14 And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after
the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were
now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us; for I knew their
hatred towards me and my children and those who were called my people.
15 And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to
work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of
steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great
abundance.
16 And I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct
it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many
precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it
could not be built like unto Solomon’s temple. But the manner of the
construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and the workmanship thereof
was exceedingly fine.
17 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my people
to be industrious, and to labor with their hands.
18 And it came to pass that they would that I should be
their king. But I, Nephi, was desirous that they should have no king;
nevertheless, I did for them according to that which was in my power.
Having established a settlement, Nephi turns to the defence of the settlement. He took to sword of Laban and made swords “after the manner” (2 Nephi 5:14) of Laban’s sword. What does this mean?
John Sorensen examines verse 14.
“Laban's weapon was replicated in function and general
pattern, but different material could have been used for the new weapons
(Matheny offers helpful citations on the use of hard wooden ‘swords’ in
Mesoamerica). The copies might have been of metal, but need
not have been. The text fails to settle that question. Note also that the
statement about weapons (2 Nephi 5:14) is made before that about working metals
(2 Nephi 5:15) and no attempt is made by the writer, Nephi, to connect the two;
had a connection been intended, one would have thought the statement about
metalworking would have come first, then the mention of weapons preparation. It
seems a sound rule to pay as much attention to what the text does not say as to
what (we think) it does say.”[1]
As we will read in the record, the sword of Laban is seldom
used in war. Brett L. Holbrook explains:
“The sword is also only mentioned by the Nephites three
times after that, which ‘suggests that the weapon was not only well known, but
also unique, wielded by kings, with no comparable weapon being used by others.’ In
this sense, the sword was strictly part of the regalia and was not used or
handled by any individuals beside the king.”[2]
The Book of Mormon records:
“The people having
loved Nephi exceedingly, he having been a great protector for them, having
wielded the sword of Laban in their defence, and having labored in all his days
for their welfare” (Jacob 1:10).
“And it came to
pass also that the armies of the Lamanites came down out of the land of Nephi,
to battle against his people. But
behold, king Benjamin gathered together his armies, and he did stand against
them; and he did fight with the strength of his own arm, with the sword of
Laban” (Words of Mormon 1:13).
It is here that we learn the two names that we will use for
the two groups throughout the Book of Mormon, Nephite and Lamanite. Hugh Nibley explains how, over time, the
identification becomes political rather than family.
“The Lamanite and Nephite division was tribal rather than
racial, each of the main groups representing an amalgamation of tribes that retained
their identity (Alma 43:13; 4 Nephi 1:36—37). Our text frequently goes out of
its way to specify that such and such a group is only called Nephite
or Lamanite (2 Nephi 5:14; Jacob 1:2; Mosiah 25:12; Alma 3:10; 30:59; Helaman
3:16; 3 Nephi 3:24; 10:18; 4 Nephi 1:36—38, 43; Mormon 1:9). For the situation
was often very mobile, with large numbers of Nephites going over to the
Lamanites (Words of Mormon 1:16; 4 Nephi 1:20; Mormon 6:15; Alma 47:35-36), or
Lamanites to the Nephites (Alma 27:27; Mosiah 25:12; Alma 55:4), or members of
the mixed Mulekite people, such as their Zoramite offshoot, going over either
to the Lamanites (Alma 43:4) or to the Nephites (Alma 35:9—not really to the
Nephites, but to the Ammonites who were Lamanites who had earlier become
Nephites!); or at times the Lamanites and Nephites would freely intermingle
(Helaman 6:7—8), while at other times the Nephite society would be heavily
infiltrated by Lamanites and by robbers of dubious background (Mormon 2:8).”[3]
The Nephites began to build a city with wood, copper, iron,
brass, steel, gold, silver, and other precious ores. Nephi, having a background working with
metals, taught the people how to do this.
Among the buildings built was a temple. It followed the design of Solomon’s Temple. Because a lack of precious things, it was not
exactly like Solomon’s temple.
“The fact that Nephi kept the law of Moses says something
important about Nephi's temple. It is hard to imagine him keeping every whit of
the law of Moses without a temple patterned after the tabernacle constructed by
Moses in the wilderness or the Temple of Solomon of Jerusalem. That ancient
temple had been used by the first Nephi, six centuries before the birth of
Christ, as the model in building his temple shortly after his arrival in the
promised land (2 Nephi 5:16).”[4]
The people wanted Nephi to become their king. Among Book of Mormon scholars, there is
disagreement about whether Nephi became the king or simply acted as if he were
a king. The ambiguity comes from verse
18. After being asked to be the king,
Nephi wrote he “, was desirous that they
should have no king; nevertheless, I did for them according to that which was
in my power.” So, depending on your
interpretation of verse 18, Nephi either became the first Nephite king or
refused to be their king.
[2] The Sword of Laban as a Symbol of Divine
Authority and Kingship, Brett L. Holbrook, Provo, Utah: Maxwell
Institute.
[4] Seeing Third Nephi as the Holy of Holies of
the Book of Mormon, John W. Welch, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute.
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