If Joseph Smith were simply writing a fictional story, why would he choose this name? “Dr. Hugh Nibley has found ‘a Semitic and common Indo-European root corresponding to anti that means ‘in the face of’ or ‘facing’ as of one facing a mirror, and by extension either ‘one who opposes’ or ‘one who imitates’ … Thus the term ‘Anti-Nephi-Lehies’ might refer to those who imitate the teachings of the descendants of Nephi and Lehi” (Ludlow, Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, 209–10; see also Alma 23:17).