The Gathering of Israel and the Coming of the Messiah (1 Nephi 21)

Monte S. Nyman wrote in his book "Great Are the Words of Isaiah" that

...[Isaiah] chapter 49 is one of the most important chapters in the whole book of Isaiah because it also clearly foretells the mission of the Latter-day Saints and the destiny of the land of America in connection with the house of Israel. Nephi interpreted the chapter as foretelling that the land of America would receive some of scattered Israel, while his brother Jacob applied it both to the Jews in Jerusalem and to the Gentiles. Chapter 49 is of such importance that it ought to be studied diligently by every member of the Church.

The LDS Church published, separately, an Old Testament textbook and a Book of Mormon textbook for its institute of religion program (students 18 to 30). Each covers this chapter's contents quite well. I will break it down and summarize it according to the main themes outlined in these manuals. As you compare 1 Nephi 21 and Isaiah 49, feel free to skip ahead to 1 Nephi 22 where Nephi spells out the meaning of Isaiah 49 to his brothers.

Quick Outline

• Israel will be gathered. God knows where they have been scattered.
• Through the Messiah (the servant, the Holy One), Israel and the gentiles shall be blessed.
• And Israel shall be gathered in the last days.
• This is because the Lord has not forgotten his people even though they are constantly forsaking him.
• They shall inherit their former lands in great glory.
• The gentiles shall assist in this gathering.
• Those who once persecuted and oppressed Israel shall be punished.

Verses 1-3: Half of verse 1 is missing from the King James text. Nephi restores what was lost by writing that by his time "the more part of all the tribes" of Israel had been "scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea" (1 Nephi 22:4). The rest of the verses refer to Israel herself a sharp sword because she would spread the gospel far and wide by cutting wherever she is moved. Israel didn't fulfill this expectation in ancient times because of her refusing to live the teachings of the Lord. Therefore, these verses refer to the latter days.

Verses 4-12: The Lord did not forget Israel, despite the long time Israel had to wait for deliverance. Verse 5 shows that Israel still had reason to hope and rejoiced in the day that her restoration would come. That day came when Joseph Smith was raised up as the first latter-day prophet. The work God gave him to do opened the way for Israel to be gathered through missionary work commissioned under the proper authority given to Joseph by angelic visitors Peter, James, and John, who had held the same authority and "keys" during the times of the New Testament.

Verses 13-17: The Lord uses the metaphor of a mother forgetting her child's need for food and contrasts that while it is possible a mother might do so, He will never forget Israel. Here is one of my favorite verses in all of Isaiah, where the Lord beautifully tells future Israel everything they would need to know to recognize Him when He came. In verse 16, He says:

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. (emphasis added)

For students of Isaiah in the Spring of 33 A.D., this should have been like a red flag waving over the cross of crucifixion indicating that this Man was the prophesied Messiah, the Son of God.

Verses 18-21: This part talks more specifically about the latter-day gathering that is now occurring. Gentiles would be the medium by which the children of Israel (descendants of ancient Israel) would return to the lands they formerly inhabited. The influx of Israelite immigrants both temporally into the land of Israel and spiritually into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during that time period was so incredible that it is not hard to imagine how the reaction voiced in verses 20 and 21 is quite real: "The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell." and "Who hath begotten me these...where had they been?"

Verses 22-26: The literal fulfillment of this prophecy is seen in the history of the 20th century, after World War I, when England took Jerusalem and its surroundings from the tyranny and oppression of the Turkish empire. Dr. Herbert Samuel, a British-born Jew, was installed as the local governor. From that time forward, Jewish people have migrated to Israel in droves.

Nearly simultaneously, the descendants of the ancient Americans, some of whom carry the lineage of Laman and Lemuel (who the Lord promised Nephi would be preserved), began to join the LDS Church in increasing numbers. Today the number of Latin American saints has outgrown the number of LDS members in the U.S.A. The same holds true when you add in the number of saints all over the world, many of whom include direct descendants of the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel. We are no longer an "American" (U.S.A.-only) Church, but a worldwide Church engaged directly in the gathering of Israel. We are fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy from Isaiah 49.

