I’m neck deep in a few topics right now that I really want to blog about but I’m just not quite ready. I want to have some more answers before I put them out there.
In the process of my neck-deep studies, I have come across some typos in the BoM or if not typos, very sloppy writing and I find myself occupied with what to make of that. Here are two examples from 2 Nephi 25:
Wherefore, I write unto my people, unto all those that shall receive hereafter these things which I write, that they may know the judgments of God, that they come upon all nations, according to the word which he hath spoken. Wherefore, hearken, O my people, which are of the House of Israel, and give ear unto my words
: forbecause the words of Isaiah are not plain unto you, nevertheless they are plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit of prophecy.
I’m not so much worried about punctuation as I am errant words. That “for” just does not work there and I think it was probably not meant to be there at all. Here’s another example:
But behold, I, Nephi, have not taught my children after the manner of the Jews. But behold, I, of myself, have dwelt at Jerusalem, wherefore I know concerning the regions round about, and I have made mention unto my children concerning the judgments of God, which hath come to pass among the Jews, unto my children, according to all that which Isaiah hath spoken, and I do not write them.
Check that out. Someone wrote “unto my children” twice when a single instance would make more sense. I’ll throw in one more from Ether 6:10 courtesy of WJT’s comment here:
And thus they were driven forth. And no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them.
Now granted, the idea that’s getting communicated isn’t really changed much by this sloppy writing but I find myself wondering why these errors exist at all? David Whitmer (whom I greatly admire) claims the BoM is essentially perfect. By his telling, Joseph used a brown seer stone inside a hat to read the words aloud from the plates and that the words would only change once the scribe wrote them correctly. As much as I like DW, I think he must be up in the night on this topic. He’s either guessing or repeating what someone else told him because if he’s right, we wouldn’t have typos and I think we’d have a book that is MUCH more skillfully written.
I also doubt very much Nephi was that sloppy of a writer. It seems a safe assumption that writing upon plates of gold requires no small amount of effort so if I were tasked with such a thing, I would write first on paper, get it cleaned up and presentable, proof read, etc, long before I picked up the stamp or chisel or whatever.
The type of writing error above with “unto my children” being repeated in the same sentence is actually a very common error. I in fact make this mistake often when writing emails. But I almost always proofread emails and so I rarely actually send it out in that sloppy way. Do we really think Nephi was just stamping along on those gold plates with whatever came into his mind without any effort to first make sure it made sense and was reasonably well said?
Tough to imagine.
But you know, I don’t really buy that Joseph Smith translated from the plates at all and so I don’t think we can blame Nephi. If he did, I have a very low opinion of Mormon, Nephi, Moroni, and the rest as writers. It doesn’t make them bad dudes, of course, but can you really not put your ideas together in written form more clearly than that?
I’ll come back to what I think translation actually looked like.
I’m aware of Moroni’s worry about being mocked and here I am mocking him a little.
And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;
24 And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them.
What’s wrong with their hands?? Is Moroni saying that the Nephites are very clumsy with their hands unlike the brother of Jared who was apparently not? If so, my mental images of their wars would have to be completely re-thought. If you can’t wield a pen un-awkwardly I can’t imagine you’d do much better with a sword or cimeter. It makes me think of this video game my boys like to play called Human Fall Flat where these clay-like figures have absurd battles:
Now those are some awkward hands, Moroni! I’m guessing you were better off than these guys.
By contrast the brother of Jared was apparently the OG giga chad when it came to writing:
//Moroni if you’re reading, this, no hard feelings, fam. I just really don’t get it. I hope you don’t mind a little light trolling and don’t jump too quickly to the “fools mock but they shall mourn” bit.//
I really have no idea what Moroni could mean or why he is so self conscious, unless the BoM we have really IS as good as they could write. But somehow I doubt it. I suspect the bad grammar and at times poor structure and never-finished sentences is more a function of the story passing from one person’s mind, to another person’s pen on paper (Cowdery, Emma, et al), to another person’s re-written printer’s manuscript, to another person’s type setting.
John Gilbert, the printer, wants no part in the blame, by the way. He reports:
Speaking of Harris and Hyrum Smith, Gilbert remembered, “I called their attention to a grammatical error, and asked whether I should correct it? Harris consulted with Smith a short time, and turned to me and said; ‘The Old Testament is ungrammatical, set it as it is written.’”
