Laban was the name of a personage in the first part of The Book of Mormon, a scripture of the
Latter Day SaintA Latter Day Saint is an adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement, a group of denominations tracing their heritage to the teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr. and the Church of Christ he organized in 1830...
movement. Although he only makes a brief appearance in the narrative, his
brassBrass is any alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin. Despite this distinction, some types of brasses are called bronzes. Brass is a...
plates would play an important role amongst the
NephiteThe Nephites are the de facto protagonists of the Book of Mormon. According to the Book of Mormon, the Nephites were a group of people descended from or associated with Nephi, a prophet who, according to the text, left Jerusalem at the urging of God circa 600 BC and traveled with his family to...
s, who are the book's main protagonists.
In the book of First Nephi, chapters three and four, Laban is described as a notable citizen of
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
who commanded great wealth and many servants.
Laban was the name of a personage in the first part of The Book of Mormon, a scripture of the
Latter Day SaintA Latter Day Saint is an adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement, a group of denominations tracing their heritage to the teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr. and the Church of Christ he organized in 1830...
movement. Although he only makes a brief appearance in the narrative, his
brassBrass is any alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin. Despite this distinction, some types of brasses are called bronzes. Brass is a...
plates would play an important role amongst the
NephiteThe Nephites are the de facto protagonists of the Book of Mormon. According to the Book of Mormon, the Nephites were a group of people descended from or associated with Nephi, a prophet who, according to the text, left Jerusalem at the urging of God circa 600 BC and traveled with his family to...
s, who are the book's main protagonists.
Laban
In the book of First Nephi, chapters three and four, Laban is described as a notable citizen of
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
who commanded great wealth and many servants. Among his possessions was a set of
brassBrass is any alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin. Despite this distinction, some types of brasses are called bronzes. Brass is a...
plates containing the
genealogyGenealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
of Lehi, a major character in the early portion of the Book of Mormon. Lehi, having left the city with his family in response to God's command, enjoined his four sons to return to Jerusalem and retrieve them: "For behold, Laban hath the record of the Jews and also a genealogy of my forefathers, and they are engraven upon plates of brass." Lehi furthermore stated that this injunction did not originate with himself, but with the Lord, who had spoken to him on this matter in a dream.
Retrieving Laban's brass record
Lehi's two older sons,
Laman and LemuelIn the Book of Mormon, Laman and Lemuel are the two eldest sons of Lehi and the older brothers of Nephi. According to the text, they lived around 600 BC. They were notable for their rebellion against Lehi and Nephi, becoming the primary antagonists of the First and Second Books of Nephi...
, were reluctant to obey their father's order at first, fearful of Laban's power and ruthless reputation. However, Lehi's fourth son,
NephiNephi is one of the main people described in the Book of Mormon. According to the Book of Mormon, Nephi was the son of Lehi, a prophet, founder of the Nephite people, and author of the first two books of the Book of Mormon, First and Second Nephi....
, vowed that he would obey God's command: "For I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." Accordingly, the four sons of Lehi set out for Jerusalem.
First, Laman went to Laban alone to request the records, but Laban cast Laman out of his house and threatened to kill him. Next, Nephi and his brothers offered all of their valuables to Laban in return for the brass plates. Laban took the family's goods but then refused to keep his end of the deal, ordering his men to slay Lehi's sons.
After fleeing Jerusalem, the elder brothers Laman and Lemuel were angry with Lehi and their younger, more faithful, brothers
SamIn the Book of Mormon, Sam was the third son of Lehi, and elder brother to the prophet Nephi. Early in the Book of Mormon narrative, Nephi confided in Sam. Lehi saw Sam in his vision of the tree of life, noting that he ate the precious fruit, symbolizing the righteousness of Sam, and that he...
and Nephi, so they beat their siblings with rods. Suddenly, an
angelAngels are spiritual beings found in many religious traditions. They are broadly viewed as messengers of God, sent to do God's tasks. Traditions vary as to the precise nature and role of these messages and tasks...
appeared, commanding the elder duo to desist and all of them to return forthwith to the city, where Laban would fall into their hands. Laman and Lemuel demurred: "Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?" Though Nephi encouraged his brothers by reminding them of God's might, it was only with great reluctance that they agreed to press on.
