As I was journeying to see a very near kindred, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto me and said: Amulek, return to thine own house, for thou shalt feed a prophet of the Lord; yea, a holy man, who is a chosen man of God; for he has fasted many days because of the sins of this people, and he is an hungered and thou shalt receive him into thy house and feed him, and he shall bless thee and thy house; and the blessing of the Lord shall rest upon thee and thy house. (Alma 10:7)
Commenting
on Amulek’s reference to “very near kindred,” Brant Gardner noted that:
Culture/Translation: “Very near kindred” is somewhat awkward,
suggesting that it translates a term that Joseph might not have known, one that
captures a particular relationship known to the Nephites but which would be out
of the range of standard English terms. Such a term probably stood in contrast
to “distant kindred” yet would not have been part of Amulek’s immediate family,
since he could then have used father, brother, etc.
A possible model for this relationship
term may be found in the Nahuatl (Aztec) language. Pedro Carrasco, an
anthropologist, indicates that Nahuatl distinguished between lineal and collateral
kin. (Pedro Carrasco, “Sobre
algunos términos de parentesco en el nahuatl clásico,” Estudios de
Cultural Náhuatl [1966], 6:161) This indicator was a flexible one that
might be attached to many specific terms. Possibly Amulek’s language had a
similar marker that would indicate “distant” and “very near” kin. (Brant A.
Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of
Mormon, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007], 4:167)
