Where did Lehi Live Before Departing into the Wilderness? Part XIV

Continuing with Chadwick’s article sent to us by one of our readers, the “comments” are Chadwick’s writing regarding his belief in where Lehi’s home and property were located, the “response” is our reply mostly based on the scriptural record.    
    Comment: “Finally, I give some tentative conclusions about Lehi, his family, and his house at Jerusalem—tentative, again, because of the series of assumptions on which they are based: 1) Since his tribal heritage was Manasseh, but he had "dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days" (1 Nephi 1:4), Lehi was probably a descendant of Manassite refugees who had fled south to Judah with others of the northern kingdom when the Assyrians attacked, destroyed, and deported Israel in 724–722 BC.”

Response: Again, his ancestors could have come south around 900 B.C. after the kingdoms split and Judah invited Syria to help them against Israel who had expanded their borders to within five miles of Jerusalem (see map left). At that time, Syria attacked northern Israel. Lehi’s ancestors could have seen the writing on the wall, so to speak, and fled to the south, believing that Syria might completely invade and defeat the northern kingdom of Israel. They also might have come south as a result of Ahab bringing Jezebel into Israel with her idol worship of Ba’al and Ahab’s erecting idol images throughout the north. They also might have come south long before any of these events—we simply do not know, nor do we have any suggestive material in the Book of Mormon scriptural record that might lead us to any conclusion of the matter.
    Comment: “2) Because they settled at Jerusalem, Lehi's great-grandparents were part of the refugee camp that was surrounded by a new, seven-meter-wide city wall that King Hezekiah had built to protect the neighborhoods on the western hills and to annex them physically to the older parts of Jerusalem. The refugee camp area became known as the Mishneh, a "second" or "additional" part of the city.”
    Response: It does not further any scholarly effort to better understand the Book of Mormon when someone simply makes up scenarios and presents them as factual events. Guesses are guesses, and these are of little consequence and no value whatsoever. It is about as effective as throwing darts while blindfolded.

Comment: “3) Protected by Jerusalem's wall, Lehi's great-grandparents and their fellow Jerusalemites were not deported by the Assyrians in Sennacherib's 701 BC attack on Judah. While the rest of Judah was thoroughly destroyed and over 200,150 other Judeans were taken away into captivity, Lehi's ancestors were spared to live on, resulting in Lehi's eventual birth in Jerusalem.”
    Response: Those living in the area of Jerusalem at the time could have moved into the city for protection, or fled to the south and Egypt, which was a common avenue of escape for Jews during these B.C. times. The point is, this is just another guess. We simply do not know and one scenario is as good as another.
    Comment: “4) Lehi's great-grandparents and grandparents were under the necessity of finding a way to make a living in Jerusalem, being landless sojourners to the area. They seem to have taken up the practice of metalsmithing, a high-tech vocation that did not require farmland outside the city. This vocation seems to have been passed down through the generations to Lehi and Nephi themselves, who were apparently expert in working both precious and industrial metals.”
    Response: Again, this is supposition. As a matter of fact, there were many occupations available to those living within the city of Jerusalem between 700 and 600 B.C. beside smiths (see Part IX of this series), such as: millers, bakers, weavers, barbers, potters, fullers, tilers, carpenters, textile dyers, masons, tanners, market and food venders, wine makers, locksmiths, and inn keepers; there were also porters, donkey drivers, cooks, jewelers, and servants. Then there were those who lived outside Jerusalem that were mostly farmers and herdsmen, who hired day workers, probably from the “idlers” in the market place (Matthew 20:6-7), to plant, harvest, herd, pick grapes, etc. In addition, many people hired themselves and even their families out as servants to the more wealthy. By the way, the “idlers in the market place,” was a custom in ancient Israel for men without work to stand in groups in the market place waiting for someone to hire them. Such tactics are used today by unemployed day-workers in Southern California and elsewhere.
    Comment: “5) Lehi was probably born around 645 BC, a contemporary of both the prophet Jeremiah and King Josiah (born 648 BC). He would have been a young man when Assyrian occupation forces finally departed Judah after 630 BC and an adult by the time of Josiah's Passover in 622 BC—a witness to the renewed independence and resurgence of Judah under King Josiah.”

