5 our journey of faith hebraisms, internal literary insight, chiasmus etc.

Our Journey of Faith-The manner of
Language of Lehi- Praising and Prophesying
Hebraisms, Internal Literary insight, Chiasmus etc.
• Doctrines and Evidences of the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon Evidences
1. Lehi’s Theophany
2. Jerusalem at the time of Lehi
3. Nephi’s Theme-Deliverer and Messiah
4. Lehi’s Family
5. The Exodus Patterns & Promises
6. Tree of Life concept and Pattern
7. Hebraisms Internal Literary insight, Chiasmus etc

1 Nephi 1:2-15
• After this manner was the language of my father...What Manner?

I make a record in the language of my father...
(1 Nephi 1:2)
• Hebraisms
• Names with Egyptian and
Semitic roots
• Chiasmus
• The Dead Sea Scrolls and
Other Ancient Writings
• Pseudepigrapha

Hebraisms- plural amplification
• One of the most distinct characteristics of the language in the Book of Mormon is the somewhat literal
translation of what is now obvious are Hebraisms. As Professor Donald W. Parry asserts,
• “Because some form of Hebrew was used among the Nephites, the Book of Mormon reads like an
ancient Hebrew book—even in its English translation.”
• Parry gives us just one of many examples with what is termed plural amplification. He explains that “in
order to amplify or emphasize an idea, biblical Hebrew sometimes uses a noun in the plural when a
singular is expected.” Here are some examples
• there shall be bloodsheds (2 Nephi 1:12)
• the understandings of the children of men (Mosiah 8:20)
• great condescensions unto the children of men (Jacob 4:7)
• labor with their mights (Jacob 5:72)
• great slaughters with the sword (1 Nephi 12:2)

Hebraisms
• In his work on the Original and Printer’s Manuscripts, Royal Skousen
has uncovered one frequent expression that does not ring true in
English, but makes perfect sense in Hebrew: In the original text of the
Book of Mormon we find a number of occurrences of a Hebrew-like
conditional clause. In English, we have conditional clauses like “if you
come, then I will come,” with then being optional. In Hebrew this same
clause is expressed as “if you come and I will come.” In the original text
of the Book of Mormon, there were at least fourteen occurrences of
this non-English expression.

Seven examples of this are found in one passage
in the Original Manuscript, Helaman 12:13–21
• 13 yea and if he sayeth unto the earth move and it is moved
• 14 yea if he sayeth unto the earth thou shalt go back that it lengthen out the day for many hours and it
is done . . .
• 16 and behold also if he sayeth unto the waters of the great deep be thou dried up and it is done
• 17 behold if he sayeth unto this mountain be thou raised up and come over and fall upon that city that
it be buried up and behold it is done . . .
• 19 and if the Lord shall say be thou accursed that no man shall find thee from this time henceforth
and forever and behold no man getteth it henceforth and forever
• 20 and behold if the Lord shall say unto a man because of thine iniquities thou shalt be accursed
forever and it shall be done
• 21 and if the Lord shall say because of thine iniquities thou shalt be cut off from my presence and he
will cause that it shall be so.

Names used in the Book of Mormon, some of which have Egyptian as
well as other Semitic roots
- (Alma 2:37)
• There is one name that always gave this writer a jolt: Hermounts. What a name! Like
nothing you ever heard before. . . . What is Hermounts? It is not a person; it is the
name used to designate wilderness country, “which was infested by wild and ravenous
beasts” (Alma 2:37). Right away we thought of Min (good old Book of Mormon
Ammoron) of Hermonthis, the Egyptian Pan, the God of wild places and wild
animals. Some explain the name Hermonthis as meaning “House of Month” (good old
Book of Mormon Manti!), referring to the shrine of the southern frontier. “Month” is
the patron of war and colonization, and next to Ammon, Manti is the most common
name of the persons and places in the Book of Mormon. Whatever the real
explanation, Hermounts does not offend the ear anymore. If the Egyptians want to
designate their wild country as Hermonthis and the Nephites as Hermounts, that is
their business.[

Names: “The Holy one of Israel”
Doctrine & Covenants 0
New Testament 0
Old Testament
2 Kings 19:22 1x
Psalms 3x
Jeremiah 2x
Isaiah 25x
31x
Book of Mormon: SMALL PLATES
Nephi & Jacob 38x
Omni 1x
3Nephi 22:5---Savior quoting Isaiah 54

OT 153x mostly sacrifices
NT 35x
John 32/35
John 29/32 in one Book can you guess
which one???
The “Lamb Chapter” is now Chs.10-14
Luke 2x
Peter 1x
DC 16x
BOM 76x
64x in 1N and 2N
57x in one chapter
—1830 edition Chapter 3--- “Lamb chapter”
Nephi uses 62/76
The “Lamb”
Ether 13:9-13;
Phillippians 3:8-9;
Romans 5:19-21

OT 0 x
DC 1x– 88:95,106
NT 2x Jn. 1:29, 36
BOM 35 x
28/35 x in 1N Chapters 10-14
Note: 1Ne. 10:10; 11:27; 2Ne. 31:4-
6 (Al. 7:14)
Nephi’s farewell; 33:14
Moroni’s warning in
Mormon 9:2-3
“LAMB OF GOD”

“ Robe(s) of Thy Righteousness”
2 Nephi 4:30,33; 9:14
• Only once in OT-- Isaiah 61:10, and 2 Nephi 4:30
• D&C 29:11-12 (Sept. 26, 1830),
• D&C 109:73-76 (Mar. 27th , 1836)

The Purpose of Poetic repetitious parallelistic
writing’s like Nephi’s Psalm
• A vitally significant perspective to bear in mind when reviewing the forms of this book
is this: there is no poetic, parallelistic, repetitious form or figure of speech that should
become more important than the Book of Mormon’s chief message, which is to
convince “the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God” (Book
of Mormon title page). Rather, all of these forms and figures are designed to present
this message regarding Jesus Christ and his gospel in an unforgettable, understandable,
artistic, and fascinating way. The forms and figures gave writers of scripture unique
methods of expression as they set forth religious doctrines, tenets, and principles.
Apparently, the prophets and writers of the scriptures employed the repetition of
alternating parallel lines for the purpose of reinforcing their teachings and doctrines.
By hearing something repeated twice, albeit in different words, the hearer or reader is
more apt to understand and remember the doctrine being taught.

Nephi's Psalm 2 Ne. 4:15-35
Poetic Parallelisms in the Book of Mormon-
D o n a l d W. P a r r y
• ...the forms and figures are no more than a means to an end, and that
end is to impart truths regarding Jesus Christ, his atoning sacrifice, and
his plan of happiness. The form of the message should never become
of greater consequence than the message.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader- Eustace
• He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep. Sleeping
on a dragon's hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in
his heart, he had become a dragon himself. (6.32)

Voyage of the Dawn Treader- Eustace
In spite of the pain, his first feeling was one of relief. There was nothing to be afraid of
any more. He was a terror himself now and nothing in the world but a knight (and not all
of those) would dare to attack him. He could get even with Caspian and Edmund now....
But the moment he thought this he realised that he didn't want to. He wanted to be
friends. He wanted to get back among humans and talk and laugh and share things. He
realised that he was a monster cut off from the whole human race. An appalling
loneliness came over him. He began to see the others had not really been fiends at all. He
began to wonder if he himself had always been such a nice person as he had always
supposed. (6.34-35)
Becoming a dragon gives Eustace the ability to see himself for who he really is: an
unpleasant, selfish person who is a burden and blight to everyone around him. Once he
recognizes this, he is better able to understand his companions and their motivations.

