Where did the name "Nephi" (1 Nephi 1:1) come from?

Where did the name "Nephi" (1 Nephi 1:1) come from?

from  Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon     by Alan Miner

 (1) According to Reynolds and Sjodahl, the name "Nephi" means "prophet," one who speaks for God. Elder George Reynolds apparently traced this name to an Egyptian root. (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol 1, p. 3]

     (2) Some believe that it comes from Egypt. If the name is Egyptian, the cultural ties between Egypt and Israel would have made the name a familiar one in the Israel of Lehi.

     Wells Jakeman notes that in his tomb, Seti I is depicted as a young man wearing two ears of wheat or barley upon his head, "both 'N(e)pri' and 'N(e)pi' are recorded in hieroglyphics by his head, the latter form immediately under or following the former. "Nepri" or "Nepi" was the name of the Egyptian grain god. "In ancient Egyptian 'r' was a weak consonant, susceptible to change, or else to the complete omission of a recorded sound. . . . The "p" in Egyptian forms was often pronounced with aspirate following (i.e. as 'ph'), . . . indicated by ancient foreign renderings of Egyptian names containing 'p.'" Jakeman then gives some examples of how this rule applies a number of words, including the word we pronounce as "Pharaoh": Egyptian--P[e]raa, Greek--Pharao. Jakeman thus concludes that "the name Nephi (very probably--as pointed out above--pronounced "Nephee," with the ph an aspirate p rather than an f) is Lehi's rendering of the Egyptian name of the personification or god of grain in Egyptian belief. . . . The Egyptian name N(e)pi would not improbably have been pronounced and written by the Israelite Lehi and his people of the Book of Mormon as N(e)phi; and therefore constitutes a completely acceptable etymology for the name of Lehi's son." [Wells Jakeman, Stela 5, Izapa, pp. 40-41]

     (3) John Gee proposes that "the name 'Nephi' is an attested Syro-Palestinian Semitic form of an attested Egyptian man's name dating from the Late Period in Egypt," and that because of these findings, "we can make a guess at the pronunciation of the name Nephi. Most European and Latin American Latter-day Saints are already pronouncing the name more or less correctly as nefi (neh/fee) . . . rather than the current 'nee-fie.' Nevertheless, the standard English pronunciation has a venerable history, and even this writer will probably continue to use it." [John Gee, "A Note on the Name of Nephi" inJournal of Book of Mormon Studies, Fall 1992, F.A.R.M.S., p. 191] [See also the commentary on 1 Nephi 18:7.]

     Lynn and Hope Hilton write that a name similar to "Nephi" is used twice in the Hebrew text of the Bible. Nephilim, translated as "giants," is found in Genesis 6:4 ("There were giants in the earth in those days") and in Numbers 13:33, referring to the "giant" inhabitants of Canaan seen by the spies sent by Moses. In addition, there are two references in the Apocrypha:

           2 Maccabees 1:36. This chapter is the source of the story of the fire of the temple altar in Jerusalem, which fire was carried to Babylon by the priests of Aaron during the captivity of the Jews in 586 B.C. This fire was miraculously restored by the prophet Nehemiah (Neemias) when the king of Persia allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Nehemiah called the miraculous "kindling of the great fire" from heaven and the consuming of the sacrifice "Napthar, which is as much as to say a cleansing; but many men call it Nephi."

              1 Esdras 5:21. This is the record of Darius, King of Persia, sending nearly 50,000 Jews from Babylon back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Two of the 123 families (tribes) listed are "Sons of Nephis" with 156 men and "Sons of Nephisi" [number not specified].

     Thus it seems safe to say that when Lehi named his son Nephi, he was using a local Hebrew or Jewish name for his son, and not an Egyptian one, as some have proposed. It seems that the root name Nephi was in common usage among the Jews in Lehi's time. Also, when you look in the Jeddah phone book today, you find no fewer than 27 families with the name of "al-Nafi" (Nephi). [Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, pp. 91-92]

     Note* If the great fire of the temple represents the presence of the Lord, and if we associate the name Nephi with the reference in 2 Maccabees 1:36, does the name Nephi represent one who has that presence constantly with him? And does the name Nephi represent the power of the Lord sufficient to establish or reestablish the covenant order found within the temple walls? [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]

     Second Maccabees of the Apocrypha, Chapter 1 verses 33-36 describes the return of the faithful to clean out the Temple to initiate Temple use during the time of the Priest Nehemiah (Neemias in Greek). According to Randolph Linehan, in an 1880's edition of the King James Bible published by Cranston & Stowe in Chicago there are some commentary notes on this verse. It is stated that in some versions, Nephi is called Naphtha: pure colorless oil which was very rare and found only in certain seeps in Arabia. Some versions call the substance water (not liquid) and the process nephthar: ritual cleansing, which would be the meaning for the colloquial noun Nephi.

