Evidence #429 | November 27, 2023
Hebraisms and the Apocalypse of Abraham
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
Abstract
Although originally composed in Hebrew or Aramaic around the first–second centuries AD, the earliest known version of the Apocalypse of Abraham comes from Slavonic manuscripts that date to more than a thousand years later. Many of the textual clues that have helped scholars identify the underlying Semitic origins of this text can also be found in the Book of Mormon.Concerning its own linguistic heritage, the Book of Mormon claims it was originally written in a form of Egyptian by authors who also knew and spoke Hebrew (see 1 Nephi 1:2; Mormon 9:32–33). Some scholars interpret this to mean that Nephite authors wrote in Egyptian, while others believe they adapted an Egyptian script to write in Hebrew.1 Either way, the text claims to have been originally written in an ancient Near Eastern language, whereas today it is only available in modern translations, beginning with Joseph Smith’s English translation in 1829.
The Apocalypse of Abraham
Many other ancient texts are also only available in a translated form, sometimes from manuscripts that date to long after they were originally composed.2 The Apocalypse of Abraham offers a valuable example of this phenomenon. Its earliest extant manuscripts were written in Slavonic and date between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries AD.3 Most experts agree, however, that the text was first composed in Hebrew or Aramaic between AD 70–150. As noted by Amy Paulsen-Reed, among scholars who have studied the Apocalypse of Abraham there is “a rare display of unity” concerning its Semitic origin.4 This assessment is based on numerous textual clues—often termed Hebraisms or Semiticisms—pointing to an underlying Semitic source.5
Hebraisms in the Apocalypse of Abraham
One textual feature supporting this consensus comes from the frequent use of the waw prefix, often translated as “and” or “but” in English.6 For example, Apocalypse of Abraham 11:4–5 reads: “And he said to me, Abraham. And I said, Here is your servant! And he said, Let my appearance not frighten you, nor my speech trouble your soul. Come with me! And I will go with you.”7
Although the frequent use of “and” may feel repetitive or superfluous to English speakers, this prefix was crucial in ancient Hebrew, which lacked punctuation and therefore needed some other way to distinguish between separate complete thoughts. A similar feature found throughout the Apocalypse of Abraham is the phrase “and it came to pass.” While it may seem lengthy or redundant in English, it reflects just a single word in Hebrew and was commonly used in Hebrew texts as a temporal marker.8
One can also point to the distinctively Semitic manner in which the constituent parts of one’s body or soul are used metaphorically to display an action or emotion.9 On one occasion, Abraham expressed concern by stating that “my heart was perplexed.” In another instance, he declared, “Why now have you afflicted my heart?”10 Other examples include “my spirit was amazed, and my soul fled from me” and “my soul has loved” God.11 Such metaphors are characteristic of Hebrew thought and idiom.
Some Semitic words appear to have been left untranslated in the Slavonic text, meaning they were instead transliterated.12 An instance of this is found in Apocalypse of Abraham 1:8, when Terah asked Abraham to bring him his “axes and izmala”—likely a Hebrew word meaning “chisel.”13 Another example is the god Nakhon (or Nakhin), which in Hebrew emphasizes that this god is “stable; firmly established” in contrast to the god Maroumaf.14
Perhaps the most compelling marker of Semitic origins is the presence of Hebrew or Aramaic names used in wordplays that would only make sense to a Semitic audience. This can be easily seen in name of the idol Barisat, which likely derives from the Hebrew/Aramaic name bar ’eshāth, meaning “son of fire” or “fiery one.”15 This reconstruction is amusingly ironic, seeing that Barisat is itself burned with fire in Apocalypse of Abraham 5. The names of other idols each have a similar Semitic meaning that is “either descriptive of the idol’s role in the narrative or furthers the mockery of the idol in an ironic and humorous way.”16 Importantly, the narrative puns involved in these names are “completely dependent” on the reader’s knowledge of their Semitic undertones.17
Hebrew or Greek?
Some features of the Apocalypse of Abraham suggest the Slavonic edition was translated from a Greek version of the text.18 That being the case, scholars have entertained the possibility that its Hebraisms originally derive from the use of biblicized Greek—as is found in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (known as the Septuagint).19 Several aspects of the text, however, run contrary to this theory.
