Nephi

[Olavarria]

Nephi is the name of three great prophets in the Book of Mormon. I think Nephi may be derived from Nof(נֹף)with the terminal -i being a gentillic. Noph is a Hebrew name for the Egyptian city Memphis; so Nephi would literally mean "Memphisite". This is interesting given 1 Nephi and Lehi's familiarity and use of Egyptian(1 Nephi 1:2).

Here is my methodlogy

Edited November 15, 2011 by Pedro A. Olavarria

[altersteve]

I enjoy reading your posts, Pedro. You always have fascinating insights.

[cinepro]

So "Noph" became "Nophi" which became "Nephi", in honor of an Egyptian city.

That makes perfect sense.

It would also lend support to my modified-heartland model of Book of Mormon geography that places the land of the Nephites on the Mississipi river, just east of modern-day Arkansas.

Edited November 15, 2011 by cinepro

[LeSellers]

So "Noph" became "Nophi" which became "Nephi", in honor of an Egyptian city.

That makes perfect sense.

Not "perfect", perhaps, but "a great deal of", most definitely.

Lehi

[Brant Gardner]

It would also lend support to my modified-heartland model of Book of Mormon geography that places the land of the Nephites on the Mississippi river, just east of modern-day Arkansas.

Memphis?

Edited November 15, 2011 by Brant Gardner

[LeSellers]

It would also lend support to my modified-heartland model of Book of Mormon geography that places the land of the Nephites on the Mississipi river, just east of modern-day Arkansas.

Memphis?

I cannot believe I didn't catch that one.

Great work.

Lehi

[Vance]

It would also lend support to my modified-heartland model of Book of Mormon geography that places the land of the Nephites on the Mississipi river, just east of modern-day Arkansas.

Well, you really need whatever support you can come across.

[cinepro]

Not "perfect", perhaps, but "a great deal of", most definitely.

Lehi

It is one of several possibilities:

The origin of the name Nephi is uncertain, and disputed. As non-Mormon scholars view the Book of Mormon as a work of fiction, and do not recognize Nephi as a historical figure, the predominant scholarly view is that the name was selected or coined by Joseph Smith, Jr. Based on a non-religious or secular perspective, hypotheses for the name's origin include:

• its appearance as a geographic name in the Apocrypha;^[41][42]
  
• the shortening of two personal names Nephish and Nephishesim in the Authorized King James Version,^[43]
  
• a reference to the nephilim ( נְפִילִים ), who are the mythical half-immortal "giants" described in Genesis;^[44] The name means "fallen ones."^[45][46][47]
  
• a reference to the work Nephiomaoth, which "was one of the magic names of God in early Christian Gnosticism"^[44]
  
• or the term Nephes, which is a Kabbalistic term for a ghost that wanders around sepulchers.^[48]
  

Religious Mormon scholars generally believe that the Book of Mormon is historical, and therefore have proposed etymologies consistent with that view. For example, Mormon scholar John Gee theorizes that Nephi is a Hebrew form of the Egyptian name Nfr. In Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions of Egyptian names containing nfr, the nfr element is rendered npy, and the closely related Hebrew language would presumably transcribe the name the same way.^[49] Hugh Nibley has suggested that the name Nephi is related to the Egyptian Nehri. Some Mormon scholars have proposed that the name Nephi is related to the Hebrew word nephesh (נֶפֶש), which literally means the "complete life of a being" though it is usually used in the sense of "living being" (breathing creature). Psyche is the equivalent New Testament Greek word from which the English word soul is only translated. In the Greek Septuagint nephesh is mostly translated as psyche (ψυχή). Other Mormon scholars propose that the term is a variant of the Arabic and Hebrew words for prophet: "Nabi".^{[citation needed]}

Apologetics, like fishing, shows that if you cast your nets far enough, you can find some amazing things.

[Cobalt-70]

Apologetics, like fishing, shows that if you cast your nets far enough, you can find some amazing things.

Words like "Nephi" (or, better yet, a vowel-stripped version like "NP" or "NΦ") are so short that if you stretch hard enough, you can find it in a lot of places. There is no way you can prove any of these strained Hebrew or Egyptian parallels. Unless you can find an instance of the name "Nephi" where all the consonants and vowels are represented intact, and you can actually tie it to 600 BC Jerusalem, this exercise is not much different than trying to find deep significance in the words of your alphabet soup

[Olavarria]

Here's my methodology.

In Egyptian, Nfr means "good, beautiful"(1). If Nephi is an Egyptian name then it would have to be the Hebrew transliteration of nfr. Was it ever so? A clue to that answer is how k3-nfr.w is transliterated on the Aramaic papyri of Elephantine(2).

