471 | November 20, 2024
Book of Mormon Evidence: Adverbial Phrases
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
Abstract
The Book of Mormon contains a variety of adverbs ending in -ly. Yet, to an unusual degree for an English text, it also uses adverbial phrases beginning with words like "with" or "in." This tendency suggests a literal translation of Hebraic phrases.In English, adverbs can perform several functions, the most common of which is to modify verbs. These type of adverbs typically end in the letters -ly. For example, one might say “I ran swiftly” to describe how fast they were moving. This, however, is not the case in Hebrew.
As Stephen Ricks has observed, “Hebrew is decidedly lacking in adverbs. Instead of adverbs, it frequently uses the prepositions meaning ‘in’ or ‘with,’” typically followed by a noun.1 Thus, using the previous example, in Hebrew one would describe an action by saying “I ran with swiftness.” John Tvedtnes has further noted that the “use of a preposition to produce an adverb is common in Hebrew, and is likewise common in the Book of Mormon.”2 Such adverbial phrases “would reflect the Hebrew proposition b (‘in, with, by, through,’ sometimes ‘of’) plus the noun. The Book of Mormon has many of these, but it contains but few examples of true English adverbs.”3
The following list highlights many of the Hebraic adverbial phrases found in the Book of Mormon:
Passages | Adverbial Phrases in the Book of Mormon | Analogous Adverbs in Common English |
1 Nephi 2:14; Mosiah 3:5; Alma 17:3; Alma 17:36; Alma 43:50; Alma 56:56; Alma 62:45; Helaman 5:17; Mormon 2:3 | with power; with great power; with exceedingly great power; with mighty power; with such mighty power; with much power | powerfully; very powerfully |
1 Nephi 5:1; 1 Nephi 8:12; 2 Nephi 22:3; Jacob 4:3; Mosiah 3:4; Mosiah 3:13; Mosiah 4:3; Mosiah 4:20; Mosiah 5:4; Mosiah 21:24; Mosiah 21:28; Mosiah 22:14; Mosiah 24:25; Mosiah 25:8; Alma 4:14; Alma 16:17; Alma 16:20; Alma 17:29; Alma 19:13; Alma 19:14; Alma 19:30; Alma 22:15; Alma 32:6; Alma 45:1; Alma 55:9; Alma 57:36; Alma 62:1; 3 Nephi 4:33 | with joy; with great joy; with exceedingly great joy; with such exceedingly great joy; with exceeding joy | joyfully; very joyfully |
1 Nephi 15:11; 1 Nephi 16:4; 2 Nephi 6:3; Jacob 1:19; Jacob 5:74; Enos 1:12; Alma 21:23; Alma 32:41; Alma 51:9; Alma 51:14; Helaman 15:6; 3 Nephi 5:3; 3 Nephi 6:14 | with diligence; with all diligence; with great diligence; with unwearied diligence; with so much diligence | diligently; very diligently |
1 Nephi 16:35; 2 Nephi 1:24; Mosiah 21:16; Mosiah 21:17; Alma 60:9; Alma 60:35; 3 Nephi 4:20 | with hunger | hungrily |
with much rudeness | very rudely | |
with soberness; with much soberness | soberly; very soberly | |
with much harshness | very harshly | |
1 Nephi 18:18; 2 Nephi 1:17; 2 Nephi 1:21; Jacob 4:3; Enos 1:10; Mosiah 21:29; Mosiah 25:9; Mosiah 28:18; Alma 4:8; Alma 8:14; Helaman 7:6; Helaman 7:9; Mormon 2:19 | with sorrow; with great sorrow | sorrowfully; very sorrowfully |
with gladness | gladly | |
with grief | grievingly | |
with faith; with exceeding faith; with much faith | very faithfully | |
with righteousness | righteously | |
with equity | equitably | |
with shame | shamefully | |
with contempt | contemptuously | |
with awful guilt | very guiltily | |
with pleasure | pleasurably | |
Mosiah 7:12; Alma 1:11; Alma 9:7; Alma 18:24; Alma 30:27; 3 Nephi 4:14; Mormon 2:24; Mormon 4:20; Moroni 8:16 | with boldness; with much boldness; with exceeding boldness | boldly; very boldly |
with exceeding luster | very lustrously | |
Mosiah 24:15; Alma 1:25; Alma 26:27; Alma 31:31; Alma 32:41; Alma 38:4 | with patience | patiently |
with much swiftness | very swiftly | |
with compassion | compassionately | |
with the greatest abhorrence | very abhorrently | |
with much care; with great care | very carefully | |
2 Nephi 9:46; Alma 2:23; Alma 14:29; Alma 34:37; Alma 44:15; Alma 58:9; Alma 58:29; Helaman 9:30; 3 Nephi 4:9; Mormon 9:27; Ether 3:6; Ether 3:19 | with fear; with awful fear; with much fear; with great fear | fearfully; very fearfully |
with truth | truly | |
with vigor; with great vigor | vigorously; very vigorously | |
