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, Nephi confided in Sam.[1] 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 would be saved.[2] Upon the death of Lehi, Sam followed his brother Nephi in the establishment of the Nephites.[3]
Among LDS linguists, the leading (unofficial) theory of the origin of the name "Sam"[4] is that it is most likely a Hebrew dialectal form of "Shem".[5]
Family
| Lehi | Sariah | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Laman | Lemuel | Sam | Nephi | Jacob | Joseph | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
- ^ 1 Nephi 2:17
- ^ 1 Nephi 8
- ^ 2 Nephi 5:6
- ^ Johnson, Peter (2009). "Lehi and Local Color". Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
- ^ Bomhard, Allen R.; Kerns, John C. (1994). "2.10. The Proto-Afroasiatic Consonant System". The Nosratic macrofamily: a study in distant linguistic relationship. Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs. 74. Berlin; New York: De Gruyter Mouton. p. 102. ISBN 3-11-013900-6.
Further reading
- Ken Haubrock, “Sam: A Just and Holy Man,”. Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 5/2 (1996): 164–68.