By: Preston

Preston — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:11:41 +0000

i found a really cool link about this i provided 3 different explanations for why Anti appears in the name.
adventures-in-mormonism.com/2008/03/24/a-few-thoughts-on-anti-nephi-lehi/

By: mitch

mitch — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:46:38 +0000

I have sometimes wondered if “anti” might mean before, rather than meaning against as we usually think of it. Kind of like the prefix in “anti-pasta” signifies something you eat before the pasta main course. Could it therefore mean that they were claiming allegiance to Nephi and Lehi, at a point prior to when the Nephites and Lamanites separated. In other words, they are claiming to be Lehites, and looking with fondness back to a time when there were not any ites.

By: Ken Kartchner

Ken Kartchner — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:46:55 +0000

You probably have read this already, but I didn’t see it in any string. From Hugh Nibley, of course:
Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 2, p.404
This is what he says here in verse 18: “And they began to be a very industrious people; yea, and they were friendly with the Nephites; therefore, they did open a correspondence with them, and the curse of God did no more follow them.” He tells us again right across the page here that what they did was to remove all the barriers; they opened trade to everybody. That’s what we call “glasnost” today, I suppose. They were named Anti-Nephi-Lehies. You know that Nephi-Lehi means a combination of Nephi and Lehi, and anti means “combination, face-to-face, meeting.” You have Adam-ondi-Ahman. That’s one of the richest prepositions we have. This anti means so many things. We get it in the Book of Mormon a good deal—Antiomno and things like that. There’s anti in the Book of Mormon. The Latin ante means “standing in front of a person and facing him.” Of course, that’s the Greek anti and the Arabic cinda. The Old English is *and-. The word answer, for [p.405] example, is answarian—swear back at a person. This means “face to face confrontation” whether it’s in Old Norse, Old English, Semitic, Arabic, Greek, Latin, or in the Book of Mormon. It means “a face-to-face meeting, a joining together with somebody.” We are going to find later on about an Anti-Christ, who is a person who pretends to be Christ, who matches Christ, who pretends to take the place of Christ. It’s not somebody who opposes Christ, but somebody who pretends to be Christ. We get that a little later when we get to Korihor. But first they gave themselves this name of Anti-Nephi- Lehies. “And they were called by this name and were no more called Lamanites.” So they were set apart, but they began to be an industrious people—getting to work at last. They did open a correspondence with the Nephites, “and the curse of God did no more follow them.”

Comments on: Interesting Book of Mormon Word: “Anti-Nephi-Lehies”

By: Preston

By: mitch

By: Ken Kartchner