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The two thousand stripling warriors, also known as The Army of Helaman, are an army of young men in the Book of Mormon, first mentioned in the Book of Alma. [1] They are portrayed as extremely valiant and loyal warriors; in the text, all are wounded in battle and yet survive.
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Four of the sons of Mosiah, including Ammon, were converted miraculously from rebellious youth into believers. Ammon and his brothers embark on a mission to the land of Nephi, and his converts there lay down their lives during attacks by their brethren, which leads to additional conversions. They refuse to take arms due to their conversion. [2] [3]
The Ammonites (or Anti-Nephi-Lehies) were Lamanites who were converted to Christianity by Ammon, the son of Mosiah. Ammon served a fourteen-year mission among the Lamanites and converted thousands. These people were ferocious and bloodthirsty, and had murdered and plundered not only the Nephites but their own people. Once converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ they buried their weapons of war and covenanted "that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood" and "rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives". [4] The remaining unconverted Lamanites began to murder them. When Ammon saw this he moved the Ammonites to a Nephite territory called Jershon so they could be protected by the Nephite army. [5]
When war breaks out between the Nephites and Lamanites, the people of Ammon, moved at seeing the Nephites take up arms to defend them and themselves, consider breaking their earlier oath to never take up weapons again. [6] When their spiritual leaders urge them not to do so, instead 2,000 of their sons—who had not sworn their parents' oath—mobilize for the war effort under the leadership of a prophet named Helaman. [7] The Book of Mormon calls these mobilized young men of the people of Ammon "stripling warriors" and "stripling Ammonites".[ citation needed ] Helaman calls them "my sons", [8] and they are also called "the sons of Helaman". [9] The stripling warriors and Helaman apparently have no prior military experience. [10]
The stripling warriors fight alongside the Nephite army and participate in successful efforts to retake lost Nephite territory. [11] Though every soldier is wounded at one time or another, there are no fatalities among them. [12] Helaman considers this turn of events a miracle owed to the 2,000's great faith, cultivated from the instruction by their mothers.[ citation needed ]
The original 2,000 "sons of Helaman" are later joined by sixty more, making a total of 2,060. [13]
According to folklorist Spencer Lincoln Green, the stripling warriors are part of a "protected child" motif in the Book of Mormon which holds that children require instruction and shaping from their parents. [14]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Primary organization in 1950 commissioned American painter Arnold Friberg to produce twelve paintings depicting Book of Mormon content, one of which was Two Thousand Stripling Warriors. [15] The painting portrays the stripling warriors bare-chested, with highly defined musculature, and shows them marching in a unified formation, as if well drilled, armed with spears in a scene archivist Rebekah Westrup calls "[h]ighly militaristic in content and cinematic in form" that emphasizes masculine strength as an indicator of power. [16] Of his Two Thousand Stripling Warriors, Friberg said he imagined the stripling warriors to be like the biblical David, "a splendid young man, athletic". [17]
Between 1949 and 1951, Latter-day Saint artist Minerva Teichert produced an oil painting depicting the stripling warriors, called Helaman's Striplings. [18] in Teichert's painting, the stripling warriors carry shields and wear helmets, breastplates, and pleated skirts that mostly obscure their bodies, and to one side mothers are shown embracing their sons and bidding them goodbye as they depart. [19]
In 1996, Latter-day Designs launched a line of Book of Mormon action figures, sold for $4.99 each, which included figures portraying the stripling warriors and their commander, Helaman. [20] According to Deseret Book retail figures reported in 1998, the Helaman figure was among the fastest selling in the line. [21]
Helam: A Stripling Warrior Quest Video Game features blood-free combat with hostile Lamanites as part of a plot to find the antagonist who burned down the protagonist's village. [22]
In 2010, Utah state attorney general Mark Shurtleff reported that in the Hildale/Colorado City area, a group of boys nicknamed the "Sons of Helaman" spied on the community on behalf of Warren Jeffs, president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. [23]
The Book of Alma: The Son of Alma, usually referred to as the Book of Alma, is one of the books that make up the Book of Mormon. The title refers to Alma the Younger, a prophet and "chief judge" of the Nephites. Alma is the longest book in the Book of Mormon and consists of sixty-three chapters, taking up almost a third of the volume.
The Book of Helaman is one of the books that make up the Book of Mormon, a text held sacred by churches within the Latter Day Saint movement, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The book continues the history of the Nephites and the Lamanites from approximately 50 BC to 1 BC. It discusses political unrest among the Nephites and the formation of a group of secret dissenters called the Gadianton Robbers. Helaman, son of Helaman leads the Nephites for a time, and his sons Nephi and Lehi go on a successful mission to the Lamanites. When Nephi returns home, he correctly identifies the murderer of the chief judge using his prophetic powers, and sends a famine to the Nephite which lasts three years. After a digression from Mormon, the book of Helaman ends with Samuel the Lamanite's prophecy of the signs that will precede Christ's birth and death. Helaman deals with themes of external and internal conflict, hidden information, Nephite racism, and Mormon's views of history as deduced by his redaction of it.
