JohnnyL wrote: ↑November 5th, 2023, 9:57 am
Nephi didn't usurp; God and Lehi are clear about that. Though Isaac and Jacob and Joseph didn't usurp, they're closer to it than Nephi is. The Lamanites are usually the villains, and outside the people of Ammon and right before and after Christ's appearance to them, weren't very righteous overall, especially regarding doing harm to others.
In terms of primogeniture, Nephi did steal a lead. He was a younger brother, and Laman would have been brought up for many years to think that he would inherit as the eldest, not Nephi....because that would be normal.
Some churches call the Book of Mormon "the Record of the Nephites", which is accurate.
I am bad at remembering chapter and verse but all of the stuff below is verifiable from within the text.
Mainstream "normie" reading of the Book of Mormon.
* Nephi good, Laman bad. Nephites good, Lamanites bad.
* Lamanites reject the Saviour. Nephites followed him.
* Lamanites destroyed Nephites.
* Columbus is mentioned in there.
Closer reading
Things are not so black and white.
* Nephi himself makes mistakes, particularly in retrieving the plates. He was a better man than some of his descendants.
* Nephites apostasised repeatedly, eventually resulting in their own destruction.
* We know the Lamanites had their own prophets (Samuel being a notable example). However we do not hear from them most of the time.
* Many Lamanites were baptised.
* The term Lamanite is often used as a synonym for rebels against God, so we find that rebel Nephites end up being called Lamanites and Christian Lamanites end up becoming Nephites. (Nephi may mean "prophet" so Nephite may mean followers of the prophet rather than just being an ethnic moniker...) Because of this, the bloodlines of both are intermngled to some extent. This is particularly true after Jesus appeared and many Lamanites became Nephites.
* The Book of Mormon emphasises free agency, which both individual Nephites and Lamanites exercised to their (dis)advantage.
* There are some groups such as the Jaredites and Gadiantons who do not fit into the Nephite/Lamanite binary very easily. Some have seen evidence of contact with other nations (there are Egyptian and Arabic elements to the book, and at least two other groups in the New World.)
* Both the Nephites and Lamanites developed their own false traditions, which had to be continually corrected.
* The Nephites were partly destroyed by their own sin and stupidity, i.e. from within, and God used the Lamanites to chasten them. The Lamanites were preserved for some reason but the Nephites died out.
* Despite the roughness of Lamanite life, we do learn that they had armies and cities and some aspects of civilisation as well as being savages.
Speculation
The Book of Mormon hints at the following:
* It is only a fraction of the total records.
* The nations had a far deeper culture than we read about in most of the text (we have hints of this in the list including senines etc.)
* Languages.
* Everyday life, especially women's.
* Their cultures may have been exported elsewhere (Hagoth)
* The Columbus prophecy could equally refer to the Norse or various other groups who visited the New World.... if you read it as is in the BoM itself.