By faith, Nephi obtained the plates of brass, brought Ishmael’s family from Jerusalem, subdued his brothers time and again, obtained food for his family, received revelation from the Lord, taught the Law of Moses, and following the Lord’s instructions said, “I, Nephi, did build a Temple.” 2 Nephi 5:16. Nephi is the ultimate example of faith and one who we all look to as a righteous representative of our Savior Jesus Christ. Nephi also said, “And upon the wings of His Spirit hath my body been carried away upon exceedingly high mountains. And mine eyes have beheld great things, yea, even too great for man; therefore, I was bidden that I should not write them.” 2 Nephi 4:25. (Featured painting above, “I, Nephi, did build a Temple” by Ken Corbett. See Kencorbettart.com
LDS Bible Dictionary – Noph “Memphis; ancient capital of Egypt (Isa. 19:13; Jer. 2:16; 44:1; 46:14, 19; Ezek. 30:13, 16; see also Hosea 9:6).” NOPH = HEBREW; MEMPHIS= ENGLISH; NEPHI = EGYPTIAN
FOUND NEAR NEWARK OHIO 1865
“Five years after the discovery of this remarkable memento of the ancient Israelites on the American continent, and thirty-five years after the Book of Mormon was in print, several other mounds in the same vicinity of Newark were opened, in several of which Hebrew characters were found. Among them was this beautiful expression, buried with one of their ancient dead, ‘May the Lord have mercy on me a Nephite.’ It was translated a little different—’Nephel.’ Now we well know that Nephi, who came out of Jerusalem six hundred years before Christ, was the leader of the first Jewish colony across to this land, and the people, ever afterwards, were called ‘Nephites,’ after their inspired prophet and leader. The Nephites were a righteous people and had many prophets among them; and when they were
burying one of their brethren in these ancient mounds, they introduced the Hebrew characters signifying ‘May the Lord have mercy on me a Nephite.’ This is another direct evidence of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, which was brought forth and translated by inspiration some thirty-five years before this inscription was found.” Orson Pratt JD 13:16 Page131
“Five Hebrew letters are cut in the forehead. When Dr. Lillenthal saw it, he instantly decided the last three letters were nun, pe, lamed…” Dr. Bernard Illowy gives it as his judgement that the words are Yerachamehu Adonai Nephel, May the Lord have mercy on him, an untimely birth, or an abortion.” This Land: America 2,000 B. C. to 500 A. D. by Wayne May
“JOSEPHUS SAYS the Egyptian called their Creator ‘Kneph,’ ‘Noub,’ or ‘Nour.’ Reynolds points out that ancient variants of the name of Nephi include Knephi, Kneph, Noub, Nouv, Knouphis, Nebo, Naba, Nechi, Necho and others. These variants are found in many of the American Indian languages.” George Reynolds, Commentary on the Book of Mormon
Samson “called that place Ramath-lehi “see Judges 15:17 “And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-lehi.”
BEIT LEHI NEAR JERUSALEM
Beit comes from the Arabic word meaning house or dwelling. Lehi means jawbone. Beit Lehi means the ‘house’ or ‘dwelling’ of the jawbone. “In 1961 Israeli soldiers unearthed a cave that had inscriptions and drawings including the oldest known Hebrew writing of the word ‘Jerusalem’ dated to approximately 600 B.C. by Dr. Frank Cross Moore, Jr. of Harvard University. The drawings depicted men who appeared to be fleeing and two ships. While investigating the cave, Dr. Joseph Ginat of The University of Haifa met a Bedouin who told him about the remains of an ancient oak tree about 1/4 of a mile away where, according to Bedouin legends and tradition, a prophet named Lehi blessed and judged the people of both Ishmael and Judah. The Bedouin told Dr. Ginat that Lehi had lived many years before Muhammad and that Arab people had built a wall of large rocks around the remains of the tree to protect it as a sacred spot, long known by Arab inhabitants as ‘Beit Lehi’, meaning ‘Home of Lehi.’ (See my previous blog all about Biet Lehi here).
“The word Nephi may come from the Egyptian city of N-ph, transliterated into Hebrew as Noph, which appears in the Old Testament in several places, and translated into English as Memphis. Actually, Hebrew in Nephi’s day (600 BC) was written without vowels, so it would be nph in Egyptian letters transliterated into nph in Hebrew letters when the Egyptian city we now call Memphis was referred to in the Old Testament.” Smith’s Bible Dictionary
LEHI’S MANY HERITAGES
“The caravans of Egypt and Israel pass each other, guided through the sands by those men of the desert (Arabs) who were the immemorial go-between of the two civilizations.
