And my Father Dwelt in a Tent

“And my Father dwelt in a tent” (1 Nephi 2:15) surely this is one of the first scriptures every seminary student memorizes, not only because of it length but also because of its perceived irrelevance. It is tossed of the lips as a humorous answer during a Sunday school lesson. At first glance it would seem as a parenthetical thought almost not worth mentioning but recently I have wondered if it was meant to mean something more. Perhaps Nephi was purposeful in his writing when he selected this phrase to describe his father’s abode. He may have used this statement to emphasis a point that would be clear to a person of his time but is lost on a modern day reader who lacks context. After all it was not just once that he mentioned the place of his father’s dwelling but four times. A point that for him was significant.

1 Nephi 2:15	And my father dwelt in a tent.
1 Nephi 9:1	And all these things did my father see, and hear, and speak, as he dwelt in a tent, in the valley of Lemuel, and also a great many more things, which cannot be written upon these plates.
1 Nephi 10:16	And all these things, of which I have spoken, were done as my father dwelt in a tent, in the valley of Lemuel.
1 Nephi 16:6	Now, all these things were said and done as my father dwelt in a tent in the valley which he called Lemuel.

I have often wondered about the significance and over the years have heard several reasons Nephi may have mentioned this oddity.

1.  It showed Lehi’s prosperity. He was obviously a person of wealth as he had both the knowledge and the financial ability to pack up his family, and provisions and travel into the wilderness. I would assume a traveling tent would not have been a part of the average family’s belongings of the time.
2. This also showed Lehi’s undoubting faith, leaving behind the comforts of home and wealth in response to the word of the Lord.
3.  It showed his commitment to the nomadic lifestyle he would go where the Lord wanted him to go.
4. Or It may have simply marked the end of a thought before Nephi moved onto the next part of his history.

Recently I have been reading some information that recalled in my mind this verse and made me wonder if Nephi added this phrase more deliberately then may first appear.

For the nomad culture the tent held particular significance. It was not merely a place of shelter but a cosmic center if you will, a central hub for the day to day life of the family. This thought was extended further when the Israelites were commanded to build the tabernacle (Exodus 26). In Hebrew the word used is מִשְׁכַּן, mishkan, translated "residence" or "dwelling place". According to the Hebrew Bible, it was the portable earthly dwelling place for God, a spiritual center in the midst of the desert from the time of the Exodus through the conquering of the land of Canaan.

In 1929 a French archaeologists discovered writings found in the ruined city of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra) in Syria. This text has been used by scholars of the Hebrew Bible to clarify Biblical texts and has revealed ways in which ancient Israelite culture found parallels in the neighboring culture of the Canaanites. Some scholars even argue that the God El of the Canaanites was the prototype of the Israelite God Yahweh.

For me it is not so much of being a prototype but a different way of telling the same truth. The same truths were taught in the beginning to all. The stories of one culture may differ slightly or significantly from one another but the same core eternal teaching where being conveyed. In this case that there is a supreme God. The fact that God was called by a different name is unconcerning to me. To the canaanites god was El, to the Jews Yahweh, to the Egyptian Osiris, to the Christians God the Father. They where each trying to teach the same lessons taught under a different name. Over time some of the truths may have been distorted or changed but the basic element was there. A carful study of the Old Testament will show how the Canaanite worship of the God of El may have been more similar to Old Testament teachings then we would first think.

For Example in Hebrew El (אֵל) is also used as the word for "god” an element that is lost in the translation. It is used generically for any god, it could represent the god of the Canaanites, an idol or the supreme God (Yahweh). In the Tanakh, Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) is the normal word for the God (or gods, given that the 'im' suffix makes a word plural in Hebrew).

For the Canaanites El is the main god in the pantheon. He is the "Creator of all creatures", the "eternal king", "father of years", " the father of all the gods", "father of the bull". He is called "ab adm" or "father of adam (mankind)". All of this sounds familiar for Christians and Jew alike. His name occurs 238 times in the Old Testament. The suffix “el” also plays an important part in many Hebrew names and in the names for god.

Name	Hebrew	Translation
Michael	מִיכָאֵל (Mikha'el)	Who is like God (El)?
Gabriel	גַבְרִיאֵל (Gavri'el)	God (El)  is my strength
Israel	יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisraʾel)	who prevails with God (El)
Daniel	דָּנִיֵּאל (Daniyy’el)	God (El) is my judge
Samuel	שְׁמוּאֵל (Shemu'el)	Name of God (El) or God (El) has heard
Lemuel*	לְמוּאֵל  (Lemu’el)	Devoted to God (El) or Belongs to God (El)
Ishmael*	יִשְׁמָעֵאל (Yishma'el)	God (El) will hear

*Appears in the Book of Mormon the Book of Mormon

Names for God	Translation	First used
El Shaddai	God (El) the Almighty	Genesis 17:1
El Elyon	God (El) the Most High	Genesis 14:18
El Olam	God (El) the Eternal	Genesis 21:33

Almost in all aspect accept for his sexual activity the nature of El was similar to that of Yahweh. Some Modern scholars even believe "Yahweh" should be "Yahweh-el" meaning "El who brings into being" This is further developed in the writings of the old testament

Verse	Original	Superimposition of original Hebrew
Gen 33:20	And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel.	And he erected there an altar, and called it El "the God of Israel"
Jos 22:22	God (El), God (Elohim), the LORD (Yahweh)	Yahweh is El of the gods [Elohim]
Ps 95:3	For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.	For Yahweh is the great El, the Great King over all the gods

When Yahweh first reveals himself to Moses he stated

I am the Lord ... I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by the Name of God Almighty

Superimposing some original Hebrew this passage would read something like this

I am the Yahweh ... I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by the Name of El Saddai  [El the Almighty] Ex 6:2-3.

