Sunday, December 2, 2012

The Question of Oxen in the Land of Promise

A reader of this blog wrote in about the word (wild) ox used in the Book of Mormon and wanting to know why I did not include an explanation of that Book of Mormon faux pas along with the explanation of other animals in a recent post. One of the reasons it wasn’t addressed is because no one had written in about the ox. So let us answer it here.

First of all, the scripture in question states: “And it came to pass that we did find upon the land of promise, as we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals, which were for the use of men. And we did find all manner of ore, both of gold, and of silver, and of copper” (1 Nephi 18:25).
Oxen, genera Bos taurus, a domesticated form of the large horned mammals that once moved in herds across America and Europe
Assuming that everyone knows that in the purest sense, the word ox or oxen in the plural, means castrated male cattle. And obviously, there would have been no castrated cattle (oxen) found in a land where humans had not lived. Or stated differently, as the writer asked, “who would have castrated the cattle?”
However, what most people, or at least the writer, fails to know or understand, is that the word ox can also apply occasionally to a female or a bull as most dictionaries will state. In fact, in Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, “When we speak of wild animals of this kind, ox is sometimes applied both to the male and female, and in zoology, the same practice exists in regard to the domestic animals. So in common usage, a pair of bulls yoked may be sometimes called oxen. We never apply the name ox to the cow or female of the domestic kind. Oxen in the plural may comprehend both the male and female.”
Note, then, the words Joseph used: “in the wilderness, that there were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox…”
As per Noah Webster’s explanation of the usage in Joseph Smith’s day, a cow is never called an ox, but the bull could be. Thus, the terminology in the Book of Mormon is exactly correct according to the English language used in New England in Joseph Smith’s day.
Even today, the terminology Joseph used would be correct. A current dictionary defines the word ox as: 1) A domesticated bovine animal kept for milk or meat; a cow or bull; 2) A castrated bull, formerly much used as a draft animal: "an ox cart". In addition, in the 1991 Macquarie Dictionary, it states: Ox may also be used to refer to some carcass products from any adult cattle, such as ox-hide, ox-blood, oxtail, or ox-liver. It is also the appellation of “Any member of the bovine family” and “Technically, a castrated male of the cattle species (Bos taurus), but the name is more widely applied to any large, usually horned, bovine animal used for draught” and “An ox is a domestic bovine mammal” and “An ox (plural oxen), or bullock (Australia, New Zealand, India) is a bovine animal trained as a draft animal” and “An ox is a cow or bull: a male or female bovine animal, especially one belonging to a domestic breed” and “Ox. Any of various wild bovines especially of the genera Bos or closely related Bibos.” The Oxford Dictionary states: “Ox is used in names of wild animals related to or resembling a domesticated ox,” and the Cambridge Dictionary: “Generally, any adult of the cattle family,” the New Merriam-Webster dictionary: “a domestic bovine mammal (Bos taurus); broadly : a bovine mammal” and “Domesticated form of large bovid (species Bos taurus) that once moved in herds across America and Europe (where they have disappeared) and Asia and Africa (where some still exist in the wild),” and the Encyclopedia Britannica (1911), “Ox, strictly speaking, the Saxon name for the males of domesticated cattle (Bos Taurus), but in a zoological sense employed so as to include not only the extinct wild ox of Europe but likewise bovine animals of every description, that is to say true oxen.”
According to 2007 Oxen, A Teamster’s Guide in Massachusetts, “In the New England tradition, young castrated cattle selected for draft are known as working steers and are painstakingly trained from a young age. Their teamster makes or buys as many as a dozen yokes of different sizes for each animal as it grows. The steers are normally considered fully trained at the age of four and only then become known as oxen. In other traditions, adult cattle with little or no prior human conditioning are often yoked and trained as oxen.” The reason for castration, of course, is to make the animal more tractable—easier to handle than an uncastrated bovine (bull).
In addition, ox trainers favor larger animals for their ability to do more work. Oxen are therefore usually of larger breeds, and are usually males because they are generally larger. Females can also be trained as oxen, but as well as being smaller, they are often more valued for producing calves and milk. Bulls are also used in many parts of the world, according to 1991 Draught Animal Power, an Overview, from the Agricultural Engineering Branch, Agricultural Support Systems Division, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United States).
Two types of genera Bibos, wild oxen that are found in the wild today, the largest of all wild cattle
Wild ox, or oxen in the wild, are defined as “any of various wild bovines especially of the genera Bos or closely related Bibos.” This should help answer other questions I’ve heard about a wild ox—some critics have claimed there are no such thing and is an example of error in the Book of Mormon, however, “wild ox” is a known term applied to the ox, and the genera Bos, which covers all bovine, are identified as “wild and domestic.” The genera Bibos is defined only as “wild ox.”
It is always interesting to me that what critics often try to show as an error in the Book of Mormon, always turns out to be an example of accuracy. “Cow and ox,” as Joseph wrote, is a correct statement, and found in the wilderness, or wild, is also correct, as are all statements in the scriptural record.

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