AMINADAB

Lehite PN	1.	NEPHITE dissenter who went over to the LAMANITES (Helaman 5:39 (x2), 41)

Etymology

AMINADAB is a name given to figures in both ISRAELITE and NEPHITE history (in English translations of the Bible, the name is given as Amminadab;^[1] cf. KJV Exodus 6:23; Numbers 1:7; 2:3; 7:12, 17; 10:14; Ruth 4:19, 20). Cf. Heb. ʿammi nadab, "my people are [is] generous."

Compare the Edomite PN ʾamyndb, Amminadabbi (HWN in SC 195). Nibley compares the "reformed" EGYPTIAN name, “Amanathabi,” chief of a Canaanite city under EGYPT;(HWN in LID 25). Unlikely is the suggestion that this name contains the name of the EGYPTIAN god Amon (HWN in LID 30, and ABM 286-287).

In exploring a possible metonymy in this name, it has been pointed out that “although AMINADAB’s NEPHITE kinsmen had been among the most noble, he himself had apostatized from them. Perhaps some memory of his heritage, carried with him in his name, made him more receptive to understanding the miracle he witnessed in Helaman 5:36. Perhaps MORMON preserved this name in the record for the very purpose of reinforcing MORMON’s conviction of the nobility of the NEPHITE cause as witnessed by this influential miracle” (JWW). This seems to be stretching the search for metonymy too far (JH).