Verse 26 also serves as further proof of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. In his work on Isaiah, Nyman noted a significant addition to Isaiah:

As Nephi commented on Isaiah 49 in 1 Nephi 22, he quoted or paraphrased three verses from 'the prophet,' obviously Isaiah. We do not have these verses in the present Bible text, but they fit very well into the context of Isaiah 49 and 50. We can illustrate this by placing 1 Nephi 22:15-17 between the last verse of chapter 49 and the first verse of chapter 50.

Let's see what that would look like:

Isaiah 49:26
26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
1 Nephi 22:15-17

15 For behold, saith the prophet, the time cometh speedily that Satan shall have no more power over the hearts of the children of men; for the day soon cometh that all the proud and they who do wickedly shall be as stubble; and the day cometh that they must be burned.

16 For the time soon cometh that the fulness of the wrath of God shall be poured out upon all the children of men; for he will not suffer that the wicked shall destroy the righteous.

17 Wherefore, he will preserve the righteous by his power, even if it so be that the fulness of his wrath must come, and the righteous be preserved, even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire. Wherefore, the righteous need not fear; for thus saith the prophet, they shall be saved, even if it so be as by fire.

Isaiah 50:1
1 Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

Download Diigo and add your own notes and commentary to 1 Nephi 21 and Isaiah 49 on Scriptures.LDS.org.

Article(s) of the Week: John Sorenson on Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon

In this edition of my new series Article(s) of the Week I wish to discuss an essay by John Sorenson, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Brigham Young University, in which he investigates the Book of Mormon as an ancient Mesoamerican record.

In this essay, Dr. Sorenson discusses some features within the Book of Mormon which show how it fits nicely in an ancient Mesoamerican context. Indeed, the Book of Mormon mentions specific characteristics of the civilizations of the Nephites and the Lamanites that not only fit rather snugly in a Mesoamerican context, but only work in a Mesoamerican setting. For example, the Book of Mormon never mentions snow or ice. It even mentions warfare during the winter months and says that men were succumbing to heat exhaustion during these winter months (Alma 51:33). Because of such, we can deduce that wherever the Book of Mormon took place, it was a tropical climate that was hot during the winter months. Such a description only fits in Mesoamerica.

Dr. Sorenson in his essay further details various characteristics of the Book of Mormon and ancient Mesoamerica. They include:

1. A complex writing system

2. A complex calendar system

3. A complex language system

The reason as to why I found this essay greatly interesting is two fold. First, it was amazing to consider the contextual culture of the Nephite record and gain a deeper appreciation for the immediate environment in which the Nephite authors would have been writing. And secondly, these correlations to ancient Mesoamerica act as stunning evidence for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon as an ancient record.

As Dr. Sorenson has discussed elsewhere, not a lot about ancient Mesoamerica was understood during Joseph Smith's day. The people of ante-bellum America firmly held to the romanticized idea of the "noble red man" and teepee dwelling savages as characteristic of the native Americans. For Joseph Smith to bring forth a record describing an advanced Indian civilization with a writing system, cities, calendars, warfare, fortifications, languages, etc. was out of place in his 19th century milieu. Indeed, David Whitmer, in an interview with James H. Hart, recounted how he and the other witnesses felt unsure if the Book of Mormon would be believable by the people because it was so uncharacteristic of the popular conception of the Native Americans. "We felt sure that people would not believe it," said Whitmer, "for the book told of a people who were refined and dwelt in large cities; but the Lord told us that he would make it known unto the people, and people should discover evidence of what is written in the Book"*

However, as archaeological investigations into ancient America advanced, it became more and more apparent that the Book of Mormon was startlingly accurate in describing ancient Mesoamerica. As time continued, in other words, the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon became vindicated again and again. What was once the Achilles Heel of the Book of Mormon became its strongest evidence of authenticity.

