Sam (Book of Mormon): Difference between revisions

Sam is a minor character in the early part of the Book of Mormon narrative. He is the third son of Lehi and the older brother of Nephi, the narrator of the Book of Mormon's first two books. Sam is almost always allied with Nephi in conflicts with their older brothers, Laman and Lemuel. In the later books of the Book of Mormon, Sam's descendants are combined with Nephi's descendants and simply called "Nephites."

Sam is mentioned only eleven times in the Book of Mormon, with all but one of these mentions coming in the First and Second Books of Nephi.^[1]

In most cases, Sam is mentioned in connection to other people, such as the sons of Lehi or the ancestors of the Nephites. The two most important exceptions occur in 1 Nephi 2:17, in which Nephi describes speaking to Sam about "the things which the Lord had manifested . . . by the Holy Spirit," and in 2 Nephi 4:11, when a dying Lehi blesses his children, telling Sam, "Blessed art thou, and thy seed; for thou shall inherit the land like unto thy brother Nephi. And thy seed shall be numbered with his seed; and thou shalt be even like unto thy brother, and thy seed like unto his seed; and thou shalt be blessed in all thy days."

The Book of Mormon presents Sam as a Nephi's constant ally against their older brothers, Laman and Lemuel. When the original Lehite colony splits into Nephites and Lamanites, Sam and his family side with the Nephites. In their 1992 article "Seven Tribes, and Aspect of Lehi's Legacy," John L. Sorenson, John A. Tvedtnes, and John W. Welch point out that, while tribes of Nephites, Lamanites, and Lemuelites persist throughout the text, as do Jacobites and Josephites (Lehi's younger sons born in the desert), there areTobler Hunt "never Samites in the book of Mormon"^[2]. Sam's descendants are entirely subsumed into the descendants of Nephi.

In a 1996 article, Ken Haubrock notes the paucity of information that the Book of Mormon provides about Sam. "We have only the barest sketch of him as a person," laments Haubrock. "This would not seem out of the ordinary except when we realize that Sam was witness to early Nephite history. Almost every hardship and adventure that Lehi's family went through . . . [was] probably also experienced by Sam."^[3] Haubrook also suggests that, by directing that Sam's posterity be combined with Nephi's, Lehi "implies that Nephi is receiving a double portion--just as his ancestor Joseph did through Ephraim and Manasseh--and that Sam and his decedents are to be the second half of that double portion."^[3]

BYU professor Noel B. Reynolds has argued that Lehi blesses Laman, Lemuel, and Sam with a share of Nephi's inheritance on the condition that they "hearken unto [Nephi] (2 Nephi 1:28-29). Because Sam is the only brother who remains faithful to Nephi, he alone receives a portion of Nephi's inheritance blessing.^[4]

Brant Gardner refers to Sam as "Nephi's first convert" and argues that Nephi and Sam represent the two gifts of the spirit identified in Doctrine and Covenants 46:13-14: "To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he was crucified for the sins of the world. To others it is given to believe on their words." In this case, Nephi's gift was to receive "direct confirmation" of Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life, while Sam's gift was to hear and believe Nephi's testimony. "Both are gifts of the Spirit, and neither is superior to the other," Gardner concludes. "Both methods lead to the same end. Both Nephi and Sam remain faithful and follow their father. Sam receives the same blessing as Nephi.^[5]"

Writing in Understanding the Book of Mormon, Grant Hardy suggests that Nephi flattens all of his brothers into collective characters who either help or hider his own efforts. "The only time that Laman does anything independently is when he goes to Laban's house to ask for the plates," Hardy writes, "otherwise, he always speaks and acts in conjunction with Lemuel. Lemuel, in turn, never opposes Laman in any way, and never appears without Laman close by." Similarly, Nephi portrays Sam as "a rather passive ally of Nephi's in family dynamics-who is bland to the point of being nearly a nonentity." Hardy calls this "selective characterization" that Nephi likely uses as a narrative strategy "in order to sharpen the main conflict between himself and Laman and Lemuel."^[6]

In most poetic and novelistic representations of the Book of Mormon, Sam is portrayed as Nephi's loyal sidekick with very little personality of his own--much as he is portrayed in the text of the Book of Mormon. However, several Latter-day Saint poets have filled Sam's silences in the Book of Mormon with their own poetic creations. Mildred Tobler Hunt's poem "Sam Speaks," for example, portrays Sam's willingness to leave his beloved city of Jerusalem when his father and brother confirmed that it was God's will:

In his collection Psalm & Selah: A Poetic Journey through the Book of Mormon, Mark D. Bennion identifies with Sam, the unnoticed supporter, more than with Nephi, the eloquent prophet.

Both Hunt and Bennion use Sam as a metaphor for a certain kind of religious adherents--the ordinary believers who neither seek nor require dramatic confirmation of their beliefs but are content to serve supporting roles and live lives of quiet faith.