Book of Helaman

The Book of Helaman (/ˈhiːləmən/ HEE-lə-mən) is one of the books that make up the Book of Mormon. The book continues the history of the Nephites and the Lamanites "according to the records of Helaman, who was the son of Helaman, and also according to the records of his sons, even down to the coming of Christ" (The Book of Helaman, preface). According to footnotes, the book covers the time period between c. 52 BC and 1 BC. Helaman consists of sixteen chapters.[1]

Books of the Book of Mormon
Small Plates of Nephi
Contribution of Mormon
Additions by Moroni

Structure and content

The book is set in 50-1 BC. Helaman is named for Alma's grandson, Helaman, who is the author of the first three chapters. Helaman's son Nephi authors the rest of the record. Events are related episodically. The miraculous incidents in Helaman 5 describe a significant conversion of many Lamanites to Book of Mormon Christianity.[2] In the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith originally gave his scribes an arrangement of five chapters that were larger than the chapters in modern editions of the Book of Mormon. Chapter I consisted of Helaman 1-2, Chapter II Helaman 3-6, Chapter III Helaman 7-10, Chapter IV Helaman 11-12, and Chapter V Helaman 13-16. Kim Matheson at the Maxwell Institute divides her Brief Theological Introduction on Helaman according to these chapters. Chapter I contains the formation of secret combinations and political unrest, chapter II increasing Nephite prosperity and Lamanite conversion, chapter III the prophecy of Nephi, IV Mormon's brief poetic interlude, and V Samuel's prophecy.[3]

Summary

Chapter 1: Pahoran is preparing to appoint one of his three sons as his successor. Pahoran's son, also named Pahoran, wins the election, but Paanchi and his followers threaten to overthrow the new king Pahoran. As punishment, they are sentenced to death, but before this sentence is enacted, Pannchi and his followers make an oath of secrecy and murder son Pahoran. A few months later, a Lamanite army captures the Nephite capital until the Nephites reclaim it.[4]

Chapter 2: Helaman, son of Helaman is elected as the new chief judge. The same group who murdered Pahoran tries to murder him, but a spy kills the assassin before he succeeds. The group retreats to the wilderness and they are referred to as a "band of robbers".[5]

Chapter 3: Helaman reigns over the Nephites, who develop shipping, expand northward, and become wealthy and prideful.[6]

Chapter 4: Disagreements in the land of the Nephites lead to war with the Lamanites, where Moronihah conquers half of their land.[7]

Chapter 5: After stepping down as chief judge, Nephi goes with his brother Lehi to preach to the Nephites and the Lamanites. Lamanites in Nephites lands imprison them. Angels and a pillar of fire manifest and their presence sparks the conversion of onlookers, who in turn convert the Lamanites, who peaceably leave the Nephite lands they were occupying.[2]

Chapter 6: The Gadianton robbers return and murder Cezoram, who filled in for Nephi in the judgement seat. Meanwhile, the Lamanites' righteousness increases.[8]

Chapter 7: Nephi comes home after his six-year mission to find that the Nephites have become wicked in his absence. He says that the Nephites' destruction is nigh.[9]

Chapter 8: Nephi prophesies that the chief judge has been murdered by his brother, and this prophecy is confirmed.[10]

Chapter 9: Nephi again prophesies that the brother will deny murdering the chief judge, but that the blood on the skirts of his cloak will give him away.[11]

Chapter 10: The Nephites are divided. God grants Nephi the power to do "all things" "according to [his] word".[12]

Chapter 11: Nephi sends a famine into the land for three years, when many people return to their faith and Nephi prays the rain back. The Gadianton robbers become more powerful.[2]

Chapter 12: Mormon, the editor of the book of Helaman, comments on the earth and God's power.[13]

Chapters 13-16: The people reject the Samuel the Lamanite's message of the signs and wonders foretelling Jesus' birth and death.[2]

Themes

War and contention

The short preface to the Book of Helaman is written by Mormon, the editor of the books following Omni according to the Book of Mormon narrative. Mormon describes the book of Helaman as being about "wars and contentions". According to Brant Gardner, author of a six-volume commentary that grew out of his work for the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, the goal of Mormon's compilation is theological, not historical. "Contentions" refers to internal conflicts, while "wars" refers to external ones. Mormon may have chosen to focus on contentions to fulfill Nephi's vision when Nephi sees "wars, and rumors of wars" as well as "wars and contentions in the land". For Gardner, Mormon isn't just trying to fulfill Nephi's vision, but also to show that Christ's coming is a type, and that it was and will be preceded by war and contention.[14]

