Nephi: a place and a person

The first chapter of the book of 2^nd Maccabees contains the story of the preservation of sacred fire, and the purification of the Temple. According to the text, when the Jews were carried captive into Babylon, around 600 BC, the Levitical priests hid some of the sacred fire from the Altar in a secret place. When Nehemiah returned from Babylon to rebuild the Temple, he sent out the descendants of those Levites to locate the sacred fire, if it still burned. Instead of finding fire, they found a liquid in its place.

After the Altar was rebuilt, and wood set upon it, Nehemiah ordered the priests to pour the liquid over the wood. Without the touch of a torch or flame, a fire spontaneously combusted, and the Altar was once again to offer sacrifices to Yahweh. The sacred fire was restored, and the Temple was purified.

“And Nehemiah called this Naphthar, which means ‘purification’; but many people call it Nephi.” [2^nd Maccabees 1:36]

The name Nephi is prominent within the Nephite Record. The first Nephi in the chronicles left the vicinity of Jerusalem just prior to the Babylonian Captivity, around 600 BC. Many have wondered whether Nephi is a Semitic name, and if so, what its derivation is. In the story of the purification of the Temple by Nehemiah, a hundred-fifty years later, the name Nephi was mentioned.

Does Nephi mean ‘purification’ or ‘cleansing’? It is not a purely Hebrew word, so we don’t know. Some have suggested it could mean ‘sacred fire’. Does the name Nephi have the same meaning as the word used in 2^nd Maccabees? There are similar names in the Egyptian and Ugaritic records that survive from the 5^th century BC, and earlier. Is Nephi a Hebrew, Arabic, Egyptian, or Ugaritic name? We do not know. But we do know that the word appears elsewhere, and is not unique to the Nephite Record.  

1^st and 2^nd Maccabees are part of what is called the Apocrypha. They are books of Scripture that were included in the Bible before the days of the Messiah, and were included originally in the European Bibles translated by Wycliffe, Luther, Tyndale, and part of the Geneva Bible and King James Bible. The Bibles first brought to America contained the books of the Maccabees. Eventually, Protestants dropped the books of the Apocrypha from the Bible, but they are still included in some versions, including the New Jerusalem Bible, and are easily found online.   2nd Maccabees