Aramaic is a sister language of Hebrew, just as Spanish is to Italian. k3-nfr.w, in Aramaic, is transliterated as knufi. It's anyone's guess what Nfr would have sounded like if transliterated into Hebrew. This etymology explains the missing "r" from nfr to Nephi and it also helps illuminate the text. For if the word Nephite is ultimately derived from nfr, then Nephite literally means the "good, beautiful ones". This is interesting given Mormon's lament when viewing the destruction of his people(Mormon 6:16-19).

Source

(1)James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: an introduction to the language and culture of hieroglyphs(Cambridge University Press,2001), pp.63.

(2)A. E. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1923), inscriptions 26:9, 21; and 50:7, pp. 89-90, 155.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Pedro A. Olavarria

[Cobalt-70]

In Egyptian, Nfr means "good, beautiful"(1). If Nephi is an Egyptian name then it would have to be the Hebrew transliteration of nfr. Was it ever so? A clue to that answer is how k3-nfr.w is transliterated on the Aramaic papyri of Elephantine(2).

Aramaic is a sister language of Hebrew, just as Spanish is to Italian. k3-nfr.w, in Aramaic, is transliterated asknufi. It's anyone's guess what Nfr would have sounded like if transliterated into Hebrew. This etymology explains the missing "r" from nfr to Nephi and it also helps illuminate the text. For if the word Nephite is ultimately derived from nfr, then Nephite literally means the "good, beautiful ones". This is interesting given Mormon's lament when viewing the destruction of his people(Mormon 6:16-19).

The Aramaic document speaks only to how the writer would transliterate the Egyptian characters into Aramaic. It does not suggest that there existed an Aramaic (or Hebrew) personal name "Nephi," something of which there is no evidence. It doesn't even suggest that "Nf" was a derived Aramaic or Hebrew word. Besides, if "Nephi" is the Hebrew translation of the Egyptian word Nfr, then why would Nephi transliterate his own name to Hebrew, and then transliterate it back, incorrectly, to Egyptian as "Nf" in the Plates of Nephi? Why not just write his name correctly in Egyptian to begin with?

Edited November 16, 2011 by Cobalt-70

[altersteve]

It does not suggest that there existed an Aramaic (or Hebrew) personal name "Nephi," something of which there is no evidence.

Yes there is. There is a "Nephi" somewhere in the Apocrypha. I don't remember where, though.

[Calm]

See etymology section of this wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephi

References it to 2nd Maccabees

Edited November 17, 2011 by calmoriah

[Cobalt-70]

Yes there is. There is a "Nephi" somewhere in the Apocrypha. I don't remember where, though.

2 Maccabees 1:36. But it was not a personal name.

[Olavarria]

Here's my methodology.

In Egyptian, Nfr means "good, beautiful"(1). If Nephi is an Egyptian name then it would have to be the Hebrew transliteration of nfr. Was it ever so? A clue to that answer is how k3-nfr.w is transliterated on the Aramaic papyri of Elephantine(2).

Aramaic is a sister language of Hebrew, just as Spanish is to Italian. k3-nfr.w, in Aramaic, is transliterated as knufi. It's anyone's guess what Nfr would have sounded like if transliterated into Hebrew. This etymology explains the missing "r" from nfr to Nephi and it also helps illuminate the text. For if the word Nephite is ultimately derived from nfr, then Nephite literally means the "good, beautiful ones". This is interesting given Mormon's lament when viewing the destruction of his people(Mormon 6:16-19).

Source

(1)James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: an introduction to the language and culture of hieroglyphs(Cambridge University Press,2001), pp.63.

(2)A. E. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1923), inscriptions 26:9, 21; and 50:7, pp. 89-90, 155.

Egyptian to Aramaic

k3 nfrw ----> knufi

Egyptian to Hebrew

nfrw ---> nephi(?)

If Nephi is a Hebrew transliteration of Egyptian, the Aramaic transliteration of nfr explains why an "r" would be dropped and exchanged for an "i".

Moroni's addressing the Nephites as "fair ones" makes sense if the name is Egyptian.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Pedro A. Olavarria

[Olavarria]

The Aramaic document speaks only to how the writer would transliterate the Egyptian characters into Aramaic.

Exactly.

It does not suggest that there existed an Aramaic (or Hebrew) personal name "Nephi," something of which there is no evidence.

I never claimed that it did. What it shows is how Nfr could be Nephi by demonstrating how an "r" gets dropped as it goes from Egyptian, into a Semitic language.

Again, read my methodology to see why that is important.