For a time Gilbert stuck to the printer’s manuscript but eventually started making minor corrections, whether approved or not. Of course, the BoM manuscript is also completely devoid of any punctuation so the printers had to do that on their own as well. Tough job!
“Ok, Ernest Hemingway, you’ve got all the answers, how was it translated then?”
My current working theory is that Joseph never cracked the gold plates open, at least not to translate. I’m sorry but if those BoM writers were THAT bad at writing, they should have asked a friend for help. Plus Moroni doesn’t say they are bad writers, he says their hands are awkward, maybe just awkward for gold-plate writing? Idk but I think they could string together sentences better than what we get to read today. And even if they were bad writers, we’re reading this in English, not reformed-Hebrew-Egyptian-Northern-Promised-Land dialect or whatever, so clean it up in the translation for Christ’s sake (literally)! The BoM writers didn’t write it in crappy English, the Joseph Smith crew did.
So if Joseph never cracked the plates, how do we have a book of Mormon at all? I suspect it was channeled to him either through that brown stone Whitmer mentions or the so-called Urim and Thummim from a spirit or angel that just isn’t/wasn’t that great at english. The BoM reads like a telling, not like a writing. It sounds like a storyteller who knows a tale really well sat down to tell it with a few aids here and there (like parts of Isaiah or the sermon on the mount). If that’s correct, I think this spirit/angel was not great at English. He either only knew Old English or just decided to present it in that lousy format hoping that it would have a Biblical air to it and therefore be taken seriously.
That “translation” process alone (from spirit/angel to Joseph via a stone) would introduce errors and then you get mishaps from Joseph repeating it aloud (probably with some errors) and the scribe writing what he hears (more errors) and then a printer’s manuscript that has on average “three scribal errors or changes” per manuscript page.
Imagine trying to republish Homer’s Iliad from the ancient Greek using a translator AND the telephone game and I think you’re getting close.
Who was the spirit/angel? Probably Moroni I would think. It would have to be someone intimately familiar with the contents of the plates and able to give a reasonably accurate accounting of them.
Of course, then we’d have to wonder why have plates at all? What I’m telling you is the plates are NOT there for being translated. I suspect it has more to do with the whole “recorded on earth and in heaven” stuff of D&C 128 or the “out of the books which have been written, and which shall be written, shall this people be judged” stuff from 3 nephi. I don’t think the plates were necessary for getting a book written and published in english…unless they were needed as some kind of tool or medium to help the spirit/angel who channeled the stories to Joseph Smith.
Anyway, that’s my theory about why the BoM is a not-great book from a writing standpoint. Not that I think that’s a reason to discredit or disbelieve it, but I do think it’s a reason to consider what maybe is misstated within its covers. Or are there important words missing here and there that would make some of the confusing passages more clear? Or is it just fine as is, close enough for what matters? Probably.
As always, thoughts welcome.
William James Tychonievich
That “awkwardness of our hands” thing is definitely weird. I suppose it’s another data point in favor of James Hajicek’s Nephite Bigfoot hypothesis.
https://web.archive.org/web/20050206015639/http://vorsoft.com/faith/bigfoot/index.htm
LEE
That is fascinating. I have never heard that theory from Hajicek. I wonder why he took it down? In some ways it fits really well. I have a hard time making it fit with the Gentile scattering of the remnant though. I don’t think we have reports of the Conquistadores facing down hordes of Big Foots do we? I can’t imagine that would have been missed by historians. Those soldiers surely would have brought back furs and such, no doubt. Proof of their feats.
WW
My understanding is that both Joseph and Oliver were fairly consistent in any details they revealed about the translation process (though Joseph specifically stated he would not mention much about it), and this seems to include the direct use of both the “Spectacles” and the Plates. I don’t take any other person’s commentary on it as being at the same level of credibility, including that of Whitmer since he had no part in the translation.
The use of the spectacles and the plates also fits with how those tools were used in the Book of Mormon world, and how they were said they would be used in the future (i.e., why they were preserved in the first place). Mosiah, for example, used the Stones or spectacles on the Ether’s plates once he received them. King Benjamin before him was said to use them in the same way.
Moroni initially closed the Book of Mormon by commenting on the language that Mormon used on the plates, the problem that nobody in the future would know that language, and that a specific solution was prepared to translate that language regardless (implied to be the spectacles Joseph received – the Seer Stones).