     The gist of this is that the sacred fire, which was buried by Jeremiah had turned into a sacred water (liquid) when the exiles returned to Jerusalem in 560 B.C., looking for the temple ark, fire, and instruments. The cleansing of the initial temple sacrifices with the liquid was known colloquially as Nephi, and this took place only 40 years or so after Nephi left "the land of Jerusalem. [As noted in George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), pp. 302-303]

     Note* The Illustrated Bible Dictionary cites the date for the return of the Jews as 537 B.C.,31 which makes 60 years or more from the time Lehi left Jerusalem. For the benefit of the many readers who do not have access to the Apocrypha, I will give the full text because I think the concepts therein are worthy of attention as they relate to the name Nephi. Special note should be taken that the name Nephi is here associated with temple cleansing. I would prefer to also associate temple cleansing with covenant renewal. When viewed in this historical context, the term Nephi is then associated with the restoration of the covenant process.

     Nephi was the major compiler and original author of the small plates of Nephi (see 2 Nephi 5:28-31). Mormon was the major abridger of the large plates of Nephi. Together these two sets of records, for the most part, constitute our present Book of Mormon. (see Words of Mormon 1:1-7)

     Now with this in mind, it is interesting that we find Mormon was named after the land where the covenant was restored (3 Nephi 5:12; see also Alma 5:3), and this land had been given its name by the king (Mosiah 18:4). The record states that all Nephite kings took upon themselves the name Nephi "let them be of whatever name they would" (Jacob 1:10-11). The record also states that "it was the custom of the people of Nephi to call their lands . . . after the name of him who first possessed them" (Alma 8:7). Thus one might ask, Do the very names of Nephi and Mormon imply a restoration of the Lord's covenant process?

     According to John Gee, the name "Nephi" might reflect connections between Egypt and Israel at his time. Three of the four etymologies proposed for the name Nephi are Egyptian; these are the Egyptian names Nfr "good,"32 Nfw "captain," and Nfy "wind."33 Gee rules out Nfy as a possibility since so far it has not been attested as a name in Egypt at any time period.34 For similar considerations he also rules out the fourth proposed etymology deriving from Akkadian napahu "to be kindled,"35 such as naphu "kindled,"36 niphu "rising,"37 and nappahu "smith,"38 none of which are used as personal names.39This leaves him with two suggestions: Nfr and Nfw.

     According to Gee, the advantage that Nfr has over Nfw is that Nfr is actually attested at the right time,40 whereas Nfw is attested but not at the right time.41 As previously noted, neither Nfy nor forms of napahu are attested as names at any time. Thus one may confidently conclude, whether from Nfr orNfw, the name Nephi is an attested Egyptian name. [John Gee, "Four Suggestions on the Origin of the Name Nephi," in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon, F.A.R.M.S., 1999, pp. 1-3]

     According to Paul Hoskisson, there are six possible consonantal roots for the name Nephi that might conform to common Semitic noun pattern, however none of them seem to appear in Hebrew in any form that can be applied to the name Nephi. Although etymologies from Egyptian cannot be ruled out, a couple of possibilities exist in Ugaritic, a North-West Semitic language. Ugaritic is one of the better candidates because it is very closely related to Hebrew. The root npy, and np' are attested in Ugaritic. Ugaritic npy appears to mean "to expel, to drive away.42 It is not attested in any personal name, but the meaning could be something like "expelled one." This root may also be behind the personal name nfy found on inscriptions in the Arabian peninsula.43

     The Ugaritic root np' could also yield Nephi. This root means "to flourish"44 and is probably related to an Arabic root meaning "to flourish." It would not be far afield to posit a meaning for the Name Nephi from this root, such as "increase [of God]." Thus an etymology for the name Nephi can be suggested as meaning "expelled one' or "increase." [Paul Y. Hoskisson, "What's in a Name? Nephi," in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol. 9, Num. 2, 2000, pp. 64-65]