Book of Mormon Evidence: Delayed Compound Subjects

Evidence Summary

What is a “Subject”?

Grammatically speaking, a “subject” is the person or thing that a sentence or clause is primarily about. For instance, “boy” is the subject in the following sentence: 

The boy ate all of his vegetables. 

Some sentences have two or more subjects, often referred to as a “compound subject”:

Carrots, peas, and lettuce are some of the boy’s favorite vegetables. 

As in the example above, in English compound subjects are typically grouped together before the verb. 

Delayed Subjects in the Old Testament

Some passages in the King James Bible are constructed differently, in that one element of a compound subject is placed before the verb, while another is placed somewhere after it:

“and all the people of Judah conducted the king, and also half the people of Israel” (2 Samuel 19:40)

“the morning cometh, and also the night” (Isaiah 21:12)

Although the meaning of these statements is fairly clear, this type of delayed subject is not common in modern English and seems largely due to the format of the underlying Hebrew grammar.[1] As explained by Hebrew scholar Donald Parry, “This grammatical structure is a Hebraism, or at least a Hebrew-like construction.”[2] 

Delayed Subjects in the Book of Mormon

In his close study of the original text of the Book of Mormon, Royal Skousen discovered dozens of delayed subjects in the Book of Mormon, as well as some other delayed noun phrases, with a combined total of nearly 70 instances.[3] Here are a handful of examples: 

 “And it came to pass that Laman was angry with me, and also with my father; and also was Lemuel” (1 Nephi 3:28)

“And it came to pass that when Laman saw me he was exceedingly frightened, and also Lemuel and Sam” (1 Nephi 4:28)

“And now it came to pass that Alma began from this time forward to teach the people, and those who were with Alma at the time the angel appeared unto them” (Mosiah 27:32)

“And Alma went forth, and also Amulek, among the people, to declare the words of God unto them” (Alma 8:30)

“And it came to pass that when Ammon arose he also administered unto them, and also did all the servants of Lamoni” (Alma 19:33)

“for the king had been converted unto the Lord, and all his household” (Alma 23:3)

“we will not suffer ourselves to take an oath unto you, which we know that we shall break, and also our children” (Alma 44:8)

“And the men of Pachus received their trial, according to the law, and also those king-men who had been taken and cast into prison” (Alma 62:9)

“he did observe to do good continually, to keep the commandments of the Lord his God; and also did his brother” (Alma 63:2)

“he yielded up the judgment-seat, and took it upon him to preach the word of God all the remainder of his days, and his brother Lehi also” (Helaman 5:4)

Conclusion

Because these types of constructions are found in the King James Bible (and likely in other English texts), it isn’t warranted to assume Joseph Smith wasn’t ever exposed to them before translating the Book of Mormon. At the same time, it would be hasty to suppose he ever noticed this grammatical form and intentionally adopted it into his language patterns. After all, many Latter-day Saints today regularly read from the Bible and the Book of Mormon but probably have never consciously noticed this grammatical feature, much less integrated it into their speech or writing. 

The overall quantity of this feature in the text is also somewhat significant. According to Parry,

Finding multiple instances of this grammatical form in the Book of Mormon is significant because in echoing similar constructions in the Hebrew Bible, these delayed subjects begin to look less like an ancient record keeper’s afterthought or the modern translator’s unconventional English and more like another evidence of the book’s authentic Hebrew language inheritance. It seems likely that new research will yield additional instances of this literary form in both the Hebrew Bible and the Book of Mormon.[4]

Finally, it should be emphasized that this is just one of many linguistic features in the Book of Mormon that correlate with Hebrew or Hebrew-like constructions.[5] The more of them that are discovered in the text—in both type and quantity—the more difficult it becomes to assume they were all derived from imitation of the Bible.[6] The presence of delayed compound subjects adds to that broader line of evidence, pointing to the Book of Mormon’s plausible Hebrew origins.[7]

Further Reading

Donald W. Parry, Preserved in Translation: Hebrew and Other Ancient Literary Forms in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2020), 119–122.

Royal Skousen with the collaboration of Standford Carmack, Grammatical Variation, Part 1 of The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, Volume 3 of The Critical Text of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: FARMS and BYU Studies, 2016), 361–409.

Donald W. Parry, “Hebraisms and Other Ancient Peculiarities in the Book of Mormon,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002), 155–189.

John A. Tvedtnes, “Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon: A Preliminary Survey,” BYU Studies 11 (Autumn 1970): 50–58.