Nephites

The Nephites were an ancient people who lived on the American continent. They are named after their prophet and leader Nephi, who traveled with his family from Jerusalem in approximately 600 B.C. Nephi and his descendants were commanded by God to keep a record of their people, an abridged version of which is now found in the Book of Mormon, which is considered scripture by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church).

When Nephi’s family arrived in the Americas, the group split into two rival groups—the Nephites who followed Nephi and for the most part were righteous followers of God, and the Lamanites who followed Nephi’s older brother’s Laman and Lemuel and who opposed the Nephites throughout most of their history.

It is important to note, that the names Nephite and Lamanite were names used by the Nephites to distinguish between themselves and their enemies. One Book of Mormon prophet, named Jacob, described it this way:

Now the people which were not Lamanites were Nephites; nevertheless, they were called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites. But I, Jacob, shall not hereafter distinguish them by these names, but I shall call them Lamanites that seek to destroy the people of Nephi, and those who are friendly to Nephi I shall call Nephites, or the people of Nephi, according to the reigns of the kings (Jacob 1:13-14).

It is clear that there were many different groups, but the Nephite writers felt that the spiritual aspects of the story were more important than the historical and political ones, and so they simplified the narrative by using only two names. Throughout the Book of Mormon these two groups interact and there was much mixing of the two.

Often throughout the Book of Mormon these two groups gain people from each other's sides. There were dissenters from the Nephite population who joined the Lamanites, and some Lamanites became converted to the gospel of Christ and joined the Nephites. During some periods, the two titles did not really describe the ethnicity of the people, but those who believed in Christ (Nephites) and those who did not (Lamanites).

In about 34 A.D., after the death of Christ, the Nephite people recorded that the resurrected Christ visited them and taught them how to establish His Church. For more than two hundred years all were converted to the gospel of Christ, and there was no longer a division between Nephites and Lamanites. Then some time after 200 A.D., a group of people dissented and called themselves Lamanites. Wickedness continued to seep into the Nephite culture and by about 421 A.D., the Lamanites had completely destroyed the Nephite people. The Book of Mormon records that it was because of the Nephites’ wickedness that God allowed them to be destroyed.

The action of the Book of Mormon apparently covers a rather small geographical area. The Nephites seemed to be a minority people in the Book of Mormon, surrounded by many other peoples; there is one instance of dissident Nephites teaching their language to another ethnic group. Several passages in the Book of Mormon describe how the Nephites were outnumbered in battle by their enemies.