According to the Book of Mormon Onomasticon, Lachoneus is the masculine form of the hypothetical Greek word *lakonios, “Spartan, Laconian”; cf. the attested forms lakonion (neuter) and lakonia (feminine).1 Λακεδαιμόνιος = an inhabitant of Sparta, or Lacedaemon. Λακωνία = Laconia is a regional unit in Greece, and the genitive of this word is Lakonias = Λακωνίας, the genitive singular form of Lakonia.
Some have questioned why a Greek name would be in a text purported to have come from7th-6th century Semitic people. In other words, why was the name Lachoenus not listed among the names of the members of Lehi’s party, all of which were Near eastern in origin, but happens to occur later in the text?
Perhaps the puzzle can be solved by looking at the text in a different way. Remember that when Mosiah leaves the Land of Nephi on another Exodus around 270 B.C. and joins with the people of Zarahemla, who are another branch of Israel from another group who fled Jerusalem about the same time as Lehi. Who were these people? What size of group could this have been? Did this group (or Lehi’s party) ever have contact with Greece or Greek speaking peoples?
There is strong evidence to suggest that the ancient world was much more connected that we have previously thought. Eric Cline, professor of Classics, Anthropology, and History wrote about the connection between Egypt, Greece, and Palestine during the economic and social upheavals of the Bronze Age. In the 3rd chapter of his book 1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed, he describes a Canaanite ship en route to the Aegean that sank of the coast of Turkey around 1300 B.C. This ship, which Cline refers to as the Uluburun ship, contained nearly a ton of raw tin and ten tons of raw copper (over 350 ingots), which could be used to create bronze. The ship also contained raw glass, storage jars filled with barley, resin, and spices. The contents of this ship, according to Cline, completely altered modern scholars’ assumptions about the connectivity and extent of trade in the ancient world.2
Using this remains of the rich cargo of this ship, and through an analysis of the diversity of its cargo, Cline states:
We may never know who sent the Uluburun ship on its voyage or where it was going and why, but it is clear that the ship contained a microcosm of the international trade and contacts that were ongoing in the Eastern Mediterranean, and across the Aegean, during the early thirteenth century BC. Not only were there goods from at least seven different areas, but—judging from the personal possessions the archaeologists found in the shipwreck—there were also at least two Mycenaeans on board, even though this seems to have been a Canaanite ship. Clearly this ship does not belong to a world of isolated civilizations, kingdoms, and fiefdoms, but rather to an interconnected world of trade, migration, diplomacy, and, alas, war. This really was the first truly global age. 3
Seeing this evidence helps readers of the Book of Mormon see the connectivity that existed in the ancient world, and to me, helps me to see the connection between Greek speakers and the Hebrews of the 7th century B.C. We know that the elites in Jerusalem had contacts with Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian cultures from a reading of the Hebrew Bible. Lehi clearly had knowledge of Egyptian script, which he taught to his sons. The name Lachoneus, with its Greek background, demonstrates that these ancient connections and traditional family names must have continued into the judges period of the Book of Mormon text.
Notes
- Book of Mormon Onomasticon, Lachoneus.
- Eric Cline, 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, Princeton University Press, 2015, p. 74. Indeed, Cline describes the vast wealth that was lost in this shipwreck when he says, “In all, products from at least seven different countries, states, and empires were on board the ship. In addition to its primary cargo of ten tons of Cypriot copper, one ton of tin, and a ton of terebinth resin, there were also two dozen ebony logs from Nubia; almost two hundred ingots of raw glass from Mesopotamia, most colored dark blue, but others of light blue, purple, and even a shade of honey/amber; about 140 Canaanite storage jars in two or three basic sizes, which contained the terebinth resin, remains of grapes, pomegranates, and figs, as well as spices like coriander and sumac; brand-new pottery from Cyprus and Canaan, including oil lamps, bowls, jugs, and jars; scarabs from Egypt and cylinder seals from elsewhere in the Near East; swords and daggers from Italy and Greece (some of which might have belonged to crew members or passengers), including one with an inlaid hilt of ebony and ivory; and even a stone scepter-mace from the Balkans. There was also gold jewelry, including pendants, and a gold chalice; duck-shaped ivory cosmetic containers; copper, bronze, and tin bowls and other vessels; twenty-four stone anchors; fourteen pieces of hippopotamus ivory and one elephant tusk; and a six-inch-tall statue of a Canaanite deity made of bronze overlaid with gold in places—which, if it was supposed to serve as the protective deity for the ship, didn’t do its job very well.
- Ibld. , p. 79, emphasis added.