Lehi and his family, including his son Nephi, were led by God out of Jerusalem around 600 BC.
Nephi gave the plates to his brother Jacob.
Jacob gave the plates to his son Enos.
Enos gave the plates to his son Jarom
Jarom gave the plates to his son Omni.
Omni gave the plates to his son Amaron.
Amaron gave the plates to his brother Chemish.
Chemish gave the plates to his son Abinadom.
Abinadom gave the plates to his son Amaleki.
Amaleki wrote about Mosiah, who was led out of the land of Nephi by God.
Mosiah found a place called Zarahemla.
Zarahemla was the name of the leader there. He was descended from people who were also led by God out of Jerusalem "at the time that Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon." (see Omni 1:15) This was around 586 BC, so very similar to the time when Nephi was led from Jerusalem. Maybe ~8 generations?
Mosiah discovered that they had become widespread but their language had become corrupted and they had not brought with them the scriptures, which at that time would have been some kind of compilation of writings that we have in the Old Testament.
By the way, 8 generations ago is about as far back to most of my earliest immigrant ancestors from Europe. I can totally imagine this kind of linguistic corruption happening in this amount of time.
The people of Zarahemla and the people of Mosiah united together and Mosiah was made their king (see Omni 1:19). They meet this other guy named Coriantumr whose ancestors were led out of Babylon many, many, many generations earlier during the time of the tower of Babel. See who is Coriantumr?
King Mosiah had a son named Benjamin. Benjamin became king.
Some people in the land of Zarahemla wanted to go back to the land of Lehi-Nephi. One of them was named Zeniff, apparently (see Mosiah 9:1).
Amaleki (descendant of Lehi, see above) had a brother who eventually went with the people to look for the land of Lehi-Nephi.
Amaleki did not have any children. He gave the plates to King Benjamin.
King Benjamin has a son named Mosiah who becomes king (see Mosiah 6:4).
King Mosiah sends sixteen strong men to go find the land of Lehi-Nephi. One of them was Ammon, "a strong and mighty man, and a descendant of Zarahemla." (Mosiah 7:3) This could be the namesake of my favorite person in the Book of Mormon, but it is not the same guy, I recently realized.
Ammon and his brothers Amaleki (a different one than the one who was a descendant of Jacob), Helem, and Hem went to the land of Nephi. They were taken prisoner by King Limhi's guards and would have been put to death, except King Limhi was really curious to know why they would come near to the walls of the city when he was with his guards outside the gate. (See Mosiah 7:10)
Ammon tells King Limhi that he is from Zarahemla and he is looking for Zeniff's descendants.
Basically, the generations could look like this:
Mosiah I Zarahemla Amaleki Zeniff
Benjamin ? ? <--- probably Zeniff is in this generation, actually
Mosiah II ? ?
Ammon, Ameliki, Helem, Hem King Limhi
We don't know exactly how many generations were between Ammon/King Limhi and Zarahemla/Zeniff, but I guess it could have been as many as three jumps, as little as two. They wouldn't have called his son "a descendant", I guess. Unless he was like, a nephew or something? But I think descendant implies the direct line.
Basically, this is one generation removed from my latest immigrant ancestors. It would be like my grandpa going back to the Czech Republic to find and talk with his relatives there. It's not that far removed, but it is far enough that it is outside of living memory. Information would have been lost.
Answer:
Limhi himself says that he was, "taught in all the language of the Nephites" and he also refers to the land of Nephi "or the land of our fathers' first inheritance." (Mosiah 9:1) which makes it seem a bit to me like he was probably a descendant of BOTH the Nephites and the people of Zarahemla.
In either case, the reason Limhi knew about the land of Nephi, the language of the Nephites, and almost definitely also Jesus Christ had to do with the intentional record keeping of Nephi, his brother Jacob, and Jacob's descendants. This included the brass plates, or the "record of the Jews" which Nephi and his brothers took out of Jerusalem at great risk from Laban. Limhi was almost definitely taught about Jesus Christ when he was younger before he left the land of Zarahemla for the land of Lehi-Nephi.
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