As a child, I learned the Book of Mormon story of the prophet Lehi, who followed a dream to take his family into the deserts surrounding ancient Jerusalem. Now, as a university student, I am finding new depth to the story by reading Hugh Nibley’s book
Lehi in the Desert. In this scholarly approach to a religious topic, Nibley explores the so-called “Egypticity” of the story of Lehi by investigating its historical and geographical background. By noting innumerable small coincidences, Nibley points out that The Book of Mormon, first published in 1829, is consistent with our cultural knowledge of Egypt.
In the first chapter of 1 Nephi in
The Book of Mormon, Lehi’s son Nephi informs us that the book is
written in the language of the Egyptians. At the time of Lehi (about 600 BC),
Egyptian culture dominated Palestine due to trade and travel. So it is no surprise that Lehi and his sons
wrote and spoke this ancient language. Written Egyptian would have been much easier to engrave on metal plates than the flowing Hebrew script, which we find primarily on potsherds, papyrus, or parchment.
How did this language affect the form or content of
The Book of Mormon? Use of Egyptian
literary conventions, such as the
colophon,
is one example in which we see the Egypticity of this ancient work. A colophon
is a literary device in which the author lists the date, his titles, and the
names of his parents (and “a word in praise of their virtues”). It also
included a curse against anyone who might alter or corrupt the record. In the
first verse of
the first chapter of 1 Nephi, we find a colophon containing
nearly every element listed above.
Figures of speech also carried over into Nephi’s account. We
find a similitude of the Egyptian phrase, “written with my own fingers”
throughout
The Book of Mormon.
Egyptians were very proud of their ability to write, and we find similar
sentiment in Nephi’s statement: “I make it [this record] with mine own hand.”
Another Egyptian phrase,
iw-f-pw
(good luck trying to pronounce that one!), found at the close of many Egyptian
writings, translates to “thus it is.” Nephi’s account is replete with his
analogous “And thus it is, Amen.”
By learning about the "Egypticity" of
The Book of Mormon, I gained new insights into something I've grown up believing. I also learned a lot about the way the form of writing affects its content. Whether it was out of habit or convention, the repetitive phrases, such as "And it came to pass," support the authenticity of this divine record. With this knowledge, those phrases don't seem so annoying to me anymore.
Wow, so knowing the history or origins or deeper meaning of words, phrases, etc. makes you enjoy it more! This reminds me of my post, "Lost in translation," about what light is shed on words when I look at their etymology (here: http://reinventingknowledge4.blogspot.com/2011/09/lost-in-translation.html).
ReplyDeleteHere's another scientific discovery that further proves the authenticity of the Book of Mormon:
ReplyDeleteIn 1 Nephi, Nephi talks about burying Ishmael in a place called Nahom. He describes the place geographically in the verse. A group of LDS scholars traveled to the general location indicated by Nephi and found I believe a rock with NHM inscribed on it. NHM is the Hebrew (I think) version of Nahom. So, in the place indicated by Nephi, we find the object indicated by the scripture.
Pretty cool story, right?
The specific details as described by me maybe be a little off, but here's an article related to the story. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=8&num=1&id=187
This kinda relates back to the discussion we had in class on Tuesday about how we write differently depending on the medium. It seems that we express ourselves differently depending on the language as well. That goes beyond the standard structure of sentences and grammar used in those languages and expands to certain phrases, idioms and topics that are specific to that language and culture. I only experienced that briefly in my high school French classes. Has anyone else seen this in action?
ReplyDeleteA couple of other literary devices which are interesting that I have learned over the years are when Lehi emphasises what kind of dream he has "I dreamed a dream" or when he mentions "A river of water". Hugh Nibley points out that they are used to thinking about dry rivers or "rivers of sand" as well. I heard that the Book of Mormon contained these types of references to Egyptian but that is so neat the phrase "and thus it is"
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