The Book of Mormon as a Mesoamerican Record by John Sorenson. Originally published in the book Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, edited by Noel B. Reynolds.

*David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness edited by Lyndon Cook. (Orem, Utah: Grandin Books, 1991) pg. 76

Great Are the Words of Isaiah

I've been considering how to approach chapter 21 and other Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon. They are so rich with meaning, doctrine, and history that it would be impossible to cover them in any great length in blog posts. There would simply be too many verses to comment on to hold anyone's attention for very long.

I don't believe in coincidence. "Everything happens for a reason", to quote John Locke on my currently favorite TV show "Lost". A couple of days ago I "happened upon" a site called Diigo.com. It is a social bookmarking tool that goes a step further than just showing the world your bookmarks. It lets anyone who installs it view highlights and notes that other Diigo have left behind on a particular web site. It's perfect for digging deep into the scriptures on the blog without copying and pasting great numbers of verses to show the context of the discussion. I had seen others like it, but this one seemed really good for highlighting and annotation of http://scriptures.lds.org.

As an experiment, I've "Diigo"d (is there a Web verb for this yet?) the first chapter in Isaiah by borrowing from the notes of famed and faithful LDS religious texts scholar Hugh W. Nibley. The notes are the transcript of a speech he gave at BYU's sixth annual Sperry symposium in 1978.

This is for Isaiah 1, which is not quoted in the Book of Mormon, but is nevertheless an important summary of the tone and topics of the book of Isaiah and helps prepare us for the parts quoted in the Book of Mormon. Since Nibley, given his extensive Middle Eastern languages background, knew more about ancient scripture than I could ever hope to know, his notes seemed like a good place to start.

So, download Diigo and then read Hugh Nibley's commentary on Isaiah 1 in-line with the actual verses at http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/1. You can join the "American Testament" group on Diigo and contribute your own public sticky notes or get sticky notes updates via email.

Snoop Dog and the Book of Mormon

UPDATE 2: God works in mysterious ways. Here's a real photo of the real Snoop Lion / Snoop Dog with a real Book of Mormon given to him by real sister missionaries. :)

UPDATE: Alas, 'tis a hoax. It was late when I posted that and I didn't bother to check.

From the "Well Whaddya Know" department comes this fun photo:

I sincerely hope this is real and not a Photoshop job. Snoop could use a little Book of Mormon love.

The Genetics of the Book of Mormon

Earlier we mentioned discussions of DNA and the Book of Mormon. Orson Scott Card wrote a July 9th Deseret News Mormon Times post about the same issue. It's quite good. He breaks down the "controversy" into four fallacies:

1. Haplotype, mitochondria and Y-chromosome tracking is done using tiny samples from the populations in any given area. This is necessary and perfectly acceptable, because the scientists are not trying to eliminate the possibility of intermixing of populations, but rather trying to trace the general ancestry of large groups.
2. Any variation from the predominant DNA strains will be interpreted, correctly, as "contamination" and either disregarded or removed from the study as long as it exists in only trivial amounts. The only question that would be hard for them to answer is when the contamination took place.
3. Since the dominant strain that populated the Americas shares a common ancestry with Fertile Crescent ancestors, some haplotypes that might have pointed to the Middle East are already in the entire population and therefore invisible.
4. Many of their findings deal with populations that have been tracked through history. Yet the genetic record does not account for "trivial" population movements like the conquest of India, Persia, all of Europe and much of Asia Minor by Indo-European tribes, or repeated conquests of China by borderland nomads.

Furthermore, he states:

Here is the remarkable thing: Within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, among believers, there are many genuine skeptics who question everything, who test everything.

We are not afraid to look at any evidence, and when we are convinced, we change our frame-of-view to accommodate the new information. At the same time, we recognize that none of our knowledge is final and might be revised -- by new evidence, by new revelation.

That's why OSC is one of my favorite Mormon writers. He says it like it is.

Article(s) of the Week: Gardner and Bokovoy Clean House!