Undaunted, Nephi slipped back into Jerusalem alone that night, where he soon found Laban lying unconscious in a
drunkenIntoxication is the state of being affected by one or more psychoactive drugs. It can also refer to the effects caused by the ingestion of poison or by the overconsumption of normally harmless substances.Some types of intoxication:*A mechanism of disease....
stupor. The
Spirit of GodIn Christianity, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. In mainstream Christian beliefs he is the third person of the Trinity. As part of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit is equal with God the Father and with God the Son....
told Nephi to kill Laban with his own
swordA sword is a long, edged piece of metal, used in many civilizations throughout the world, primarily as a cutting or thrusting weapon and occasionally for clubbing...
and seize the records, saying "It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief." After complying, Nephi disguised himself as Laban and entered his house. There he found one of Laban's servants, Zoram, whom he commanded to retrieve the brass plates and to follow him out of the city. Zoram obeyed, joining Nephi and his family in their journey to the New World.
The content of the brass plates
Upon returning to his family in the wilderness, Nephi turned over the "Plates of Laban" to Lehi, who made a complete inspection of them. Lehi determined that the plates contained:
- The Five Books of Moses (the Jewish Torah);
- A history of the Jewish people, down to the reign of [then current] King Zedekiah
Zedekiah was the last king of Judah before the destruction of the kingdom by Babylon. He was the third son of Josiah, and his mother was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, thus he was the brother of Jehoahaz .William F. Albright dates the reign of Zedekiah to 597 – 587 BC, while E. R...
;
- The prophecies of the Israelite prophets down to Jeremiah
Jeremiah was one of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. His writings are put together in the Book of Jeremiah and traditionally, authorship of the Book of Lamentations is ascribed to him...
, seen in the Book of Mormon as a contemporary of Lehi; and
- A genealogy of Lehi's own ancestors, revealing him to be a descendant of Joseph
Joseph or Yosef , was the eleventh son of Jacob and first son of Rachel according to the Hebrew Bible...
, son of the patriarch JacobJacob , also known as Israel , was the third Biblical patriarch and ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel, named after ten of his twelve sons, as well as the two sons of his son Joseph.The Bible says...
.
After reading the contents of the brass plates, Lehi prophesied that they would "never be dimmed any more by time," and that they would ultimately "go forth unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people who were of his seed."
Sword of Laban
When Nephi encountered the unconscious Laban, he noticed that Laban was wearing a fine sword made of "precious steel" with a hilt of "pure gold." After slaying Laban, Nephi took this sword for himself. He would later use it as a model for manufacturing similar weapons for his people's defense.
Apparently Laban's sword was passed down through the centuries to future prophets, kings, and warriors, as it is mentioned many centuries later in the Book of Mormon. Mormon orthodoxy maintains that the sword exists to the present-day, and was hidden away with the Gold Plates found by
Joseph Smith, Jr.Joseph Smith, Jr. was the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, also known as Mormonism, and an important religious and political figure during the 1830s and 1840s...
.
Book of the Law of the Lord
James J. Strang, one of many contenders to succeed Joseph Smith during the 1844 succession crisis, asserted that he had been given the "Plates of Laban" in fulfillment of Lehi's prophecy. His purported translation of them was published in 1851 as
The Book of the Law of the Lord: Being a Translation from the Egyptian of the Law Given to Moses in Sinai. In its preface, Strang clearly identifies the "Plates of Laban" as the source for most of his book.
Strang's tome contains none of the material Lehi described in I Nephi 5:11-14, except for the
Ten CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, are a list of religious and moral imperatives that, according to Judeo-Christian tradition, were authored by God and given to Moses on the mountain referred to as "Mount Sinai" or "Horeb" in the form of two stone tablets...
. Rather, it embodies a constitution for a Mormon monarchy, wherein the Prophet-leader of the Latter Day Saint church equally rules as king over God's kingdom on earth. It also contains other revelations and teachings unique to Strang. It is possible that
Book of the Law comprised only part of the Plates of Laban, rather than the whole.
Seven witnesses testified to having seen and handled the plates Strang claimed to possess. They described the plates as being eighteen in number, each measuring approximately seven and three-eighths inches wide, by nine inches long. The plates themselves were "occasionally embellished with beautiful pictures," and all appeared to be of "beautiful antique workmanship, bearing a striking resemblance to the ancient oriental languages."
The subsequent history of Strang's "Plates of Laban," and their current whereabouts, is a mystery.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and
Community of ChristThe Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...
churches, the two largest factions of the Latter Day Saint movement, each reject James Strang's claims to prophetic leadership and his
Book of the Law of the Lord.
See also
- Zoram
There are three individuals named Zoram in the Book of Mormon, indexed in the LDS edition as Zoram1, Zoram² and Zoram³.- Zoram¹ :...
- Book of Mormon chronology
This chronology outlines the major events in the history of the Book of Mormon, according to the text. Dates given correspond to dates in the footnotes of the LDS edition of the Book of Mormon, found online .-Jaredites:-I...
- List of plates (Latter Day Saint movement)
External links