Eustace the Dragon Meets Aslan
• “The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in
there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. but the lion told
me I must undress first. Mind you, I don’t know if he said any
words out loud or not.
• I was just going to say that I couldn’t undress because I hadn’t
any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky
sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course,
thought I, that’s what the lion means.

• So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over
the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and , instead of just scales
coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully,
like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I
just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather
nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well
for my bathe.

• But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and
saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they
had been before. Oh, that’s all right, said I, it only means I had another
smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I’ll have to get out of it too.
So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully
and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down
to the well for my bathe.

• Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself,
oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing
to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a
third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as
I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.
• Then the lion said – but I don’t know if it spoke – ‘You will have to let
me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty
nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it

• The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it
had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling
the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The
only thing that made me able to bear it was just the
pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know – if
you’ve ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like
billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.

• Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself
the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt – and there it was lying on the
grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than
the others had been. And there was I was smooth and soft as a peeled switch
and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me – I didn’t like that
much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on – and threw
me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it
became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I
found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned
into a boy again.”
• -C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Brothers and sisters, I testify that no one
of us is less treasured or cherished of God
than another. I testify that He loves each
of us—insecurities, anxieties, self-image,
and all. He doesn’t measure our talents or
our looks; He doesn’t measure our
professions or our possessions. He cheers
on every runner, calling out that the race is
against sin, not against each other

I know that if we will be faithful, there is a
perfectly tailored robe of righteousness
ready and waiting for everyone ; “robes …
made … white in the blood of the Lamb.”
May we encourage each other in our effort
to win that prize is my earnest prayer, in
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, The Other
Prodigal, Ensign (CR), May 2002, p.62

3:4-5;19:8-14
3:7-8
3:12;19:12
5:9
GARMENT
DOOR
NEW
NAME
SING THE SONG
REVELATION

3:11; 19:12
3:21
12:11
WEAR THE
CROWN
SIT UPON THE
THRONE
OVERCOME/VICT
ORY

An interesting comment regarding
the original meaning of the terms
“Keep or Break” the
Commandments”
Another Testament of Jesus Christ
The Hebrew word for "keep" is ‫שמר‬( shamar) and literally means "to
guard, protect, and cherish" while the Hebrew word for "break" is ‫פרר‬
(parar) and literally means "to trample underfoot".
6565 parar {paw-rar'}; Usage
a primitive root; TWOT - 1829,1830,1831; v
1) to break, frustrate
1a) (Hiph)
1a1) to break, violate
1a2) to frustrate, make ineffectual
1b) (Hoph)
1b1) to be frustrated
1b2) to be broken
1b3) to break
1c) (Pilp) to break to bits, shatter
2) to split, divide
2a) (Qal) to split, crack through
2b) (Poel) to break apart
2c) (Hithpo) to be split, be cracked
through
Duet. 31:16; Judges 2:1; Zechariah 11:10; etc.

1 Nephi 19:7
For the things which some men
esteem to be of great worth, both to
the body and soul, others set at
naught and trample under their feet.
Yea, even the very God of Israel do
men trample under their feet; I say,
trample under their feet but I would
speak in other words—they set him
at naught, and hearken not to the
voice of his counsels.

… The Hebrew word Parar is closely related to its
parent root "par" which means a "bullock" which
was used on the threshing floor to trample upon
the grain to break open the hulls in the threshing
process. Another closely related word is "purah"
which is the winepress where grapes are trampled
upon.

With these clues we can see that
words coming from the PR root have
to do with trampling upon to
split/crush which is why they
translate parar as "break" but with
the fuller meaning of "to throw
something on the ground and break
it by trampling."

The ancient Hebrew
understanding of these
words is not about
obedience and
disobedience of his
commands, but ones
attitude towards them. Will
you cherish his teachings or
throw them on the ground
and walk (trample) on
them?

Mosiah 29:22 For behold, he
has his friends in iniquity, …
and he trampleth under his
feet the commandments of
God;

Alma 60:33
Ye know that ye do
transgress the laws of
God, and ye do know that
ye do trample them under
your feet.

Helaman 4:22
And that they had
altered and trampled
under their feet the
laws of Mosiah, or
that which the Lord
commanded him to
give unto the people;

Helaman 6:31
… insomuch that they had
become exceedingly wicked;
yea, the more part of them
had turned out of the way of
righteousness, and did
trample under their feet the
commandments of God.

This is especially remarkable
because the KJV translators
NEVER provide this
connection in their
translation—while the Book
of Mormon makes it
explicitly nine times.

“Behold, I speak unto you as though I spake
from the dead; for I know that ye shall have my
words.
Condemn me not because of mine imperfection,
neither my father, because of his imperfection,
neither them who have written before him; but
rather give thanks unto God that he hath made
manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may
learn to be more wise than we have been.

“And now, behold, we have written this record
according to our knowledge, in the characters which
are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being
handed down and altered by us, according to our
manner of speech. And if our plates had been
sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew;
but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if
we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would
have had no imperfection in our record.”
Mormon 9:32-33

An abjad
...is a type of writing system where
each symbol always or usually stands
for a consonant, leaving the reader to
supply the appropriate vowel. It is a
term suggested by Peter T. Daniels to
replace the common terms
"consonantary", "consonantal
alphabet" or "syllabary" to refer to
the family of scripts called West
Semitic

All known abjads belong to the Semitic family of
scripts. These scripts are thought to derive from the
Proto-Sinaitic alphabet (dated to about 1500 BC)
which is thought to derive from Egyptian
hieroglyphs. The abjad was significantly simpler
than the earlier hieroglyphs. The number of distinct
glyphs was reduced tremendously, at the cost of
increased ambiguity.

The first abjad to gain
widespread usage was the
Phoenician abjad. Unlike other
contemporary scripts, such as
Cuneiform and Egyptian
hieroglyphs, the Phoenician
script consisted of only about
two dozen symbols. This made
the script easy to learn, and
Phoenician seafaring merchants
took the script wherever they
went.

Phoenician gave way to a
number of new writing systems,
including the Greek alphabet,
the first "true" alphabet, and
Aramaic, a widely used abjad.
Greek evolved into the modern
western alphabets, such as Latin
and Cyrillic, while Aramaic
became the ancestor of many
modern abjads and abugidas of
Asia.

Aramaic spread across Asia, reaching
as far as India and becoming Brahmi,
the ancestral abugida to most modern
Indian and Southeast Asian scripts. In
the Middle East, Aramaic gave rise to
the Hebrew and Nabataean abjads,
which retained many of the Aramaic
letter forms. The Syriac script was a
cursive variation of Aramaic. It is
unclear whether the Arabic abjad was
derived from Nabatean or Syriac.

1993 issue of BAR, Mar/Apr p.
28.
Carved in Phoenician style, the seal incorporates such Egyptian
elements as the ankh, upper left, a sphinx, and the winged disk. Four
mirror image paleo-Hebrew letters, 2 just below the winged disk and
2 at lower left and right, spell out `yzbl', Jezebel ()

Tel Arad (Hebrew: ‫ערד‬ ‫)תל‬ or "old"
Arad
....is located west of the Dead Sea,
about 10 kilometres (6 miles) west of
modern Arad in an area surrounded by
mountain ridges which is known as the
Arad Plain. The site is divided into a
lower city and an upper hill which
holds the only ever discovered "House
of Yahweh" in the land of Israel.

