Another Look at Lehi’s People – Part II

Continuing from the last post regarding the size of the Lehi Colony and who were “Nephi’s People.”
    Perhaps to better understand Laman’s constant displeasure and threatenings against Nephi, we need tokeep in mind that the age and placement of the children in ancient Israel determined their rank within the family, with the eldest having the position of privilege and with it, the responsibility of acting for his father in the father's absence. That Nephi seemed to be favored by his father (2 Nephi 1:24), and obviously held the moral high ground (1 Nephi 7:20; 17:15), and, as the brothers thought, wanted to be a ruler over them (1 Nephi 18:10), he constantly rankled Laman, and by extension, Lemuel, who plotted time and again to take away Nephi’s life (1 Nephi 17:48; 18:11; 2 Nephi 1:24; 5:2).
    In addition, the ancient Israel family was meant to provide for its own perpetuation and to maintain an atmosphere of emotional warmth and stability for rearing children. The harmony of the home was necessary to provide a stable environment for its functions. Accordingly, in the Mosaic legislation a number of provisions were made to ensure this harmony and to circumvent rivalries that would endanger it and cause the home to break apart.
    So we return to the question of “were there any others” than the immediate family members? Besides “and also his household” mentioned earlier, we also find that “all the house of Ishmael had come down unto the tent of my father” (1 Nephi 7:22).
    “All the house of Ishmael.” Again, the “house” or “household” in ancient Israel had a specific meaning—something Nephi would have known and understood when he wrote this—which at this time would have included servants and house slaves and sometimes their families. As an example, it never caused Nephi a moment’s hesitation to invite Zoram into the family even though he was a servant, and likely a slave bound to Laban.
    Though not generally understood by modern westerners, it was customary in the ancient Near East and for Hebrews to possess slaves, with large numbers as field hands or involved in domestic service. Hebrew law permitted Hebrews to buy both male and female slaves of foreign birth or children of resident aliens. Hebrews themselves could be enslaved to other Hebrews, but only temporarily (Exodus 21:2). When Hebrews were enslaved, it was usually because they or a relative had been too poor to repay a debt. Thieves who could not repay what they had stolen were also sold as slaves to compensate the victim. In fact, some Hebrews sold themelves into indentured slavery to pay off an expense, or to provide for future needs.

A wealthy Hebrew household of 600 BC would have had several house slaves, servants, and indentured domestic help to handle the affairs of the house and property

Domestic slaves were usually regarded as part of the family and were protected and cared for accordingly. There are even examples of slaves inheriting their master's estate or marrying into a family and gaining freedom as a result.
    Social cooperation among families in the clan (mispahah) was necessary for building and maintaining terraces to conserve the soil and reduce water runoff, for sharing a common water source (wells or streams), for constructing cisterns that retained water for the rainy season, for establishing and supporting the boundaries of fields, for harvesting of crops, for judicial settlements, and for a common defense. A network of mutual care was necessary for households to survive crop failures and food shortages caused by drought, blight, and disease. This network of care extended beyond individual levels to tribes and to the “sons of Israel,” whose marginal “poor” included Levites, widows, fatherless children, resident aliens, debt servants, slaves, and sojourners. (“The Israelite and Early Jewish Family” in Families in Ancient Israel, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 1997, pp169-170).
    Again, when the word household, and even family, is used in the Bible, it usually means either the clan or the extended family group, and includes not only parents, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc., but also the people who worked with and for the group, and their families as well. A ‘family’ could very easily include as many as fifty to a hundred people or more, as we see with Abraham.

According to Elizabeth Fletcher (left), author of Women in the Bible (1997), and who both taught and wrote textbooks on Religious Education, lists five additional “family” members of the ancient Israel “household”:
1. A free servant was paid in wages to perform specific tasks; free servants could be domestic servants or agricultural laborers;
2. A bond servant was contracted to work for a specific period of time;
3. A foreign slave had been captured in a war or a raid and was bought at market;
4. A ‘houseborn’ slave was born of a woman who was already a slave within the household;
5. A Jewish ‘debt’ slave was sold by their family to repay a debt; they were released on payment of the debt, during Jubilee Year (Leviticus 25:39-43, 47-55) or after six years of service (Exodus 21:2-4, Deuteronomy 15:12).
    Since Lehi was a very wealthy land-owner (1 Nephi 2:4), it is likely he had servants of some type in his household, as well as those handling his property, crops, planting and harvesting. It may be just as likely that Ishmael was also well-to-do and had servants of his own, for he was capable of immediately moving into the wilderness, with tents, supplies, and animals of his own.
    If this were the case, we can assign between four and six servants to each family, which would include field hands as well, making the total of Lehi’s party about the 61 mentioned earlier, that reached Bountiful after their eight years in the wilderness. How long the party remained at this seashore camp is unknown, but to build a ship capable of carrying 60 to 80 or more people in at least nine different family groups (Lehi and Sariah with their two daughters; Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi; Zoram; two sons of Ishmael; and Ishmael’s wife) across the deep oceans, would have required at least a year, more likely two. This would be especially true considering that none of these individuals had ever before built a ship of any kind.

James Cook’s ship Endeavour, carrying 85 crew and officers in 1766 in the South Pacific

Thus, the Lehi colony in Bountiful, as they readied to board the ship Nephi built, would have numbered as many as 70 to 80 people, but certainly no less than 61. Which means that when Nephi separated from his older brothers, and took those who would go with him, he was taking somewhere from 30 to 50 people with him.
    By comparison, Columbus had 87 members of his crew combined on all three of his ships.; Magellan averaged about 55 crew members on each of his 5 ships; and 56 sailed on Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hind. The crew of James Cook’s Endeavour in 1768 on his initial voyage numbered 85. The bark was 97-feet in length with a beam (width) of 29-feet, and measuring 366-tons burthen.