I wish to begin a new series here at the blog, which I have called Article(s) of the Week. This new series will begin today and every Sunday (if time and circumstance permits) I wish to post something new. My purpose in doing this is two fold:

1. I wish to share with the reader what I think are some excellent papers on issues surrounding the Book of Mormon

2. I wish to discuss some of themes or ideas presented in the paper(s).

For the inauguration of this new series, I wish to post two essays written by two of my new favorite Book of Mormon scholars; Brant Gardner, Mesoamerican Anthropologist, and David Bokovoy, Biblical/Hebrew scholar. These two essays are reviews of the anti-Mormon video The Bible vs. The Book of Mormon which is a screed produced by Living Hope Ministries. This particular Evangelical anti-Mormon group has also produced another video entitled DNA vs. The Book of Mormon.*

The basic argument of the video runs as follows:

1. Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon claim to be historical texts.

2. The Bible has been proven to be historically trustworthy by archaeology. Therefore, we should accept it as the Word of God.

3. The Book of Mormon has no such archaeological evidence for its behalf, and we therefore should not accept it as the Word of God or historical. 

4. This means that Mormons should therefore abandon Mormonism and convert to fundamentalist Protestantism.

As I watched this video, I was taken aback by the many distortions, misrepresentations and flawed logic that it exhibits. I was further taken aback by the libelous comments of Thomas Murphy against Dan Peterson (at one point in the video he flat out calls Dr. Peterson a liar) and the fact that he and the other participants never really engaged in LDS research on this subject. 

At one point, for example, a prominent Israeli archaeologist commented on how the Book of Mormon has "no authority" at all or does not fit in an ancient Near Eastern background. I was left to wonder if this scholar was familiar with the book Glimpses of Lehi's Jerusalem edited by J. Welch and D. and J. A. Seely or Lehi in the Desert by H. Nibley. These tomes show powerfully how the Book of Mormon fits nicely in an ancient Near Eastern background.

At another point in the video, a British scholar comments on how the presence of Greek names and words (such as Timothy, Baptism or even Christ) in the Book of Mormon compromises it as an ancient text. However, considering that 1) the presence of Greek names amongst ancient Hebrews from Lehi's time and earlier is well attested** and 2) the Book of Mormon is a translation, which would account for Joseph Smith applying familiar terms such as baptism or Christ to the original word in reformed Egyptian, I was startled that this scholar would claim such. 

One of the major flaws in this video, therefore, is that the scholars interviewed make dogmatic and triumphant judgments without giving any attention to the work of Latter-day Saint scholars. Like the group of Egyptologists gathered by Rev. Spalding in 1912 who blasted the Book of Abraham***, so these scholars make proud and rash assertions without looking at the Latter-day Saint response to such.

There is much more that I could be write on this subject, but I will allow Messers. Bokovoy and Gardner fill in for now. They show the flaws and shortcomings of The Bible vs. The Book of Mormon and why this anti-Mormon propaganda piece fails miserably to take into account the real evidence and the facts. In his review, Gardner demonstrates how this video has failed to handled the data regarding the Book of Mormon and Mesoamerican archaeology/anthropology while Bokovoy, in his review, shows the poor methodology of the video and its claims regarding Biblical archaeology. 

Behind the Mask, Behind the Curtain: Uncovering the Illusion in the FARMS Review (17/2. 2005. 145-195) by Brant Gardner.

The Bible vs. The Book of Mormon: Still Losing the Battle in the FARMS Review (18/1. 2006. 3-19) by David Bokovoy.

* I have addressed some of the claims in this video in my post on DNA and the Book of Mormon.

** Thanks to Robert Boylan for pointing this information out to me.

*** In 1912, Rev. F Spalding sent the 3 facsimiles of the Book of Abraham, along with Joseph Smith's offered translations, to the top Egyptologists of the western world to test the Prophet. These scholars did little more than pass their hasty opinions and judgments on the matter without looking at all the evidence and data. When pressed by Mormon scholars such as B. H. Roberts, John A. Widtsoe and Janne Sjodahl on areas in which they were wanting, these same Egyptologists responded by simply flashing their PhDs and asserting their rank and academic record. In effect, they glibly waved their credentials without doing a complete analysis of the Mormon arguments or all of the evidence. For an excellent overview of this, the reader is recommended Joseph Smith and the Critics and Joseph Smith and the Sources by Hugh Nibley and the original responses to Rev. Spalding by the Latter-day Saint scholars.

