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Why no Sam-ites ?


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In the BoM there is a verse that lists all the - ites. All of Nephi's brothers are named as well as the people of Ishmael and Zoram , but no Samites. It is true that in Lehi's blessing it says that the seed of Sam will be numbered with those of Nephi ,, but why is that ? Sam was an older brother, why get left out? Did Sam die really early and without much family? Was Sam somehow mentally or physically broken ? 

IIRC there is a similar situation in the naming of the 12 tribes , I think in the Revelation, where one brother is left out and Joseph's 2 sons are there.

This is what comes from reading the scriptures. All kinds of weird thoughts pop up !!  😐

Edited by strappinglad
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14 minutes ago, strappinglad said:

It is true that in Lehi's blessing it says that the seed of Sam will be numbered with those of Nephi ,, but why is that ? Sam was an older brother, why get left out? Did Sam die really early and without much family?

My thoughts would be that he either had no children, all his children died before marrying,  or no male children.  If he had no male children then all of his grandchildren may have been counted as part of the Nephites or Zoramites, etc.

I would assume that the Lehites experienced more sorrow and family tragedy than Nephi tells us about.

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21 minutes ago, strappinglad said:

In the BoM there is a verse that lists all the - ites. All of Nephi's brothers are named as well as the people of Ishmael and Zoram , but no Samites. It is true that in Lehi's blessing it says that the seed of Sam will be numbered with those of Nephi ,, but why is that ? Sam was an older brother, why get left out? Did Sam die really early and without much family? Was Sam somehow mentally or physically broken ? 

IIRC there is a similar situation in the naming of the 12 tribes , I think in the Revelation, where one brother is left out and Joseph's 2 sons are there.

This is what comes from reading the scriptures. All kinds of weird thoughts pop up !!  😐

Sam was the one who suggested that all followers of Nephi should be called Nephites!

Haven't you seen the video, yet?

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3 hours ago, strappinglad said:

In the BoM there is a verse that lists all the - ites. All of Nephi's brothers are named as well as the people of Ishmael and Zoram , but no Samites. It is true that in Lehi's blessing it says that the seed of Sam will be numbered with those of Nephi ,, but why is that ? Sam was an older brother, why get left out? Did Sam die really early and without much family? Was Sam somehow mentally or physically broken ? 

IIRC there is a similar situation in the naming of the 12 tribes , I think in the Revelation, where one brother is left out and Joseph's 2 sons are there.

This is what comes from reading the scriptures. All kinds of weird thoughts pop up !!  😐

This article directly addresses your question:

https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/why-did-lehi-divide-his-people-into-seven-tribes

And some of these articles from the further reading do as well:

Corbin Volluz, “A Study in Seven: Hebrew Numerology in the Book of Mormon,” BYU Studies Quarterly 53, no. 2 (2014): 57–83.

Diane E. Wirth, “Revisiting the Seven Lineages of the Book of Mormon and the Seven Tribes of Mesoamerica,” BYU Studies Quarterly 52, no. 4 (2013): 77–88.

John L. Sorenson, John A. Tvedtnes, and John W. Welch, “Seven Tribes: An Aspect of Lehi’s Legacy,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992), 93–95.

John W. Welch, “Lehi's Last Will and Testament: A Legal Approach,” in Second Nephi, The Doctrinal Structure, Book of Mormon Symposium Series, Volume 3, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1989), esp. 68–70, building on Sorenson, Tvedtnes, and Welch, “Seven Tribes,” 93–95.

 

Late Edit: I find this analysis from Welch's article to be a particularly interesting possibility:

Quote

 

To whatever extent Lehi acknowledged Laman’s right to the double portion, he simultaneously did three things that appear to have been calculated to detract from Laman’s firstborn double portion rights.

First, he combined Sam’s inheritance and seed with Nephi’s (2 Nephi 4:11). As Jacob in the patriarchal period had effectively doubled the blessing of Joseph by granting equal blessings to Joseph’s two sons Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen. 48:22), so Lehi effectively doubled Nephi’s position by granting a share of the land to Sam and then merging it with Nephi’s. Second, he blessed his firstborn’s children to the effect that their sins and cursings would be answered upon the heads of their parents (2 Nephi 4:5–9). This could not have been flattering to Laman. Third, Lehi referred to Jacob three times as his “firstborn . . . in the wilderness” (2 Nephi 2:1, 2, 11), and singled him out to spend his life “in the service of thy God” (2 Nephi 2:3)—a role often associated with position of a firstborn son. These steps diminish the uniqueness and importance of Laman as the eldest son.

 

 

 

Edited by Ryan Dahle
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18 minutes ago, strappinglad said:

To the language experts here,  why Sam and not Samuel ?

The following sources all discuss this name:


Of course, the Maxwell urls don't work any more, but you can usually find them by pasting them in the wayback machine.:

https://archive.org/web/

 

Edited by Ryan Dahle
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On 11/21/2019 at 2:12 PM, Ahab said:

Interesting.  So instead of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, we should say Sam, Ham, and Japheth. I wonder if Japheth was called Jap.  Hmm.  Japanese, maybe?

From wikipedia 

"Jap is an English abbreviation of the word "Japanese". Today, it is generally regarded as an ethnic slur among Japanese minority populations in other countries, although English-speaking countries differ in the degree to which they consider the term offensive. In the United States, Japanese Americans have come to find the term very controversial or extremely offensive, even when used as an abbreviation after the events of the internment of Japanese Americans.[1] "

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