Helaman's Deacons

Just how old were the Book of Mormon stripling warriors? Fifteen years before they volunteered to fight, their parents entered into a covenant never to take up weapons again. That covenant likely included their children deemed old enough to covenant for themselves. Was it possible the covenant included all their children? So the oldest of the stripling warriors would have been anywhere between the ages of 23 and 15.

The youngest of the stripling warriors was probably quite a bit younger than that. Keep in mind, the Nephites later had no problem appointing a 15-year-old Mormon chief captain over their armies. With that fact in mind, I doubt Helaman would have made as much a big deal of the age of his troops if they were all a bunch of 15-year-olds.

Consider this definition from the 1828 edition of Webster's dictionary: "STRIPLING, noun [from strip, stripe; primarily a tall slender youth, one that shoots up suddenly.] A youth in the state of adolescence, or passing from boyhood to manhood; a lad."

Given that definition, I doubt very much there were any 23-year-olds following Helaman. Given that definition, I suspect Helaman led hundreds of deacon-aged youth. So the deacons advisor in today's gag should suck it up--Helaman had it worse.

Today's clever gag came from faithful reader Spencer V.