The Book of Mormon mentions three men named Helaman. The first was the son of King Benjamin, king of the united Nephite-Zarahemla kingdom who lived in the 2nd century BC. Besides his genealogy, information about the first Helaman is limited. His brother, Mosiah, became heir to the throne.
King Noah is a Nephite king in the Book of Mormon who appears in the Book of Mosiah. Noah rules over a Nephite colony who came from Zarahemla and settled in the land of Lehi-Nephi, succeeding his father, Zeniff. In the Book of Mosiah, King Noah breaks away from his father's righteous teachings, committing "all manner of wickedness." Noah and his priests sentence the prophet Abinadi, who prophesied of his kingdom's downfall if they did not repent, to death by fire. During a Lamanite invasion, Noah and some of his people flee the land, and those who remain are subjected to Lamanite control. Noah attempts to forbid his men from returning to their families, and they burn him at the stake. Noah is succeeded by his son, Limhi.
In the Book of Mormon, Ammon is a prominent Nephite missionary and a son of King Mosiah. He originally opposes the church, but along with his brothers and Alma the Younger, is miraculously converted. Following his conversion he serves a mission to the Lamanites and converts Lamoni and his people.
In the Book of Mormon, Limhi is the third and final king of the second Nephite habitation of the land of Lehi-Nephi. He succeeds his father, Noah. Led by Ammon, Limhi and his people escape from the Lamanites with his people to the land of Zarahemla.
Ammonihah is a city mentioned in the Book of Mormon described as governed by lawyers and judges. When the Book of Mormon prophet Alma visits Ammonihah as part of a preaching tour, the city becomes the setting of "one of the most disturbing episodes" of the text in which Ammonihah's governing elite imprison him, exile any men converted by his preaching, and kill women and children associated with his mission by fire.
According to the Book of Mormon, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies were an ethnic group of Lamanites formed around 90 BC, after a significant religious conversion. They made a covenant that they would not participate in war, and buried their weapons. Eventually they changed their name to the people of Ammon, or Ammonites. During a later period of warfare, the young men of the group who had not made the pacifist covenant became a military unit known as the two thousand stripling warriors, and were protected by divine intervention.
According to the Book of Mormon, the plates of Nephi, consisting of the large plates of Nephi and the small plates of Nephi, are a portion of the collection of inscribed metal plates which make up the record of the Nephites. This record was later abridged by Mormon and inscribed onto gold plates from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon after an angel revealed to him the location where the plates were buried on a hill called Cumorah near the town of Palmyra, New York.
According to the Book of Mormon, Nephi, along with his brother Lehi, was a Nephite missionary. His father was Helaman, and his sons include two of the twelve Nephite disciples at the time that Christ visited the Americas.
This chronology outlines the major events in the history of the Book of Mormon, according to the text. Dates given correspond to dates in the footnotes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints edition of the Book of Mormon.
In the Book of Mormon, Mosiah, King Benjamin's son and Mosiah I's grandson, is king of the Nephite nation from about 124 BC to 91 BC. The Book of Mosiah is named after Mosiah. Mosiah is also a prophet and is described by Ammon as a "seer" who can translate records.
In the Book of Mormon, Zenock is a prophet who predates the events of the book's main plot and whose prophecies and statements are recorded upon brass plates possessed by the Nephites. In the narrative, Zenock is a descendant of Joseph, and he is also an ancestor of the Nephites. Narrators of the Book of Mormon and Nephite prophets quote or paraphrase Zenock several times in the course of the text, including Nephi, Alma, son of Alma, Amulek, Nephi, son of Helaman, and Mormon. Zenock's teachings as referenced in the Book of Mormon include prophesying about the Messiah, describing his death and aligning that with something that Mormons believe is like the Christian doctrine of salvation, and rebuking people who reject that message. In the Book of Alma, Alma reports that Zenock was stoned to death for preaching that the Messiah would be the "Son of God."
According to the Book of Mormon, the people commonly referred to as the Amulonites were composed of the priests of king Noah and the daughters of the Lamanites, whom the Amulonites took to wife by force. They are named after Amulon, their leader.
According to the Book of Mormon, the Amlicites were a break-off group of Nephites in the Book of Alma, around 87 B.C. Their leader, Amlici, is not chosen by the people as king, so he and the Amlicites leave the Nephites and join the Lamanites. The Nephites win both of their battles with the Amlicites and Alma kills Amlici in the second battle.
According to the Book of Mormon, Omner was a Nephite missionary and one of the sons of King Mosiah II. He was also brother to the prophet Ammon. As related in the Book of Mormon narrative, Omner and his three brothers, left their father, and his people, to travel to the land of the Lamanites in order to preach the gospel to them.
Abish is a figure in the Book of Mormon who plays a pivotal role in a missionary narrative. She is one of only three named women unique to the Book of Mormon.
In the Book of Mormon, Ammon is a Mulekite descendant and leader of a Nephite expedition from Zarahemla, sent to discover the fate of Zeniff and his people. Zeniff and his followers left Zarahemla and travelled to Nephi, their ancestral home, which was then in the possession of the Lamanites. This may have contributed to his expedition, not knowing the actual route to Nephi.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Book of Mormon: