King Mosiah I

According to the Book of Mormon, Mosiah I (/moʊˈsaɪ.ə, -ˈzaɪ.ə/)[1] was a Nephite prophet who led the Nephites from the land of Nephi to the land of Zarahemla and was later appointed king. He was the father of King Benjamin and the first of two individuals in the Book of Mormon with the name Mosiah. His grandson, Mosiah II was Benjamin's son and was king of the Nephite nation from about 124 BC to 91 BC.

Accounts

The history of Mosiah I is limited to Amaleki's account in the Book of Omni.[2]

Following a period of "much war and contention between...the Nephites, and the Lamanites",[3] Mosiah1 was "warned of the Lord that he should flee out of the land of Nephi, and as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord should also depart out of the land with him, into the wilderness".[4] The journey led them to the land of Zarahemla, inhabited by a group of people who had come from Jerusalem at the "time that Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon".[5] The two groups united and appointed Mosiah their king.

Mosiah I also translated engravings found on a stone which gave an account of the Jaredites, another people who had previously inhabited the area.

Possible origin of the name

Hugh Nibley relates the name to a combination of the name Moses with that of Yahweh (Jehovah).[6]

The Egyptian root msy, "child of", has been considered as a possible etymology for the name Moses, arguably an abbreviation of a theophoric name, as for example in Egyptian names like Thutmoses (Thoth created him) and Ramesses (Ra created him),[7] with the god's name omitted. In the case of Mosiah, the inversion of the elements could yield the combination "son of Yah".

The name is also similar to Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible, and the "-iah" suffix can be found in a number of Book of Mormon names such as Amalickiah and Sariah, as well as the Biblical names Jeremiah and Zedekiah.

References
  1. churchofjesuschrist.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «mō-sī´a or mō-zī´a»
  2. Omni 1:12-23
  3. Omni 1:10
  4. Omni 1:12
  5. Omni 1:15
  6. Nibley, Hugh & Hummel, Sharman Bookwalter (ed.) Nibley's Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1 (2013), ASIN: B00GFY0GUO
  7. Christopher B. Hays, Hidden Riches: A Sourcebook for the Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East, Presbyterian Publishing Corp, 2014 p. 116.
Preceded by
various kings of the Nephites;
eventually Nephi		 King of the Nephites
?-? B.C.		 Succeeded by
King Benjamin


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