 3 Nephi, headnote).4
588â587 BC
After returning for Ishmaelâs family, Nephi mentioned the prophet Jeremiah being âcast into prisonâ (1 Nephi 7:14). It wasnât until toward the end of Zedekiahâs reign that Jeremiah was imprisoned, about 588â587 BC (Jeremiah 32â33;Â 37â38).5Â Because of this, some Book of Mormon scholars think Lehi stayed in Jerusalem through most of Zedekiahâs reign and departed closer to 588â587 BC.6Â Others, however, point out that there were other times Jeremiah was imprisoned.7
605 BC
Shortly after Nephi and his brothers returned, Lehi prophesied that in âsix hundred years from the time [he] left Jerusalem, a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jewsâeven a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the worldâ (1 Nephi 10:4; 19:8; 2 Nephi 25:19). Since Christ was born around 5 BC,8thereâs obviously less than 600 years between either 597 or 588 BC.
This problem led Jeffrey R. Chadwick to argue that Lehi departed in late 605 BC. He proposed that in 609 BC, when the Egyptians killed Jehoahaz and appointed Eliakim as king, the âpeople of the landâ did not recognize the Egyptian vassal as the legitimate king, but instead considered young Zedekiah as the rightful heir. If this is true, the first year of Zedekiahâs reign mentioned by Nephi could be 608 BC, and Lehi could have left at 605 BC, a full 600 years before the birth of Christ.9
Different âYearsâ
Others have suggested that the Nephites counted their years differently from the traditional solar (365-day) year. For example, the Maya had two different âyearsâ: the 365-day haab, and the 360-day tun.10John L. Sorenson pointed out, âIf we mark off 600 tun years from Zedekiahâs first year, 597â596 BC ⊠[it] brings us into the year overlapping 5â4 BC, an acceptable date for Christâs birth.â11
Ancient Israelites, on the other hand, used a lunar calendar of approximately 354 days, with an extra month added once every 2â3 years to keep it in sync with the solar year.12Â Randall Spackman noted, if the Nephites did not add the extra monthâlike the âMuslim yearâ still used today in much of the Middle-Eastâthen â600 strict lunar yearsâ would pass between 588 BC and 5 BC.13Â Thus, whether Lehi left in 597 or 588 BC, there are ways, based on ancient precedent, to count off 600 years until Christ was born (3 Nephi 1:1).
The Why
It is not our purpose here to adjudicate between these various proposals, ranging between 605â588 BC, for when Lehi left Jerusalem. It is enough to know that it was âabout 600 BC,â as stated in the chapter heading in latest edition of 1 Nephi 1. When dealing with ancient history, it is not surprising to have ambiguity in the chronology or timing of particular events. Chronological problems and contradictions are not unknown in many authentic ancient historical documents.14
Even Mormon seems a little uncertain about how many years had passed between when Lehi left Jerusalem and the chronologically crucial time when King Mosiah took the throne, which Mormon estimated was âin the whole, about four hundred and seventy-six yearsâ (Mosiah 6:4). Like historians today, Mormon apparently had some uncertainty about the timing of things that happened so many centuries before.
Why then would anyone want to delve into this on-going chronological inquiry? For several reasons. It can be worthwhile to explore these different possibilities. Some proposals are stronger than others and one approach will solve certain problems better than another, but all offer possible implications about the context of the early chapters of the Book of Mormon. All of the different proposals fall within a very eventful 20-year window. Each proposed departure date creates a different social and political context for the opening chapters of the Book of Mormon, yielding a variety of insights into why the Book of Mormon begins the way it does.
For many, Lehiâs 600-year prophecy is central to the Book of Mormon. For this reason, it is useful to know whether Lehi left in 588, 597, or 605 BC. Either way, the Nephites may well have meticulously and accurately counted off 600 years between that time and Christâs birth, depending on which ancient method of counting years they used and adopted.
But the events of 3 Nephi 1 suggest that even the Nephites experienced some confusion in knowing beforehand the exact timing of Christâs coming, despite the fairly specific prophecies of Lehi and Samuel the Lamanite.15 When Nephi said that a Messiah would come âeven six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalemâ (1 Nephi 10:4; 19:8; 2 Nephi 25:19), was he thinking 600 years to the day? Or the month? Or just within six centuries?16
This uncertainty on the exact timing of Lehiâs departure and its relationship to the birth of Christ actually helps us to take stock of our own present situation. Thinking about the years of wondering and waiting experienced by the Nephites helps us to realize that we, likewise, live in a time in which we anticipate the prophesied coming of Christâhis second coming.
The Savior declared âthat the day and hourâ of his coming âknoweth no manâ (Matthew 24:36; cf. Mark 13:32), a fact which has been reiterated in modern revelation (see Doctrine and Covenants 49:7; 133:11). Thus, like the faithful Nephites, we too must âwatch steadfastlyâ for the signs of his coming (3 Nephi 1:8; cf. Matthew 25:13), and be prepared to greet him whenever that glorious time arrives.
Further Reading
Jeffrey R. Chadwick, âDating the Departure of Lehi from Jerusalem,â BYU Studies 57, no. 2 (2018): 7â51.
David Rolph Seely, âChronology, Book of Mormon,â in Book of Mormon Reference Companion, ed. Dennis L. Largey (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2003), 196â204.
S. Kent Brown and David Rolph Seely, âJeremiahâs Imprisonment and the Date of Lehiâs Departure,â Religious Educator 2, no. 1 (2001): 15â32.
Randall P. Spackman, âThe Jewish/Nephite Lunar Calendar,â Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 7 (1998): 48â59, 71.
Jay H. Huber, âLehiâs 600-Year Prophecy and the Birth of Christ,â FARMS Preliminary Report (1982).
Bill WrigleyOctober 16, 2018
Our Lord was NOT born in 5 b.c. as this article implies. That date is based on Josephus estimate of the death of Herod the Great. Astronomer John Pratt has shown very convincingly that Josephus was mistaken about when Herod died. See his article, "Yet another eclipse for Herod." Jesus was probably born on the 15 day of the Hebrew months on Nisan, 1.b.c. Which is on or about 6 April