Why did Giddianhi swear an oath?

Thomas R. Valletta

“These legal notices declaring war—in effect initiating a lawsuit between the gods of the respective sides, to be decided through the ordeal of battle—were to be lodged according to Jewish law at least two or three days before opening hostilities. Thus, it was consonant with such principles that Giddianhi gave Lachoneus until the ‘morrow month’ to consider his proposal before his armies would come down against the Nephites and make them ‘extinct’ (3 Nephi 3:8)” (Welch, “Law and War,” 61).

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