The Mulekite Homeland in the Land of Promise – Part X

Continued from the previous post regarding the Mulekite homeland, where they landed, where they settled, and who they were, and how numerous theorists have treated this subject erroneously; and continuing below with Sorenson’s remarks about co-mingling of the Jaredites and Mulekites/Nephites, some of which rationale is found in names as discussed in the last part in the previous post.

• Many Nephite names showed up in Egyptian, Hebrew, Babylonian, and Arabic in the Old World, and in the cosmopolitan age, foreign names became as popular as native ones, both with the Jews and with other people (S. Zeitlin, Jewish Quarterly Review, vol.43, 1953, p367; Improvement Era, May 1954, p 309)
    Thus, it may well have been a Nephite practice to use the “foreign names” in the Jaredite record to name their own children in the land of promise;
• Many names attributed to the Jaredites were old West Semitic names, originating in, or or around, Mesopotamia from whence the Jaredites came, but also known to the Jews of 600 B.C., often through Egyptian/Hittite form. As an example:
Book of Mormon name:
Kumen, Jumen-onhi, Kishkumen Akish, Kish
, Seantum
,Gadiandi
Egyptian-Hittite name:
Kumani, Cyprus Sandon, Sandas Cadyanda
Kish: The name Kish was not only a name in the Jaredite record (Ether 1:18) who became king (Ether 10:17), but Kish was the name of Saul’s father in the Old Testament (1 Chronicles 12:1) who was a mighty man of power and a Benjamanite (1 Samuel 9:1); also a Kish is mentioned as a Levite (2 Chronicles 29:12). (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert and The World of the Jaredites, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1952, p 33, Note 2).Obviously not just a Jaredite name).
Kumen: The name Kumen is definitely of the desert of Palestine, and also shows up in Egyptian-Hittite (from old West Semitic)4 as Kumani. West Semitic includes the area of the Hittites, Hurrian, Sumeria, Akkadia and overall Mesopotamia. Semitic is derived from Shem, of whom several peoples evolved, including the Jaredites, Eber and the Hebrews, Israel, and many desert tribes of Arabia (Eugen J. Pentiuc. West Semitic Terms in Akkadian Texts from Emar, University of Chicago Press, 1999). In fact,

The assassin Kishkumen who killed Pahoran, the Chief Judge, which led to the formation of the Gaddiantobn Robbers

Thus Kishkumen is a compound name derived from old West Semitic and Egyptian and Palestinian desert background, not Jaredite. Kishkumen, of course, was the Nephite that not only killed Pahoran (Helaman 1:9), but was the founder of the band which later became known as the Gaddianton Robbers (Helaman 2:11; 6:18), which “secret combination” was the cause of the overthrow and nearly the entire destruction of the Nephite people (Helaman 2:13). In addition, the name Kumen was the name of one of the American disciples chosen by the Lord (3 Nephi 19:4). Thus, it can hardly be said that Kishkumen was a Mulekite, or Jaredite-influenced individual, but simply a Nephite whose name is equally Jaredite, Palestine and Egyptian.
Corihor: The name Corihor and Korihor, so glibly attributed to a Jaredite-Mulekite connection, is neither Jaredite nor Mulekite in origin. It, too, is an old West Semitic name of Mesopotamia, attributed to the Egyptian name Kherihor (Hermann Ranke, Die Agyptischen Personennamen ["The Egyptian Personal Names"], J. J. Augustin, Glückstadt, Germany, 1935).
    The name has a unique connection to the Book of Mormon through Lehi who spoke and wrote Egyptian (1 Nephi 1:2), a language which continued among the Nephites for 1000 years (Mormon 9:32).

Korihor trying to convince the chief judge that their religion was a fake and that there was no life after death

In addition, Book of Mormon scholars often make the mistake of misunderstanding the origin of names in the Mesopotamia- Palestinian area of antiquity. As an example, Hobby claims that “names which end in one letter in the Book of Ether and another in later times should be considered equivalents—an example of this is the change from mimmation (ending in ‘m’) to nunnation (ending in ‘n’)” (The Mulekite Connection, p22).

    This is such an over-simplification of the facts that it could lead the reader into erroneous conclusions, since the change from mimmation to nunnation occurred in Mesopotamia and the Palestinian area around 2000 B.C., but was dropped altogether around 600 B.C., in Lehi’s time—in fact, in 600 B.C. the practice of using -an and -on endings was considered quaint and archaic in Palestine and among the Jews, but a practice, in some cases, the Nephites continued in the land of promise. Thus, many names that might be thought to show an -om ending in Jaredite would be expected to be found as -on in Nephite/Mulekite, but in reality may have dropped the -on entirely in the latter case as is found in Palestinian place-names before 600 BC (W. F. Albright, The Vocalization of Egyptian Syllabic Orthography, Ameri- can Orthographic Society, New Haven, 1934, p12)
    Even Hugh Nibley (p246-247) counters his own name-origin findings to defend the Jaredite origin of certain Mulekite names—Of course in most cases, we do not know if they are Mulekite men or not other than Coriantumr. Ammon, who saved king Limhi was also a Mulekite. But we have few references to people who specifically were Mulekites, and not the ones to which Nibley makes reference—which he apparently does strictly because they are dissenters.
    He also states: “The tradition of a very Jaredite pattern of behavior and dissent against Nephite rule by men of Mulekite background bearing Jaredite names makes the case pretty clear,” and that “five out of the six whose names are definitely Jaredite betray strong anti-Nephite leanings, and the sixth one, Shiblon, was only saved from the ranks of such rebels because an angel converted his anti-Nephite father.”

It is interesting that Nibley claims Shiblon was a Jaredite name, and that his father was an anti-Nephite man, since Shiblon’s father was Alma, son of Alma, who spent much of his life sustaining the Word of God and uplifting the Nephite people, and Shiblon’s brother was Helaman who was the father of Helaman the father of Nephi and Leh.
    Now in discussing dissenters, Nibley leaves out perhaps the worst of the lot in Gadianton, which even he claims is not a Jaredite name, saying that this omission “is not to be wondered at.” But why not? If you are going to use an argument that those who dissented from the Nephites were Mulekites with Jaredite names, then the fact must hold true throughout, which it does not, thus it can only be considered a coincidence, or some other rationale must exist such as:
(See the following post, “The Mulekite Homeland in the Land of Promise – Part XI,” regarding the Mulekite homeland, where the Mulekites landed, where they settled, and who they were, as well as how numerous theorists have treated this subject erroneously; and continuing with Hugh Nibley who leaves out perhaps the worst of the lot in Gadianton, which even he claims is not a Jaredite name, saying that this omission “is not to be wondered at.”)