Helaman
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- This article is about Helaman, the son of Alma the Younger, in the Book of Mormon. For other uses, see Helaman (disambiguation).
Image:Helaman.jpg According to the Book of Mormon, Helaman was a prophet and Nephite commander who lived in the Americas around the 1st century BC. Most of what we know about Helaman comes from the Book of Alma. Chapters 45 through 62 in the Book of Alma were abridged by Mormon from Helaman's record.
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Known genealogy
Father: Alma the Younger
Brothers: Shiblon and Corianton
Grandsons: Nephi, son of Helaman and Lehi, son of Helaman
Early life
The first mention of Helaman in the Book of Mormon identifies him as the eldest son of Alma the Younger and states that he was not taken with his father and brothers on a mission among the Zoramites.<ref>Template:Cite web Alma 31:7.</ref> After returning from this mission, Alma instructs Helaman of his conversion and entrusts him with the plates of Nephi, on which he commanded him to keep a record of the Nephite people. Helaman was also commanded by his father to preserve the "twenty-four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ether" and the Urim and Thummim, or "interpreters."<ref>Ibid., Alma 36-37.</ref> Following his father's command, Helaman recording his account of the Nephites in chapters 45 through 62 of the Book of Alma.
Ministry
Shortly after being instructed by his father, Helaman went out went among the people with his brothers and father to preach to them "the word, and the truth, according to the spirit of prophecy and revelation; and they preached after the holy order of God by which they were called."<ref>Ibid., Alma 43:1-2.</ref> In that same year, the wars increased between the Nephites and the Lamanites.
Prior to departing from the land never to heard from again, and in what some consider a model of child-parent interviews,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Helaman's father praises him for his beliefs, dictates to him a prophesy of the destruction of the Nephites, which he was commanded to record but not to make known, and blesses him.<ref>Book of Mormon, Alma 45.</ref>
Following the disappearance of his father and the wars with the Lamanites, Helaman again went with his brothers "among the people to declare the word unto them" and to "to establish the church again in all the land" by appointing "priests and teachers throughout all the land, over all the churches." The people did not respond well to their efforts and dissention and pride grew in the church, eventually leading to the rebellion of a group of dissenters lead by Amalickiah.<ref>Ibid., Alma 45-46.</ref>
After the squandering of the rebellion by Captain Moroni, Helaman and the other high priests maintained order and had "much peace and rejoicing in the church" for four years.<ref>Ibid., Alma 46, 49:30.</ref>
Commander of the Stripling Warriors
Helaman is perhaps best known for commanding an inexperienced band of Anti-Nephi-Lehite (or Ammonite) young men often referred to as the two thousand stripling warriors. Upon joining the Nephites, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies had made a covenant of pacifism, and were thus in need of the protection offered by the Nephite nation against their warring neighbors. When war broke out again between the Nephites and the Lamanites and the Anti-Nephi-Lehies saw the high casualties that the Nephites were receiving on their behalf, they considered breaking their covenant and taking up arms in their own defense.
Helaman, whom some consider a model of "covenant keeping,"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> feared that "by so doing they should lose their souls" and compelled the them to keep their covenant. Their young sons, however, who were born after the covenant and therefore not subject to it, were allowed to contribute to their defense by joining the Nephite armies. Those two thousand sons "would that Helaman should be their leader" and Helaman marched at their head to aid in the ongoing war against the Lamanites.<ref>Book of Mormon, Alma 53:10-23.</ref>
Helaman later wrote an epistle to Captain Moroni recounting the affairs of this army in the war with the Lamanites, consisting of important victories and not a single casualty. He also complains of the lack of support from the Nephite capitol.<ref>Ibid., Alma 56-58.</ref> Once Mornoni deals with the insurrection, Helaman receives aid and after peace is established, he "returned to the place of his inheritance."<ref>Ibid., Alma 62.</ref>
Last years
After the end of the war, Helaman again took "upon him again to preach unto the people the word of God" with his brothers, in which they convinced many to repent and "did establish again the church of God, throughout all the land."<ref>Ibid., Alma 62:44-46.</ref> He died three years later.<ref>Ibid., Alma 62:52.</ref>
See also
References
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