Tel Arad demonstrates that Jews and
Egyptians were hopelessly mixed in
Lehi's day of 700-600 B.C. In fact,
there is ostraca showing a
combination of Hebrew and
Egyptian Hieratic writing together.
In fact, Hebrew characters are
written in Egyptian. The Egyptian
values are given their Hebrew
equivilants as a sort of jargon

When the decision at hand was to banish or
exile a certain member of society, citizen
peers would cast their vote by writing the
name of the person on the piece of pottery;
the vote was counted and if unfavorable the
person was put out of the city, thus giving
rise to the term ostracisim. Ostracism was a
procedure under the Athenian democracy in
which a prominent citizen could be exiled
from the city-state of Athens for ten years....

Over 100 ostraca inscribed in
biblical Hebrew (in paleo-Hebrew
script) were found in the citadel
of Arad. This is the largest and
richest collection of inscriptions
from the biblical period ever
discovered in Israel. The letters
are from all periods of the
citadel's existence, but most date
to the last decades of the
kingdom of Judah

suggesting a differentiating Egyptian,
or as the Book of Mormon would
put it, Reformed Egyptian. The
person who wrote this ostraca
obviously was familiar with both
languages and hence throws support
on the Book of Mormon with Lehi
teaching his sons at least Hebrew and
Egyptian.

Nephi says the language of his
father was that of the learning
of the Jews and the language
of the Egyptians. Tel Arad
produces evidence showing us
that the combination of
Hebrew and Egyptian writing
exists and is strangely enough --
---a type of Reformed
Egyptian!!

In the 7th century B.C. there
were close connections
between Egypt and the Jews -
as the Book of Mormon
correctly notes, but was
unknown in Joseph Smith's
day. There were persons in
Judah in the late 7th century
B.C. who knew both the
Hebrew and Egyptian scripts
and systems of writings.

Obviously an ignorant man-----------or an individual who has chosen to attack the “Farmboy” with
an unsubstantiated claim------one wonders if he himself has done any serious research on this topic
?
Uninformed attacks continue –
Jacob Weisberg's 2006 Slate column
I wouldn't vote for someone who truly believed in the founding
whoppers of Mormonism. The LDS church holds that Joseph
Smith, directed by the angel Moroni, unearthed a book of golden
plates buried in a hillside in Western New York in 1827. The plates
were inscribed in "reformed" Egyptian hieroglyphics -- a
nonexistent version of the ancient language that had yet to be
decoded. ... He was an obvious con man. Romney has every right
to believe in con men, but I want to know if he does, and if so, I
don't want him running the country.

Reformed Egyptian
(i.e. Moses Maimonides Arabic language book written in Hebrew Script.)

Alma’s name
... in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Chiasmus or poetic parallelism
Form and Content Coincide- Mosiah 5:11
• “And now it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall not take upon him the
name of Christ must be called by some other name; therefore, he findeth
himself on the left hand of God. And I would that ye should remember
also, that this is the name that I said I should give unto you that never should
be blotted out, except it be through transgression; therefore,” and this word
marks a turning point, “take heed that ye do not transgress, that the name be
not blotted out of your hearts. I say unto you, I would that ye should
remember to retain the name written always in your hearts, that ye are not
found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which
ye shall be called, and also, the name by which he shall call you.”

The Dead Sea Scrolls and Other
Ancient Writings
• The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has had a major impact on
Bible studies. It has changed many views about religion in ancient
Palestine and has given credibility to many Book of Mormon
claims. The idea of finding New Testament concepts and practices
such as ...
• baptism in Old Testament times is no longer ridiculous. LDS
scholars have been very active in promoting research into the Dead
Sea Scrolls and have been an important part of the academic
community dealing with the texts.
• Fascinating insight into the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for
the Book of Mormon and LDS religion in general is offered by
two non-LDS writers, Carl Mosser and Paul Owen, who presented
a paper at the 1997 Evangelical Theological Society Far West
Annual Meeting, April 25, 1997. They warned the evangelical
community about the impressive efforts of LDS scholars.

Ancient Writings
• Mormons have taken a keen interest in the scrolls for several reasons. Foremost among
these, they want to support a portrait of early Christianity which is firmly rooted in
apocalyptic Judaism.... Nibley feels that there is a line of continuity between the desert
sectarians represented by Lehi and his family (cf. 1 Nephi 2), the community at Qumran,
earliest Christianity, and second-century gnosticism. The argument being put forth is not
that the Qumran Essenes were proto-Mormons, but simply that Mormonism has more in
common with the apocalyptic belief system represented at Qumran than with that of
Hellenized Christianity. Nibley continues:
• "Now with the discovery and admission of the existence of typical New Testament
expressions, doctrines, and ordinances well before the time of Christ, the one
effective argument against the Book of Mormon collapses."(1)
• Elsewhere he points to ten parallels between the Qumran literature and the Book of
Mormon....

Ancient Writings
• Nibley is not alone in pointing out parallels between the Qumran texts and
Mormon scripture. William J. Hamblin complains that "the critics [of
Mormonism] have never explained why we find close linguistic and literary
parallels between the figure Mahujah in Dead Sea Scrolls Aramaic fragments
and the Book of Enoch and Mahijah questioning Enoch in the book of Moses
(Moses 6:40).“
• (2) ... Stephen E. Robinson points to numerous similarities between the Qumran
community and the Latter-day Saints. He notes that the Qumranites wrote
important information on metal, they believed in baptism(s) by
immersion,

The Dead Sea Scrolls and
Other Ancient Writings
• (3) their community was led by a council of twelve
men with three governing priests, they had sacred
meals of bread and wine administered by priests,
• (4) and they believed in continuing revelation through
a prophetic leader. He writes, "All of this leads to the
conclusion that in many ways the Essenes may have
been closer to the [Mormon] gospel than other
Jewish sects.“
• (5) As with defenses of the Book of Mormon, more
examples could be listed. In light of the growing
participation of LDS scholars in Scrolls research we
can be sure that many more will be brought to our
attention....

Pseudepigrapha
• Mosser and Owen go on to discuss other Jewish writings (the
pseudepigrapha) that have more specific similarities with LDS
scriptures. These writings are used to LDS scholars to establish
an ancient milieu for the Book of Mormon. Among several
examples, they cite work of Stephen E. Robinson on the
Narrative of Zosimus (or History of the Rechabites)
• "which contains an interesting tradition about Jews leaving
Jerusalem in Jeremiah's time, and traveling across the
ocean to a land of promise."
• There are impressive parallels between LDS scriptures and
ancient Semitic writings that were generally unknown in Joseph
Smith's day. Mosser and Owen explain that Latter-day Saints are
not the only ones who have noticed this:

"Messianism in the Pseudepigrapha and the Book
of Mormon,"
• LDS writers are not alone in noting various parallels between these ancient
texts and Mormon literature. James H. Charlesworth, in a lecture delivered at
Brigham Young University entitled, "Messianism in the Pseudepigrapha
and the Book of Mormon," points to what he describes as "important
parallels . . . that deserve careful examination."
• He cites examples from 2 Baruch, 4 Ezra, Psalms of Solomon and the
Testament of Adam.(1) If the world's leading authority on ancient
pseudepigraphal writings thinks such examples deserve "careful
examination," it might be wise for evangelicals to do some examining.
[italics in the original] ...

Theurgy (/ˈθiːɜrdʒi/; from Greek θεουργία)
• ...describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature,
performed with the intention of invoking the action or evoking the
presence of one or more gods, especially with the goal of uniting with
the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself
• Henosis (Ancient Greek: ἕνωσις) is the word for mystical "oneness,"
"union," or "unity" in classical Greek. In Platonism, and especially
Neoplatonism, the goal of henosis is union with what is fundamental in
reality: the One

Cognate accusative
• A Students’s Dictionary for Biblical and Theological Studies defines the
cognate accusative as,
• “A noun, derived from the same root as the verb, that defines, explains,
or strengthens (emphasizes) the verbal idea” (Huey and Corley 1983:45).
• It is on of the easiest forms of the internal accusative to identify; it is called a
“cognate accusative” because the noun in the accusative case uses a same
linguistic stem or root as (in other words, it is cognate with) the stem or root
of the verb.”

