The Lost 116 Pages by Don Bradley

Author:Don Bradley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greg Kofford Books
Published: 2019-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

Nephi’s Laws of War

While the legacy of the Nephite conquest with respect to race is disquieting its legacy with respect to violence is far easier to affirm than that of the biblical Conquest. Nephi classed the Lamanites as Canaanites in order to protect his people from adverse Lamanite cultural influences. He also felt the need to protect them from the Lamanites militarily. As his people’s “great protector,” he “wielded the sword of Laban in their defense” (Jacob 1:10). As a military leader, in addition to a warrior, he equipped them for battle: “I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us” (2 Ne. 5:14). The Nephites thus had not merely one sword of Laban—or of Joseph or Joshua—but many, all to be used to defend themselves against the Lamanites.

The defensive nature of Nephi’s military activities is consistent both with his generally peaceable character and with a revelation on warfare we are told he received but which is not available in our extant text. In an 1833 revelation to Joseph Smith, a law of defensive warfare is laid out that describes “the law I gave unto my servant Nephi” (D&C 98:32). This Nephite law, or set of laws, regarding warfare was almost certainly given in the context of the only wars Nephi ever fought: those with the Lamanites.17 And the revelation of this law or laws was almost certainly described in the historically and politically rich and dynastically-linked lost manuscript.

What was “the law I gave unto my servant Nephi”? The revelation commands that God’s people must “bear patiently” the first, second, and third acts of aggression against them by their enemies. However, after the enemies have established “three testimonies” against themselves in the sight of God, then

thine enemy is in thine hands; and if thou rewardest him according to his works thou art justified; if he has sought thy life, and thy life is endangered by him, thine enemy is in thine hands and thou art justified. (D&C 98:23–31)

It is here that the revelation adds, “Behold, this is the law I gave unto my servant Nephi, and thy fathers, Joseph, and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, and all mine ancient prophets and apostles” (D&C 98:32).

That such a law had been given in the fuller account of Nephi’s reign is also implied in a later Book of Mormon war narrative. When the Lamanites opened up a string of attacks on the Nephite republic, the Nephites, under their captain Moroni, saw their defense of their families, faith, and liberties, as

the duty which they owed to their God; for the Lord had said unto them, and also unto their fathers, that: Inasmuch as ye are not guilty of the first offense, neither the second, ye shall not suffer yourselves to be slain by the hands of your enemies. And again, the Lord has said that: Ye shall defend your families even unto bloodshed.

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