Another Look at Lehi’s People – Part I

There has been much disagreement over how many were in Lehi’s party that boarded the ship Nephi built in Bountiful and sailed to the Land of Promise. Many theorists have limited this number to just Lehi and his six sons, and Ishmael and his 5 daughters and the latter’s families. We have repeatedly suggested there were more than this number.
    To determine this, we can look at both what the scriptural record shows, and what was customary in Hebrew homes in 600 B.C., to determine the possibilities. In the scriptural record, Nephi himself refers to their party not as his "family" or "families," but as "my people" (1 Nephi 9:2-4). It should be noted that Nephi was well aware of the separate families within those he called “my people,” for after reaching the Land of Promise or New World, Nephi's group separated themselves from the families of Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael. As Nephi stated: “Wherefore, it came to pass that I, Nephi did take my family, and also Zoram and his family, and Sam, mine elder brother and his family, and Jacob and Joseph, my younger brethren, and also my sisters, and all those who would go with me . . . (2 Nephi 5:6; emphasis added). In fact, from this point on, Nephi refers to all those who went with him as “my people” (2 Nephi 5:8,14-15,17,21,26,29,32-33; 11:1-2,4,6,8). And this continued throughout Nephi’s record: 1 Nephi 12:2; 13:15; 19:1,3-5,18; 15:5).

Therefore, one might ask, “Who are Nephi's people"? and Who is referred to by the phrase "all those who would go with me"? To answer this, we need to keep in mind the customs of Lehi’s day in ancient Israel. First of all, it would have been the norm for a wealthy man of Lehi's position to have had household servants and slaves. It is hard to imagine Lehi fleeing into the wilderness with only his immediate family members and, in essence, cruelly deserting his faithful servants in a city that was about to be destroyed. The real likelihood that Lehi took with him a large party provides a plausible explanation as to how the Lamanite and Nephi nations would become a large multitude so rapidly in the New World. It also settles the oft pointed out by theorists need for first cousins to marry among the brothers’ families, as has been proposed by some, though it was not an uncommon pr4actice in the Middle east to this day.
    Secondly, up to the last two centuries the names of women, children and servants were very seldom mentioned in literature. A review of the ancient scriptures reveals only a handful of names of women or servants. Thus, we should keep in mind that though Nephi was a prophet, he was also a product of his time. It would have never crossed his mind to have mentioned the names of his sisters (1 Nephi 5:6), the daughters of Ishmael, including the name of his own wife (1 Nephi 7:6, 16:7), let alone any servants and slaves.
    Another intriguing Near Eastern cultural example of this practice of literary exclusion is found in the writings of Michael Crichton. He placed in a novel format the manuscripts of Ahmad Ibn Fadlan's report to the Caliph of Baghdad in A.D. 922. Crichton writes:
    “Throughout the manuscript, Ibn Fadlan is inexact about the size and composition of his party. Whether this apparent carelessness reflects his assumption that the reader knows the composition of the caravan, or whether it is consequence of lost passages of the text, one cannot be sure. Social conventions may also be a factor, for Ibn Fadlan never states that his party is greater than a few individuals, when in fact it probably numbered a hundred people or more, and twice as many horses and camels. But Ibn Fadlan literally does not count slaves, servants, and lesser members of the caravan (Michael Crichton, Eaters of the Dead, The Manuscript of Ibn Fadlan Relating His Experiences with the Northmen in A.D. 922, Ballanltine Books, New York, 1976, p22).

Initially, the scriptural record sets the number in Lehi’s party at 51, which includes Lehi and Sariah [2]; Ishmael’s wife [1]; Ishmael’s two sons and their wives [4]; 5 children each for Ishmael’s sons [10]; Laman, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi and Zoram and their wives [10]; 4 kids to each couple over 10 years, with 8 in wilderness, 2 years building the ship [20]; Jacob and Joseph [2]; Nephi’s sisters [2]—if Ishmael’s sons had more than 5 children each, the number could have been more).
    So, working with 51 people in the party (52 before Ishmael died), it should be noted that it is likely that some of the local people encountered along the Frankincense trail might have joined the Lehi and his party.
    In addition, it is also most likely that Ishmael had some servants in his “household,” and likely Lehi, since he was a wealthy man living outside Jerusalem. If each had five servants/slaves, which included household and field hands/servants, that makes a total of 61 or possibly more, since some, if not all, of these servants may have had families, again, not an uncommon event for the time.
    Thus, Lehi’s party at the time they sailed for the Land of Promise was at least 61 and could have numbered in the eighties.
    However, the question was raised whether or not there were “others” involved in the families that would have joined them on their journey away from Jerusalem. The only clue we have is that Nephi says that “And it came to pass that the Lord did soften the heart of Ishmael, and also his household, insomuch that they took their journey with us down into the wilderness to the tent of our father” (1 Nephi 7:5).
    In saying “household” and not “family,” there is some question whether or not others than Ishmael’s bloodline was involved, since “household” in Hebrew had a specific, larger meaning. According to Perdue, Blenkinsopp, Collins and Meyers (Families in Ancient Israel, John Knox Press, 1997), the idea of family in ancient Israel was a more expansive concept than our modern one—it existed at three basic levels:
• First, there was the bayit, or the household. This was similar to our nuclear family of parents and children, as well as multiple generations, but it also included debt servants, slaves, concubines, resident aliens, sojourners, day laborers and orphans. In its broadest definition, household would also include its servants (Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Walter A. Elwell, Ed., Baker Books, 1996).
    In reality, the family was the unit of society and the individual found his place in society through the family and its extensions. Abraham tells us that there were 318 servants “born in his household” (Genesis 14:14). In addition, in ancient Israel large families were deemed necessary to conduct the family business, to provide for the parents in their old age, and to carry on the family name. As a result, the large family was regarded as a blessing from God (Exodus 1:21; Psalm 128:3).

Sons were especially valued (Psalm 127:3-5) to carry on the family name, though it is against rebellious sons, not daughters, that legislation was directed and proverbs were coined (Proverbs 20:20; 30:11,17 ). In fact, the father could sell his daughter as a servant or concubine (Exodus 21:7-11), or even pledge his sons as a loan guaranty, although these practices seem to have arisen more out of cases of economic necessity than from established custom (2 Kings 4:1; Nehemiah 5:1-5).
• Second, there was the mishpachah—a Jewish family or social unit including close and distant relatives. This unit would also be loosely referred to a clan and most typically in reference to residential kinship groups consisting of several households. In other words, the entire family network of relatives by blood or marriage, and sometimes close friends. Of the 12 uses of this word in Genesis, the entire spectrum from one family to all the families in included in its meaning.
• Third, there was the mattah, a branch or the tribe (as used in Exodus 31:2,6; and 140 times in the Old Testament), which consisted of many clans.
    In addition, there was polygamy among the wealthiest households, but it is not clear how extensive polygamy may have been practiced beyond these contexts. The Mosaic law permitted polygamy, but also defined its narrowest limits, but it was sanctioned by Jewish law and gave rise to many rabbinical discussions. However, it was not practiced among the vast majority of Hebrews at any time. Still, it was found among the wealthy who could afford many wives, and also the nobility of ancient Israel.
    Thus, the term family, can be viewed as concentric circles with the household at the center, the clan farther out, and the tribe existing out beyond the clan. But there is another dimension as well. As time went by, the ideas of clan, and particularly tribe, became somewhat fictive relationships without always having a strict biological connection involved.
(See the next post, “Another Look at Lehi’s People – Part II,” for more on the size of the Lehi Colony and who were “Nephi’s People”)