Fun and Games in the Book of Mormon Text: Hebrew Wordplays
by Jeff Lindsay
One
of the many interesting elements being uncovered in the Book of
Mormon today is the presence of sophisticated Semitic wordplays that
we have overlooked for many decades. The most recent discovery I know
of was just reported in the Mormon Interpreter.
Bowen
shows how Enos appears to be deliberating using Hebrew wordplays that
link his struggle with God to Jacob's wrestling in Genesis, with
multiple words linking his story and situation to that of Jacob in
ways that add further meaning to the text.
Joseph
had not studied Hebrew before the Book of Mormon was published, so
the presence of apparent Hebraic wordplays in the text adds an
interesting element to consider.
The Hebrew Name Alma: Response to Critics
The
discovery of "Alma" as an authentic Jewish male name from
the time of Lehi ought to give the critics food for thought, but as
usual, it is ignored or rapidly dismissed. For example, one recently
e-mailed the following question: "Why do pro-LDS apologists cite
names such as 'Alma' as evidence? In Hebrew, vowels are omitted so
any 'new discovery' is just a coincidence (Alma= LM)."
Critics
tend to always dismiss any evidence as just coincidence, but in this
case, as with many others, there is little basis for the dismissal.
The critic implies that all we have for the name Alma is two
consonants that could just as easily be pronounced Lame-o, Elmo,
Alum, Oleomo, Oily Moe, and so forth. This is not the case.
The
name in the ancient Jewish document is actually spelled with four
letters, beginning with an aleph. The name appears in two forms that
differ in the final letter (א
[aleph]
or ה
[hey]),
but "Alma" fits both.
Transliterated
into English, the first form with the terminal aleph (אמלא)
is
For scholars of Hebrew, there is good evidence that the name should
be "Alma," which is exactly how the non-LDS scholar, Yigael
Yadin, transliterated it.
For
details, see Paul Hoskisson, "What's
in a Name?,"
Journal of Book of Mormon
Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1,
1998, pp. 72-73 (link is to a PDF file; an HTML
file is also
available with just the text). That article shows a color photograph
of the document that has the name Alma in it twice.
John
Tvedtnes also mentioned the name Alma in a well-received presentation
to other non-LDS scholars, "Hebrew
Names in the Book of Mormon,"
where he noted that in addition being found as a male name in one of
the Bar Kochba documents, it is also found as a medieval place name
in Eretz Israel and as a personal male name from Ebla.
Finding
the male name Alma in a record about descendants early Hebrews now
must be viewed not as a reason for mocking the Book of Mormon, but as
a reason to take it seriously.
As
is often the case in the Book of Mormon, there's more than meets the
eye of the casual reader. One of the most fascinating things about
the purportedly ancient text with Semitic origins is that many
elements in it make more sense and gain new layers of meaning when we
import information from the ancient world that was not available to
Joseph Smith when he whipped out this masterpiece.
Alma,
like Nahom, is an example of a name that not only makes sense in
light of its Hebrew meaning, but now comes with archaeological
evidence to add to its plausibility as a legitimate ancient name.
Nahom's case, as I've mentioned here before, is especially
impressive, in spite of dedicated critics simply dismissing it as
being "without
significance."
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.