In Helaman, the Gadianton robbers are mentioned for the first time in the text of the Book of Mormon, a recurring instance of Nephite secret combinations important to the rest of the Book of Mormon narrative.[15] According to Maxwell Institute scholar Kim Matheson, Helaman's contrasts show how the Nephites are constantly noticing the wrong things. Instead of noticing their own spiritual decay, they increase their wealth and military power. Important aspects of the plot are covert, like the secret combinations, assassins, and spiritual alignment with God.[16]

Former dean of religious education at Brigham Young University, Robert J. Matthews, noticed that within the Nephite culture, because the majority of the people chose evil, the government became corrupt, even though it was a form of free government. People in government started to to ignore the poor and there was a general disdain of the law.[17]

Nephite racism

Helaman ends with Samuel prophesying of Christ and the Nephites rejecting Samuel's prophecy. Samuel does not mention Christ's resurrection, but focuses on the signs of his birth and death. Since Samuel is a Lamanite, it is possible that Nephite racism contributed to their rejection of him.[2] For Matheson, Nephite racism causes them to reject Samuel, and their interest in comparing themselves to the Lamanites prevents them from honestly repenting of their misdeeds.[16]

Nephi's parallels to Elijah

Grant Hardy, in his The Annotated Book of Mormon, notes that the Nephi in Helaman has several things in common with the Biblical figure of Elijah. Both traveling prophets perform miracles and call on God to bring famine to the land (as well as other parallels).[2]

Mormon as editor

The emphasis of several themes in Helaman leads some scholars to draw conclusions about Mormon. Mormon is the narrator the Book of Mormon presents at the final editor of the Plates of Nephi, which includes Helaman. In an article published by Brigham Young University (BYU)'s Religious Studies Center, Thomas W. Mackay, a professor of classical and medieval studies at BYU, outlines Mormon's philosophy of history. Mormon's editorial decisions reveal his attitudes about history, life, and theology. Mormon chooses to include incidents that fulfill earlier prophecies, indicating that he wishes to call attention to them. Additionally, Helaman 12 contains a long digression from Mormon where he explicitly states that people tend to become rebellious, causing God to respond with punishment until they repent. Lacking more information about Nephite and Lamanite history, readers are left to come to a similar conclusion as Mormon based on the evidence he presents. Mormon states that Satan influenced the Nephites to create secret combinations like the Gadianton robbers.[18]

Ronald D. Anderson is an LDS Church Educational System instructor with a PhD in Middle Eastern studies and Biblical Hebrew. He noticed Mormon's recurring words and phrases in the book of Helaman, a literary device called lietworter in Biblical studies. Anderson identified "remember," "pondering," "O Lord," and "saith the Lord," emphasizing the importance of recalling and understanding the words of Christ. The other repeated words of "a curse," "riches," and "your destruction is made sure" connect destruction with riches and indicate the need for repentance.[19]

Pride cycle

Hardy describes what Latter-day Saints call the "pride cycle" as one of the main features of Helaman. Nephites become prideful and forget God, which leads to their downfall. Humbled, they return to worshipping God and become prosperous again. Hardy draws a parallel to a similar cycle in the Biblical Book of Judges, noting that in Helaman, communal repentance plays a larger role. In the larger narrative of the Book of Mormon, this cycle is broken for 200 years after Jesus visits the land.[2]

In Mormon's digression in Helaman 12, he describes the "pride cycle," and reveals his assumption that the righteousness of a people is the most important historical question to consider, relegating factors such as economic growth to their influence on the righteousness of the people.[18]

See also

Notes
  1. "Title Page".
  2. Hardy 2023, pp. 503–505.
  3. Matheson 2020, pp. 6–7.
  4. Matheson 2020, p. 14-15.
  5. Matheson 2020, p. 16; Helaman 2:10
  6. Hardy 2023, pp. 503–505;Matheson 2020, pp. 32–33
  7. Matheson 2020, pp. 32–36.
  8. Hardy 2023, pp. 503–505; Matheson 2020, p. 50; Helaman 6:15-19
  9. Matheson 2020, pp. 58–59.
  10. Matheson 2020, p. 59.
  11. Matheson 2020, pp. 61–62.
  12. Matheson 2020, pp. 64–64;Helaman 10:5
  13. Matheson 2020, p. 82; Hardy 2023, pp. 503–505
  14. Gardner 2007, pp. 7–10; Amy Easton-Flake; Daniel Becerra; Joseph M. Spencer; Nicholas J. Frederick (2007). Book of Mormon Studies: An Introduction and Guide. Deseret Book Company. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-9503-0429-5. Wikidata Q123118485.
  15. Gardner 2007, p. 6.
  16. Matheson 2020, pp. 10–11.
  17. Matthews 1992.
  18. Mackay 1992.
  19. Anderson 1992.

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