In the Ugaritic writtings El presided over a Heavenly Council of gods. In the ancient world of Canaan, this was to considered to be the highest form of government in the universe, one which kings patterned their courts after. The "Assembly of El" or "sons of El" appear in Pss 82:1, 29:1, 89:6. In this light it is interesting that the most common word for God in the Old Testament is "Elohim" the plural form of El which means "the gods".

You may have been thinking to yourself that the similarities of Canaan on the writings of the Old Testament is very interesting but what does it have to do with Nephi’s Father dwelling in a tent. There are several interesting elements that may have been significant to Nephi between El and Lehi.

First El was said to have lived in a tent. The following excerpt for the Ugaritic text states:

Then they set face Toward El at the sources of the Two Rivers, In the midst of the pools of the Double-Deep. They entered the tent of El and went into the tent-shrine of the King, the Father of Years. (3.5.13-16, Go cnt; 4.4.20-24, Go 51; 6.1.32-36, Go 49; 2.3.4-5, Go 129; 17.6.46-49, Go 2 Aqht.)

El was the patriarch of the Gods. He lived in a tent at the source of two rivers in the midst of the pools of the double deep. According to some the rivers and the pools of the double-deeps may refer to actual rivers or they may represent the mythological sources of the salt water ocean and the fresh water springs. A Hittite fragment of this Canaanite myth also shows El living in a tent at the source of a river.

Lehi’s tent like the God El was located “in the midst of the pools of the double-deep” near a fresh water and salt water source. According to Nephi the tent of his father was located at the mouth of a river which emptied into the Red Sea (1 Ne. 4:8). The river was also referred to as “a river of water” (Ne.2:6) which could be interpreted that this was not a transient river that came and went with the rainy season but one that flowed year round. This interpretation is further solidified by Lehi’s plea to his son that he would be “like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness” (1 Ne 2:9).

Lehi was also the patriarch of his family. At no time was it referred to as the “family tent” or “our tent” but as Lehi’s tent. It was not until they arrived on the shores of the ocean near Bountiful that Nephi speaks of “our tents”(1 Ne. 17:6). By this time he and his brothers had established families of their own.

Just like El’s tent Lehi’s was the official center of all administration and authority the figurative center of the universe.  1 Nephi 3:1; 4:38; 5:7; 7:5; 7:21-22; 15:1 and 16:10 speak of the tent as the headquarters for all activities, discussions, and decisions.

It was from this Lehi’s tent that he directed his children to return to enlist Ishmael and his family that they should take the daughters to wife, “that they might raise up seed unto the Lord in the land of promise” (1 Ne 7:1).  On their successful return it was to “the tent of [Nephi’s] father” they brought Ishmael and his daughters (1 Ne. 7:22). 

Lehi’s tent was a place of sacrifice and revilation. For after Lehi pitched his tent he build an altar of stone and made sacrifices unto the lord (1 Ne 2:5-7). Abraham also made an alter where he pitched his tent at Beth-el (house of El - sorry superman God had the title first). We read “from thence [he traveled] unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord” (Gen 12:8). Later it was at Beth-el that Jacob would see God standing at the top of a Ladder upon which his angles accended and decended. Normally alters and sacrifices where made in holy places or high in the mountains. In these cases the places may have been considered holy because that is where their tents were pitch just as the tabernacle made the ground upon which it was pitch sacred. So to was the tent of El a place of sacrifice on the sacred ground where the earth meat the heaven.

For me it is significant that Lehi received the vision of the tree of life while as the scripture say he “dwelt in a tent” (1 Ne 8 through 1 Ne 9:1). I think it also significant that after Nephi experienced a similar vision that his first action was to return to the “tent of his father” (1 Ne 15:1). It was the tent where the oracles were received.

Finally it was from the door of his tent in which El divine oracles were pronounced. A theme that is also seen in the Old Testaments with the tabernacle. For it was written that “at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord: where [God] will meet you, to speak there unto thee” (Ex. 29:42). With this in mind it is interesting that Lehi awoke to find the Liahona a brass ball that would lead them on their journey to the promised land at the door to his tent (1 Nephi 16:8-11).

The similarities between Lehi’s tent and that of El’s Celestial tent is striking. For me it confirms The Book of Mormon as a historical text. Reading the Old Testament you can see the parallels in the teachings of the Canaanites and those of the children of Israel. I would argue you can also see those parallels through Nephi’s writings. Particularly in his writings about his fathers tent. 

I believe for Nephi his father dwelling in a tent was profound and symbolic. When he mentioned this it was because for him the tent of his father was the center of his world, a place of assembly, the place where God would communicate to man through his father. And so it is that I believe he wrote not in passing but with profound emotion and a sense of awe that  his “Father dwelt in a tent”.