Mom didn't care too much the other day when I threw this at her, but as I was biking to school this morning I thought I'd share it and ask what you think, if anything...
So, as far as I know, the name of King Lamoni's father is never given in the BvM. Well, as I was reading several days ago, I noticed that there was a Lamanitish city called Ani-Anti. Most cities in the BvM are named after people, so why not Ani-Anti. Perhaps even after two people?
Then, the people of Ammon take the name Anti-Nephi-Lehi, and try as anyone may, no one has ever given me a good explanation of this name. Once I looked it up in a BvM Commentary, and it said some whiff about anti possibly meaning "a reflection of" in the first American dictionary, printed in 1828, but I then went and found a copy of that dictionary and didn't really see it in there. Anyway, Joseph Smith using a very obscure usage of a prefix never made much sense to me anyway, especially one that would mask the true desire of the people of Ammon, who wanted to, in fact, be viewed as followers of Nephi and Lehi. Wouldn't they want to choose a name that showed their allegiance to the religion of the prophets? Joseph Smith would probably not be inspired to choose wording that highlights the opposite idea.
But, if the people, who joined as a cultural and political unit, used the name of their leader, the king, who was such a devout follower of Christ, would they not use his name, Anti, to show who they were, and then Nephi and Lehi to show to whom they were connecting? YES.
And finally, his son takes on the name Anti-Nephi-Lehi, if my memory serves. That is a crazy name, unless his father was also named Anti, and in that case there is a good chance that his name was Anti already, and all he was doing was adding the names of the prophets to his own, which was a common Middle-Eastern custom among royalty (see Tutankhamun).
My theory is--his name was Anti.
Out.
7 comments:
interesting...
interesting...
no more token comments, jeff--let's have a wonderful dialogue about stuff (not a debate)
Hey Joe, I definitely agree with your point about the use of "Anti" not making sense in any way previously explained to me - especially when anti is used in every other instance in the scriptures meaning against or the opposite of - as in "Anti-Christ."
It's also well established in the Book of Mormon that they named things after important men, for example cities after their founder, the first Nephite kings all named Nephi, etc.
In fact, just last night I was reading in Mosiah, the account of Zeniff making his deal with King Laman of the Lamanites, and I wondered if they had established the same tradition that Nephi did of kings taking Laman's name.
I definitely lean toward your interpretation of anti. It's more plausible than any other I've heard or thought of.
hey--who deleted a comment?
and yes, I made the same observation in my notes about the possible tradition of names--it is pretty interesting. If that is the case, then there is a possiblity that Anti's name could still have been Laman, or, more probably, the name had gradually or sometimes shifted, and Anti and Anti had the same name. I think--I don't have a copy on me right now, that anti is used in one other name as well, but I'm not sure.
Yes I find it interesting! I just didn't say, "that's right" like I usually do. But, it's a great explanation and theory.
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