Chronology in the Book of Ether

Chapter One records 25 generations between Ether and Jared. 22 of them are “son of” the prior generation, whereas 3 of them are “descendant of.” I would usually take this to mean they are a grandson, maybe through their mother, but Ether is listed as “a descaendant of Corianton” and in Ether 11:23 it says that he was the son of Corianton. “Corianton begat Ether.” So I have no idea what ‘descendant of’ means vs. ‘son of.’

But we do have 25 generations at least from the Tower of Babel to Ether, and I thought it would be interesting to see what that tells us about the dating of the Tower of Babel. The results are going to be wildly inexact so this is for fun only. Making it even more inexact is that fact that many of the links in the chain of descent were youngest sons begotten in their father’s old age, so how long each generation is is anyone’s guess.

Further complicating the issue is that we do not know when Ether lived. This post really is just for fun. Omni 1:20-21 implies but does not actually say outright that Coriantumr was alive sometime during the reign of the first King Mosiah (King Benjamin’s father). Assuming it was during King Mosiah’s range, I don’t know exactly when than reign was, so lets pick a date range of 200-150 BC for convenience.

So, anyhow, assuming an average generation length will give us an estimate for when the tower of babel would have occurred.

Generation Length 20 years. Tower of Babel 700-650 BC. Lol no.
Generation Length 30 years. Tower of Babel 950-900 BC.
Generation Length 50 years. Tower of Babel 1450-1400 BC.
Generation Length 100 years. Tower of Babel 2700-2650 BC.

For comparison, the traditional Bishop Ussher style chronology for the Tower of Babel puts it around 2200 BC. That would imply an average generation length of 80 years.

Let me say again that this is assumption and guess piled on top of assumption and guess. For mental toying only.