Nephi Quotes Isaiah (1 Nephi 20)

In chapters 20 and 21 of 1st Nephi, we find a peculiar thing. Nephi begins quoting Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet who lived over 150 years before Nephi and Nephi quotes him extensively here and later on in 2nd Nephi. When the Savior visits America in 3rd Nephi (a different "Nephi") He also quotes Isaiah. What was there in Isaiah's writings that intrigued Nephi and that was worthy of quotation by the Savior?

Something you'll find as you get into "the Isaiah chapters" of the Book of Mormon is that it breaks up the historical flow of the book, thus becoming a bit jarring to the reader. Ask any member of the Church how they feel about the Isaiah chapters and they'll readily admit that it feels like walking through peanut butter. They often state that it's because Isaiah uses names and concepts that seem foreign and out of context to what Nephi has been saying.

This is why it seems astounding that, in 2nd Nephi 25, after quoting Isaiah extensively, Nephi proclaims:

...for behold, my soul delighteth in plainness unto my people, that they may learn.

What can he mean by "plainness"? A closer inspection of verse 4 tells us.

Wherefore, hearken, O my people, which are of the house of Israel, and give ear unto my words; for because the words of Isaiah are not plain unto you, nevertheless they are plain unto all those that are filled with the ^aspirit of ^bprophecy. But I give unto you a ^cprophecy, according to the spirit which is in me; wherefore I shall prophesy according to the ^dplainness which hath been with me from the time that I came out from Jerusalem with my father; for behold, my soul delighteth in ^eplainness unto my people, that they may learn.

But behold, I proceed with mine own prophecy, according to my ^aplainness; in the which I ^bknow that no man can err; nevertheless, in the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be fulfilled men shall know of a surety, at the times when they shall come to pass.

The spirit of prophecy is defined by John the Divine in Revelation 19:10:

10 And I ^afell at his feet to ^bworship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy ^cfellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the ^dtestimony of Jesus is the spirit of ^eprophecy.

Isaiah, who was a man of no small status in Jerusalem and was a extremely educated scholar, used high-order Hebraic poetry, complex imagery, and symbolism to transmit the message to those who were faithful enough to discern its meaning. Like the Savior using parables, Isaiah "hid" the things of the Lord from those who would not be prepared to hear them in order to keep them from condemning themselves by reading it in plainer language and still rejecting it. In other words, wicked people who didn't have the spirit of prophecy, or a testimony of Jesus Christ, would never understand how plain these words were; nor should they for they would then trifle with sacred things.

As with all things of God, first comes a testimony that Jesus is the Christ, then comes understanding of prophecies about Him. Isaiah's mission was clearly to prophesy of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone did the Savior chose to quote Isaiah above all the prophets. Anyone who listens closely to the libretto of G.F. Handel's Messiah will detect that Isaiah was focused principally on the Savior's life.

With that in mind, let's proceed with a quick summary of what Nephi is trying to get across to his audience by quoting Isaiah 48.

The first key to understanding Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon and in the LDS King James Version of the Bible is to first look at the chapter heading. That will give you an idea of what you should seek to comprehend. While you should definitely read the entire chapter, there is not sufficient space in this ideally short blog post to cover it all. The critical verses are noted below along with the principal messages of this chapter.

1. Verses 3 through 6 - The Lord reveals his purposes to Israel.
   
2. Verses 10 and 20 through 21 - They have been chosen in the furnace of affliction and are to go forth from Babylon

Here's the breakdown:

Message 1

3 Behold, I have declared the ^aformer things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them. I did show them suddenly.

