Similarities in Book of Mormon names

This is just a short note about a common element in the names of four Book of Mormon figures:

• Riplakish
• Akish
• Kish
• Kishkumen

Here is a brief sketch of each of these figures:

• Riplakish is a wicked Jaredite king (see Ether 10:4-9) akin to Noah (in fact, his story likely intentionally mirrors the story of King Mosiah.  See here and here.)
• Akish was part of the original Jaredite secret combination (see Ether 8:11-15).
• Kish is a Jaredite king about whom we learn almost nothing else (see Ether 10:17-18).
• Kishkumen is the founder of the Gadianton robbers (see Helaman 1:9-12).

Of those, I find it intriguing that Akish and Kishkumen introduce secret combination to their respective peoples. 

The Book of Mormon Onomasticon suggests a few speculative possibilities for the meaning of the name element "Kish" though extreme caution is advisable when it comes to Jaredite names meanings (since we don't have a great understanding of the relationship between the Jaredites and other ancient near eastern cultures.

Here is one possibility I find interesting for Akish:

The HEBREW PN Ikkesh ... is from the HEBREW root ʿqš, "twist, pervert" (RFS & JAT) and would be a very acceptable name for a wilderness (RFS).

There is probably no reliable way to know for certain, but it is a good fit. Secret combinations pervert the right way of the Lord and bring down two civilizations within the Book of Mormon.  

 

More examples of internal consistency

For those interested, a lot of examples of internal consistency have been collected in a series published at the FairMormon blog. Many of them are based on posts on this blog. An arc graph gives an overview of all the references. Here is a link to the last episode. The final graph looks pretty amazing as a representation of details that Joseph Smith would have to keep in mind if he had authored the book. But the series of 120 examples are by no means complete. I picked up a few more during my recent studies.

The covenant of the freemen

Alma 51 tells about contention among the Nephites, because some people didn't want Pahoran as Chief Judge. In verse 6, we read

And those who were desirous that Pahoran should remain chief judge over the land took upon them the name of freemen; and thus was the division among them, for the freemen had sworn or covenanted to maintain their rights and the privileges of their religion by a free government.

6 years and 5 chapters earlier, Moroni raised the title of liberty. In Alma 46:20 we read

Behold, whosoever will maintain this title upon the land, let them come forth in the strength of the Lord, and enter into a covenant that they will maintain their rights, and their religion, that the Lord God may bless them.

Another aspect of that covenant is described later in Alma 46:35

And it came to pass that whomsoever of the Amalickiahites that would not enter into a covenant to support the cause of freedom, that they might maintain a free government, he caused to be put to death

The covenant that the freemen had sworn, as described in Alma 51, is likely a reference to Alma 46 and means that they had been among the people that "came running together" in Alma 46:21 to support Moroni's cause and entered into this covenant. 6 years later when their freedom came into question again they remembered the covenant they had made and stayed true to it.

The city of Moroni

Another example from Alma 51

Behold, it came to pass that while Moroni was thus breaking down the wars and contentions among his own people, and subjecting them to peace and civilization, and making regulations to prepare for war against the Lamanites, behold, the Lamanites had come into the land of Moroni, which was in the borders by the seashore. (Alma 51:22)

This implies that Moroni is located

1. Close to the borders of Lamanite lands or the wilderness between the Nephite and Lamanite lands
2. By the seashore

This is consistent with Alma 50:13

And it came to pass that the Nephites began the foundation of a city, and they called the name of the city Moroni; and it was by the east sea; and it was on the south by the line of the possessions of the Lamanites

Yes, these verses are only one chapter apart. But with all the other geographical details in these chapters, it is not easy having to remember so many of them to ensure consistent references.

Zarahemla, the person

The city of Zarahemla can be considered the Nephite capital, although the Book of Mormon does not use that term. From the Book of Mosiah until it is burned in 3 Nephi 9, Zarahemla is where the King/Chief Judge lives as well as the High Priest over the church / the keeper of the plates of Nephi. In Mosiah chapter 7, Ammon is described as a descendant of Zarahemla in verses 3 and 13. 86 modern chapters later, in Helaman 1:15, there is another man described as a descendant of Zarahemla. Evidently, there is not just a city of Zarahemla but also a person called Zarahemla. In the dictation sequence by Joseph Smith, starting with the Book of Mosiah, there has been no mention of a person called Zarahemla, even though the Book of Mormon mentions it in passing as if the reader already knows. 

