Continuing also with the names Hugh Nibley claimed were Jaredite, when in reality there is no record that they were in most cases or that they belonged to the Mulekites or their descendants:
AMLICI
Amlici was the
leader of the Amlicites, who sought to make Amlici king over the Nephites, was
defeated by a vote of the people, joined with Lamanites and fought against Alma
and the Nephites, with Alma killing Amlici. The name Amlici may contain the
root mlk for king and would be Hebrew in origin, and likely was
influenced by the dropping of the “h” based upon Assyrian inscriptions, making Amli western
Palestine.
KISHKUMEN
Kiskumen was the name
of a Nephite who killed Pahoran, tried to kill Helaman, and made a pact with
Gaddianton to place him on the throne. Kiskumen’s band of robbers later became
known as the Gaddianton Robbers. While the name Akish is definitely Jaredite,
the name Kishon is an Arabic name in western Palestine. Kumen was
an Egyptian name. The man Kishumen, which name may be a combination of Arabic
and Egyptian, was Nephite with no other information about him known.
AMALEKIAH
Amalekiah was a
Zoramite leader of the dissident Amalekites. Amalek and Amalekite are Hebrew
names mentioned in Genesis. This name is definitely not Jaredite, but Hebrew in
origin, and is found in the Jewish community of Elephantine in Egypt from 650
B.C. onward.
NEHOR
Nehor is the name
of a Jaredite city and land. It was also the name of a Nephite false prophet
who set up a religious order and church, who killed Gideon (who had helped
Ammon lead Limhi’s people out of bondage in the Land of Nephi), and was put to
death on Alma’s orders. An entire city, Ammonihah, were of the Order and
profession of Nehor, though Ammon, its founder, and Ammonihah, are Egyptian names,
not Jaredite.
AMULON
Amulon was one
of the priests of King Noah (like Alma), and later the leader of the
Amulonites—the surviving priests of King Noah (who took by force the Lamanite
daughters for wives). According to linguists, the name Amulon is considered
Greek, from mela- (starch, not ground at a mill) or the Latin amylum (together)
from the Greek. There is no reason to consider this name Jaredite.
ZENIFF
Zeniff might
not be called a dissenter, but he was willing to disassociate himself from the
Nephites and start his own community in a land far away, taking many Nephites
from Zarahemla with him, including the brother of the prophet Amaleki. The name
Zeniff is Egyptian. King Noah was a second generation Nephite in the City of Lehi-Nephi (city of Nephi) and son of the first king, Zeniff, who had led a party of Nephites from the city of Zarahemla back to the land and city King Mosiah had left earlier. A Nephite and well versed in the records with knowledge of the Land of Nephi, the land of his fathers’ first inheritance, Zeniff was among a party that had in mind to reconquer this land from the Lamanites, but after a war among the party as to how to handle their approach to the Lamanites, Zeniff and a few survivors, returned to Zarahemla. But Zeniff was “over-zealous to inherit the land of his fathers” and gathered all those who would go with him to “possess the land” and returned to the land of Nephi, camping “near the land of our fathers” (Mosiah 9:1-4).
NEPHITES
NOT MULEKITES
This should suggest to every reader that Zeniff and those
who went with him back to reclaim that portion of the Land of Nephi which
Mosiah and their fathers left a few years before, would have been Nephites, not
Mulekites. No
Mulekite or person of Zarahemla prior to Mosiah arriving there, would have had
any interest or even knowledge of the Land of Nephi. However, descendants of
Nephi, Sam, Zoram, Jacob and Joseph would have been very interested in the land
and city that Nephi built some 350 years earlier. Zeniff, himself, claimed that this land was the inheritance of his fathers, Nephi, Jacob, Enos and the others, which obviously made him a pure descendant of one of these five tribes or forefathers. He would not have been a Mulekite, would not have been involved with any Jaredites, and would not even have known about the Jaredites in 200 B.C., since Mosiah did not translate Ether’s record until 92 B.C. Nor had the Jaredite bones and cities been discovered until Zeniff’s grandson, king Limhi, sent an expedition north that stumbled upon the old Jaredite ruins.
KING
NOAH
There is no possible way that Zeniff’s son, King Noah,
could have had any connection to the Jaredites, let alone had a Jaredite name
as Nibley claims,
but rather named after an ancient progenitor, the first patriarch after
the Flood. No Nephite at that time had any knowledge of the Jaredites. In addition,
Alma, who became a leader of the church, had a definitive Arab name, as shown earlier.Yet, Nibley writes of Alma, “Noah’s priest Alma betrays a mixture of culture if not of blood; his stamping ground was the Mulekite country...” However, Alma would have been around the same age as Noah, a second generation Nephite in the Land of Nephi. He would never have been in any Mulekite “stamping ground” nor known anything about the Mulekites other than what he might have learned from his father, who is not mentioned—and in fact, if Alma was some younger than Noah, might have been third generation in this land far away from the Mulekites.
Lastly, there is no way to determine if king Noah demonstrated any Jaredite culture or not—Nibley suggests high taxes, but that has been the venue of every dictator throughout history (Noah’s tax was 20% of existing and increased wealth and possessions). This tax went to pay for building palaces, thrones, temples, and many spacious and elegant buildings. He removed the previous priests and leaders, and replaced them with his own evil followers, became idolatrous, had many wives and concubines, committing whoredoms and all manner of wickedness, delighting in blood and the shedding of blood—all of which is also a rather common role of the world’s evil despots from the time of Cain.
It is hard to imagine how anyone can lay a claim of Jaredite culture on King Noah, as evil as he was—there were evil Jaredites, but also righteous ones. Noah’s son, Limhi, was a righteous man who the Lord led out of the Land of Nephi and back to Zarahemla.
JAREDITE
NAME
Because someone had a Jaredite name, Nibley claims, they
had some Jaredite connection—and also that they were Mulekites who used the
Jaredite names.
Yet, earlier, in discussing the names of Nephites, he makes the point
that many of their names were Egyptian, such as Zeniff, Pahoran, Paanchi,
Manti, Pacumeni, Cezoram, Kumen, Giddonah, Aha, Aminadab, Ammon, Helaman, Hem,
and many others.
However, at no time does the suggestion arise that these Nephites with such names, or place names, were Egyptians from the Old World, nor that the fact that these names implied any relationship between the Egyptians and Nephites in the Land of Promise, other than the fact that Lehi obviously had some likely business dealings with them in the Old World—though some of these names were given among the Nephites centuries after leaving Jerusalem and many generations before all second generation Nephites were born.
Obviously, because we know that from the record, no connection is made between Egyptian and Nephite other than a possible early association. But with the Jaredites, nothing is known of their name association, so uncontestable statements are made regarding the Jaredite influence among the Mulekites because of names some Nephites were given.
(See the next post, “The Disservice of Manufacturing of Other People – Part VI,” for more on the fictitious “other people” in the Land of Promise)
Great series!
ReplyDeleteThank you.