“I Shall Call Them Lamanites That Seek to Destroy the People of Nephi”

Brant Gardner

Jacob reiterates his conceptual use of Lamanite and Nephite, also stressing the predictable pejorative association of the outsider label. The friendly/unfriendly descriptions Jacob gives are probably much more important determinations of “Nephite” and “Lamanite” at this point than lineage. Note that Lamanite is defined specifically as “not Nephite,” and that “Nephite” is expressly defined as “according to the reigns of the kings.” Nephites are Nephites because they are the people of the Nephi-kings. Lamanites are everyone else.

Variant: The typesetter for the 1830 edition misinterpreted this unpunctuated sentence. The result after the typesetter’s punctuation was “but I shall call them Lamanites. They that seek to destroy the people of Nephi and they which are friendly to Nephi I shall call Nephites.” This created the nonsensical idea that the Nephites wanted to destroy the people of Nephi. This was corrected in the 1837 edition.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 2

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