Old Testament
...cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry (Genesis 27:34)
...we have dreamed a dream (Genesis 40:8)
...vowed a vow (Judges 11:30)
...thundered with a great thunder (1 Samuel 7:10)
...lamented with this lamentation (2 Samuel 1:17)
...devise devices against Jeremiah (Jer. 18:18)

Book of Mormon
...curse them with a sore curse (1 Ne. 2:23)
...I have dreamed a dream (1 Ne. 8:2)
...yoketh them with a yoke (1 Ne. 13:5)
...work a great and marvelous work (1 Ne. 14:7)
...desire which I desired (Enos 1:13)
...succor those that stand in need of your succor (Mosiah 4:16)
...taxed with a tax (Mosiah 7:15)

Merismus - 2 Nephi. 33, 3Nephi 11, 27
Once the pattern is established it is implied
If only one of the pattern characters is present you must know
that the rest will be there.
Mortal messiah 3 :287 ...a day of vengeance will come and the
righteous pleas will be taken care of.

The name Heshlon, attested
once (in Ether 13:28), as a
toponym in the Book of Mormon
most plausibly denotes “place of
crushing.” The meaning of
Heshlon thus becomes very
significant in the context of
Ether 13:25–31, which describes
the crushing or enfeebling of
Coriantumr’s armies and royal
power.

This meaning is also significant
in the wider context of Moroni’s
narrative of the Jaredites’
destruction. Fittingly, the
name Heshlon itself serves as a
literary turning point in a chiastic
structure which describes the
fateful reversal of Coriantumr’s
individual fortunes and the
worsening of the Jaredites’
collective fortunes.
Matthew L. Bowen and Pedro Olavarria Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon
Scripture 14 (2015): 227-239

“AND IT CAME TO PASS”
AND THE HISTORY OF THE
MANUSCRIPTS and
TRANSLATION ERRORS

We now know that the Lowland
Maya did not invent writing in
Mesoamerica. They simply
adopted it from an earlier culture
period between 600 BC and 50
AD.
The great Maya scholar, Eric
Thompson, writes, “Middle America
is the only part of the new world in
which a system of embryonic
writing developed.” (Thompson
1966:189)
This writing system was developed
during the Preclassic period (600BC-
200AD—a time period that
correlates directly with the Book of
Mormon time period.

Egyptian historical texts “begin in
monotonous fashion” always with the same
stock words; for example, at some periods
every speech is introduced with the
unnecessary “I opened my mouth.”
Dramatic texts are held together by the
constant repetition of Khpr-n, “It happened
that” or “It came to pass.”
In Egyptian these expressions were not
merely adornments, they are a grammatical
necessity and may not be omitted.
Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah. The entire section above was quoted directly
from Nibley. Nibley quotes Grapow, Das Hieroglyphensystem, 23-25, 31

The phrase in ancient
Maya is used for the
same functional reason
as for the BoM, to control
the flow of action, or to
mark a new section.
See Michael D. Coe and Mark Van Stone, Reading the
Maya Glyphs (London: Thames & Hudson, 2001),
33.

The Hebrew form of the
expression “and it came to
pass” (wayehi) is found in the
Hebrew Bible 1204 times, but
only translated as “and it came
to pass” by the KJV 727 times.
In other instances it is
translated as a variation with
the same meaning, or not
translated at all

In both the Bible and The
BoM, the expression is rarely
found in poetic, literary, or
prophetic writings. Most
often, it appears in
narratives, histories, and
chronologies. The BoM has
more histories, chronologies,
etc. than the OT relative to
its size

“The frequency of the
phrase is not anomalous
or strange for a book
with ancient Hebrew
roots. Joseph translated
the Semitic phrase “and
it came to pass” more
consistently than the KJV
translators did.
Dr. Don
Parry

Had Joseph simply observed the usage of the
phrase in the bible, it is doubtful (to me) that
he would have used it with greater frequency
than the bible does, or that he would have
properly identified the appropriate genre in
which to focus its use.”
“Had Joseph simply observed
the usage of the phrase in
the bible, it is doubtful (to
me) that he would have used
it with greater frequency
than the bible does, or that
he would have properly
identified the appropriate
genre in which to focus its
use.”

The phrase “and it came to
pass” is attested for in all of the
languages most closely linked to
the Book of Mormon. In these
ancient writing systems, the
phrase is used for a similar or
for the exact same purpose as it
is used in the Book of Mormon.
It is also used with the same
frequency as in the Book of
Mormon.

Instead of being a bad attempt at
sounding “biblical”, the phrase “and
it came to pass” in the Book of
Mormon is used precisely as it
should be. In fact, were the phrase
not used in this way our critics
would have something bigger to
complain about. The Book of
Mormon fits nicely into the ancient
world from which it claims to be
derived.

Most have heard
Twain's quip that
removing "and it
came to pass" from
the Book of Mormon
would reduce it to a
pamphlet

All men have heard of the
Mormon Bible, but few except
the “elect” have seen it, or, at
least, taken the trouble to read
it. I brought away a copy from
Salt Lake. The book is a
curiosity to me, it is such a
pretentious affair, and yet so
“slow,” so sleepy; such an
insipid mess of inspiration. It is
chloroform in print.

If Joseph Smith composed this book,
the act was a miracle—keeping
awake while he did it was, at any
rate. If he, according to tradition,
merely translated it from certain
ancient and mysteriously-engraved
plates of copper, which he declares
he found under a stone, in an out-of-
the-way locality, the work of
translating was equally a miracle, for
the same reason.

The book seems to be merely a prosy
detail of imaginary history, with the
Old Testament for a model; followed
by a tedious plagiarism of the New
Testament. The author labored to give
his words and phrases the quaint, old-
fashioned sound and structure of our
King James’s translation of the
Scriptures; and the result is a
mongrel—half modern glibness, and
half ancient simplicity and gravity.

The latter is awkward and constrained;
the former natural, but grotesque by the
contrast. Whenever he found his speech
growing too modern—which was about
every sentence or two—he ladled in a
few such Scriptural phrases as
“exceeding sore,” “and it came to pass,”
etc., and made things satisfactory again.
“And it came to pass” was his pet. If he
had left that out, his Bible would have
been only a pamphlet.
(Chapter 16, Roughing It)

“The Book of
Mormon is one of
those books where it is
not universally assumed
you have to have read it
to have a sound
opinion of it.”
Mark Twain’s joke about
Wagner’s music can be
likened to Twain’s own
clueless dismissal of the
Book of Mormon,
Twain writes: “It is
better than it sounds.”

While it might not have been the
pamphlet Twain suggests, it is
obvious to any reader that “and
it came to pass” recurs
frequently, a total of 1297 times
in the Book of Mormon. Although
the phrase appears in both the
Old and New Testaments, it is

unquestionably most frequent in the Book of
Mormon. In the scriptural texts, the next
highest number is
Old Testament, with 457 occurrences
(59x Pearl of Great Price).
(61XNewTestament)
(5x Doctrine and Covenants--??What??
Is there a legitimate reason this phrase is
repeated so many times?
1674 Total

All forms of punctuation became
standardized with printing, but early
punctuation was more related to
speaking than to reading. Rhetoric, as
the study of speech, needed marks to
indicate when the speaker should
pause to give emphasis, and that was
what early punctuation was based on,
rather than being related to the logical
structure of written sentences.

