Who Were the Phoenicians? Part X – Another Strike Against Phoenician Involvement

Ancient Phoenician City of Sidon in present day Lebanon

Hugh Nibley was the first to suggest that “the Mulekites did not build ships, rather they probably reached the New World by hiring the services of Phoenician mariners.” In support of his theory, Nibley pointed out that “some Phoenician names are found in the Book of Mormon, including the river Sidon, probably named after the Phoenician harbor of Sidon. Another example occurs when Alma’s son Corianton forsakes his ministry and goes after a harlot that is referred to as Isabel (Alma 39:3). Isabel is the name of the Patroness of Harlots in the Goddess religion of the Phoencians.”

The problem with such thinking is that the original Palestinian word “Sidon” can have several meanings, only one of which denotes the Phoenicians, but earlier considered to be Hebrew. As an example, Sidon was the first born son of Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah. It was also the name of a town more than a day’s journey north of Tyre, mentioned among the boundaries of the Canaanites (10:19). Its etymology may be from the verb “sud,” to hunt, later meaning to “hunt for souls” (Ezekiel 13:18.20), with the ending “nun” meaning a place of someone or something, or a person who does something—such as “a person who hunts” or a place where hunting occurs. In relation to the city of Sidon, which was a coastal city, the meaning could be “the place a person fished for food.” This is likely since the unused root “swd” yields “sayid”, meaning provision or food.

Some even claim the word Sidon is a compilation of the words “si” for ship, and “din,” meaning to judge or content or possibly to plead. However, this is unlikely since the word “si” is borrowed from the Egyptian, and not likely a root word meaning since Sidon was Noah’s first great grandson before any Egyptian words would have worked their way into the Hebrew lexicon. It is also suggested that Canaan’s son, Sidon, was the namesake for Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. It would seem that a person can make anything they want out of a name, but to take a name that is not in any way only Phoenician and claim its use in the Book of Mormon shows Phoenician involvement is foolhardy.

The actual name Sidon is Hebrew. It is also Sidon in Latin. In Turkish it is Sayda. But the Phoenician name is Sydwn. It is obvious that we use the Latin form of the word as we know it. Thus, the name Sidon in the Book of Mormon has no relationship to the Phoenician word Sydwn and cannot be said that the name of the Sidon River was a Phoenician name as Nibley claims. According to the “Chronicle of Zuqnin,” (a Syriac historiographical work of northern Mesopotamia by bishop Elijah of Qartnim, covering the dates of 488 to 775 A.D.), the name Sydwyn is considered Semitic, and defined to be an Aramaic, Syriac, Hebrew and Phoenician toponym (names of places that recall other places) taken from the original Syriac transcription of the Greek name and that Sidon is Saidon.

Since the Hebrew form is Sidon, it seems likely that this is the word used by Mormon to describe the river in the Book of Mormon. If it had been a word coined by a Phoenician, either the Phoenician form Sydwn or Saida would have been used. Thus, there can be no “proof” from the use of this word in the Book of Mormon that Phoenicians were involved in the Land of Promise or in bringing Mulek and his group from the Mediterranean.

As for the name Isabel, it comes from the Hebrew name Elisheva. It also comes from the Latin name Helizabeth. The etymology and origination of this name is from the biblical mother of John the Baptist, and derived from the Latin and Greek renderings of the Hebrew name. The name Isabel in its numerous variant spellings, is the most popular name spread among the most languages of any other female name. That it crops up in the Phoenician as Iyzebel is no more spectacular than its Greek, Latin, Gaelic, Danish, Polish, Egyptian, Arabic, or numerous other variants. Just about every country on earth has a variant of this name, and its Hebrew origination far precedes any Phoenician usage. That the Phoenicians used this name for their religion for the patroness of harlots is no more valuable in understanding its origination than the Egyptian’s religious usage of their variant, Isis, the goddess of ancient religious beliefs that showed up later in the Greek and Roman pantheons.

It is both inaccurate and disingenuous to start claiming a name represents a certain culture or people when names in the most ancient of times had such a related beginning. And since Noah was the father of all races, and he was the father of the Hebrews, as well as other nations, it is really difficult when tracing a name back to his era to claim it was of a certain later time.