First of all, as noted by R. Rubinkiewicz, the “sheer number of Semitisms” in the Apocalypse of Abraham “is best explained” by an original Semitic composition.20 Thus, at least to some extent, the overall quantity of Semitic content matters.
In addition, there are linguistic and literary elements in the text that don’t make sense as biblicized Greek. For example, some quotations or allusions to the Bible found in the Apocalypse of Abraham appear to reflect the Hebrew Masoretic text (or the Aramaic Targums) rather than the Greek Septuagint.21 This can be seen in the expression “I said in my heart” (Apocalypse of Abraham 3:2), which Paulsen-Reed describes as a “true Hebraism.”22 Other prepositional phrases similarly invoke Hebrew syntax in ways not found in biblicized Greek.23
Perhaps even more telling are the instances of wordplay mentioned in the previous section, since this feature wouldn’t have originated in Greek or have been readily recognized by primarily Greek-speaking audiences. Based on these and other Semitic features,24 one leading expert concluded that “the existence of the Semitic original of [the Apocalypse of Abraham] may be considered proven beyond any doubt.”25
Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon
Like the Apocalypse of Abraham, the Book of Mormon contains many linguistic features that are typical of ancient Near Eastern languages and literature, including examples similar to those found in the Apocalypse of Abraham.26
Donald W. Parry and other scholars have noted that the Nephite record frequently uses the waw prefix much like the Bible and other Hebrew texts do.27 This can be seen in the description Nephi gave of his vision early on in the Book of Mormon: “And I saw the heavens open, and the Lamb of God descending out of heaven; and he came down and showed himself unto them. And I also saw and bear record that the Holy Ghost fell upon twelve others; and they were ordained of God, and chosen” (1 Nephi 12:6–7).28 The phrase “and it came to pass” is likewise prominently used in the Book of Mormon in a manner typical of Hebrew writing.29
Just as seen in the Apocalypse of Abraham, Book of Mormon authors sometimes employed imagery of body parts to convey great emotion. One example can be seen in Mormon 2:12: “my heart did begin to rejoice within me.”30 Scholars have also pointed out the use of the cognate accusative, such as “dreamed a dream”; the use of the construct state, such as “works of righteousness” (instead of “righteous works”); and the use of compound prepositions, such as “by the mouth of angels” (instead of simply saying “by angels”).31 These and many other examples of Hebraisms are well documented.32
It should be recognized that similar Hebraisms occur in the King James Bible and can be found in other English works from the nineteenth century that imitate biblical language.33 Thus, one might assume that the Hebrew features in the Book of Mormon are simply due to Joseph Smith’s familiarity with the Bible. This would be analogous to the proposal that the Semitic features identified in the Apocalypse of Abraham are merely due to a biblicized Greek original. Yet the same reasons that scholars have rejected that proposal also apply to the Book of Mormon, starting with the fact that its identified Hebrew features are simply too numerous to easily ascribe them to someone like Joseph Smith in 1829.
Beyond sheer quantity and variety, however, it must be recognized that there are several Semitic features in the Book of Mormon that couldn’t have been derived from an imitation of the King James Bible. For instance, Parry observes that “sometimes in the Book of Mormon and is used where but is expected.”34 One instance is from Omni 1:25, which states that “there is nothing which is good save it comes from the Lord: and [or but] that which is evil cometh from the devil.”35 According to Parry, “such examples are indicative of a literal translation from a Hebrew-like text,”36 since in Hebrew, the waw prefix is used for both conjunctions, something not readily discernable to an English reader of the Bible.