It doesn't even suggest that "Nf" was a derived Aramaic or Hebrew word.

Never said it does. You're confusing two different posts, for two different etymologies.

Besides, if "Nephi" is the Hebrew translation of the Egyptian word Nfr, then why would Nephi transliterate his own name to Hebrew, and then transliterate it back, incorrectly, to Egyptian as "Nf" in the Plates of Nephi? Why not just write his name correctly in Egyptian to begin with?

Yet, another straw man....... Wow, should I call myself Petros Antonius Olaberri?

Edited November 17, 2011 by Pedro A. Olavarria

[LeSellers]

2 Maccabees 1:36. But [Nephi] was not a personal name.

Names in Hebrew were virtually always "titles" in the sense that the word used as the person's name meant something: Jacob=Supplanter; Joseph=Fruitful; Israel=Prince of God; Abraham=Father of Nations, etc. It's part of Hebrew's being language of poetry. We find my own name, "Lehi", twice in Judges, and it means "jawbone" both times. It is not a personal name anywhere in the Bible.

In fact almost all our own names today mean something: Adele=Nobel woman; Aidan=fiery; Etan=strong; Alexander=Defender of man; etc. My own three names mean "handsome mouthy (Lehi) salesman", or so I tell people when I'm in that rare humorous mood.

Lehi

Edited November 17, 2011 by LeSellers

[volgadon]

• a reference to the work Nephiomaoth, which "was one of the magic names of God in early Christian Gnosticism"^[44]
  
• or the term Nephes, which is a Kabbalistic term for a ghost that wanders around sepulchers...^[48]
  

Some Mormon scholars have proposed that the name Nephi is related to the Hebrew word nephesh (נֶפֶש), which literally means the "complete life of a being" though it is usually used in the sense of "living being" (breathing creature). Psyche is the equivalent New Testament Greek word from which the English word soul is only translated...

Apologetics, like fishing, shows that if you cast your nets far enough, you can find some amazing things.

</p>

While the Pistis Sophia wasn't entirely unknown in Joseph Smith's day, googlebooks hasn't turned up a printed, English translation before 1831.

If he did draw a name from the PS then why drop *omaoth?

As for nephes, it is properly nephesh or nefesh. In Kabbalah it is not some kind of special being which haunts cemeteries. The nefesh is part of the soul.

In the prevailing kabbalistic understanding the soul is tripartite, neshamah being the highest, divine portion, nefesh is the lowest portion which is concerned with material things, and ruah an intermediary between the two. When a man died, if his nefesh still felt an attachment to worldly things it would travel back and forth between the cemetery and its former house. This only lasted for up to seven days.

Assuming that Joseph knew of this, assuming that he completely ignored the context, why change *esh into *i?

[etana]

Here's my methodology.

In Egyptian, Nfr means "good, beautiful"(1). If Nephi is an Egyptian name then it would have to be the Hebrew transliteration of nfr. Was it ever so? A clue to that answer is how k3-nfr.w is transliterated on the Aramaic papyri of Elephantine(2).

Aramaic is a sister language of Hebrew, just as Spanish is to Italian. k3-nfr.w, in Aramaic, is transliterated as knufi. It's anyone's guess what Nfr would have sounded like if transliterated into Hebrew. This etymology explains the missing "r" from nfr to Nephi and it also helps illuminate the text. For if the word Nephite is ultimately derived from nfr, then Nephite literally means the "good, beautiful ones". This is interesting given Mormon's lament when viewing the destruction of his people(Mormon 6:16-19).

Source

(1)James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: an introduction to the language and culture of hieroglyphs(Cambridge University Press,2001), pp.63.

(2)A. E. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1923), inscriptions 26:9, 21; and 50:7, pp. 89-90, 155.

Hebrew is perfectly capable of transliterating nfrw to nfrw. I don't see why the r would drop. I'm not that familiar with the Aramaic script of the time but it looks like a sloppy resh could be read as a yod.

[volgadon]

Hebrew is perfectly capable of transliterating nfrw to nfrw. I don't see why the r would drop. I'm not that familiar with the Aramaic script of the time but it looks like a sloppy resh could be read as a yod.

The point seems more that the sound of the "rw" was more like "i"

[Cobalt-70]

Names in Hebrew were virtually always "titles" in the sense that the word used as the person's name meant something: Jacob=Supplanter; Joseph=Fruitful; Israel=Prince of God; Abraham=Father of Nations, etc. It's part of Hebrew's being language of poetry. We find my own name, "Lehi", twice in Judges, and it means "jawbone" both times. It is not a personal name anywhere in the Bible.