- ARAB: Arab designates a way of life, and was applied by the Jews to their own relatives who remained behind in the wilderness. , Manasseh lived furthest out of Jerusalem and had contact with Arabs the most.
- ISRAELI: Of Manasseh through Joseph and the 12 tribes of Israel.
- EGYPTIAN: Language of Lehi consists of learning of Jews and language of Egyptians: Heritage, culture. Ammon was Manasseh’s nearest neighbor and is an Egyptian name.
- HEBREW: Lehi means Jaw Bone in Hebrew. From Eber, Jewish because they live near and around Jerusalem. Learning of the Jews.
- CHRISTIAN: Through Christ, and lived the law of Moses”
Arabic Names: LAMAN, LEMUEL
Egyptian Names: NEPHI, SAM
Israeli Names: JACOB, JOSEPH”
Lehi in the Desert by Hugh Nibley Chapter 2
“NEPHI: This is also an Egyptian name, usually given as Knephi, and transliterated into Hebrew as Nebi. It means ‘prophet’ or one who speaks with God. The great Osiris, one of the Egyptian gods, was called Nephi or Knephi and the city in his honor was n-ph (vowels always had to be supplied). It is the city we know today as Memphis, located across the Nile from Cairo, but it is referred to by its original name of Noph (a variant of Nephi) in the writings of Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.” Treasures from the Book of Mormon, Volume One By W. Cleon Skousen
“It should be noted here that archaeology has fully demonstrated that the Israelites, then as now, had not the slightest aversion to giving their children non-Jewish names, even when those names smacked of a pagan background. 59 One might, in a speculative mood, even detect something of Lehi’s personal history in the names he gave to his sons. The first two have Arabic names—do they recall his early days in the caravan trade? The second two have Egyptian names, and indeed they were born in the days of his prosperity. The last two, born amid tribulations in the desert, were called, with fitting humility, Jacob and Joseph. Whether the names of the first four were meant, as those of the last two sons certainly were (2 Nephi 2:1; 3:1), to call to mind the circumstances under which they were born, the names are certainly a striking indication of their triple heritage. Lehi in the Desert by Hugh Nibley Chapter 2
Tetragrammaton
“In Nephi’s words we feel the magnitude of the sacred relationship that Nephi shared with Jehovah, the Great I Am, whose name is vital in our understanding of Him. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, “To the Lord’s covenant people, names—particularly proper names—have always been very important. Adam and Eve themselves bore names that suggested their roles here in mortality (see Moses 1:34; 4:26) and, when important covenants were made, men like Abram and Jacob took on new names that signaled a new life as well as a new identity. (See Gen. 17:5; 32:28). Because of this reverence for titles and the meanings they conveyed, the name Jehovah, sometimes transliterated as Yahweh, was virtually unspoken among that people. This was the unutterable name of Deity, that power by which oaths were sealed, battles won, miracles witnessed. Traditionally, he was identified only through a tetragrammaton, four Hebrew letters variously represented in our alphabet as IHVH, JHVH, JHWH, YHVH, YHWH.” Whom Say Ye That I Am?” Jeffrey R. Holland Ensign Sept. 1974.
“Written in Paleo-Hebrew and used from 1000 BC – 400 AD,
represents the name “Jehovah”, or the tetragrammaton. All throughout the Old Testament, the word ‘LORD’ (all small caps), replaced the sacred name “Yahweh” as described above. “I Am” in Hebrew is “Yahweh” and “Adonai” is the Hebrew word for LORD.
Here is an interesting note about the name Nephi. “Nephi; This is also an Egyptian name, usually given as Knephi, and transliterated into Hebrew as Nebi. It means “prophet” or one who speaks with God. The great Osiris, one of the Egyptian gods, was called Nephi or Knephi and the city in his honor was n-ph (vowels always had to be supplied). It is the city we know today as Memphis, located across the Nile from Cairo, but it is referred to by its original name of Noph (a variant of Nephi) in the writings of Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.” Treasures from the Book of Mormon by W. Cleon Skousen. See “Noph” in LDS Bible Dictionary.
THE TETRAGRAMMATON IN PALEO-HEBREW (10TH CENTURY BC TO 300 AD)
“The tetragrammaton (from Greek Τετραγράμματον, meaning “[consisting of ] four letters.”
One of the names of God used in the Hebrew Bible.
