Zenephi (in Ze-Mormon 9:16)

My father once asked about the Book of Mormon name Zenephi. I was stumped. Later it hit me. Following a common Egyptian name pattern, z3 (son) + Divine Name or Attribute or Quality, Ze + Nephi yields Son of Nephi. 

The name might also designate a Nephite Prince, or any Nephite for that matter. The first Nephite kings all took the name of the first king and protector, and thus were known as the Second Nephi, the Third Nephi, and so on. Son of Nephi could thus designate the heir to the throne--the Son of Nephi, whether the son of Nephi III or Nephi V. (Find fifteen packed pages of z3- and z3.t- names in Hermann Ranke's classic Die Aegyptischen Personennamen, I: 280-295; Zenephi appears on p. 282, no. 17.) 


Ranke even gives us a Zenephi, Zenebi, or Zanibi (Son of My Lord), but the sole Zenephi attested in the Book of Mormon holds the stage of history in a single, startling verse, a verse that shouts Libya, Syria, and the Congo, a verse that whispers a portent to the whole world: Bataans everywhere.

And again, my son, there are many widows and their daughters who remain in Sherrizah; and that part of the provisions which the Lamanites did not carry away, behold, the army of Zenephi has carried away, and left them to wander whithersoever they can for food; and many old women do faint by the way and die (Mormon 9:16).

So don't be surprised when it happens here.


When I first encountered Brigham Young University's online Book of Mormon Onomasticon Project, I promptly turned to Zenephi:

"Possibly EGYPTIAN z3-nfy, “son of NEPHI/the chief,” from z3 (=sa) + nfy (q.v.) (RFS)."

When I finally had the chance to ask Bob Smith (RFS) about the derivation, he had forgotten about it and, in fact, had lit on a different origin for the element ze-. Later, to my amusement, the following surfaced:

"Val Sederholm suggests EGYPTIAN Z3-Nfy 'Son of Nephi' (RFS)."

A wee correction is in order. Nephi, or Nep-Hi (or Nb.i-Hi), should reflect not Nfy (sea captain), but the common Egyptian pattern for a Neb.i name, my Lord is (this particular) god. Such a reading, along with other possibilities for Nephi that follow the spelling rather than our fanciful pronunciation(s), all come from the writings of Hugh Nibley, a close student of Ranke's collection of Egyptian names. Again: Ranke (I:282, no. 17) yields the very name: z3-Nb or z3-Nb.(j?). (The feminine form z3.t-Nb also appears.) The spelling of Nephi is the key. Derivations from roots such as nfy or nfr fail to convince: Nephi is neither good nor beautiful (nfr, *nafir, to be complete, finished, and thus beautiful, and, just maybe, good). The final /r/ often slips away--and that's the argument given for reading Nephi in light of nefer--but the lexicon surely gives us many instances of its lingering power. One survival of nfr, with the final /r/ firmly in place, appears in the still current name Onofrio (Osiris Wennefer, Wnn-nefer, Osiris Everlastingly Integral and Beautiful), as in the tasty D'onofrio ice cream.

 
It is really Hugh Nibley who first derived Zenephi from Z3-Nb-H', even if he never bothered to jot down volume, page, and number--no. 17--which is hardly necessary to do, if you've memorized the entire volume. Brother Nibley had on hand many copies of the Book of Mormon, and in one of these (now in the Hugh Nibley Ancient Studies Library at Brigham Young University), he marked each Book of Mormon name, as listed in an appendix, with its appropriate letter: H for Hebrew, A for Arabic, E for Egyptian, and so on. (Don't forget the M for Mitanni names.) It's a small treasure.

Racing down to Zenephi, I found:

Zenephi E

How could it be otherwise? As Hugh Nibley well knew, there is no more common pattern in Egyptian naming than the aforementioned z3 or z3.t + Divine or Royal Name or Quality, Son or Daughter of So-and-So, or the One who Belongs to Such-and-Such a Divinity, or Who is in firm possession of Such-and-Such a Quality or Grace, e.g., Zat-Mafk3t, Daughter of Greenstone (i.e., as Precious as Malachite), Zat-Neferet, a Daughter of Outstanding Perfection, a true Beauty. The hero Sinuhe, as we usually transcribe the Egyptian Z3-Nht, is Son of the Sycamore, meaning Hathor as the goddess in the Sycamore tree, the nurturing mother, the ever-flowing waters of life. Sinuhe might as well be spelled Zenuhe or Zanuhe. 

Book of Mormon ze- for z3- is right on the money. While it doesn't necessarily follow that every name starting with ze- in the Book of Mormon fits the same pattern, Zenephi could hardly reflect anything else. Consider, too, the following patterned sequencing of names: "The Book of Nephi, the Son of Nephi, who was the Son of Helaman": Nephi ntj (or Heb. asher) Zenephi ntj Zehelaman."

While there are many such sons, and sons of sons. . . z z z. . . the narrative yields but two names of women: Sariah and Abish. (Isabel labels but does not name.) Mother Sariah may be understood as either princess or prince of Jehovah; Abish, my father is a man. Both names now appear in Ancient Near Eastern sources; Abisha, in hieroglyphs, names a Semitic chieftain, clothed in a magnificent particolored robe, bartering goods in Egypt (see the Book of Mormon Onomasticon for references). The Lehites cloaked all women in the aura of royalty, their gracious names not for display. (The women of Mulek and of Jared walk in the same mystique.) Could we know of others, I would be surprised if there were not a princess or two bearing the name of Zet- or Zatnephi (Daughter of Nephi: cf. z3.t-nb(j?), Ranke, I:290.1), Abinephi (Nephi is my father), or Abilehi. Ranke (I:286.7,8) not only gives us the Egyptian princess Zat-Omni (z3.t-imny), we even have Second Zat-Omni (z3.t-imny snw.t, I:286.9; cf. Second Nephi). Zatammon (Ranke I:286.6), Zatmanti (I:289.8), Zatjarom, Zatmoroni, Zatmormon. 

I know Zat Moroni girl.








Updated, February 2019, to add references and examples from Ranke, as a help to the young reader. The enhanced discussion of the name Nephi also serves, it is hoped, to dispel the quite impossible idea that the name derives from the Egyptian word nfr or that either it or nefer, signifies good, much less goodly. Think Nefertiti. She wasn't good and she wasn't nice--she was Nefertiti; she was the perfection of beauty.