In other words, I believe Joseph very much cracked open those plates and used the spectacles or Stones he received in reading those characters.
As for the language, changes, perceived typos, and the strange way things are worded in the Book of Mormon, Skousen’s “The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text” is a pretty cool resource if you haven’t looked into it yet. It is my favorite version. It comes out of a larger effort from his team on the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, which is a larger, multi-volume collection (which I haven’t read, but have read papers and watched presentations that have come from it).
LEE
I had completely forgotten about Skousen’s work. And I actually have a copy right here in my office. Fortunate! Interestingly, his version doesn’t include the “unto my children” repeat which makes me think that is probably an error from creating the apparently sloppy printer’s manuscript. Skousen’s book does include the other two errors. And I don’t agree we can say that those are just “perceived” errors. Those sentences just don’t work in English. Good enough to get the idea across? Sure, but far from good, clean, plain writing.
Speaking of plain, Nephi makes a really big deal about his words being plain and easy to understand, so plain in fact that he says his words are “as plain as word can be.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read Nephi’s prophecies trying to piece them together but I can confidently say they are anything but plain. That could be because I am dense or bc I just don’t know enough to understand. Or it could be Nephi isn’t great at writing his thoughts down (but thinks he is!). Or it could be that it was partly lost in translation and it’s not Nephi’s fault at all.
As for the translation, you may be right. Here’s what JSH says:
“[The Angel] said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;
Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.”
“for the purpose of translating the book” is pretty explicit. What I’m unsure on is whether those stones are meant for translating the part of that book we DON’T already have. Maybe the whole thing, like you’re saying, but I am pretty sure the BoM in its current state does not contain the “fullness” of the gospel since we are missing a huge portion of what was ” delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants”. So I’d lean toward saying maybe he did crack the plates but I still think it’s possible he didn’t and someone else will do that later.
Regardless, that JSH quote puts a huge damper on the Space version of the BoM. “This continent” I think could only refer to North America.
WW
As for the “awkward hands” commentary, I think the context of Moroni’s commentary in Ether 12 fairly clearly, at least in my mind, suggests he is saying the same thing that Nephi (son of Lehi) lamented in comparing what he could speak vs. what he could write, and the Holy Ghost’s ability to carry those words to Men’s hearts. In that, the Nephites seemed particularly gifted in their speech, dating all the way back to Nephi, but not in their writings: As Moroni said (and you quoted):
“…but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;”
Moroni is specifically comparing his peoples’ writings to what the Brother of Jared had produced, which apparently was incredible, and found anything the Nephites had produced, that he had read, as paling in comparison to his writing. But writing wasn’t their gift, particularly compared with their gift of speaking. Thus, the awkwardness of their hands, meaning the inelegance, lack of grace, or clumsiness of what their hands produced in writing, compared with that of the Brother of Jared, whose writings “overpowered” any man who read them (and Moroni would know obviously).
Interestingly, God didn’t seem to try to convince Moroni that the Nephites’ writings were not clumsy or lacking in quality next to the Brother of Jared’s, or that the Nephites did not indeed ‘stumble because of the placing of [their] words’, but rather said that this particular weakness or awkwardness of their writing would not be taken advantage of. God’s grace was sufficient.
LEE
I guess you’d have to argue “awkwardness of our hands” is a figure of speech? I think that’s what you’re saying. Maybe? I think it’s a really strange way to say “hey we’re not that great at expressing ourselves in written form compared to the BoJ…that dude could write!” As in, I would never say the reason I don’t write as well as Hemingway or Tolkien is because my hands are awkward. Saying that would imply there is something wrong with my hands when it’s really just that I’m not that gifted of an author.
So maybe the Nephites had that as a figure of speech among them, kinda like we sometimes say a person has “two left feet” to express that they are clumsy. Otherwise, it’s a really strange way to express that idea on Moroni’s part.
I also kinda doubt figures of speech would get translated word for word.
Look, really my issue is that I can’t piece these prophecies together. I can’t make any of the world views we are exploring fit perfectly and that frustrates the hell out of me due to the immense effort I have put into doing so. I’m lashing out a little as a consequence of that frustration, looking for someone else to blame besides myself. Today that person, fair or not, is either the translators or the writers. I’ll get back to assuming it’s my problem eventually, don’t worry!