This phrase also occurs 457 times in
the KJV of the Old Testament. There,
it's the English translation of the single
Hebrew word, hâyâh. We tend to read
this phase as indicating a passage of
time. However, J Weingreen,
in Practical Grammar for Classical
Hebrew, suggests that it would best be
given the meaning, "now it happened."
Strong's Hebrew dictionary suggests
"to exist" or "to become" as possible
translations of hâyâh.

Transliterated Word TDNT Entry
Hayah TWOT - 491
Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
haw-yaw Verb
Definition
1.to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out
1. (Qal)
1. ----- 1a
2. to happen, fall out, occur, take place, come about, come to pass 1a
3. to come about, come to pass

Royal Skousen postulates
that hâyâh represents a "discourse marker"
and suggests that the phrase and it came
to pass "may be considered equivalent
to and then or and so." The Hebrew Old
Testament has 1114 occurrences of the
word hâyâh. Most of these have either
been ignored or reduced to simply "and.“
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol. 3 No. 1, p. 37

Many Old Testament examples
could be given of similar
construction which would result
from a literal translation of the
Old Testament Hebrew. One will
suffice. The current KJV of
Genesis 35:16-18 contains two
instances of "it came to pass," but,
there are three in the Hebrew
(the omitted text is shown in [ ]):

"And they journeyed from Bethel; and
[it came to pass that] there was but a
little way to come to Ephrath: and
Rachel travailed, and she had hard
labour. And it came to pass, when she
was in hard labour, that the midwife
said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have
this son also. And it came to pass, as
her soul was in departing, (for she died)
that she called his name Benoni: but his
father called him Benjamin."

In his editing for the 1837
edition of the Book of Mormon
Joseph Smith removed 46
occurrences of "it came to pass,"
rendering them as "and," just as
was done by the King James
translators. If Mark Twain was
reading the 1830 edition he
would have encountered
passages like this:

2 Nephi 4:10: "and it came to pass that when my
father had made an end of speaking unto them behold it
came to pass that he spake unto the sons of Ishmael
. . ."
Alma 8:18-19: "now it came to pass that after Alma
had received his message from the angel of the Lord he
returned speedily to the land of Ammonihah and it
came to pass that he entered the city by another way
yea by the way which was on the south of the city
Ammonihah and it came to pass that as he entered the
city . . ."

a Mayan language element has been
translated "and it came to pass." The
function of this element in Mayan texts
is rather well defined. Depending on
context, it references the reader either
forward or backward to a specific date
or event. An analysis of the Book of
Mormon has shown that many of the
instances of "and it came to pass" are
reasonably consistent with this Mayan
meaning of this expression.
John Welch, Ed, Reexploring the Book of Mormon. "Words
and Phrases," p. 284

This glyph is found in the Temple Of
Inscriptions, in the Mayan ruins of
Palenque. It is composed of three
symbols: UT, CH, and I. The phrase
"And it came to pass" appears in
the Old Testament 526 times, 87 in
the New Testament and The Book
of Mormon 1297 times -- . In 1985,
David Stuart, a Mayan scholar,
interpreted the sound of the glyph
as "Ut" in the Chol language and
"Utchi" in Mayan, meaning "to
happen" or "to come to pass."

A phrase used to join
consecutive events in
historical narrative. In
the Old Testament, the
phrase “and it came to
pass”, reflects the
Hebrew expression
way-yehee, which
means “and it was”.

In the Book of Mormon as
in the Old Testament, it is
often followed by a time
phrase:
“Now it came to pass that
not many days after the
battle (Alma 3:20)
“And it came to pass in the
same year” (Alma 50:37)

Although “and it came to pass”
is the most well-known phrase
in the Book of Mormon, it is
not the only structural marker
for paragraphs. It has a
companion in the phrase “and
now” (with 250 variants—and
thus we see, and we see, for I
see, nevertheless we see, now
we see, thus, we, ye etc.).

“And it came to pass” is a
conjunctive phrase used
when the text is explicitly
describing past events. It is
frequently followed by a time
phrase. The phrase “and
now” moves the narrative in
the textual present. Both
phrases perform the function
of marking paragraphs, but
they mark different types of
paragraphs, depending upon
the verbal sense of time.

While it is possible that
Joseph Smith invented
these two structural
markers to substitute for
his missing punctuation, it
would be rather unusual in
a world that was well
accustomed to punctuation
in written texts.

It is much more likely that
we see in those phrases
remnants of the verbal
markers used by the plate
text to mark the divisions
that we now mark with
punctuation.

This proposed system of
verbal markers as
punctuation has a historical
precedent in the New
World. The recent
translation of Maya glyphic
writing provides
corroboration of a very
similar paired set of verbal
markers. Maya texts use
these two verbs to create

sense on their written
monuments. As described in
the glyph dictionary put
together by Michael D. Coe
and Mark Van Stone, we
have direct parallels to the
Book of Mormon’s “and
now” (or “and thus”) and
“and it came to pass

The Maya texts use these verbs to indicate
the flow of action. The glyph reading “it
happens” corresponds in function to “and
now/thus” in the Book of Mormon text, with
“it happened” being the functional
equivalent of “and it came to pass.” Of
course, this is not to suggest that the plates
were written in Maya glyphs. It suggests,
however, that there is a structural function
that was filled by these glyphs in Maya texts

and by the two phrases in the translation of
the plates. What it tells us is that the plate text
from which the Book of Mormon was translated
followed the conventions of ancient documents
prior to the invention of punctuation. It fulfilled
the function of punctuation through verbal
markers rather than symbols such as dots or
indentations.
By Brant A. Gardner Meridian Mag. June 12,
2009

Why is this phrase so common in
the Book of Mormon? The answer
is simple: Because Joseph was
translating a Hebrew text. If "it
came to pass" were not prominent
in the Book of Mormon, the
Hebrew claims for its origin
would be absurd. Hâyâh is an
integral part of Hebrew
expression. Thus, "it came to pass"
must be found as a common
expression in any document that
claims to be a translation from
Hebrew to English.

Many Book of Mormon statements
defining the concept of “Gospel”
are elliptical (extreme or excessive
economy; relieved of irrelevant
matter), taking the form of a
Merismus----a classical rhetorical
device in which an entire topic or
statement is represented by some
of its parts. (Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. meris, (Oxford,
Oxford University Press, 1968 ) also Honeyman, “Merismus in Biblical Hebrew:, Journal of Biblical
Hebrew 71 (1952):15

"Plates brass" and "Book Mormon"?
Where English uses possessives,
Semitic languages like Hebrew and
Arabic use what is called the
construct state. Instead of
saying David's city, the Hebrew
literally says city David. This is, of
course, translated "city of David."
This word order also applies to
descriptions. While the normal
English phrasing would be brass
plates, the Hebrew word order would

be plates brass, translated "plates of brass," the "of"
being supplied by the translator. The phrase "brass
plates" does not occur in the Book of Mormon, while
"plates of brass" occurs 27 times. Both possessives and
the normal English descriptive statements (like brass
plates) are nearly absent from the Old Testament and
Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is full of
these Hebraisms like:

Descriptives Possessives
night of darkness rod of iron sword of Laban record of Jared
words of
plainness
land of promise plates of Nephi Brother of Jared
mist of darkness skin of blackness Book of Mormon language of
Jacob
state of probation altar of stones army of Moroni people of Ammon

HEBREW CONDITIONAL
clause --if/then AND
“STUFF”

“And when ye shall receive these
things, I would exhort you that ye
would ask God, the Eternal Father, in
the name of Christ, if these things are
not true; and if ye shall ask with a
sincere heart, with real intent, having
faith in Christ, and he will manifest the
truth in you, by the power of the Holy
Ghost; and by the power of the Holy
Ghost . . .