Another example of a common Hebrew construction is the if-and clause.37 No instances of this conditional phrase are found in the King James Version or other modern English translations of the Bible,38 but they are found in the earliest manuscripts of the Book of Mormon. The earliest text for Mosiah 2:21 reads: “I say if ye should serve him with your whole soul—and yet ye would be unprofitable servants.”39 “This finding,” writes Parry, “underscores that the Book of Mormon’s use of Hebraistic literary forms cannot simply be attributed to Joseph Smith’s familiarity with the English Bible.”40
In some cases, biblical quotations in the Book of Mormon more closely reflect the Bible’s underlying Hebrew than the King James Version does. This can be seen in the writings of Nephi and Alma, each of whom appears to have been familiar with the Hebrew of Isaiah’s writings in ways unlikely known by Joseph Smith in 1829.41
Similar to the Apocalypse of Abraham, the Book of Mormon contains transliterated words that appear to be of Semitic origin.42 The word sheum, for instance, appears in a list of grains and crops in Mosiah 9:9 and is similar to “a common Akkadian word referring to cereal grains.”43 The word ziff appears in a list of metals (see Mosiah 11:3, 8) and may be derived from a Hebrew root meaning “splendor, brightness” (ziv), or it could be related to the place name Ziph found in Joshua 15:24 (cf. 1 Chronicles 2:42; 4:16).44
Finally, just like the Apocalypse of Abraham, Book of Mormon names are frequently used in Hebrew-style wordplays that get lost in translation, except that there are many more proposed examples in the Nephite record.45 One notable instance involves “the land of Lehi-Nephi, and the land of Shilom” (Mosiah 9:6; emphasis added). The name Shilom is based on the Hebrew root shlm, meaning “peace.”46 It is therefore telling that in the immediately preceding passage, Zeniff expressed his hope that he and his people could “possess the land in peace” (v. 5; emphasis added). Sadly, in a twist of narrative irony, there was ultimately no peace but rather war in the land of Shilom.47 This favorably compares with the ironic fire-related name of the idol Barisat in the Apocalypse of Abraham.
Concerning the proposed Semitic background and puns surrounding the names of the idols in the Apocalypse of Abraham, Alexander Kulik concluded, “An obviously Semitic origin of these names is the most striking argument in favor of the Semitic origin of the whole composition.”48 Paulsen-Reed makes a related point: “Given that this kind of word play presupposes a knowledge of Hebrew or Aramaic, it is highly unlikely that it was written by a Greek author for a Greek-speaking audience.”49
The same lines of reasoning could be applied to the striking number of transliterated words and attending wordplays in the Nephite record, many of which appear to be of Semitic origin. It seems highly unlikely that they were originally composed in English for a primarily English-speaking audience by someone like Joseph Smith, who in 1829 had a limited education and no Hebrew training.50 Thus, their presence strongly argues in favor of the Semitic origin of the whole composition.
Conclusion
This is but a small sample of proposed Hebraisms and other Semitic-like features identified in the Book of Mormon.51 According to Donald W. Parry, “It is highly doubtful that Joseph Smith knew anything about the Hebraic features of the Book of Mormon that have been identified by scholars long after his death.”52 Similarly, John Tvedtnes noted, “Many expressions used in the Book of Mormon are awkward or unexpected in English, even in Joseph Smith’s time. Yet they make good sense when viewed as translations, perhaps as too literal translations, from an ancient text written in a Hebrew-like language.”53
It is also significant that the Book of Mormon possesses many of the same features that have convinced scholars that the Apocalypse of Abraham is a translation of an ancient Semitic text. Due to the high volume and diversity of Hebraic or Semitic features in the Book of Mormon—especially those which couldn’t have been derived through imitation of the King James Bible—its claims about its ancient Near Eastern origins ought to be taken seriously.
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).
Stephen D. Ricks, Paul Y. Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith, and John Gee, Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Books, 2022).
Matthew L. Bowen, Name as Key-Word: Collected Essays on Onomastic Wordplay and the Temple in Mormon Scripture (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Books, 2018).
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: FARMS, 2002), 155–190.
John A. Tvedtnes, “The Hebrew Background of the Book of Mormon,” in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon: Insights You May Have Missed Before, ed. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1991), 77–91.
- 1 One must also consider the possibility of texts being based on dialogue and speeches that were originally composed or recorded in Hebrew but subsequently translated into Egyptian. In such instances, it would be uncertain whether the Book of Mormon’s divinely revealed English translation would reflect the underlying Hebrew, the Egyptian translation, or some combination of both. For commentary on various inscriptional theories, see Stephen D. Ricks and John A. Tvedtnes, “Jewish and Other Semitic Texts Written in Egyptian Characters,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 5, no. 2 (1996): 156–163; John S. Thompson, “Lehi and Egypt,” in Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed. John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely, and Jo Ann H. Seely (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2004), 266–268; Neal Rappleye, “Learning Nephi’s Language: Creating a Context for 1 Nephi 1:2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 16 (2015): 151–159; Robert F. Smith, Egyptianisms in the Book of Mormon and Other Studies (Provo, UT: Deep Forest Green, 2020), 1–13. See also Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Egyptian Writing,” Evidence# 0033, September 19, 2020, online at evidencecentral.org.
- 2 For a list of examples, see Daniel C. Peterson, “Editor’s Introduction: An Unapologetic Apology for Apologetics,” FARMS Review 22, no. 2 (2010): xii–xv.
- 3 Latter-day Saints have long been interested in the Apocalypse of Abraham. In fact, the first English translation of this text was published in the first volume of the Improvement Era. See R. T. Haag and E. H. Anderson, “The Book of the Revelation of Abraham,” Improvement Era 1 (August and September 1898): 705–714, 793–806.
- 4 Amy Paulsen-Reed, The Apocalypse of Abraham in Its Ancient and Medieval Contexts (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2022), 70.
- 5 See R. Rubinkiewicz, trans., “The Apocalypse of Abraham: A New Translation and Introduction,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2 vols., ed. James H. Charlesworth (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983), 1:681–683; Alexander Kulik, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, 3 vols., ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman (Lincoln, NE: Jewish Publication Society, 2013), 2:1453–1455; Alexander Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha: Toward the Original of the Apocalypse of Abraham (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2004), 61–76.
- 6 Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 70.
- 7 Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” 694; emphasis added.
- 8 Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 70; Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” 682. See, for example, Apocalypse of Abraham 1:4, 7; 2:5; 5:11; 8:1; 10:1.
- 9 Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 70; Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” 682.
- 10 Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” 689; (Apocalypse of Abraham 1:4).
- 11 Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” 693, 697; (Apocalypse of Abraham 10:2; 17:14).
- 12 A similar phenomenon sometimes happens in the Septuagint, although not for the same words. For example, 1 Kings 18:32 LXX transliterates the Hebrew word tlh rather than translating it as “trench.”
- 13 Horace G. Lunt, “On the Language of the Slavonic Apocalypse of Abraham,” Slavica Hierosolymitana 7 (1985): 59; Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” 689.
- 14 Alexander Kulik, “The Gods of Nahor: A Note on the Pantheon of the Apocalypse of Abraham,” Journal of Jewish Studies 54 no. 2 (2003): 229.
- 15 Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 74, notes that this name has parallels to Ugaritic and Phoenician deities. See also Kulik, “The Gods of Nahor,” 228–229.
- 16 Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 76; see pp. 72–76 for a full discussion of the idols’ names. See also Kulik, “Interpretation and Reconstruction: Retroverting the Apocalypse of Abraham,” Apocrypha 13 (2002): 214–215; Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 72–74.
- 17 Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 72. For a study on the names of these idols, see Kulik, “Gods of Nahor,” 228–232.
- 18 For example, Apocalypse of Abraham 10:11 refers to the realm of the dead as Hades (Greek) rather than Sheol (Hebrew).
- 19 Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 71. For examples of biblicized Greek, see Jan Joosten, “Hebraisms in the Greek Versions of the Hebrew Bible,” in Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, 4 vols., ed. Geoffrey Khan (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2013), 2:196–198; David N. Bivin, “Hebraisms in the New Testament,” in Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, 2:198–201.
- 20 Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” 686. Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 71, 76, seems to agree with this conclusion.
- 21 Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 72. For examples, see Alexander Kulik, “Interpretation and Reconstruction,” 216.
- 22 Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 70–71n2; Kulik, “Interpretation and Reconstruction,” 215.
- 23 For example, the phrase “it was heavy of a big stone” in Apocalypse of Abraham 1:5 would use the Hebrew min prefix and should be idiomatically understood to mean “it was heavier than a big stone.” Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 71. Additional phrases and discussions of this type of Hebraism can be found in Arie Rubinstein, “Notes and Communications: Hebraisms in the ‘Apocalypse of Abraham,’” Journal of Jewish Studies 5, no. 3 (1954): 132–135; Arie Rubinstein, “Hebraisms in the Slavonic Apocalypse of Abraham,” Journal of Jewish Studies 4, no. 3 (1953): 108–115; Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” 682–683.
