Secret Combinations Pt. II - Gadianton Robbers

What Does the Book of Mormon Say About Inequality? Series

The Book of Mormon contains some surprising insights concerning economic inequality.  This series explores several topics addressed by the LDS scripture and its insights for today.

Who are the Gadianton Robbers and Murderers?

There are many groups of secret combinations in the Book of Mormon - a list of which is at the end of this post - but the greatest detail is given to the worst of the bunch, the Gadianton Robbers.

The Gadianton Robbers practice every strategy mentioned in the last article - in fact that list is largely generated from details about Gadianton - but they use different strategies at different times in Nephite history.  Their activities are markedly different in the book of Helaman than 3 Nephi, so let's take a look at each of those books separately.

Gadianton Robbers in Helaman

The beginning of the book of Helaman contains an election for the new chief judge.  Pahoran II wins the election, but one of his opponents, Pahoran's brother Paanchi, is so angry about his loss that he forms a secret combination of his friends and supporters and they secretly plot Pahoran's death.  His plans are discovered and he is punished by the law, but his combination nevertheless sends an assassin to kill Pahoran who is successful.

The government hunts the assassin, and his secret combination, but are only partially successful at seeking them out and destroying them over the next several chapters.  A man named Gadianton takes over the band of murderers and robbers, and the secret combination is called after his name thereafter.  Throughout the book of Helaman these Gadianton Robbers act subtly - conducting secret murders, taking advantage of weak government and laws in order to rob and steal, and always seeking to put their own members in powerful positions.

In Helaman 3 economic inequality grows as a result of Gadianton's secret activities - and social contentions, iniquities, and dissensions accompany the inequality.  The new chief judge, Helaman, diligently acts to reduce the contentions and to hunt Gadianton, but the Robbers flourish in settled parts of the land and where the government is unaware of their existence (Helaman 3:23).  Eventually, the inequality is so great that even the members of the church become prideful and begin persecuting the poor - which has been discussed in the article on the Pride Cycle.

A ten year war humbles the people, and even results in the conversion of the Lamanites, during which time the Gadianton Robbers lose power.  Once the fighting ends in Helaman 6, both the Lamanites and Nephites become wealthy through trade with each other, and the people begin to set their hearts upon riches and to support the Gadianton Robbers.

Initially, the Gadianton Robbers are most numerous among the Lamanites, but the converted Lamanites are so ashamed of the iniquity among them that they hunt down and destroy or convert the Robbers among them, until they cease to exist (Helaman 6:20,37).  The Nephites, on the other hand, do just the opposite:

38 And it came to pass on the other hand, that the Nephites did build them up and support them, beginning at the more wicked part of them, until they had overspread all the land of the Nephites, and had seduced the more part of the righteous until they had come down to believe in their works and partake of their spoils, and to join with them in their secret murders and combinations.

39 And thus they did obtain the sole management of the government, insomuch that they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor and the meek, and the humble followers of God.

The lies of these robbers were so convincing that they managed to persuade the righteous to practice iniquities with them, and even to join in their murders (probably not overt murders - these were still the "righteous" people - but deaths caused through withholding resources).  Once in power, they used their political leverage to immediately persecute the poor, as they had been doing all along through their robbing and priestcrafts.

The prophets Nephi and Samuel address the iniquities of the people in the rest of the book of Helaman.  Some listen to their words, but most only repent after a serious economic collapse and a famine.

Gadianton Robbers in 3 Nephi

In 3 Nephi the Gadianton Robbers try some new tactics.

In chapter 1, they make defensible strongholds in the mountains, and then convince dissenters to leave in droves from both the Nephites and the Lamanites.  The people throughout the land are wicked and iniquitous, and these iniquities strengthen the Robbers.

In chapter 2, the Robbers become powerful enough to leave their strongholds in armies in order to murder and to pillage, and even to destroy entire villages, and then to retreat back to their strongholds, where the governments of the Nephites and Lamanites could not touch them.

In chapter 3, Giddiani, the new leader of the Gadianton Robbers, writes to Lachoneous, the leader of the Nephites demanding the surrender of their possessions:

6 Therefore I write unto you, desiring that ye would yield up unto this my people, your cities, your lands, and your possessions, rather than that they should visit you with the sword and that destruction should come upon you.

7 Or in other words, yield yourselves up onto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us - not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance.

This is an invitation for the Nephites to abandon their economic laws and beliefs and to join in the economic system of the Gadianton Robbers.  It is not a direct lie, those who join would be partners, but they would lose whatever measure of equality they previously created by their laws, as well as their freedom of worship and their church, which preached against the iniquities of Gadianton.

The righteous Nephites and Lamanites see that in order to defend their freedoms and liberties, as well as their very lives, they would need to ban together to defeat the Gadianton Robbers.  All the righteous are gathered into one part of the land, and the people share their resources and build fortifications and armies.  The Gadianton Robbers come to battle, but are repulsed by the courage and renewed ethics of equality and liberty of the Nephites and Lamanites.

The righteous wait in their fortified land for seven years, having plenty of resources once they combined against the Robbers.  The Robbers on the other hand, having never had a sustainable economic system as they relied on robbing and plundering, eventually starve, and their combination collapses. 

The Nephites and Lamanites then are able to return to their lands and to enjoy prosperity purchased through law, renewed economic morality, and their warfare with the Robbers.

Unfortunately, the prosperity and peace do not last.  In chapter 6 the people become unequal and prideful, and a pride cycle ensues.  This pride cycle was detailed in the second article concerning the pride cycle - it features not only inequality of wealth, but serious inequality in access to education which leads to many social problems.

This instance of pride and persecution of the poor is so bad that it leads to the breaking up of the church of God among the people for the first time since its organization with Alma and King Mosiah.  The wickedness also gives the last remaining secret Gadianton Robbers enough power to destroy the government and its laws once and for all in chapter 7:

6  And the regulations of the government were destroyed, because of the secret combination of the friends and kindreds of those who murdered the prophets.

The government collapses, and for the rest of the history until the coming of Jesus the people are divided into tribes.  The Gadianton Robbers thus had finally managed to destroy the laws of the land which limited their ability to steal, rob, murder, and commit other iniquities.

The Nephites and Lamanites gave the Robbers the power to destroy the government because of their love of money, and after only a few short years since they had sacrificed everything in order to defeat them.

Save for the complete destruction of the Nephites at the end of the Book of Mormon, this episode is the greatest tragedy of the book.  It was all thanks to the greed and iniquities of secret combinations, and the inequality and other disasters that ensue when their lust for money is accompanied with political power.

Chapters about the Gadianton Robbers and Other Secret Combinations

Online Scriptures
Ether 8-11, 14-15 - Secret combinations among the Jaredites
Mosiah 11-12, 23-24; Alma 24-25, 43  - King Noah and his priests
Alma 1,4, 8-16, 21-22, 31-35 - The Order of Nehors - Amalekites, Zoramites
Alma 37 - Concerning the Jaredite Record
Alma 46-48  - Amalikiah
Alma 51, 61-62 - The King-men
Helaman 2-13 - Gadianton's secret society
3 Nephi 1-7 - Wars against the Gadianton Robbers
4 Nephi, Mormon 1 - Reemergence of Gadianton


What Does the Book of Mormon Say About Inequality - Table of Contents