KnoWhy #543 - Why Didn’t Nephi Mention Mary’s Name? (1 Nephi 11:22)

In his vision of the Tree of Life, Nephi beheld a “virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins” (1 Nephi 11:15) who would become “the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh” (v. 18). Interestingly, while other Book of Mormon prophets clearly identified this virgin as Mary (see Mosiah 3:8; Alma 7:10), Nephi never did. It appears that Nephi instead drew attention to the meanings (“love” and “desire”) of an ancient Egyptian root word from which her name was most likely derived. By doing so, Nephi subtly drew attention to Mary’s divinely appointed role to bring forth and raise the Christ Child, who provides the clearest manifestation of God’s love and the most desirable of all of God’s gifts.