Can we figure out how old Enos was when he died? Enos 1:25

Can we figure out how old Enos was when he died? Enos 1:25

Lehi is the father of Jacob, who was born between 591-589 BC (see 1 Nephi 18).
           Jacob is the father of Enos.
                    Enos dies about 420 BC, or 179 years after Lehi left Jerusalem (see Enos 1).

So, how long are these generations?

According to 2 Nephi 4, Lehi dies around 588-570 BC.

Lehi's original departure into the wilderness starts in 600 BC. See 1 Nephi 1.


600 - Lehi leaves Jerusalem. He already has a pretty big family.

590 - around this time, Jacob (father of Enos) is born.

580

570

560

550

540

530

520 - Earliest easily plausible time for Enos to have been born; his father Jacob would have been about 70 years old. If he was born in this year, he would have been 100 years old when he died.

510

500 - Latest easily plausible time for Enos to have been born. If he was born in this year, Jacob would have been 90 years old when he fathered Enos, which seems very unlikely.

490

480

470

460

450

440

430

420 - Enos dies

Answer:
Basically, assuming normal human evolution and accurate record keeping (cough cough Methuselah and Adam and those other early Old Testament dudes who lived 600+ years (!?) come to mind) this means Enos had to have been at least 80 years old when he died, and that he was born to a man who was between the ages of 70-90.

This is interesting to me for a few reasons.

If you read Jacob 2, you can see that Jacob was keenly aware of and interested in God's plans having to do with plural marriage.

I'm obviously really, really interested in understanding plural marriage. I am a descendant of Latter-day Saint Pioneers. If plural marriage hadn't existed, I wouldn't be here. Neither would my husband.

Also, I hadn't really thought that much about Nephi and Jacob as being the pioneer settlers, the generation that would have most likely been interested in building a civilization, and thus in having as many children as possible. The experience of these first Nephites, about whom we know almost nothing, was probably similar to those of the early Latter-day Saint pioneers. Perhaps plural marriage was instituted temporarily "to raise up seed" (see Jacob 2:30) and then later people started to abuse it horribly, like they usually do with anything related to sexuality. Sigh.

The more I think about it, the more plausible that sounds. Almost without a doubt Enos's mother, Jacob's wife (I am going to assume they were married) was much, much younger than Jacob - so most likely not his first wife. Perhaps she was also a plural wife. I don't know.

Apparently it was not quite important enough to include in the scriptures, like almost everything relating to talking about plural marriage. I am totally positive that my second and third + wife ancestresses would have read Jacob 2 quite carefully and thought all of these things in great depth. How could they have not?

My own feelings about plural marriage summed up as briefly as I can make them:

This is a sufficiently weird and interesting topic. I have studied it. Ultimately, it wasn't until after I was married that I actually received a sure witness that this principle can sometimes be from God.

I'm grateful for my ancestors, both male and female, who practiced plural marriage. It was hard. Their sacrifices should not be forgotten. But most of the biggest ones are not stories that can be told, since sexuality is private.

Stories and first hand experiences of this brief time in church history ca 1840 (but really more 1855+)-1890 (but really it started to die more ~1875) are worth researching, and infinitely more worthwhile than reading literally anything else written about plural marriage after the fact. They are the only sources that satisfy me at all.

Not all plural wives had sex with their husband. Actually...

...actually I know a whole lot about this topic, as it is one of the most important (to me) topics to research, ever. But, sigh, there isn't space for it here.

I've had a lot of conversations about this with my parents and Danny's parents.

EVERYONE agrees: we are so grateful that we do not practice this principle right now.

It would be the most heart breakingly wretched commandment to practice, even worse than leaving behind my country to establish Zion in a mosquito-infested swamp and then later have to get my toes amputated from frostbite on a treck to a barren desert wasteland - real experiences of my real ancestors.

In high school, that was the only thing anybody knew about "Mormons." I was often asked, "So how many moms do you have?" That is beyond irritating. Even worse are the break-off cults who sometimes have corrupted versions of the name of my church who actually do practice plural marriage, and then make reality TV shows about it. I don't watch that crap.

Final note: being a mother of small children is hard. If it weren't for the ick factor, I would actually totally love to have a sister wife around to be a companion to me. One of four of my ancestors' plural marriage relationships was successful (the other three ended in divorce - Danny has something like 16 or so in his family, with far higher "success" rates), and the wives were dear friends to each other. I am descended from Christina Pehrrson, who was almost 15 years younger than Gunnell Marie Hansen. They were Swedish immigrants.

I love this family. I have researched them. Their pictures are on my wall. They were good people. I should probably stop this post now so I don't ramble on and on.