- 24 For additional examples, see Rubinstein, “Hebraisms in the Slavonic Apocalypse of Abraham,” 108–115; Arie Rubinstein, “Notes and Communications,” 132–135.
- 25 Kulik, “Interpretation and Reconstruction,” 212; Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 61. Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 76, repeats and affirms this conclusion.
- 26 As previously mentioned (see endnote 1), there is some debate as to whether the underlying language of the Book of Mormon is Hebrew or Egyptian (or some combination of both), but for the purposes of this discussion the distinction is not strictly necessary since, according to Brian D. Stubbs, most Hebraisms “are also characteristic of other Near Eastern languages.” Brian D. Stubbs, “Language,” in To All the World: The Book of Mormon Articles from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, S. Kent Brown, and John W. Welch (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2000), 164. This includes Egyptian, as noted by John Gee, “La Trahison des Clercs: On the Language and Translation of the Book of Mormon,” Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6, no. 1 (1994): 81n99. The few exceptions could be accounted for by the likelihood that if Nephi wrote in Egyptian, it “would more likely be a Hebraized Egyptian.” Sidney B. Sperry, “The Book of Mormon as Translation English,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 4, no. 1 (1995): 209. Matthew L. Bowen, “‘Most Desirable Above All Things’: Onomastic Play on Mary and Mormon in the Book of Mormon,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 13 (2015): 33, also notes that “Hebraisms can exist in an Egyptian text.” See also Smith, Egyptianisms in the Book of Mormon, 15–85.
- 27 See 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), 69–72; 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: FARMS, 2002), 177–179; John A. Tvedtnes, “Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon,” in Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, 2:195–196. See also, Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Repeated Conjunctions,” Evidence# 0311, February 15, 2022, online at evidencecentral.org.
- 28 Regarding the waw prefix, John A. Tvedtnes related an experience he had while attending the Hebrew University at Jerusalem: “This kind of repetition is so prominent in the Book of Mormon that Professor Haim Rabin, President of the Hebrew Language Academy and a specialist in the history of the Hebrew language, once used a passage from the Book of Mormon in a lecture in English to illustrate this principle, because, he explained, it was a better illustration than passages from the English Bible.” John A. Tvedtnes, “The Hebrew Background of the Book of Mormon,” in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon: Insights You May Have Missed Before, ed. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1991), 82.
- 29 According to Royal Skousen, “the original text of the Book of Mormon is closer to the Hebrew text of the Old Testament in having extra occurrences of the phrase ‘and it came to pass,’” while later editions of the Book of Mormon printed under Joseph Smith’s supervision removed them for readability. Royal Skousen, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon: Grammatical Variation, part 1 (Provo, UT: FARMS; Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2016), 166. For more on the use of the phrase “and it came to pass” in the Book of Mormon, see Parry, Preserved in Translation, 103–104; Parry, “Hebraisms and Other Ancient Peculiarities,” 163–164; Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Repeated Conjunctions,” Evidence 0311, February 15, 2022, online at evidencecentral.org. Incidentally, since Mayan writing used a similar temporal marker, “and it came to pass” could also be considered a Mayanism. See Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2008), 1:25–26.
- 30 Mormon also wrote that “meekness and lowliness of heart” was a prerequisite to the gift of the Spirit, again employing imagery of body parts. In another instance, Alma mentioned “the wish of mine heart” (Alma 29:1) in emphatic terms (Alma 29:1). These kinds of Hebraisms have not received significant attention from Latter-day Saint scholars, though Melvin Deloy Pack notes that “heart(s)” is frequently used in both Hebrew and the Book of Mormon “due to its frequent use in metaphors.” Melvin Deloy Pack, “Hebraisms,” in Book of Mormon Reference Companion, ed. Dennis L. Largey (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2003), 325. Also, Paul Y. Hoskisson discusses an example involving the liver (often translated as “soul”) as the seat of emotions in Ugaritic and compares it to an expression involving the soul in the Book of Mormon. See Paul Y. Hoskisson, “Textual Evidences for the Book of Mormon,” in First Nephi, The Doctrinal Foundation, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1988), 285. Compare the Hebraisms involving “my soul” in the Apocalypse of Abraham mentioned above.