Response: Since Lehi lived all his days at Jersualem, at defined as not being within, the idea that Jews did not hold lands outside the city of Jerusalem before the Assyrian occupation forces finally departed Judah after 630 B.C., is not consistent with the scriptural record. As an example, I live at Cedar City, not in Cedar City. We are about two miles outside the city limits in the county (or “land of Cedar City” based on ancient terminology). If Cedar City had walls around it like ancient cities, I would be without the city walls—I would be living at Cedar City, not in (within) Cedar City.
    Comment: “6) Lehi would probably have inherited the house and plot of land owned by his grandparents and parents in the Mishneh or would have acquired a lot nearby in the same neighborhood. In either case, by the time he was an adult, the Mishneh had transformed itself from an eighth-century BC refugee camp to an upscale quarter of the city where wealthy types like Shallum the royal clothier and Lehi himself lived, as well as possibly Laban (a Josephite captain of fifty) and Ishmael the Ephraimite.”
    Response: All this is both speculative and unsupported by any comment in the scriptural record. Chadwick is simply guessing when he tries to place Lehi into the history factors he has established. Since Nephi tells us his father lived at Jerusalem all his days (1 Nephi 1:4), there is simply no need to discuss places he lived inside the city walls when, in fact, the scriptural record suggests otherwise, i.e., having tents, donkeys, equipment for travel, seeds of every kind. In addition, his wealth was outside the city walls, but close enough for Nephi and his brothers to go "down to the land of our inheritance," gather Lehi's gold, silver, and precious things, and then go "up again unto the house of Laban" (1 Nephi 3:22), which was within the city walls (1 Nephi 4:5).
    Comment: “7) With the evolution of the Mishneh into a wealthier neighborhood and the likelihood that industrial work would not have continued to be carried out in such surroundings, it is possible that Lehi's metalsmithing and marketing operation was located well to the south of his residence, in the Makhtesh quarter of Jerusalem, where commercial and industrial enterprise were apparently operating during Josiah's reign (Zephaniah 1:10–11).”
    Response: Chadwick is assuming that 1) Lehi was a metealsmith, 2) that Lehi lived inside Jerusalem, 3) that Lehi lived in Mishneh, 4) that Lehi had to move his smith shop from Mishneh to Makhtesh, 5) that metalsmiths were operating in Makhtesh and nowhere else around 600 B.C.; and elsewhere Chadwick is assuming: 6) that Lehi owned land in Manasseh, 7) that Lehi’s great riches, gold, silver and precious things were buried in that land some 50 or more miles to the north of Jerusalem where he lived all his days, 8) that Lehi did not live upon his land of inheritance, but dwelt elsewhere within Jerusalem, 9) that Nephi was a metalsmith like his father, 10) that when commanded to flee Jerusalem, Lehi took his family north 50 miles or more to obtain things he would not have had in Jerusalem, such as seeds of every kind, tents, donkeys, and equipment and supplies for an extended journey into the wilderness. Actually, the list of his assumptions goes on and on, but the point is, none of this is suggested or inferred by a single word in the scriptural record.
    Comment: “8) Since the Middle Gate of Jerusalem was in use in Lehi's day, just before 600 BC, it could very well have been the gate he used to exit the city as "he went forth," perhaps circling the Temple Mount on its north side and crossing the Kidron Valley to ascend the Mount of Olives, where he "prayed unto the Lord . . . in behalf of his people" (1 Nephi 1:5). If so, it was likely through the same Middle Gate that "he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and cast himself upon his bed, being overcome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen" (1 Nephi 1:7).”

Response: The only thing we know that Lehi did inside the city walls, was to preach to the Jews and call them to repentance (1 Nephi 1:18-20). Anything else is mere speculation (guessing). Chadwick’s discussion shows us he knows the topography of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, but it shows us nothing of his knowledge of the scriptural record since he conjures up scenario after scenario that simply is not only absent from the Book of Mormon, but not even suggested. Yes, Lehi “went forth and prayed unto the Lord” (1 Nephi 1:5), and also came home and threw (cast) himself on his bed (1 Nephi 1:7), and later went out and preached (1 Nephi 1:18), but other than that, not a single word is given about this—however, like so many who write articles on the FARMS website, what is actually in the scriptural record does not stop them from adding scenario after scenario of things not in the record.
    This, then, is Chadwick’s article (shortened for brevity, though no changes were made in content) that so expands the scriptural record, and includes so many things not stated therein, that it is in no way a scholarly work on the Book of Mormon. It may well have been a worthwhile event for Chadwick to study all that about ancient Jerusalem, but it has no place in describing Lehi’s or Nephi’s lives. When Nephi tells us that his brothers complained “these many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance” (1 Nephi 17:21), the suggestion is that they lived on the land of their inheritance. And when he tells us: “And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness” (1 Nephi 2:4), that Lehi left his land and departed into the wilderness from his land of inheritance, the two being the same place! To build scenarios in opposition to these two (and other) scriptural statements is both unscholarly and disingenuous because they mislead the reader into thinking situations existed that may or may not have happened. after all, anyone can create a scenario within the published history of Israel and claim this was Lehi's ancestry, etc., but we simply do not know and any speculation should at least follow the statements made in the scriptural record--not ignore them.