4 And I did it because I knew that thou art obstinate [we are all in need of a Savior], and thy ^aneck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;

5 And I have even from the beginning declared to thee; before it came to pass I ^ashowed them thee; and I showed them for fear lest thou shouldst say—Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image hath commanded them [God is whom we should praise, not idols].

6 Thou hast seen and heard all this; and will ye ^anot declare them [missionary work that would accompany the Savior's ministry]? And that I have showed thee new things [new covenant between God and man] from this time, even hidden things [prophecy of His coming], and thou didst not know them.

Message 2

10 For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of ^aaffliction [a type or symbol of the suffering of the Savior].
20 ^aGo ye forth of Babylon, flee [Christ's refusal to commit sin, the imperative to follow His example] ye from the ^bChaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this [missionary work], utter to the end of the earth; say ye: The Lord hath redeemed his ^cservant Jacob [the Atonement].

21 And they ^athirsted not [Christ is the living water]; he led them through the deserts [Christ guides us through afflictions]; he caused the waters to flow out of the ^brock for them ; he clave the rock also and the waters gushed out [a type of Christ's side being pierced by a spear on the cross].

So, whenever you encounter the phrase "Compare Isaiah" in a chapter heading while reading the Book of Mormon, be sure to switch your frame of mind to thinking of how what Isaiah says relates to the Savior.

No Evidence for the Book of Mormon?

Critics of the Book of Mormon like to make the claim that there is no evidence for the Book of Mormon's authenticity. They claim that there is not a shred of archeaological, anthropological, liguistic, cultural, textual or historical evidence for the Book of Mormon or the claims of Joseph Smith. They also like to throw a laundry list of "problems" in the Book of Mormon that they claim compromises the Book of Mormon as an ancient text.

I must confess that I have little patience for this claim or for those who advocate it. Over the years, scholars (primarily LDS but also with some non-LDS researchers as well) have written literally thousands of pages on evidence for the Book of Mormon as an ancient Near Eastern and Mesoamerican record. From the early works of B. H. Roberts, John Widstoe, Janne Sjodahl, George Reynolds and James Talmage to the pioneering and groundbreaking research of Hugh Nibley, to the recent work of scholars from the Neal A. Maxwell Institute (including Daniel C. Peterson, John Sorenson, John Welch, Brant Gardner, S. Kent Brown, Donald W. Perry, John Gee, John Tvedtnes and many more) dozens upon dozens of books, articles, essays, etc. have been written on this subject, documenting evidence for the Book of Mormon as an ancient record.

These materials, however, can sometimes get very technical and run into hundreds of pages and several volumes. The lay reader, therefore, may feel intimidated at times in trying to read through all of this material. To this end, Kerry Shirts, one of my favorite online "armchair" apologists next to Jeff Lindsay, has made a series of videos which he has posted on his youtube page in which he discusses these evidences on a level which is easily understandable and enjoyable to watch.

On an excellent blog, Lehi's Library, the author, a Latter-day Saint whose name is James, has put together a list of Kerry's videos in an easily accessable format and order. For those who are not too thrilled about reading through the thousands of pages on the subject of evidence for the Book of Mormon, or for critics who dogmatically assert that there is no evidence for the Book of Mormon, these videos are highly recommended. Take a look!

http://lehislibrary.wordpress.com/bom-evidences/

For further reading on the Book of Mormon and some of the material covering the evidence for such, I have created a list of recommended books that the reader is encouraged to look at.

Some Notes on the Name Sariah

In a few previous posts, I have discussed how the names Alma and Nephi, to name a few, are authentic ancient names from the Near East. The name Alma, for example, has been discovered in the Bar Kokhba texts as being a male Semitic name, and the name Nephi is attested in Egyptian texts. 