1 Nephi17:50
And I saith unto them, If God had
commanded me to do all things, I
could do it. If he should command
me that I should say unto this water,
Be thou earth; and if I should say it,
it would be done.

in original Book of Mormon Hel. 12
13. yea, and if he saith unto the earth, Move, and it is moved;
14. yea, if he saith unto the earth, Thou shalt go back, that it
lengthen out the day for many hours, and it is done;
15. and thus according to his word, the earth goeth back, and it
appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still; yea, and behold,
this is so; for sure it is the earth that moveth, and not the sun.
16. And behold, also, if he saith unto the waters of the great
deep, Be thou dried up, and it is done.
17. Behold, if he saith unto this mountain, Be thou raised up, and
come over and fall upon that city, that it be buried up, and behold
it is done.

18. And behold, if a man hideth up a treasure in the earth, and
the Lord shall say, Let it be accursed, because of the iniquity of
him that hath hid it up, behold, it shall be accursed;
19. and if the Lord shall say, Be thou accursed, that no man
shall find thee from this time henceforth and forever, and
behold, no man getteth it henceforth and forever.
20. And behold, if the Lord shall say unto a man, Because of
thine iniquities thou shalt be accursed forever, and it shall be
done.
21. And if the Lord shall say, Because of thine iniquities, thou
shalt be cut off from my presence, and he will cause that it shall
be so.

Alma 8:24 And behold,
I have been called to
preach the word of God
among all this people,
according to the spirit of
revelation and
prophecy; and I was in
this land and they would
not receive me, but they
cast me out and I was
about to set my back
towards this land

4 And then began these men to
call upon the name of the Lord,
and the Lord blessed them;
5 And a book of remembrance
was kept, in the which was
recorded, in the language of
Adam, for it was given unto as
many as called upon God to write
by the spirit of inspiration;
6 And by them their children were
taught to read and write, having a
language which was pure and
undefiled.
Moses 6

And, and, and; Too Many "ands"
In Hebrew, words, phrases, and
sentences are generally connected by a
single character, usually translated
"and." Thus, in a literal translation of
Hebrew into English "and" appears in
many places where English would have
a punctuation mark. In this literal
translation, many sentences would
begin with "and," as in

Alma 11 where 20 of the 23 verses
begin with "And." Lists in this literal
translation would have each item set
off by "and," as in "all manner of
wood, and of iron, and of copper,
and of brass, and of steel, and of
gold, and of precious ores“
(2 Nephi 5:15). Many other strange
uses of "and" might also be
expected to occur. The following
paragraphs illustrate some of these.

"And" or "But"
This Hebrew conjunction translated and really has
many possible meanings in English. In the Old
Testament it has been translated: "or," "then,"
"certainly," "perhaps," "in order to," "like,"
"therefore," "so," "thus," and "but." This
last, but, leads us to an interesting observation in the
Book of Mormon. Consider this sentence from
Moroni 9:4, "and when I speak the word of God with
sharpness they tremble and anger against
me; and when I use no sharpness they harden their
hearts against it." Obviously, the sense of this
"and. ." would, in English, be better expressed by the
word "but.

.." However, if Joseph was making a near
literal translation Hebrew, "and" is a
correct rendering. Another example
provides and even better illustration. A
promise from the Lord is quoted by Lehi
in 2 Nephi 1:20. In 2 Nephi 4:4, this
same passage is again quoted, with one
interesting difference: the "but"
appearing in the first passage is replaced
by an "and. ." in the second. The
Hebrew for each of these passages
would be identical and both renditions
are fully acceptable translations of that
Hebrew.

"And also"
Another unusual construction using "and" is the
Hebrew use of "and also." In this case, English
also uses "and" but Hebrew must add "also." In
Hebrew this construct, "and also," is used to
denote a strong link between two things. Again,
this structure is common throughout the Book
of Mormon (it occurs 447 times).

For example, in 1 Nephi 8:3 "and also" appears twice:
"And behold, because of the thing which I have seen, I have reason to
rejoice in the Lord because of Nephi and also of Sam; for I have
reason to suppose that they, and alsomany of their seed, will be saved."

"If . . . . and"
Here is yet another place where the Hebrew
"and" shows up in a strange place. The
Hebraic equivalent of the English if-
then clause is the Hebrew if-and clause.
This is not found in the current editions of
the Book of Mormon, nor is it found
anywhere in and English Old Testament.
But, it was in the 1830 edition of the Book
of Mormon. For example, this is how
Helaman 12:13-21 appeared in that edition:

". . . yea, and if he sayeth unto the earth Move and it is moved; yea,
and if he sayeth unto the earth, Thou shalt go back, that it lengthen out the
day for many hours, and it is done; . . . And behold, also, if he sayeth unto
the waters of the great deep, Be thou dried up, and it is done. Behold, if he
sayeth unto this mountain, Be thou raised up, and come over and fall upon
that city, that it be buried up and behold it is done. . . . and if the Lord
shall say, Be thou accursed, that no man shall find thee from this time
henceforth and forever, and behold, no man getteth it henceforth and forever.
And behold, if the Lord shall say unto a man, Because of thine iniquities
thou shalt be accursed forever, and it shall be done. And if the Lord shall
say, Because of thine iniquities thou shalt be cut off from my
presence, and he will cause that it shall be so."

"Who" / "Which" / "Where"
In Hebrew, the relative "pronoun" 'aser, which
might be translated "which" in English, is used
for both human and nonhuman references. This
same pronoun is used in place references. The
most common correction to the 1830 Book of
Mormon grammar has been the change
of which to who (891 times).

In an additional 66 case, which has been changed
to whom. This is another instance where the Hebrew structure
of the first edition resulted in unacceptable English sentences.
For example, Alma 46:34, in the 1830 edition read, "Now,
Moroni being a man which was appointed by the chief judges
. . . "

That's Just Too Much
There have been 188 instances of the
word that removed from the Book of Mormon
since its 1830 publication. Even a casual
reference to the original edition would confirm
the need for this drastic revision. Yet, many
instances of this Hebraic phrasing still remain in
the current text. Here are two examples:

"And because that they are redeemed from the fall" (2
Nephi 2:26)
"because that my heart is broken" (2 Nephi 4:32)
John Tvedtnes explains that Hebrew "begins subordinate
clauses with prepositions plus a word that translates
into that in English." This "that" is generally totally
redundant in English. But, if the translation is literal, and
the translator just doesn't know any better, that's what
happens.

Why Not Adverbs?
The Book of Mormon often uses a prepositional phrase in place of an adverb. This is not good
English, but then the book does not claim to be English. Joseph said he was translating from
Hebrew and Hebrew has very few adverbs. In Hebrew, a preposition is used instead. Consider the
following Book of Mormon Hebraisms:
"with harshness" instead of "harshly"
"with joy" instead of "joyfully"
"with gladness" instead of "gladly"
"with patience" instead of "patiently"
"with diligence" instead of "diligently"

"in diligence" instead of "diligently"
"in abundance" instead of "abundantly"
"in righteousness" instead of "righteously"
"in the spirit" instead of "spiritually"
"of worth" instead of "worthy"
"of a surety" instead of "surely"
John Tvedtnes makes this further observation about
Hebrew adverbs: "At least one adjective (harebeh,
'many, exceeding') is used adverbially, but more often
a prepositional phrase is used. The Book of
Mormon is replete with adverbial usage of the
adjective 'exceeding' (as in 'exceeding great joy'--
instead of 'exceedingly'--in 1 Nephi 8:12)." Just
another thread in our tapestry.

