The Way Theorists Think Regarding Their Predetermined Models – Part IV

Theorists, in trying to understand what the Book of Mormon means, so that it agrees with their predetermined models, have a tendency to quote words out of the ancient or modern Hebrew. But what they forget, is that the Book of Mormon was not written in Hebrew, and the Nephites were not in Palestine, nor had anyone but Nephi and Sam among the Nephites ever been in Jerusalem. Therefore, it would be odd that they would use words that had no meaning in their new homeland—such as “backward” meaning “westward,” etc.
Often the word “yam” is used by Great Lakes Theorists to try and prove that the West Sea and the East Sea were not really oceans, but lakes. The funny thing is, when Nephi, Jacob, Alma, Mormon and the others wrote about their location, they were not writing in Hebrew, and not using Hebrew words—yam never appeared on the gold plates. The Nephite prophets wrote in Reformed Egyptian (1 Nephi 1:2) for the thousand years they were in the Land of Promise (Mormon 9:32). Not only is Reformed Egyptian a far different language than Hebrew, it is written in different characters—with far fewer (or condensed) meanings than Hebrew.

Consider an English person writing the word “sea” in Spanish—you would have a choice of three words: mar (which means a lot, lots of, no end of, sea), marino (which can mean marine, sailor, sea, seaman), marytimo (which can mean marine, maritime, sea, seaside). Ocean can be oceano, oceanya (which means a large, spatial body of water). Lake, which in English is a body of usually fresh water surrounded by land, does not necessarily have the same meaning in Spanish—laca (which means hair spray, lacquer, lake, shellac), or lago, which means loch, which is an arm of the sea similar to a fjord—a long narrow inlet of the ocean that is nearly landlocked.

The point is, when translating from one language into another, it is almost always a difficult process in trying to find the right word to denote the right meaning. When the Nephites wrote in Reformed Egyptian, they were using characters (meanings) that were not as familiar to them as their native language of Hebrew, therefore, they had to choose words that conveyed the meaning they wanted. Because “yam” in Hebrew meant “the water (Mediterranean) behind them when facing east” does not mean they chose a Reformed Egyptian character for sea which had the exact same ancient connotation—but, in fact, conveyed the meaning of sea or ocean. When Joseph Smith translated the Reformed Egyptian character for “sea,” he concluded that it meant ocean (which is what sea meant in his time) and the spirit told him that was correct. Thus, they entered their ship on the shores of Irreantum (many waters) and were “driven forth before the wind to the promised land” where they landed southward along the Sea West where Mormon tells us the land of first inheritance (landing site) was located.

“yea, and also on the west of the land of Zarahemla, in the borders by the seashore, and on the west in the land of Nephi, in the place of their fathers’ first inheritance, and thus bordering along by the seashore”

In fact, Nephi tells us he did not teach Jewish customs to his people at all, other than the law of Moses, which they lived as they looked forward to the coming of the Christ (Alma 26:15), and after his appearance to them, they no longer lived that law (4 Nephi 1:12). It is doubtful the Nephites knew much about the Jews, “for I, Nephi, have not taught them many things concerning the manner of the Jews” (2 Nephi 25:2, 6)—and they would not have known the rationale of the Jews regarding why they named directions by certain words. In Alma 11:4, we are told that the Nephites “did not reckon after the manner of the Jews,” neither “did they measure after the manner of the Jews,” but, in fact, “they altered their reckoning and their measuree, according to the minds and the circumstances of the people, in every generation, until the reign of the judges.” That is, from Nephi down to Mosiah, the Nephites “according to their minds” determined value by their own reckoning—not until Mosiah was a standard set, which is outlined in Alma 11:5-19. The point is, the Nephites did not use the Hebrew system in place in Jerusalem when Lehi left there. They established their own. So why would they use ancient and unuseful definitions for directions as so many Theorists claim to try and disorient the scriptural account of north and south with that of Mesoamerica being east and west.

It seems disingenuous to claim ancient Hebrew word meanings were couched in their usage of the Reformed Egyptian, which is all we have of the Nephite record as translated by Joseph Smith. Certainly, Joseph Smith knew north, east, south, and west, and when he worked out the translation of one of these words, and it was verified by the spirit, then the translation would be correct as we would understand it today.

(See the next post The Word Sea—What Did it Mean? to gain a better understanding of the use of this word in the Book of Mormon—it did not mean what Theorists claim)