In fact, the reader does already know because the Book of Mormon is written in a different order than it was dictated. The person, Zarahemla, is only mentioned in the Book of Omni, the last or second to last book in the dictation sequence. But in the reading sequence, this mention of Zarahemla comes before the description of people descending from him. Here it is

Zarahemla did rejoice exceedingly, because the Lord had sent the people of Mosiah with the plates of brass which contained the record of the Jews. (Omni 1:14)

When Mosiah-I and his people found the people of Zarahemla, Zarahemla himself was living among them probably as their leader. When they merged and Mosiah became their king, "the people of Zarahemla" is sometimes used when needed in the Book of Mormon to distinguish the part of the people led by Zarahemla before this merge. This sparse information about Zarahemla, the person from the Book of Omni, is all we have (the 116 lost pages probably contained more information). But this example of internal consistency is another demonstration of how the dictation sequence would complicate things if Joseph Smith made this whole thing up. I would like to hear the critic's theories of why Joseph Smith made it more difficult for himself and willingly increased the risk of running into contradictions when he had no apparent reason to.

Nephite splinter groups and Book of Mormon wars

A few years ago I started making an overview of all the wars in the Book of Mormon: When they occurred, who was involved, how it was initiated, etc. It was a bit difficult since there are so few details sometimes, like Enos just saying that "I saw wars between the Nephites and Lamanites in the course of my days." (Enos 1:24). I don't know exactly what I expected to get out of it, I just thought it could be interesting. Although I didn't really finish it, I made at least one observation that I thought was interesting: Every single war during the reign of the judges until the coming of Christ (Alma, Helaman, 3 Nephi up to chapter 11) is initiated by Nephite dissenters and never the Lamanites. And these are a lot of wars too. Here is an overview:

87 B.C. - Amlici wants to be king, the Nephites vote against him, he gets mad and mixes goes to the Lamanites along with his followers. They go to war against the Nephites. See Alma 2.

81 B.C. - The Sons of Mosiah had been preaching among the Lamanites and had much success. Many Lamanites converted but none of the Nephite dissenters among them (Amalicites and Amulonites) except for one. Instead they stirred up the others that had not converted to anger against the converts and later the Nephites and went to war against them. See Alma 16 and 28.

74 B.C. - In the aftermath of the Zoramite mission, those who believe are cast out and those who don't believe are mad at the Nephites for giving them refuge and land. They mix with the Lamanites and go to war. See Alma 43-44.

73-57 B.C. - Amalickiah is another one who seeks to become king. When it doesn't work he goes to the Lamanites and eventually even becomes their king. But he is not happy with that and goes to war against the Nephites. There is at least one period of peace in-between, but all the wars going on in this period are initiated by Amalickiah and perpetuated by his brother, Ammaron, when he dies. This is a long one and is covered in Alma 46-62.

52 B.C. - We get little information about this one but enough to know that it is caused by Nephite dissenters stirring up the Lamanites to anger. See Alma 63:14-15

50 B.C. - We don't know much about the background for this war, just that the Lamanites came. But we learn that their armies were led by someone called Coriantumr who was a Nephite dissenter and that the king stirred them up. The Lamanite king at the time was Ammaron's son and Amalickiah's nephew, i.e. a Nephite by birth. See Helaman 1:14-34

38-30 B.C. - History repeats itself. Nephite dissenters go to the Lamanites, and manage after some persuation to stir them up to anger against the Nephites and go to war. They capture a lot of Nephite land, but give it back after a lot of them convert through miraculous events. See Helaman 4-5.

15-16 A.D. - This is the longest period without wars between Nephites and Lamanites in the reign of judges. But there has been much unrest at times and the Gadianton robbers have been established and have taken over much of the government and caused murders and plundering. It is hard to pinpoint a war in this period until 15-16 A.D. where more of a battle is described between the Nephites and the Gadianton robbers. Not surprisingly, the Gadianton robbers originate from Nephites. See 3 Nephi 2:17-18.

19-22 A.D. - Another battle with the Gadianton robbers. At this point, the terms "Nephite" and "Lamanite" seem to have little to do with who their forefathers were. "And it came to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites" (3 Nephi 2:14). Considering all the Nephite dissenters who have joined the Lamanites before this, a genetic test would probably fail to determine who is who. See 3 Nephi 4. 

Depending on how we count, we have about 9 distinct wars in this period of judges. Every single one is initiated by people who were Nephites by birth. In fact, at least in two of these accounts, there were Lamanites who refused to go to war and had to be persuaded by Nephite dissenters. See Alma 47:2 and Helaman 4:3.

I guess Mormon was right:

And thus we can plainly discern, that after a people have been once enlightened by the Spirit of God, and have had great knowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and then have fallen away into sin and transgression, they become more hardened, and thus their state becomes worse than though they had never known these things. (Alma 24:30)