Researchers have now discovered the origin of the name "Nephi" and its derivative "Nephites," both prominent in the Book of Mormon, one of the sacred scriptures of Mormonism.

Actually, rather than "Nephite" being derived from "Nephi," as has commonly been assumed, it's really the other way around: "Nephi" is derived from "Nephites" - what linguists call a "back formation" (German "Rückbildung").

Nephi, it turns out, is probably a mythical, invented character, the legendary ancestor of the tribe, much as the legendary "Judah" was invented to be the ancestor of the Judeans (Jews), or Romulus for the Romans.

The ancient tribe that claims descent from the legendary "Nephi" claimed that they had, in ancient times, been visited by a Christ-like god, who gave them a set of strict laws to follow, mostly prohibitions. Violations were punishable by death. One of the strictest of these was "Do not raise your hand in anger against any man, friend or foe!" This naturally hindered the tribe from being very successful in combat, either offensive or defensive. They soon realized that they could avoid literal violation of the law by simply using other body parts rather than the hand: heads, shoulders, feet, knees. At this they became very skillful, and in spite of their refusal to use their hands in combat, they soon became known among neighboring tribes as formidable opponents, especially due to their ability to fell a foe with a single blow with a knee. Their enemies dubbed them the "knee-fighters." Since the native languages usually dropped a final -r sound, this name was shortened to "Knee-fights" and in the reformed Egyptian of their records was spelled "Ne-phites" or "Nephites." The legend then arose among them about their ancestor Knee-figh, to explain their name.

The Knee-fighters were ultimated wiped out by another tribe, who devised an effective defensive device made by making a shield of wood, strengthened by gluing several layers of thin wood together, a kind of plywood. They discovered that they could also use this technique to make offensive weapons, a kind of sword or spear. Because they became skillful at the art of laminating wood, they became known as the "laminators," shortened (as noted above) to "laminates." Over the course of time this name underwent a widely observed vowel shift, and ended up as "Lamanites."

If you have not figured out by now that this is a wildly fictitious tale, then be on guard when two nice young men in white shirts and name tags, both with the first name "Elder," come knocking on your door. Their story is even supider, and you will probably take it as gospel truth. DO NOT LISTEN to them, due to your own gullibility.

Ohhhhhh, I thought it had to do with Nehi Peach soda.

oh so they were first called "knee-fighters"? this "ANCIENT" tribe eh? SO they were ancient, and yet they were dubbed by their also ANCIENT enemies using the ENGLISH LANGUAGE.......... uhm... im still trying to figure out the ANCIENT part.... hahahahahah

nephrite jade -- when he made up the name Nephi and Nephites.
He was into stones, etc. and that makes the most sense to me.

I also think he could easily have adapted Jadeite (a similar stone) into Jeridite .

I think it's Occam's Razor -- again -- in essence: the simplest explanation is the answer.

The Nephilim are beings mentioned twice in the Hebrew Bible; in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33. Traditions about the Nephilim are also found in a number of other Jewish and Christian writings.

The term "Nephilim" occurs just twice in the Hebrew Bible, both in the Torah. The first is Genesis 6:1-4, immediately before the Noah's ark story:

1. When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,
2. the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
3. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
4. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

The second is Numbers 13:32-33, where the Hebrew spies report that they have seen fearsome giants in Canaan:

32. And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.
33. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim

Mormo is a demon or bad spirit. Moroni was originally the ghost of a pirate in Smith's stories. So, it makes sense to me that the name Nephi would also be derived from some sort of bad spirit.

ipo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Nephilim are beings mentioned twice in the
> Hebrew Bible; in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33.
> Traditions about the Nephilim are also found in a
> number of other Jewish and Christian writings.
>
> The term "Nephilim" occurs just twice in the
> Hebrew Bible, both in the Torah. The first is
> Genesis 6:1-4, immediately before the Noah's ark
> story:
>
> 1. When men began to increase in number on the
> earth and daughters were born to them,
> 2. the sons of God saw that the daughters of
> men were beautiful, and they married any of them
> they chose.
> 3. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not
> contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his
> days will be a hundred and twenty years."
> 4. The Nephilim were on the earth in those
> days—and also afterward—when the sons of God
> went to the daughters of men and had children by
> them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
>
> The second is Numbers 13:32-33, where the Hebrew
> spies report that they have seen fearsome giants
> in Canaan:
>
> 32. And they spread among the Israelites a bad
> report about the land they had explored. They
> said, "The land we explored devours those living
> in it. All the people we saw there are of great
> size.
> 33. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants
> of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like
> grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the
> same to them."
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim

I think the cult deliberately changed these verses in their version of the KJV. I can't find the wording anywhere, they probably removed them!

OOOOHHHH, so THAT's how it all happened!


I love it!! Tell me more!!!

Thanx

but reminds us of Brer Packham's wit and wisdom.

that was good, you should write a book of these knee-fighters and laminate's it could be something really cult like create a following possibly

Whilst walking down the road one day, Joseph spied and empty soda bottle, and the rest, as they say, is history...

All the non Mormons who drive through Utah call it "nefee"....drives TBM's nuts.

RB

I thought maybe it was a plural for nephew. Sample sentence:

My sister's sons are my nephi.

Wouldn't multiple nephews be nephilim?

I guess I was thinking of the plural for Elvis, which is Elvii, according to Wikipedia.

You may enjoy this, the "premier scholarly journal featuring research in the neglected field of satirical linguistics."

http://specgram.com/

Alma is Spanish for soul

The Muslim general benNefi conquered North Africa.
I suppose his father was Nefi -- or, the "ben"
prefix can also be attached to any proper noun.
"Son of Nefi" -- the place near Jerusalem where
the Well of Nefi (Nephi) is located... maybe?

Nefi is not a noun in Hebrew, but it evidently
was a noun in archaic Arabic.

Then there was "Rabbi ben Nephi" of Babylon, who
purportedly understood Egyptian Hirroglyphics
and wrote down some translations in Hebrew. There
is no reliable evidence that ben Nephi ever
existed, but literary ties of his name to a
translation/commentary on the Book of Enoch may
have provided the genesis for the Mormon Nephi.

Google "ben Nephi" and "Uncle Dale" for more.

Dale B. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Google "ben Nephi" and "Uncle Dale" for more.

Oh, and while you're at it, look this up also:

Athanasius Kircher's 1652-65
"Oedipus Aegyptiacus."

I really do think that Kircher's fabricated
"Ibn Nephi / ben Nephi" provided the origin
for Nephi the son of Lehi. Whether the literary
conduit thereafter was Joe Smith, P.P. Pratt,
Sidney Rigdon, or Solomon Spalding, I'll leave
to the readers' own conclusions.

I came across Kircher's Nephi while researching
the notion that the earliest "scriptures" can be
traced to Enoch, the Father of Writing and the
inscriber of golden plates. When I saw an early
source, documenting this idea with Kircher's Nephi,
I figured that "where's smoke, there's fire..."

Thanks Dale.

Always nice to have you here to educate all the neophytes. :o)