In the last generation of these people there lived a prophet by the name of Ether (q. v.). He wrote their history and other matters on twenty-four gold plates and hid them (about 600-200 B. C.) in a manner that they were found (B. C. 121) by the people who succeeded the Jaredites; and were translated by King Mosiah (121-91 B. C.) from the Adamic language into the Nephite language. They were thenceforth had by the Nephite prophets down to Moroni who (A. D. 400-420) makes an abridgment in N. A. of the contents of the twenty-four plates.
So that the book of E. in the B. of M. is not the original book of E., but merely a condensed account of its contents written by Moroni, who owns that he had "not written a hundredth part." Mos. v:57-71; ix:163-175: xii:l2-21; Eth. i:l-14;vi:98-109; Moro. i:l-4.