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The Name Nephi - Genuinely Ancient & Authentic

Research by Kerry A. Shirts

Some critics have contended that Joseph Smith simply got the name Nephi from the apocrypha, therefore the BofM was just made up by a very clever Joseph Smith. But, new evidence has come forth which critics are ignoring (as usual - when are they *ever* going to come up to par?) that shows the name Nephi is an ancient name.

Now, to get things straight on what the proposition of this little study is, let me spell out what I am discussing:

It is possible that Joseph Smith could have known the name Nephi from the Apocrypha. Although it is unlikely since there is evidence that Smith may not have even had a Bible while translating the BofM. The following people were intimately involved with Smith in the transcription process and routinely watched him work, hence their testimonies are crucial for this issue, Emma Smith, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, William Smith, Lucy Mack Smith, Elizabeth Anne Whitmer Cowdery Johnson, Michael Morse, Sarah Heller Conrad, Isaac Hale, Reuben Hale, and Joseph Knight Sr., all left historical comments on what they knew of how Joseph Smith worked when translating the BofM. *None* of them mentions anything about the use of a Bible or allows room for it.

Emma Smith said "He had neither manuscript or book to read from, if he had anything of the kind he could not have concealed it from me." ("Last Testimony of Sister Emma," *Saints Advocate*, vol. 2, no. 4 (Plano, Illinois, Oct. 1879): 50-52; and *Saints Herald*, vol. 26, no. 19 (Plano, Illinois, Oct. 1, 1879): 290.)

David Whitmer emphatically declared that Joseph, while translating and dictating the translation had "NO MANUSCRIPT NOTES OR OTHER MEANS OF KNOWLEDGE save the seer stones and the characters as shown on the plates, he being present and cognizant how it was done." (capitalization in the original, found in *Deseret News*, Nov. 10, 1881)

Oliver Cowdery knew more about what was involved in the translation process based on D&C 9, than simply reading the Bible and making a few modifications of the text. He never mentioned a Bible or any other type of research that Smith was doing while he was with him. (Oliver Cowdery, *Letter I*, in the *Messenger and Advocate* 1 [Oct. 1834]: 14.

A curtain was placed only between Joseph and Martin Harris. No other witnesses ever mentioned a curtain between them and in fact noted that they were right in front or by the side of Joseph as he translated the BofM. Oliver's wife, Elizabeth Anne Whitmer Cowdery Johnson, recollected that: "I often sat by and saw and heard them translate and write for hours together. Joseph never had a curtain drawn between him and his scribe while he was translating. He would place the director in his hat, and then place his face in his hat, so as to exclude the light, and then [dictate?] to his scribe the words [he said] as they appeared before [him?] (Copy contained on the obverse of letter of William E. McLellin to "My Dear Friends", Independence Missouri, Feb. 1870, RLDS Archives P13 f191. Question marks indicate illegible words.)[These above notes taken from John Welch, "The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount", Deseret/FARMS, 1990, pp. 130-134).

How Joseph Smith ever read of Nephi in the apocrypha, let alone the Bible, is beyond us, since Smith apparently did *not* have a Bible while translating the BofM.

My Point Will Be This:

*Is the name "Nephi" suitable for the time and place from which it claims to derive*? This is what this study will examine.

John Gee, who is currently getting his doctorate in Egyptology (yes, that's right, ANOTHER LDS Egyptologist will be out soon to show how silly the critics have been against the Book of Abraham and the Joseph Smith Papyri, and Gee is good! I've talked to him a bit and read everything he has written - I am looking forward to getting to know him better once he wraps up his studies)

Anyway, Gee has noted that Nephi, early on in the BofM, notes the connections between Egypt and Israel at his time. He should have, since his name "Nephi" may actually come from an Egyptian name "Nfr". The pronounciation of "Nfr" would have been similar to the European (i.e., German or Spanish) pronounciation of "Nephi", since in the 5th century B.C. in Egypt, the final "r" had fallen out of the pronounciation of "Nfr", and thus would have stayed the same as in the Coptic, where the form was "noufi". The name "Nephi" was probably a Semitic form of the Egyptian "Nfr", such as the Phoenician or Aramaic "NPY". (Gee - *A Note on the Name Nephi* - FARMS Update, Nov. 1992).

Hugh Nibley noted that Spiegelberg in the JEA XII, 35, noted that the original name of the god pa-nepi was Nihpi, to which Nibley says is close to Nephi. We also know that a certain "Nehi" and "Nehri" were famous Egyptian noblemen. (Nibley - *Lehi in the Desert*, p. 29).

Gee notes also that three Phoenician inscriptions from the 5th century B.C. have the name "Knpy" on them. F.L. Benz say "Knpy" as the Phoenician form of the Egyptian name "K3-nfr.w" which contains the name element "nfr". This equation of Phoenician and Egyptian names was confirmed later by G. Vittmann, who added that the Aramaic spellings "KNWP" and "QNPY" were also related. The Aramaic "KNWPY" is also found. Vittmann also noted that the name "HRNPY" found in Aramaic inscriptions was probably an Aramaic form of the Egyptian "nh-hr-nfr."

So, the name element "NPY" existed in *both* Phoenician and Aramaic, and this Semitic name element "NPY" seems to be a transcription of the Egyptian name element "nfr." The medial "p" in the Semitic form would be taken as "ph", so the vocalization of "NPY" as "Nephi" poses no problem.

Hence, the name Nephi *is* an attested Syro-Palestinian Semitic form of an attested Egyptian name dating from the Late Period in Egypt.

*Nephi is the proper form of a proper name from the proper place and proper time to appear in 1st Nephi.*

Hugh Nibley also noted that Nelson Glueck detected on a Lihyanite monument, the name LHI-TN whose name means "Lehi hath given." Also found on the monument was a certain "Nfy." Jaussen & Savignac in "Mission Archaeologique in Arabie," (Paris 1909), found inscriptions in the Arabian Desert "Lamay son of Nafiyah", the first Nabataean inscription page 141, no. 1 is "the son of one Nafiyu". Other Nafy inscriptions are nos. 259, 215, 302, 322, 351, 441, 236, 237. No. 80 is by "Ha-Nafy and Maram-Law." (Hugh Nibley - *An Approach to the Book of Mormon*, pp. 405, 239; Cf. George Reynolds, *A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon*, Philip C. Reynolds, 1954, pp. 312-314)

The evidence shows that Nephi is an ancient name, far more abundantly attested than just being in the apocrypha from which it is very doubtful Smith took the name from. We believe Nephi is in the clear.