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Thanks Robert, I love the linguistic commentary!
Nathan Arp tells a wonderful, gripping story, even though one must finally ask whether we can justify godly men employing secret service assassins.
In any case, as a possible instance of Jaredite-name carryover, Jo Ann Hackett pointed out years ago that the name Helaman was likely taken from an Akkadian name DUMU ḫal-la-ma-na (in Akkadian legal text at Ugarit, likely read as mar ḫal-la-ma-na) “son of Ġullamanu; son of Helaman,” which may have been the same as the Ugaritic personal name bn ḥlm (as suggested by Hackett) — probably the same term bm ḥlm “son of Ḥalom,” in a tomb graiffito at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. Applied to the nameless “servant of Helaman” (Helaman 2:6-9) this might mean that the servant was thus called *warad-ḫal-la-ma-na “servant of Helaman.” The closest we may get to a proper name.
Q: ‘[Can we] justify godly men employing secret service assassins?’
A: When liberty is on the line, the short answer is, yes. The servant of Helaman wasn’t an ‘assassin.’ He was a spy who had to kill to protect Helaman and overall Nephite liberty. Teancum wasn’t an ‘assassin,’ he was Special Forces/Covert Ops and had to kill to protect troops and prevent additional death among the Nephites. Nephi1 had to ‘assassinate’ Laban so that a whole nation wouldn’t dwindle in unbelief.
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing,” (John Stuart Mill). Captain Moroni was a godly man (Nephites purposefully chose righteous military leaders and Captain Moroni even had his own revelation), plus he employed spies (Alma 43:23). Alma2, after he became godly, also employed spies (Alma 2:21). The BofM doesn’t mention that Captain Moroni’s or Alma2’s spies had to assassinate anyone, but the possibility of killing in the line of duty comes with spy-craft.
It’s perhaps naive to imagine that no godly man would ever have to “assassinate” a target in the line of duty or that a godly man would actually think it’s okay for an ‘ungodly’ man perform the dirty work, so that he might skip along enjoying his ‘godly’ life.
Thank you, Maggie! I agree!
Very germane comments, Maggie, which are in accord with what I myself have thought most of my life (I was even in the USMC and am a member of an association of those who formerly did special ops, sometimes including assassination).
Yes, Nephi executed Laban, and the OT Prophet Samuel executed Agag (I Sam 15:33), and Little David lopped off Goliath’s head with his own battle-ax. So there is precedent. Some of our General Authorities have served in the military in wartime (Pres Monson served in the U.S. Navy in WW II, and Pres Nelson in the U.S. Army in Korea), and Church policy accepts the need for such service. Killing is not always murder.
However, I would like to see a more than passing discussion pro and con of the issues which surround such matters. Perhaps a book-length study. It may not be so cut and dried as we suppose.