Laban (Book of Mormon) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article is about Laban, a person in The Book of Mormon. For other uses, see Laban
Laban
Laban may refer to:* Laban , a character in the Book of Genesis.* Laban , a character in The Book of Mormon.* Laban , a 1980s Eurodance duo....

.

Laban was the name of a person in the first part of The Book of Mormon, a scripture of the Latter Day Saint movement. Although he only makes a brief appearance in the narrative, his brass

Brass

Brass is an 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...

plates would play an important role amongst the Nephite

Nephite

According to the Book of Mormon, a Nephite is a member of one of the four main groups of settlers of the ancient Americas. The other three groups are the Lamanites, Jaredites and Mulekites. In the Book of Mormon, the Nephites were a group of people descended from or associated with Nephi, the...

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 Jerusalem who commanded great wealth and many servants. Among his possessions was a set of brass

Brass

plates containing the genealogy

Genealogy

Genealogy 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 Lemuel

Laman and Lemuel

In the Book of Mormon, Laman and Lemuel are the two eldest sons of Lehi and the older brothers of Sam, Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph. 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...

, were reluctant to obey their father's order at first, fearful of Laban's power and ruthless reputation. However, Lehi's fourth son, Nephi

Nephi

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.- Early life :Nephi was the fourth of six sons of Lehi and Sariah...

, 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 Sam

Sam (Book of Mormon)

In 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 angel

Angel

Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...

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 drunken stupor. The Spirit of God

Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...

told Nephi to kill Laban with his own sword

Sword

A sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration...

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
Zedekiah or Tzidkiyahu was the last king of Judah before the destruction of the kingdom by Babylon. He was installed as king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, after a siege of Jerusalem to succeed his nephew, Jeconiah, who was overthrown as king after a reign of only three months and...

;
The prophecies of the Israelite prophets down to Jeremiah
Jeremiah
Jeremiah Hebrew：יִרְמְיָה , Modern Hebrew:Yirməyāhū, IPA: jirməˈjaːhu, Tiberian:Yirmĭyahu, Greek:Ἰερεμίας), meaning "Yahweh exalts", or called the "Weeping prophet" was one of the main prophets of the Hebrew Bible...

, 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 (Hebrew Bible)
Joseph is an important character in the Hebrew bible, where he connects the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Canaan to the subsequent story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt....

, son of the patriarch Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...

.

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..

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 Commandments

Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...

. 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 Christ

Community of Christ

The 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.

External links

LDS research articles on the Sword of Laban
References to Laban in the index to the LDS edition of The Book of Mormon
References to brass plates in the index to the LDS edition of The Book of Mormon
Book of the Law of the Lord, Being a Translation from the Egyptian of the Law Given to Moses in Sinai. The Royal Press, St. James, 1856.