with exceeding fury; with such fury | very furiously | |
with speed; with great speed | speedily; very speedily | |
with justice | justly | |
with consolation | consolingly | |
with unwearyingness; with such unwearyingness | unwearyingly; very unwearyingly | |
with great earnestness | very earnestly | |
with haste | hastily | |
with surety | surely | |
with sharpness | sharply |
Other adverbial phrases in the Book of Mormon use words such as “in” or “of,” followed by a noun. Consider the following examples:
Passages | Adverbial Phrases in the Book of Mormon | Analogous Adverbs in Common English |
1 Nephi 12:11; 1 Nephi 12:12; 1 Nephi 20:1; 1 Nephi 22:21; 1 Nephi 22:26; 2 Nephi 15:16; 2 Nephi 26:9; Words of Mormon 1:17; Mosiah 29:22; 3 Nephi 4:29; 3 Nephi 4:30; 3 Nephi 22:14; 3 Nephi 24:3; Ether 7:1; Ether 7:11; Ether 7:27; Ether 9:21; Ether 10:13 | in righteousness | righteously |
in glory | gloriously | |
1 Nephi 18:24; 2 Nephi 5:11; Mosiah 11:15; Mosiah 26:9; Helaman 6:12; 4 Nephi 1:46 | in abundance | abundantly |
in truth; of a truth | truly | |
1 Nephi 5:8; 1 Nephi 17:55; 1 Nephi 19:2; 2 Nephi 25:7; Mosiah 7:14; Mosiah 22:14; Alma 32:17; Helaman 9:2; Helaman 14:4; 3 Nephi 11:15; Ether 5:3 | of a surety | surely |
Conclusion
Donald W. Parry observed, “Such usage [of adverbial phrases], rather foreign to English if employed frequently (and sometimes unnatural even when used in isolation), suggests a literal translation from Hebrew.”4 While various single-word adverbs ending in -ly can be found in the Book of Mormon text, adverbial phrases are unusually prevalent and may reflect a more word-for-word translation. This is not unlike modern translations of the Bible, which similarly include many adverbial phrases in an effort to preserve its original form. The unusual frequency of the Book of Mormon’s adverbial phrases is just one of many Hebraic features or tendencies that have now been identified in the Book of Mormon.5
Donald W. Parry, Preserved in Translation: Hebrew and Other Ancient Literary Forms in the Book of Mormon (BYU Religious Studies Center; Deseret Book, 2020), 111–114.
Stephen D. Ricks, “Converging Paths: Language and Cultural Notes on the Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Book of Mormon,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (FARMS, 2002), 400.
John A. Tvedtnes, “Since the Book of Mormon Is Largely the Record of a Hebrew People, Is the Writing Characteristic of the Hebrew Language?” Ensign, October 1986, 64.
John A. Tvedtnes, “Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon: A Preliminary Survey,” BYU Studies 11 (Autumn 1970): 56.
- 1. Stephen D. Ricks, “Converging Paths: Language and Cultural Notes on the Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Book of Mormon,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (FARMS, 2002), 400.
- 2. John A. Tvedtnes, “Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon: A Preliminary Survey,” BYU Studies 11 (Autumn 1970): 55.
- 3. Tvedtnes, “Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon: A Preliminary Survey, 56.
- 4. It is also worth noting that there are some adverbial phrases present in the Book of Mormon that cannot be rendered by an English adverb. For example, the phrase “with anguish” appears in 1 Nephi 17:47, but there is no English adverb that matches this meaning, apart from an obsolete adverb that has not been used since the early 1500s. See James A. H. Murray, Henry Bradley, W. A. Craigie, and C. T. Onions, The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (Clarendon Press, 1989), s.v. “anguishously,” 470. Other adverbial phrases often combine two nouns or even complete phrases to refer to some aspects of God, such as his power and glory in 1 Nephi 14:14, 2 Nephi 33:11, and Moroni 7:35. Others discuss the power and authority of God, such as Words of Mormon 1:17, Mosiah 13:6, Mosiah 18:26, Alma 17:3, Helaman 5:18, Helaman 6:5, and 3 Nephi 7:17.
- 5. For an overview of the Book of Mormon’s many Hebrew or Hebrew-like features, see Donald W. Parry, Preserved in Translation: Hebrew and Other Ancient Literary Forms in the Book of Mormon (BYU Religious Studies Center; Deseret Book, 2020).