- 31 1 Nephi 8:2; Alma 5:16; 13:22; Tvedtnes, “Hebrew Background,” 79–81; Tvedtnes, “Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon,” 2:195; Parry, Preserved in Translation, 105–110; Parry, “Hebraisms and Other Ancient Peculiarities,” 175–177. Although the expression “dreamed a dream” is found in the King James Bible (see Genesis 37:5–9; 41:15), Dana M. Pike notes that Book of Mormon usage matches the nuances of its use in Hebrew in subtle ways. Dana M. Pike, “Lehi Dreamed a Dream: The Report of Lehi’s Dream in Its Biblical Context,” in The Things Which My Father Saw: Approaches to Lehi’s Dream and Nephi’s Vision, ed. Daniel L. Belnap, Gaye Strathearn, and Stanley B. Johnson (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2011), 95, 104.
- 32 For numerous other examples, see Parry, Preserved in Translation; Parry, “Hebraisms and Other Ancient Peculiarities,” 155–190; Tvedtnes, “Hebrew Background,” 77–91; Pack, “Hebraisms,” 321–325.
- 33 See Eran Shalev, “‘Written in the Style of Antiquity’: Pseudo-Biblicism and the Early American Republic, 1770–1830,” Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 79, no. 4 (December 2010): 800–826.
- 34 Parry, Preserved in Translation, 115.
- 35 See Parry, Preserved in Translation, 115–117, for other examples of this phenomenon, including some ands that in later editions of the text were changed to buts because it was more natural that way in English. See also Tvedtnes, “Hebrew Background,” 83–84, for additional examples, including 2 Nephi 1:20; 4:4, which contain the same covenant promise word-for-word, except one uses and while the other uses but. Only those familiar with the Hebrew language would recognize that the same term is used for both conjunctions in their translation.
- 36 Parry, Preserved in Translation, 115.
- 37 Parry, Preserved in Translation, 125–128; Daniel C. Peterson, “Not Joseph’s, and Not Modern,” in Echoes and Evidences, 212–214.
- 38 Examples of biblical passages reflecting this phrase but that were translated to be less awkward in English are shown in Parry, Preserved in Translation, 125–127.
- 39 Royal Skousen, ed., The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 197. Additional examples of this Hebraism are shown in Parry, Preserved in Translation, 127–128; Peterson, “Not Joseph’s,” 213. Note, especially, its occurrence seven times consecutively in the original text of Helaman 12:13–21. Many of these were removed from later editions of the Book of Mormon by the Prophet Joseph Smith for readability.
- 40 Parry, Preserved in Translation, 128. See also, Paul Y. Hoskisson, “Was Joseph Smith Smarter Than the Average Fourth Year Hebrew Student? Finding a Restoration-Significant Hebraism in Book of Mormon Isaiah,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 17 (2016): 151–158; Royal Skousen, “Hebraic Elements in the Language of the Book of Mormon,” Insights 17, no. 6 (1997): 2; Royal Skousen, “The Original Language of the Book of Mormon: Upstate New York Dialect, King James English, or Hebrew?” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 3, no. 1 (1994): 28–38.
- 41 See Book of Mormon Central, “Whose ‘Word’ Was Fulfilled by Christ’s Suffering ‘Pains and Sicknesses’? (Alma 7:11),” KnoWhy 564 (June 2, 2020); John A. Tvedtnes, “Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon,” in Isaiah and the Prophets: Inspired Voices from the Old Testament, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1984), 165–178. See also Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Joseph Smith’s Limited Education,” Evidence# 0001, September 19, 2020, online at evidencecentral.org; Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Brass Plates Consistencies,” Evidence #0392, February 14, 2023, online at evidencecentral.org.
- 42 John A. Tvedtnes, “Untranslated Words in the Book of Mormon,” in The Most Correct Book: Insights from a Book of Mormon Scholar (Salt Lake City, UT: Cornerstone, 1999), 344–347. See also, Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Attested Names (Subcategory),” online at evidencentral.org; Ricks et al., Dictionary of Proper Names.
