Samuel the Lamanite

 The Story of Samuel the Lamanite is one that is always a hit with children and teens.  In my primary class today I let a child stand on a chair while he read part of Samuel's speech. The visual image of Samuel standing on the wall as the Nephites below try to knock him off with stones and arrows is unforgettable. If you look past the drama of the scene, there are other aspects of interest that I noticed this week, both from my reading and from my podcasts.

First, as we have seen in the Old Testament and, to a lesser degree, in the Book of Mormon, the name is the message.  Samuel is a Hebrew, שְׁמוּאֵל, comes from two words, "shem", meaning name, and El, meaning God. Samuel in the Old Testament, is a prophet who hears God call his name (Samuel 3:2). In his speech, Samuel the Lamanite makes it clear God has called him by name to speak God's word, "Behold, I, Samuel, a Lamanite, do speak to you the words of the Lord." (13:5).  

Second, we don't really know much about Samuel.  The writer, presumably Helaman, but maybe Mormon, introduces him, simply, as "one Samuel, a Laminite" (13:2). He is not from Zarahemla, since it says "he came into the land Zarahemla" (13:2) and when he leaves the city, he flees to "his own country" (16:7).  So the question is, how did he come to be named Samuel.  That, as I have stated, is a very Hebrew name.  The Lamanites we have read about before this mostly don't have Hebrew sounding names, (e.g. Lamoni, Lehonti, Zerahemnah) so chances are that Samuel is a second generation convert.  He prophecies as 5 BC and he seems to be an adult at the time, so he could be a descendant of the people of Ammon, who were converted about 80 BC. Could he be one of the Stripling Warriors, who fought in 65 BC?  If he is, he is pretty old by ancient standards, but he might be one of their sons. If he is the child of one of the converts of Lehi and Nephi, he is quite young, because Lehi and Nephi had their success with the Lamanites in 30 BC. Whoever his parents are, he is well read in Nephite scripture.  He quotes Alma and seems to refer to the preaching of King Benjamin. 

The real question is why don't we know more about him.  The obvious reason might be that either Helaman, or Mormon didn't know more about him.  When they talk about Nephite leaders, they know from their own records who their parentage is, but Samuel is an outsider, and didn't stick around after the event.  How could they get to know his parentage?  Another less flattering idea is that either Helaman or Mormon had a touch of racial prejudice. Afterall, there is no other record in the Book of Mormon of the preaching of a Lamanite. Did they only include Samuel because the Lord urged them to in 3rd Nephi 23:9?  If they were a little prejudice, it is understandable.  Both men had spent much of their adult life at war with the Lamanites. It is hard to had high regard for those who are trying to kill you.

The most remarkable thing about Samuel's prophecies are their specificity.  Only in Samuel's prophecies do we get a measurable time frame within which a prophecy is to be fulfilled.  It isn't usually the Lord's way to be so exact in a prophecy.  I think the Lord was specific here because there was so much at stake.  We know from subsequent chapters that Samuel's warning about destruction was no idle threat. During the calamities at Jesus' death, Zarahemla is burned with fire. Other Nephite cities are buried under landslides or sunken into the sea. Samuel's words gave the people fair warning so that the Lord's ultimate judgements were just. (15:17)  It makes me think that if our modern prophets start slipping in definite time lines into their prophecies/predictions, we better watch out.