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According to the Book of Mormon, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies (/ˈæntaɪ ˈniːfaɪ ˈliːhaɪz/)[1][2] were an ethnic group of Lamanites formed around 90 BC in the Americas, after a significant religious conversion.[3] They made a covenant that they would not participate in war, and buried their weapons.[4] Eventually they changed their name to the people of Ammon, or Ammonites. During a later period of warfare, the young men of the group who had not made the pacifist covenant became a military unit known as the two thousand stripling warriors, and were protected by divine intervention.
Most Latter Day Saint movement denominations, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), believe the Anti-Nephi-Lehies to have been an actual ethnic group living in the western hemisphere in the first century BC.[5] The Community of Christ allows for varying beliefs regarding the historicity of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies.[6] Among non-Mormon researchers across the archaeological, historical, and scientific communities, a consensus exists that the Book of Mormon is not a record of actual historical events.[7]
The story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies and particularly that of the stripling warriors is iconic in the Latter Day Saint movement.[8] Some have criticized it for perpetuating negative stereotypes of Native Americans from a eurocentric viewpoint.[9]
- ^ Spendlove, Loren Blake (April 24, 2015). "Say Now Shibboleth, or Maybe Cumorah". Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. 15: 33–64 – via The Interpreter Foundation.
- ^ Spendlove (2015). IPA-ified from «ăn´tī—nē´fī—lē´hī»
- ^ Alma 24
- ^ Alma 26:32
- ^ Alma Introduction
- ^ Andrew M. Shields, "Official Minutes of Business Session, Wednesday March 28, 2007," in 2007 World Conference Thursday Bulletin, March 29, 2007. Community of Christ, 2007.
- ^ Simon G. Southerton. Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church (2004, Signature Books).
- ^ Pulsipher, J. David (2017). "Buried Swords: The Shifting Interpretive Ground of a Beloved Book of Mormon Narrative". Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. 26: 1–47.
- ^ Talmage, Jeremy, "Black, White, and Red All Over: Skin Color in the Book of Mormon"Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol. 28 (2019), pp. 46–68 Published by: University of Illinois Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jbookmormstud2.28.2019.0046 "See Enos 1:20. For analogous portrayals of the Lamanites as savages, see 2 Nephi 5:24; Jarom 1:6; Moroni 9:9–10"