- 43 Tvedtnes, “Untranslated Words,” 246. For additional discussion and possibilities, see Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Attestation of Sheum,” Evidence# 138, January 19, 2021 (updated March 30, 2023), online at evidencecentral.org; Stephen D. Ricks, Paul Y. Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith, and John Gee, Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Books, 2022), s.v. “sheum.”
- 44 See Tvedtnes, “Untranslated Words,” 344, for the meaning of Hebrew ziv. Note that this root (ziv) is also the name of a Hebrew month, which is rendered as “Zif” in 1 Kings 6:1, 37. The meaning of the Hebrew name Ziph is unknown, but according to Jerry Grover, Ziff, Magic Goggles, and Golden Plates: Etymology of Zyf and Metallurgical Analysis of the Book of Mormon Plates (Provo, UT: Grover Publishing, 2015), 34–35, the name could mean “(place of) casting metal” (quoting David Calabro). Grover explores the potential etymology of ziff in greater detail and favors the Arabic zyf (derived from an earlier Aramaic or Hebrew cognate), which refers to forged coins or precious metals that have been debased (see p. 103 for a summary definition). See also Ricks et al., Dictionary of Proper Names, s.v. “ziff.”
- 45 See Matthew L. Bowen, Name as Key-Word: Collected Essays on Onomastic Wordplay and the Temple in Mormon Scripture (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Books, 2018). For more examples of wordplay in the Book of Mormon, see Tvedtnes, “Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon,” 195; Stephen D. Ricks, “Converging Paths: Language and Cultural Notes on the Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Book of Mormon,” in Echoes and Evidences, 400–404; Parry, Preserved in Translation, 137–141. See also Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Wordplays (Sub-Category),” online at evidencecentral.org.
- 46 See Matthew L. Bowen, “‘Possess the Land in Peace’: Zeniff’s Ironic Wordplay on Shilom,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 28 (2018): 115–120; Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Shilom,” Evidence #0261, October 25, 2021, online at evidencecentral.org. Another possible wordplay can be found when the same root, shlm, is used in a piel construction to mean “reward” or “vengeance”: the Lamanite armies, who believed they had been wronged by the Nephites, sought out their vengeance in Shilom (see Mosiah 10:12–17). For this meaning of the name, see Ricks et al., Dictionary of Proper Names, 330–331.
- 47 For more examples and analysis of irony in the Book of Mormon, see Robert A. Rees, “Irony in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 2 (2003): 10–31, 111–112; Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Verbal Irony,” Evidence# 0337, May 9, 2022, online at evidencecentral.org.
- 48 Kulik, “The Gods of Nahor,” 232.
- 49 Paulsen-Reed, Apocalypse of Abraham, 76.
- 50 See Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Joseph Smith’s Limited Education,” Evidence# 0001, September 19, 2020, online at evidencecentral.org. Joseph Smith didn’t begin his study of Hebrew until 1835. See Matthew J. Grey, “‘The Word of the Lord in the Original’: Joseph Smith’s Study of Hebrew in Kirtland,” in Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, edited by Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey, and Andrew H. Hedges (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2015), 250.
- 51 Other examples of Hebraisms found in the Book of Mormon, but which are not found (or are not immediately apparent) in the King James Bible, include enallage and deflected agreement. See Loren Blake Spendlove, “Limhi’s Discourse: Proximity and Distance in Teaching,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 8 (2014): 1–6; David E. Bokovoy, “From Distance to Proximity: A Poetic Function of Enallage in the Hebrew Bible and the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 9, no. 1 (2000): 60–63, 79–80; Kevin L. Barney, “Enallage in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 3, no. 1 (1994): 113–147; Kevin L. Barney “Further Light on Enallage,” in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, ed. John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne, (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 43–48; Andrew C. Smith, “Deflected Agreement in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 21, no. 2 (2012): 40–57. For discussion of what Joseph Smith could have known about Hebraisms at the time of the translation of the Book of Mormon, see Parry, Preserved in Translation, xxv–xxvi.
- 52 Parry, Preserved in Translation, xxvi.
- 53 Tvedtnes, “Hebrew Background,” 91.
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