The name may be derived from a verb that means “to be”, “to exist”, “to cause to become”, or “to come to pass.” Wikipedia/tetragrammaton
“Repentance and faith, service and compassion—now is always the right time for these. The past is to be learned from, not lived in, and the future is to be planned for, not paralyzed by. God has declared himself in the present tense. I am the Great I AM.
The prescribed method for coming to knowledge (and subsequent freedom) is to “give diligent heed to the words of eternal life” (D&C 84:43), yet many of us spend precious little time with those words.” Whom Say Ye That I Am?” By Jeffrey R. Holland
Los Lunas Decalogue Stone, New Mexico
“Providential Importance in History The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is a large boulder on the side of Hidden Mountain, near Los Lunas, New Mexico, about 35 miles south of Albuquerque, that bears a very regular inscription carved into a flat panel. The stone is also known as the Los Lunas Mystery Stone or Commandment Rock. The inscription is interpreted to be an abridged version of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments in a form of Paleo-Hebrew. A letter group resembling the tetragrammaton YHWH, or “Yahweh,” makes four appearances. The stone is controversial in that some claim the inscription is Pre-Columbian, and therefore proof of early Semitic contact with the Americas.
“Latter-day saints are often accused of Satanic worship because the Logan, Salt Lake and Nauvoo temples feature inverted pentagrams on the exterior surface. There are 40 are the Salt Lake Temple alone! Each of the circular windows surrounding the Nauvoo Temple depict an inverted pentagram surrounded by three stones at each of the four cardinal directions. Why would Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration, place an inverted pentagram on one of the most important early temples?
Discovered in ancient Babylon and around the world, the pentagram is one of the oldest symbols in history. For centuries, it was a symbol of light, creation and healing.
Alphonse Louis Constant (Eliphas Levi)
The symbol was hijacked in modern times by a French Catholic deacon, Alphonse Louis Constant (also known as Eliphas Levi). Constant was involved in magic and the occult. As part of his involvement in the occult and magic, he was the first to declare that the inverted pentagram was a symbol of evil.
Alphonse Constant, changed his name to be Hebrew and became known as Eliphas Levi. This researcher of what he called the “ancient doctrines” used the pentagram in conjunction with the tetragrammaton to create a symbol blaspheming the sacred name of God. The tetragrammaton is Greek and means, “four letters”. The tetragrammaton has reference to the four letters in Hebrew which create the Lord’s name, pronounced by most Biblical scholars and Hebrew linguists as “Yahweh”.
According to Jewish practice, the name of God is treated with such reverence that verbally pronouncing the name is avoided. Writing the name unnecessarily is also avoided, even resulting in abbreviations for the name.
Tetragrammaton
The God of the occult is most commonly represented in satanic illustrations by the tetragrammaton. Occultists consider the Hebrew names of God, like Adonai and Elohim, to hold power, and none of these is more powerful to them than the tetragrammaton. Clearly, the use of the tetragrammaton and other names of God by satanists does not make the name of God evil any more than their adoption of the pentagram makes the pentagram evil.
One researcher completed a little survey in which he discovered that about 10% of horror films, especially those dealing with the occult, incorporated the inverted pentagram in their film.
Inverted pentagram (Nauvoo temple)
This counterfeit use of the inverted pentagram has led many to believe that this historic symbol of light, is actually a symbol of darkness. Lucifer delights, perhaps above anything, in perverting that which is sacred. This is true for more than sacred symbols. Satanists have their sacrament, their priesthood, they keep their journal histories. The devil perverts true marriage, true family, and true bonds of affection. Perhaps few realize that raw Satanism is little more than the blaspheming of sacred words and the blasphemous acting out of sacred rites to gain favor with Lucifer. The Satanic mockery of rituals and covenants do not in any way make true acts evil. The adversary has always desired to debase holy symbols, the pure emblems of Christ and His Gospel. He mocks sacred figures, initially revealed by God, as he mocked Christ on the Cross.” Joseph Smith Foundation.
Remember Satan always counterfeits and mimics the Lord. Why wouldn’t he? The Lord is supreme. That is why we need to be so careful and full of the True Spirit as we dwell on this earth. There are signs of truth all around us. From the word NOPH, to Tetragrammaton, to Biet Lehi, to the signs on all the temples, to ancient artifacts, scriptures, prophets, etc. Search for the possibilities. Don’t rely on others to teach you. Take a subject, learn about it and go to the Lord in prayer. Let us choose this day to serve the Lord!
