In 1 Nephi 13-14 the BoM speaks of “a man among the gentiles” who will go across “the many waters” to find the remnant of Lehi. After he does this, “many multitudes of the gentiles” will follow suit. These gentiles are in possession of a special book called The Book of the Lamb of God.

They go in large numbers to the promised land inhabited by the seed of Lehi. Once there, they scatter the Lehites and take possession of the covenant lands. The BoM makes it clear that the gentiles are able to do this because God allows it, but it’s not a good thing. How do we know? Because it’s something the gentiles must repent of, and if they don’t, their works of death and destruction will be repaid in kind.

Luckily we know that some of the gentiles DO repent and join with the Lehites in warring against the unrepentant gentiles. As a reward, the repentant gentiles are adopted into Israel through Lehi’s line and get to be counted as God’s chosen people.

But the point of this post is that these gentiles are initially disposed to do some bad things of which they must repent. Meaning, they aren’t the good guys when they go and kill/scatter the Lehites.

And yet…..

They are in possession of the BotLoG. And they are apparently “wrought upon” by the “spirit of God” *before* they scatter the Lehites.

And I looked and beheld a man among the gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters. And I beheld the spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren who were in the promised land.  And it came to pass that I beheld the spirit of God, that it wrought upon other gentiles.  And they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.  

And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the gentiles upon the land of promise

How do we reconcile this? They are “wrought upon” by “the spirit of god” and yet, as a result, they do pretty bad things of which they must repent. One workaround is to question the motives of “the spirit of god”. Which god? Or better said, which spirit of which god? Is it a god like Eru or Manwe? Or a god like Melkor? This spirit is clearly a spirit of great power but is it also a spirit of goodness?

Like I said in my last post, maybe the Lehites aren’t inside the hollow Earth but inside Mars.

I think that possibility makes Elon Musk a prime candidate for the “man among the gentiles” upon whom the spirit of god is wrought. There’s no denying Elon is a singular individual, and I once mused on a few possible explanations for his existence. He is famously obsessed with getting to Mars and has made remarkable advances in space travel to that end. It got me thinking about what elvish might reveal about him.

“Elon” is a Hebrew word meaning “oak tree”. It can also be a variant spelling of Ilan and Ilon. Eldamo gives us some tantalizing possibilities with his name:

ellon = elf man. wow that’s a pretty direct hit although I think the e might be a short e in this case rather than a long e.

ilon = sky. Another pretty direct hit. I mean it could only be better if it said “outer space obsessed person” or something.

ilon = Iluvatar, God. Whoa. Thats…interesting.

His middle name is Reeves which I can’t do much with in elvish. In our languages it means an official or a president. Also a good fit for him.

And lastly, musk. In our language it has to do with an odor. In elvish:

musc = grey. That’s also pretty intriguing.

Some combinations:

grey elf man
grey Iluvatar

Grey Elf Man

There are “grey elves” in Tolkien’s world known as the Sindar. I guess an easy cop out is to say he is some random Sindar elf. But grey is also associated with Thingol, known as Greymantle. Could Elon be Thingol? I think not just because I imagine Thingol being a much better overall person than Elon is proving to be.

Bill suggested Elon is Cirdan due to his ship building prowess. Cirdan resided at the Grey Havens so yeah, maybe. But again I imagine Cirdan would be a better overall person than Elon is if he were born as a man. Still, grey elf man gives us some options.

Grey Iluvatar

The reference to Iluvatar is obviously an eye catcher. I suppose a really wild theory is that Eru Iluvatar has again assumed human form. But I think not. Having died and resurrected as Jesus, I think he’s been there done that. Is there more than one Eru Iluvatar? In the strict sense, no. Eru literally means “the one” and I do believe he is a singular Being and literally the greatest of all. I do recall in Daymon’s books a reference to Melkor as “dark Eru” or “black Eru”, something like that. Melkor was nowhere near Eru’s level of greatness but that didn’t keep him from laying claim to the title.

So what if Elon is a not a “dark Eru” but he is of another kind: grey. One who is wrought upon by the spirit of god but then does some things of which he should repent, such as leading a group of gentiles to kill Lehites and steal their lands.

One other nugget: Mars does not come up on Eldamo, but “mar” does. And it means “home, dwelling, habitation”. Maybe for some group, Mars is home and that explains the desire to go there.

Iluvatar is a word that means “all father” or “father of all”. Elon certainly is working to spread his seed. He has fathered at least 13 children with 4 different women. He’s no saint, from what I can tell. In fact, in my prior musing, my first theory was that he was an elf/maia/valar reborn but I said “Potential plot twist: he’s angelic, but not a good angel.” If he’s the man among the gentiles that Nephi saw, then I think that still holds true.

A god born as man, but by no means altogether good. Grey. Perhaps an anti Christ figure, one who, nonetheless, is wrought upon by the spirit of god to move the story of the world forward.