Words in the Book of Mormon – Part I

Quite often scholars and theorists forget that words have meaning, and in the Book of Mormon, the original words written by the prophet, and the words used by Mormon in his abridgment, and the words used by Joseph Smith in translation, all had and have meaning. In addition, these same scholars and theorists fail to consider that Joseph Smith not only used words known to him, but his words were verified by the spirit as to their accuracy, before being written down by the scribe.

We cannot ignore the words Joseph knew and understood at the time of his translation if we are to completely understand the scriptural account. These words, or his language, was that of the New England area of a poorly educated farm boy. He had no sophistication such as modern writers, no desire to exaggerate or minimize such meanings as does modern man. He simply used the word that he knew to describe what the image before him meant.

As an example, when he ran across words like: Cumom, Curelom, Neas, Sheum, and Ziff, Joseph had no understanding of the items they represented, and even if shown an image or vision of it, the item was outside his experience and knowledge. Therefore, he used the original word itself since he had no way of substituting a modern or English word for it. Thus, we understand that the two animals, cumom and curelom, the two grains, neas and sheum, and the metal, ziff, were unknown items in his English speaking knowledge. Consequently, we cannot say he used horse when he meant deer, as John L. Sorenson suggests. Nor can we say he meant some insignificant animal when cumom and curelom were written. “And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms, all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms” (Ether 9:19).

Thus we see that the curelom and cumom were animals on a par with the elephant in its usefulness. The elephant, obviously, is not as useful as a food as it is a drought animal and a beast of burden. It is also useful for its products, such as ivory and hide. The most commonly understood drought animals the world over are horses, donkeys, mules, camels, llamas and elephants.

The camelid Llama of the Andes, a drought animal and beast of burden

Consequently, the cumom and curelom were also very useful, not so much for food, but for the tasks they could accomplish and the products they furnished. Therefore, we cannot look for some insignificant animal like a tapir or a sloth, as some scholars and theorists have rationalized to try and match something in Mesoamerica, for these animals have little value to man, either in the past or today.

Nor can maize be considered the unknown grains for it is written: “even with all manner of seeds, with seeds of corn and of wheat, and of barley, and with neas and with sheum, and with seeds of all manner of fruits” (Mosiah 9:9). Thus, these two grains had to be something of equal value to the common grains mentioned, but outside the knowledge of a New England farm boy at the time of the translation.

The supergrain quinoa, found only in the Andean area

The same thing can be said for the word ziff as a metal. It should also be noted that the words, quinoa, kiwichi, llama and alpaca do not appear in the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, created by Noah Webster, a New England contemporary of Joseph Smith, listing the language of Joseph’s day in the area in which Joseph grew up.

Thus, any location for the Land of Promise must have two such unknown animals of great worth to man, two very important grains, and some type of metal, all of which would have been unknown in the New England area and not appear in the vocabulary of the day.

(See next post "Words in the Book of Mormon – Part II", which covers some words the theorists hold in controversy, but that Joseph Smith would have obviously known)