Mosiah I
The Nephite prophet-king who was warned by God to flee, discovered the people of Zarahemla, and united two ancient nations
The Flight from Nephi
Mosiah I was a Nephite prophet and king who lived several centuries after the family of Lehi arrived in the Americas. The precise circumstances of his earlier life are not given, but the Book of Mormon records that he was “warned of the Lord” to flee the land of Nephi, where the Nephites had been living, because of the wickedness of the people. He gathered “as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord” and departed into the wilderness (Omni 1:12–13).
The narrative echoes the earlier flight of Lehi from Jerusalem: a prophet warned by God, gathering those who will listen, departing to an unknown destination under divine guidance. Mosiah’s group was led by the power of God, teaching them “many mighty miracles” as they traveled through the wilderness.
Discovery of Zarahemla
Mosiah’s group arrived in a land already inhabited by a people called the people of Zarahemla, sometimes called Mulekites—descendants of Mulek, a son of the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, who had escaped the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem around 587 BC and sailed to the Americas. This was a remarkable providential encounter: two groups, both descended from the covenant people of Israel, finding each other in the New World centuries after their respective journeys from the Old.
The people of Zarahemla had deteriorated significantly. They had brought no scriptures with them, and as a result “their language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and they denied the being of their Creator” (Omni 1:17). The absence of written scripture had led to spiritual and cultural disintegration over the centuries.
The Unification
Mosiah could read the language of the Nephites, and through this he was able to translate a stone that Zarahemla’s people had inscribed with their genealogy. This act of bridging languages and records was foundational to the merger of the two peoples. Mosiah was made king over the united nation, and Zarahemla became the new capital city of a combined Nephite-Mulekite people (Omni 1:19).
The Stone of Coriantumr
One more significant event is connected to Mosiah’s reign: when the Mulekites brought him a large stone with engravings, he interpreted it by the gift and power of God. The stone recorded the story of Coriantumr, the last Jaredite king, who had lived among the people of Zarahemla for nine months before his death (Omni 1:20–22). This connected the Mulekites’ oral history to the larger Jaredite record that would later be recovered and translated by Mosiah’s grandson.
Mosiah I’s role in the Book of Mormon is brief in narrative but pivotal in structure. He is the hinge between the Nephite journey from the land of Nephi and the expanded civilization of Zarahemla that would fill the remainder of the Nephite story. His gift of translation, his role as covenant bearer, and his success in uniting two spiritually divergent peoples through scripture and righteous leadership make him one of the most consequential figures of the middle period of Book of Mormon history.
Key Scriptures
- Omni 1:12–22 — The flight, discovery of Zarahemla, and unification
- Mosiah 25:2 — The Mulekite descendants still numerically larger than Nephites