What's with These Crazy Pronouns?
Pronouns in Hebrew are frequently overused by
English standards. The following are two
examples of this Hebraism which are common
to both the Old Testament and the Book of
Mormon.

Redundant Pronouns: Hebrew
often uses a pronoun in a
subordinate clause which refers to
the same person or object
referenced in the main clause. For
example, Nephi says, "I beheld, and
saw thepeople of the seed of my
brethren that they. . had overcome
my seed." (1 Nephi 12:20).

Possessive Pronouns: In Hebrew, pronouns used for possession are attached as suffixes to the
noun. This is similar to the "plates brass" construction. For example, the literal Hebrew of his
house would be equivalent to house-his. Just as in the case of the translation of "plates brass" the
translator may supply an "of" resulting in a sometimes strange English expression in the form
"house of him." An example of this is found in Jacob 5:2, where Jacob says, "hear the words of
me." (Check it out, that's the way it's still written in the latest edition.) More often, this will be
translated "his house," or "my words." Even this good English translation results in a strange
construction when there is more than one object referenced. Since the pronoun is attached to the
noun, a literal translation must repeat the relative pronoun. This is illustrated in 1 Nephi 2:4. Nephi,
describing his father's departure from Jerusalem says. "And he left his. . house, and the land
of his. . inheritance, and his. . gold, and his. .silver, and his precious things. . . ."

"From before"?
The expression "from before" occurs 78 times in
the King James translation of the Old Testament.
These are expressions like: "from before thee,"
"from before them," "from before thy presence,"
and "from before thy face." This is a Hebraism
and does not occur in the New Testament. This
form of expression appears 21 times in the Book
of Mormon. Some might say that Joseph just
copied this from the Old Testament. With this in
mind, one example is interesting. The Hebrew
phrase mil-li-phnêcan be literally translated
"from before the face of." or "from before my
face," or "from before the presence of." Of the
21 Book of Mormon occurrences of "from
before," thirteen are closely related to "from
before my face." This is exactly the wording of
six of these. Only once does "from before my
face" appear in the KJV of the Old Testament.

"In" or "To"?
The Hebrew words translated into English as "in" and "to" are sometimes interchangeable in
Hebrew sentence structure. Could this explain an interesting "error" in the 1830 edition of the Book
of Mormon? In that edition, 1 Nephi 7:12 read, "Let us be faithful in him."
Neither "more" Nor "er" ???
In Hebrew there is no equivalent for the normal English phrasing of comparisons. In English we
might say, "He is more. . handsome," or "She is taller. .." Neither this use of more nor the addition
of the suffix er, is possible in Hebrew. Instead of more, Hebrew uses above all. This should be very
familiar to Book of Mormon readers as this "above all" comparison occurs 35 times in the current
Book of Mormon text. There are many familiar examples: "choice above all other lands";
"sweet, above allthat I ever before tasted"; "the tree which is precious above all. .." And in 1 Nephi
13:30, it occurs twice: "and have been lifted up by the power of God above all. . other nations, upon
the face of the land which is choice above all other lands."

Taxing Taxes
There exists in the Semitic languages a
construction called the "cognate accusative." It
consists of a verb immediately followed by a
noun derived from the same root, and is often
used for emphasis. The Book of Mormon has
many excellent examples:
"they are cursed with a sore cursing" instead
of sorely cursed
"work all manner of fine work" instead of do
fine work
"and he did judge righteous judgments"
instead of judge righteously
"Behold I have dreamed a dream" instead
of I had a dream
"taxed with a tax" Instead of taxed

Name that Name
In 1 Nephi 2:8, the following appears: "And it
came to pass that he called the name of the river,
Laman. . . . " In English, we would ordinarily
expect to read "he called the river Laman," or "he
named the river Laman." However, in both
Hebrew and Arabic the construction of this
phrase would be similar to the cognate
accusative: "he named. . the name." This
construction is seen throughout the Book of
Mormon. Almost always it's the name that is
named.
Numerals
In English compound numbers are hyphenated.
We write twenty-five. In Hebrew the conjunction
"and" is always used to express this compound
(twenty and five). The Book of Mormon always
uses this Hebrew form for expressing compound
numbers.

Compound Subjects
In proper English, when a person speaks of
themselves and another, the reference to the
speaker should always come last. In Hebrew, this
is reversed. Thus, "my brother and I" would be
"I and my brother." The Book of Mormon
consistently uses this Hebrew form.
Compound Prepositions
While rare in the English Bible, the
Hebrew compound preposition is found
throughout the Book of Mormon. Here are
some examples:
by the hand of your enemies instead of "by your
enemy's hand"
by the mouth of all the prophets instead of "said
by all the prophets," or "by the prophet's mouth"
down into the land of Nephi instead of "down
to Nephi," or "down to the land of Nephi"
fled from before my presence instead of "fled
from me," or "fled from my presence"

Repeated Prepositions
In Hebrew when a preposition refers to multiple
objects, it is usual for the preposition to be
repeated with the mention of each object. In
English we might say, "I was pleased with the
work of Tom, Dick, and Harry." In Hebrew this
would be: "I was pleased with the work of Tom,
and of Dick, and of Harry." It might even be:
". . . the work of Tom, and the work of Dick,
and the work of Harry." This can be seen in 2
Samuel 6:5, where we read, "Even on harps, and
on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets,
and on cymbals." This construction is also
common in the Book of Mormon. For example,
in Lehi's instruction to his son, Jacob (2 Nephi
2:5), he says:
"And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good
from evil. And the law is given unto men. And by the
law no flesh is justified; or, by the law men are cut off.
Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and
also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is
good, and become miserable forever."

When Orson Pratt restructured our
Book of Mormon in 1879, he added
verses where the original had
paragraphs like any other book. He
also recut the chapters, typically
breaking them up into smaller sets.
The result is our current chapter and
verse arrangement that makes the
Book of Mormon appear much more
similar to the way we are used to
seeing the Bible, and makes it much
easier to find specific verses.
Unfortunately, the process also covered
up certain structural arrangements in
the text

At first, the 3,913 changes
you cite sound rather
significant. But if you
recheck your source you
will find that even the
anti-Mormons Jerald and
Sandra Tanner admit that
the 3,913 changes were
not really significant at all:

"As we stated earlier, most of
the 3,913 changes which we
found were related to the
correction of grammatical
and spelling errors and do
not really change the basic
meaning of the text."
Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Changing World
of Mormonism, Chicago: Moody Pres., 1980, p
131

When the Prophet Joseph dictated the
translation from the plates, a scribe copied
down his words. Since only Jesus Christ was
perfect, it is not surprising that the scribes
made some minor errors. In addition, the
non-Mormon typesetter that the Church
hired to take the handwritten manuscript to
book form was forced to decipher the
scribe’s handwriting to set the type. Also,
consider that the printing process in 1830
was much more manual and cumbersome
than the ones we use today

Neither the original manuscript, nor the printer’s manuscript had
any punctuation. There were no paragraphs. There were no
sentences. All of those important aspects of a modern text were
added by John H. Gilbert, the compositor. How did Mr. Gilbert
decide where to create a paragraph? It is obvious that he used
“and it came to pass” as a clue to the beginning of a new
paragraph. It is less obvious that he recognized that the phrase
began a new paragraph because that was the function it
performed.

