NEPHI
Etymology
Careful readers of the King James Bible apocrypha will have noticed in 1 Esdras 5:21 the close match of the PN NEPHI with the patronymic Nephis (Greek Νιφις), one of the names of the Jewish families who returned from the Babylonian captivity. Also, in the KJV version of 2 Maccabees 1:36 is Nephi (Greek νεφθαι), an alternate name for the cleansing agent naphtha, (Greek νεφθαρ). Neither of these Greek words seems a likely source for the PN NEPHI.
The current LDS "Pronouncing Guide" for Book of Mormon words, and the Deseret Alphabet spelling of the PN NEPHI, 𐐤𐐀𐐙𐐌, (IPA: niːfaɪ), and 𐐤𐐁𐐙𐐌, (IPA: neɪfaɪ), suggest that the search for an etymology should focus on nēʹfī and not nēpʹhī. Most of the suggestions below are based on that assumption.
The most likely derivation of the PN NEPHI is ancient EGYPTIAN nfr "good, beautiful."[1] That the r is nowhere evident in the Book of Mormon is not an issue because the final r in late EGYPTIAN can elide.[2] For example, knpi, "(My) ka is good" (from Egyptian kз-npy), appears in North-West Semitic documents.[3] Additionally, the PN NEPHI is attested at the time of LEHI.[4] Thus, if NEPHI means "The Good" the name could be metonymic based on Nephi's self-declaration that he was "born of goodly parents" (1 Nephi 1:1).[5] Additionally, the likely Egyptian name npsy, "Isis is good," occurs on a West Semitic stamp seal.[6]
In Semitic languages, two directions exist for seeking the etymology of this important Book of Mormon name, nph/ḥ or nv̄ p or n aleph p. Historical and current LDS pronunciation of the name would favor the latter, reading the ph as one phoneme [f], rather than as two, [p] and [h/ḥ]. However, I am unaware of any root in Semitic corresponding with nv̄/ʿp. Both npḥ, “to breathe, blow” (JAT, JH), and nph, “to discard, banish, reject” (JH) exist in West Semitic, though the latter is not attested in North-west Semitic (JH). Nap_pnu means “anblasen, entzünden; aufgehen” and appears in the form niphu “Aufleuchten, Entbrennen” and refers metaphorically to sun up and star up. It occurs in the feminine names i-na-ni-ip-pni-ša-al-si-iš and i-na-nippni(SAR)-ša-al-si-iš (Stamm, ANG, 200). The form may be related to the biblical Zimri/Omri and Book of Mormon LEHI/LIMHI, etc. (PN). The root also occurs in the Akkadian term nappahu "smith".
Nibley wrote that "nfy was the name of an Egyptian captain," implying a PN rather than a word meaning "captain"[7]; the term nfy is indeed attested as an Egyptian name in Nephi's own time, [8] despite claims to the contrary.[9] This derivation would come from ancient Egyptian nfw (in late Egyptian nfy), "captain, skipper, chief of sailors" (Coptic ne(e)f, neeb), from the meaning "breathe, blow at" (RFS, JH, JAT).[10] It would also appear that npy comprises part of the name šmynpy (שמינפי, Šemenufe) found in Aramaic documents from Egypt.[11] We must also note that there might be a play on words with this proposal, using the Hebrew root nûp "to shake," as in Isaiah 10:15,32, 11:15, 19:16, Exodus 29:26), applied to 1 Nephi 2:14, 1:45,54-55, 2 Nephi 1:13,23, 4:31, 8:25, 9:44-45.
The Aramaic GN npʾ occurs in the Elephantine documents (7:4) (EHA).
Implausible is the suggestion to derive NEPHI from the HEBREW word for prophet, nābīʾ. Such a derivation (Reynolds, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, I, p. 3 and IV, p. 275) is based on the erroneous reading “nevi” from “nebhi,” which is the masoretic pronunciation of the first two syllables of the plural “prophets.” But we do not know if masoretic pronunciation held in LEHI’s day; and even if the pronunciation were certain for LEHI’s day, part of the plural form cannot be used to explain a word that looks singular. The fact that the niphal form may mean “speak under divine influence” is irrelevant. In other words, the HEBREW “bet” in nābīʾ, despite spirantization, cannot be turned into the [f] of NEPHI.