This morning, as I was browsing through some books of mine, I came across an interesting essay in the book Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon. It was written by Jeffry R. Chadwick of BYU and is entitled Sariah in the Elephantine Papyri (pages 6-10). In this essay, Chadwick notes how the Book of Mormon name Sariah has also been discovered in ancient texts from Egypt. He writes that "The reference to Sariah of Elephantine is found in Aramaic Papyrus #22 (also called Cowley #22 or C–22) and appears in Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. Although the language of the documents is Aramaic, A. E. Cowley specifies that the names are in fact Hebrew.¹ Line 4 of C–22 lists the personal name, transliterated śry[h br]t hwś' br ḥrmn. The probable vocalization is Sariah barat Hoshea bar ḥarman, and the text means "Sariah daughter of Hoshea son of ḥarman.""

Chadwick further notes that the Elaphantine papyrus was not discovered until 1903, so there is no possible way that Joseph Smith could have had access to it. Furthermore, Chadwick discusses how the name Sariah, while normally a masculine name in Hebrew, has been verified as a feminine name. Much like the name Alma, this name breaks the gender barrier and has been shown to be both a male and female name. 

Although this is by no means proof of the Book of Mormon's authenticity, this evidence of the authenticity of the name Sariah as an ancient Semitic feminine name is just another piece of the puzzle that fits the Book of Mormon right at home in the ancient Near East. 

To read the full article, see here: http://farms.byu.edu/publications/bookschapter.php?bookid=&chapid=619

If/and Conditional Clauses in the Book of Mormon

Over the years, scholars have identified a number of Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon. Hebraisms, of course, being unique Hebrew rhetorical or literary devices commonly used in the ancient Near East. One of my personal favorites is the if/and conditional clause, which are found in the original manuscripts and the 1st edition of the Book of Mormon.

In English, conditional clauses are structured in a if/then format. For example, I might say:

"If you do not study, then you will fail the test."

"If you do not eat your vegetables, then you will not get dessert."

"If you go near the ledge, then you will fall off the cliff."

In biblical Hebrew as well as Egyptian, however, conditional clauses are best emphasized by an if/and format. So, I would say:

"If you do not study, and you will fail the test."

"If you do not eat your vegetables, and you will not get desert."

"If you go near the ledge, and you will fall off."

While if/and conditional clauses are horrific English (any student caught doing that on an English assignment would surely get an F grade) they are perfectly acceptable if not the norm in biblical Hebrew and Egyptian.

There are some passages in the Book of Mormon that once had if/and conditional clauses but were eventually edited out by Joseph Smith because if/and conditional clauses are not possible in English. One instance occurs in the original manuscript in Helaman 12:13-21 (pg. 440 in the 1830 edition) which reads as follows:

13 yea and if he saith unto the earth move and it is moved
14 yea if he say unto the earth thou shalt go back that it lengthen out the day for many hours and it is done
16 and behold also if he saith unto the waters of the great deep be thou dried up and it is done
17 behold if he saith unto this mountain be thou raised up and come over and fall upon that city that it be buried up and behold it is done
19 and if the Lord shall say be thou accursed that no man shall find thee from this time henceforth and forever and behold no man getteth it henceforth and forever
20 and behold if the Lord shall say unto a man because of thine iniquities thou shalt be accursed forever and it shall be done
21 and if the Lord shall say because of thine iniquities thou shalt be cut off from my presence and he will cause that it shall be so

Another occurrence is in Moroni 10:4-5, which is famously dubbed "Moroni's Promise". In the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon it reads:

and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart with real intent having faith in Christ and he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost.

If/and conditional clauses in the Book of Mormon are impressive enough on their own, but the fact that Joseph Smith edited them out also is further evidence on his behalf. Had Joseph Smith intentionally put them in his fraudulent record, then surely he would have left them in the text, for future scholars to uncover, considering that they act as evidence on his behalf. But the fact that he innocently edited them out simply to correct the English grammar of the Book of Mormon is evidence that he was not aware of the reinforcing ramifications that these if/and conditional clauses have for the Book of Mormon as an ancient Hebrew document.

For further reading, see the following:

Translating the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript by Royal Skousen

Hebraic Conditionals in the Book of Mormon by Royal Skousen

A Steady Stream of Significant Recognitions by John Welch