The original
manuscript has
not survived
intact; it
became water-
soaked while
stored in the
cornerstone of
the Nauvoo
House, and
about two-
thirds of it

The 144 remaining pages, in
the Church vaults in Salt
Lake City, contain most of 1
Nephi; a portion of 2 Nephi 1;
portions of Alma 11 and 19;
Alma 22-63; parts of
Helaman 1-3; and part of 3
Nephi 26.4 The printer's
manuscript, on the other
hand, is in good condition. It
is a part of the collection of
the Reorganized Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints in Independence,
A page from the original
Book of Mormon
manuscript, covering 1
Nephi 4:38-5:14. It shows
how fluent Joseph Smith's
dictation was. He did not
change or revise the text as
he dictated.

As one might expect, any handwritten copy will differ in
some ways from its original. The printer's manuscript of
the Book of Mormon differed from the original for two
principal reasons. First, unintentional variations are
impossible to avoid in a transcription of 464 pages.
Second, there is evidence of some deliberate editing,
such as smoothing out phrases, substituting one word
for another, correcting spelling errors, adding of
punctuation, and other intended improvements. It was
this "emended" manuscript that was taken to the printer
for typesetting for the first edition of the Book of
Mormon.

Seven years later, the second edition- a
minor revision- of the Book of
Mormon was printed in Kirtland,
Ohio, by O. Cowdery and Company
for P. P. Pratt and J. Goodson.
Brothers Pratt and Goodson served as
editors and caretakers and made the
following explanation about the
efforts of the Prophet Joseph Smith
and Oliver Cowdery to prepare this
revised edition (spelling and
punctuation are original):

"Individuals acquainted with book printing, are aware of
the numerous typographical errors which always occur
in manuscript editions. It is only necessary to say, that
the whole has been carefully reexamined and compared
with the original manuscripts, by Elder Joseph Smith, Jr.
the translator of the book of Mormon, assisted by the
present printer, brother O. Cowdery, who formerly
wrote the greatest portion of the same, as dictated by
brother Smith.
"Parley P. Pratt,
"John Goodson
"Kirtland, Ohio 1837."

Over the next 140 years, various other
editions containing adjustments and
refinements were published, resulting in
considerable format change but not in
many textual revisions. Then, in 1981,
the Church published an edition with
approximately 160 corrections. Although
most are grammar and spelling
improvements, several significant
corrections and additions to the text
were made. A detailed account of these
corrections may be found in the Ensign
(Sept. 1976, pp. 77-82; Oct. 1981, pp. 8-
19) and in BYU Studies (Fall 1982, pp.
387-423). Two examples follow.

In Alma 16:5 two words sound similar, but the
spelling is slightly different, and the meaning is
vastly different. The Lamanites had taken Nephite
prisoners of war. Zoram, chief Nephite army
captain, went to Alma the prophet and asked him
to inquire of the Lord concerning the prisoners.
Until 1981, all printed editions read, "therefore
they went unto him to know whether the Lord
would that they should go . . . in search of their
brethren." (Italics added.)

The original manuscript reads whither rather than whether,
and it was corrected to read so in the 1981 version. For
years the interpretation had been whether (if) the
Nephites should go in search of their brethren. The true
meaning is, rather, whither (where) they should go. The
printer's manuscript contains a rather awkward
correction from whether to whither, showing that this had
been discovered long ago, but the correction was not
assimilated into the scripture until the 1981 edition.

An interesting correction has been made in Alma 57:25,
which deals with the remarkable preservation of 2060
young soldiers: "And to our great astonishment, and also
the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of
them who did perish." Until 1981, all editions of the
Book of Mormon read foes; however, careful
examination of the printer's manuscript shows that the
correct word is joy. The error occurred in earlier editions
because the handwriting on the manuscript is peculiarly
formed at this point, and typesetters and proofreaders
simply misread it. The word foes does make sense as used
in the passage, but it is not as appropriate as joy.

The same kind of editorial effort that has been exerted
to correct and refine the Book of Mormon over the past
158 years has been occurring for centuries with the
Bible. Students familiar with biblical research know that
the reason there are several versions of the Bible in print
today is that there are literally thousands of biblical
manuscripts available, none of them originals, and all
differ in various ways. They are grouped in "families"
because they appear to come from several major textual
ancestors. Hence, the Catholic Vulgate Bible represents
a different textual lineage than the New English Bible.
The King James Version represents still another.

Typographical errors have occurred in many editions of the
Bible, especially in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth
centuries, when typesetting was done by hand. Since the first
printing of the King James Version in A.D. 1611, many revisions
and modifications have been made by British scholars. This
process has resulted in an increasing number of words being set
in italics, which indicates an editorial attempt to enlarge or round
out a thought that was poorly expressed in the manuscripts or
was difficult to translate exactly. Readers of today's King James
Version may think that it is an exact duplicate of what was
printed 375 years ago, but it is not. The number of italicized
words in Matthew alone increased from 43 in 1611 to 583 in
1870 because of revisions to the text.

Most readers would agree that the really vital things in
the Book of Mormon are its teachings and testimonies
on spiritual matters and that one's reading of that book
should be done prayerfully and with the Spirit. It is no
matter of great concern, then, that the Book of
Mormon, like all scriptures, has undergone a certain
amount of grammatical improvements and textual
change in successive editions. At the April 1974 general
conference of the Church, Elder Boyd K. Packer
commented on the changes made in our Latter-day
Scriptures:

"Some have alleged that these books of revelations
are false, and they place in evidence changes that have
occurred in the texts of these scriptures since their
original publication. They cite these changes, of which
there are many examples, as though they themselves
were announcing revelation. As though they were the
only ones that knew of them. "Of course there have
been changes and corrections. Anyone who has done
even limited research knows that. When properly
reviewed, such corrections become a testimony for, not
against, the truth of the books."

The names of two of the most sacred
ordinances in The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints have no adequate
equivalents in the Japanese language, an
illustration of the problems sometimes
inherent in teaching religion across cultures,
a BYU professor said Friday. Van C. Gessel,
a professor of Japanese at BYU, said in
Japan, members of the LDS faith use the
created words, "baputesma" and
"endaumento" for the ordinances of
baptism and endowment, along with the
words "sute-ku" and "wa-do" for stake and
ward.

Missionaries and priests have struggled
for centuries to teach Christian concepts
to a polytheistic society that has no
underlying concept of Jesus Christ.
Despite no direct translation for God,
Japanese members of the LDS church
use the commonly accepted term Kami
sama, which means, "the honorable Mr.
Spirit, essence that resides in the trees,
the streams and our deceased
ancestors.“
Van C. Gessel, Professor of Japanese at BYU, 50th BYU
Studies symposium March 12, 2010

THE DOCTRINE
OF CHRIST
JACOB 7

God's name
Jehovah/Yahowah
appears in the original
Hebrew text about
7000 times,

The Name
Jesus
appears:
1,285 Times
In Scripture
165 times in
the Book of
Mormon and
100 times in
the D&C

In the King James version
the word - devil - appears 61 times
the word - devilish - appears once
the word - devils - appears 55 times
the word - Lucifer - appears once
the word - Satan - appears 55 times
the word - Satan's - appears once

Name Devil or devils
mentioned only FOUR times in
the Old Testament:
Lev. 17:7
Deut. 32:17
2 Chron. 11:15
Psalms 106:37

The name “Satan” appears
19X in the Old Testament--
--
14 of those in one book-
the Book of Job
So----19 satans plus 4 devils=
23 times in the O.T.

Devil, (Devils, Devilish), or
Satan appears”
New Testament:
Devil 113 X + Satan 36 X
= 149
Bible Total = 167x
Pearl of Great Price:
Devil 4X + Satan 32X =

Doctrine and
Covenants
Devil 30X + Satan 35X =
65X
Book of Mormon 114X
Devil 99x, 9 Devil, 6
Devilish + Satan 26X =

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