Some would like to see the NEPHI in 2 Macc. 1:36 of the KJV (Greek neai, an alternate name for naphtha, the Aramaic word for petroleum, which is usually rendered by Greek near) as the most likely origin of Book of Mormon NEPHI (JH). In view of the fact that the Greek does not read NEPHI, neither would the Aramaic, Joseph Smith would have to have taken the name from his KJV Bible which, it is now known, contained the Apocrypha (JAT). But it seems unlikely that Joseph Smith would have rendered a PN from the Plates with an erroneous KJV reading of a Greek noun of an Aramaic/HEBREW word for petroleum. Confer also nea, near in 1 Esdr. 5:2. (RFS; *CANNOT FIND IN 1 ESDR. 5:2!!!!) (RFS).
Thelona Stevens suggested that NEPHI was related to the Nahua arguing that "the Nahuas had lost all the labial sounds except p and u." and therefore "the word 'Nahua' may, therefore, as far as the pronunciation indicates, be considered identical with 'NEPHI.'"[12] Since there is a phoneme p in Nahuatl,[13] however, there is no reason that NEPHI would need to be represented as "Nahua" rather than "NEPHI."
Alex Morgan has suggested in a private communication (postmarked 24 May 2001) that Nehemiah 7:52: Nephishesim and Ezra 2:50 Nephusim may have something to do with NEPHI. Both refer to “Nachkommen v. Kriegsgefangen aus d. ismaelitishcen Stamm npyš,” (HALOT, pwsym) a son of ISHMAEL.
Cf. Book of Mormon LEHINEPHI, NEPHIHAH, ZENEPHI (and perhaps ZENIFF), and NEPHITE(S)
Variants
Deseret Alphabet: 𐐤𐐀𐐙𐐌 (niːfaɪ), 𐐤𐐁𐐙𐐌 (neɪfaɪ)
Notes
- ↑ John Gee, "A Note on the Name Nephi," JBMS 1/1 (1992): 189-191; John Gee, “Four Suggestions on the Origin of the Name Nephi,” in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon, ed. John W. Welch, and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1999), 1-5.
- ↑ William F. Edgerton, "Stress, Vowel Quality, and Syllable Division in Egyptian," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 6/1 (1947): 10-17.
- ↑ Yoshiyuki Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords in North-West Semitic (Atlanta, Georgia: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999), 26. In the same work see npr (28); unpr, “(The) good exists;” npnʾ, “Good one belonging to Thebes” (96); nprʾyt, “The beautiful one is come” (97); tnupy, “She who belongs to the good one” (151); and see p. 293.
- ↑ Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen 1:194.
- ↑ See Matt Bowen, “Internal Textual Evidence for the Egyptian Origin of Nephi's Name,” FARMS’ Insights, 21/11 (2001), online at http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/insights/?vol=22&num=11&id=301 .
- ↑ Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals, ed. Nahman Avigad, revised and completed by Benjamin Sass (Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1997), 543
- ↑ Nibley, LID, 27; see also ABM, 290.
- ↑ Compare the 7th cent. B.C. nomarch of Athribis, BЗk-n-nfy “Servant-of-the-Captain” (L. Habachi, MDAIK 15:69-77, cited by R. F. Smith at JBMS 5/2 [1996]:110 n. 65), whose name appears in syllabic cuneiform transliteration as IBu-uk-ku-na-an-ni-iʼ-pi (Rykle Borger, Babylonisch-Assyrische Lesestücke, 2nd ed., I:90 [Rome: PBI, 1979], line 102).
- ↑ Despite Ranke,Die ägyptischen Personennamen 1:193.
- ↑ Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen 1:194
- ↑ Bezalel Porten and Jerome A. Lund, Aramaic Documents from Egypt: A Key-Word-in Context Concordance (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002), 415a.
- ↑ Thelona D. Stevens, "Book of Mormon Names in Indian Languages," Saints' Herald 115 (1 July 1968): 456.
- ↑ Thelma D. Sullivan and Neville Stiles, Compendium of Nahuatli Grammar (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988), 6.
Bibliography
- M. Wells Jakeman “Izapa Stela 5 and the Book of Mormon.” Instructor 96 (December 1961): 410-11, 429.
- Henry A. Smith “Interesting Clipping.” Church News 35 (September 11, 1965): 6; reprint from "Chiapas Find of Relevance to Document." El Paso Times, July 5, 1965.
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