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The story of Nephi killing Laban is found near the beginning of the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi 4:1-38. After the family of Lehi flees Jerusalem and sets up a camp in the wilderness, Nephi sends his four sons back to Jerusalem to obtain a set of brass plates from a religious leader named Laban. Lehi believes that these plates will be necessary for his descendants to preserve their culture and religion in the new land they will inhabit. When Lehi's sons meet with Laban, he refused to give them the plates and attempts to have them killed. Later, Nephi encounters a drunken Laban on the steps of his house. Under direction from the Holy Spirit, Nephi kills and decapitates Laban and then impersonates him in order to obtain the brass plates. The ethical implications of Nephi, an important prophet in the Book of Mormon, taking a man's life in order to secure the long-term prosperity of his descendants have made this one of the most analyzed and debated passages of the Book of Mormon.

Book of Mormon narrative

The story of Nephi obtaining the plates from Laban takes up all of the third and fourth chapters of the First Book of Nephi. In Chapter 3, Lehi tells Nephi that he has had a prophetic dream in which the Lord commanded him to send his four sons back to Jerusalem to obtain a set of brass plates held by a man named Laban. The plates contain "the record of the Jews," which, Lehi believes, his descendants will need when they establish a new civilization in the land that they will inherit. Laman and Lemuel complain about the difficulty of the task, but Nephi accepts the task and proclaims, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." In the end, all four brothers--Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi--go to Jerusalem.

When they reach their destination, they cast lots to determine who will approach Laban, and the lot falls to Laman. When Laman asks for the plates, Laban becomes angry, calls Laman a robber, and threatens to have him killed before Laman escapes and returns to his brothers. At Nephi's suggestion, they go to their father's house and gather gold, silver, and other valuable items and offer them to Laban in exchange for the plates. Laban pretends to accept the offer, takes possession of the items, and then orders his servants to kill the brothers. They escape with their lives but do not obtain the plates.

At this point, Laman and Lemuel become angry with Nephi and Sam and began to beat them with a rod. An angel appears and tells the other brothers that God has chosen Nephi to rule over them and commands that they return immediately to Jerusalem, where the Lord will deliver Laban into their hands.

In Chapter Four, Nephi goes alone to Laban's house. On his way, he sees Laban himself drunk with wine and lying in the street. He draws Laban's sword and admires its workmanship. And then he is "constrained by the spirit" that he should kill Laban and take the plates. He says in his heart "Never at any time have I shed the blood of a man. And I shrunk and would that I might not slay him. But the spirit is insistent, saying, "it is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief." Nephi decapitates Laban with his own sword and then dresses in the slain man's clothing. Speaking in Laban's voice, he orders a servant named Zoram to retrieve the plates. When Zoram recognizes Nephi as an imposter, Nephi compels him to swear obedience and offers to spare his life if he (Zoram) agrees to join the Lehite party in the wilderness.

Significance of the event

The story of Nephi killing Laban has occasioned an enormous amount of commentary both defending and criticizing Nephi's actions. In Understanding the Book of Mormon, Grant Hardy acknowledges that Nephi's actions, "without a considerable amount of explanation, would look a lot like murder and robbery." Nephi kills Laban when he is unarmed and unable to defend himself and then takes possession of the plates through deception and force. BYU religion professor Charles Swift asks, "How can we justify a man coming upon another man lying in a street, completely helpless . . . and that first man decapitating the second man, stealing his sword and clothing, and then impersonating him so he could steal a most precious item from his treasury." Even if we acknowledge the importance of the pates to future generations, Swift acknowledges, "we must be careful not to ignore the unlimited alternative ways to acquire the plates without Nephi having to kill Laban." "Joseph Spencer adds, "it doesn't require much imagination to think of ways God might have made escape possible without such drastic measures."

Critics of the Book of Mormon have frequently pointed to Nephi's killing of Laban as an example of divinely sanctioned violence in Mormon scripture that contributed to violent rhetoric and doctrines in Mormon history. Literary critic J. Aaron Sanders argues that the "Nephi archetype" in the Mormon mythos led directly to the development of the doctrine of blood atonement. "The story of Nephi killing Laban contributed three key elements to the Mormon mythos," Sanders proposes. "(1) Nephi as an archetypal Mormon hero; (2) righteous murder committed by that hero, or blood atonement; and (3) the rhetorical justification for blood atonement." In Under the Banner of Heaven, John Krakauer cites this passage from the Book of Mormon as an important influence on the Lafferty brothers when they murdered their niece and sister in law. Dan Lafferty claimed to have received a revelation comparing him to Nephi, and "this revelation had a tremendous impact on Dan: after God had declared that he was like Nephi . . . Dan 'was willing to do anything that the Lord commanded him."

Defenses of Nephi's actions

Utilitarian necessity

Obedience

Self-defense

Connections to the Bible

Metanarrative Considerations

References

1. 1 Nephi 3:3
2. 1 Nephi 3:7
3. 1 Nephi 3:11-14
4. 1 Nephi 3:22-26
5. 1 Nephi 3:28-30
6. 1 Nephi 4:10-14
7. 1 Nephi 4: 18-38
8. Hardy, Grant (2010). Understanding the Book of Mormon. Oxford University Press. p. 19.
9. ^ Swift, Charles (2019). ""The Lord slayeth the wicked": Coming to Terms with Nephi Killing Laban". Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. 29 (1): 143.
10. Spencer, Joseph (2020). 1st Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction. Neal A. Maxwell Institute. p. 68.
11. Sanders, J. Aaron. "Avenging Angels: The Nephi Archetype and Blood Atonement in Neil LaBute, Brian Evenson, and Levi Peterson, and the Making of the Mormon American Writer." In Mark T. Decker and Michael Austin, eds., Peculiar Portrayals: Mormons on the Page, Stage, and Screen" (Utah State University Press, 2010), 89.

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