He Is a Good Man: The Fulfillment of Helaman 5:6-7 in Helaman 8:7 and 11:18-19

by Matthew L. Bowen

Overview

Mormon, as an author and editor, was concerned to show the fulfillment of earlier Nephite prophecy when such fulfillment occurred. Mormon took care to show that Nephi and Lehi, the sons of Helaman, fulfilled their father's prophetic and paranetic expectations regarding them as enshrined in their given names -- the names of their "first parents." It had been "said and also written" (Helaman 5:6-7) that Nephi's and Lehi's namesakes were "good" in 1 Nephi 1:1. Using onomastic play on the meaning of "Nephi," Mormon demonstrates in Helaman 8:7 that it also came to be said and written of Nephi the son of Helaman that he was "good." Moreover, Mormon shows Nephi that his brother Lehi was "not a whit behind him" in this regard (Helaman 11:19). During their lifetimes -- i.e., during the time of the fulfillment of Mosiah's forewarning regarding societal and political corruption (see Mosiah 29:27) that especially included secret combinations -- Nephi and Lehi stood firm against increasingly popular organized evil.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940151135849
Publisher:	Interpreter Foundation
Publication date:	11/06/2015
Series:	Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture , #17
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	6
File size:	120 KB

About the Author

Matthew L. Bowen was raised in Orem, Utah and graduated from Brigham Young University. He holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC and is currently an Assistant Professor in Religious Education at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. He and his wife (the former Suzanne Blattberg) are the parents of three children: Zachariah, Nathan, and Adele.