Besides, 2 Maccabees was originally written in Greek, not Hebrew, and was written several hundred years too late. Also, the word that the KJV translates as "Nephi" is actually νεφθαι, or Nephthai. While this verse in 2 Maccabees could conceivably be the source of the name Nephi (I doubt it), it could only have been via the King James Version of the Apocrypha, which distorts the word from its original Greek. Whatever the word "Nephthai" is, it isn't Hebrew. See http://classic.net.b...p?word=NEPHTHAI. It could be derived from the Persian word "naphtha." But what father (outside of Texas) would name his child after a petroleum product?

Edited November 18, 2011 by Cobalt-70

[Robert F. Smith]

The Aramaic document speaks only to how the writer would transliterate the Egyptian characters into Aramaic. It does not suggest that there existed an Aramaic (or Hebrew) personal name Nephi, something of which there is no evidence. It doesn't even suggest that Nf was a derived Aramaic or Hebrew word. Besides, if Nephi is the Hebrew translation of the Egyptian word Nfr, then why would Nephi transliterate his own name to Hebrew, and then transliterate it back, incorrectly, to Egyptian as Nf in the Plates of Nephi? Why not just write his name correctly in Egyptian to begin with?

The Aramaic document speaks only to how the writer would transliterate the Egyptian characters into Aramaic. It does not suggest that there existed an Aramaic (or Hebrew) personal name "Nephi," something of which there is no evidence. It doesn't even suggest that "Nf" was a derived Aramaic or Hebrew word. Besides, if "Nephi" is the Hebrew translation of the Egyptian word Nfr, then why would Nephi transliterate his own name to Hebrew, and then transliterate it back, incorrectly, to Egyptian as "Nf" in the Plates of Nephi? Why not just write his name correctly in Egyptian to begin with?

To take your last question first -- of course he did write his name correctly in Egyptian to begin with. We have no reason to doubt that, whether the Egyptian source of his name was nfr "beautiful, good," or nfy "sailor; captain," both of which were used as personal names in ancient Egyptian, and both of which Hugh Nibley long ago suggested as possible sources. The -r- in nfr was dropped in Late Egyptian, and it was indeed used as part of the name of the Egyptian capital Mn-nfr "Beautiful-foundation; Memphis." The shortened Egyptian word for Memphis was adopted into biblical Hebrew as Noph, which is used in modern Hebrew to refer to any beautiful view. Whether this indicates that Lehi had named his son for that great city with its large Semitic mercantile class (perhaps he had lived there, and perhaps Nephi was born there), is anybody's guess. The Bronze Plates of Laban were written in Egyptian, as were the Plates of Nephi and Mormon. It would seem odd if Egyptian names didn't show up here and there.

I am attaching my own summary of the facts with full documentation, if this system will allow it.

As the late great William F. Albright declared in writing twice in his lifetime, the Egypticity of Book of Mormon names such as Paanchi and Pahoron are not in question. Nephi is merely one more example among many

[Robert F. Smith]

The Aramaic document speaks only to how the writer would transliterate the Egyptian characters into Aramaic. It does not suggest that there existed an Aramaic (or Hebrew) personal name Nephi, something of which there is no evidence. It doesn't even suggest that Nf was a derived Aramaic or Hebrew word. Besides, if Nephi is the Hebrew translation of the Egyptian word Nfr, then why would Nephi transliterate his own name to Hebrew, and then transliterate it back, incorrectly, to Egyptian as Nf in the Plates of Nephi? Why not just write his name correctly in Egyptian to begin with?

To take your last question first -- of course he did write his name correctly in Egyptian to begin with. We have no reason to doubt that, whether the Egyptian source of his name was nfr "beautiful, good," or nfy "sailor; captain," both of which were used as personal names in ancient Egyptian, and both of which Hugh Nibley long ago suggested as possible sources. The -r- in nfr was dropped in Late Egyptian, and it was indeed used as part of the name of the Egyptian capital Mn-nfr "Beautiful-foundation; Memphis." The shortened Egyptian word for Memphis was adopted into biblical Hebrew as Noph, which is used in modern Hebrew to refer to any beautiful view. Whether this indicates that Lehi had named his son for that great city with its large Semitic mercantile class (perhaps he had lived there, and perhaps Nephi was born there), is anybody's guess. The Bronze Plates of Laban were written in Egyptian, as were the Plates of Nephi and Mormon. It would seem odd if Egyptian names didn't show up here and there.

I am attaching my own summary of the facts with full documentation, if this system will allow it.

As the late great William F. Albright declared in writing twice in his lifetime, the Egypticity of Book of Mormon names such as Paanchi and Pahoron are not in question. Nephi is merely one more example among many