2 Nephi 30:4

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Reference Search: 2 Nephi 30:4

4 And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews.

Quotes for Discussion

Descendants of the Jews

It is true that Lehi and his family were descendants of Joseph through the lineage of Manasseh (Alma 10:3), and Ishmael was a descendant of Ephraim, according to the statement of the Prophet Joseph Smith. That the Nephites were descendants of Joseph is in fulfillment of the blessings given to Joseph by his father Israel. The Nephites were of the Jews, not so much by descent as by citizenship, although in the long descent from jacob, it could be possible of some mixing of the tribes by inter-marriage.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions [salt Lake City:Deseret Book, 1957], 1:142-143

To Nephi…Jews are those descended from the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah at the time Lehi left Jerusalem, regardless of whether individuals might have had ancestors not of the tribe of Judah (see 2 Nephi 33:8). In terms of this very generalized definition, even one who happened to be descended from one of the ten tribes but who lived around Jerusalem in 600 B.C. would be called a Jew (see 2 Nephi 25:6, 14-15 and 33:8). So in this framework, the Lehite colony—whether Nephite or “Mulekite”—is a subcategory of the Jews.

Robert L. Millet, Rediscovering the Book of Mormon, edited by John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne [salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1991], 187-188

Jew and Judah are national names as well as tribal names. From about 1800 B.C. to about 750 B.C. the terms Jews and Judah applied specifically to one one of the thirteen tribes (counting Joseph as two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, as in Numbers 2). After that time, the terms increasingly began to be used to name any citizen of the kingdom of Judah, which consisted primarily of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but included many people from other tribes, especially Levi.

Ther term Jew first appears in the Old Testament in 2 Kings 16:6, at the time just before the northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria. Thereafter, the Jews, or the southern kingdom of Judah, became the only known surviving remnant of Israel. Nephi referred to the Jews as “them from whence I came” (2 nephi 33:8).

Mulek, and possibly all of the Mulekites, were Jews of the tribe of Judah. They were “exceedingly numerous” (Omni 1:17) when discovered by the people of King Mosiah. In addition to being descendants of the Jews in the national sense, there is also a blood relationship to the tribe of Judah among the modern Lamenites.

Book of Mormon Student Manual, Religion 121 and 122 [salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1989], 41