Just in Time for Christmas: New Insights About Mary in the Book of Mormon
by Jeff Lindsay
One
of my favorite things about the Book of Mormon is the presence of
interesting Semitic word plays throughout the text. I’ve
discussed some of these here in earlier posts here, on my website,
and on the Mormanity blog.
Some
of these wordplays involve the meanings of names that are skillfully
used in the text. Examples include Jershon, an ideal name for the
place of inheritance given to the Anti-Nephi-Lehites, or Nahom, a
name that can refer to mourning, used in the context of mourning when
mentioned as the place of burial for Ishmael in the Arabian
Peninsula.
Now,
just in time for Christmas, Matthew Bowen in the Mormon
Interpreter gives us a scholarly article that expands upon the
meaning of the Christmas story in the Book of Mormon as it proposes
skillful wordplays in the text that link the names of Mary and
Mormon.
“‘Most
Desirable Above All Things’: Onomastic Play on Mary and Mormon
in the Book of Mormon”
by Matthew L. Bowen, MormonInterpreter.com,
Nov. 21, 2014, is a carefully considered treatise that proposes that
Nephi drew upon his knowledge of Hebrew and Egyptian, another Semitic
language, in his vision of the tree of life and his prophecy about
the birth of Christ.
Though
Nephi does not use the name "Mary" directly, he does seem
to artfully draw upon its proposed Egyptian root mr(i) which means
love or desire. This root may play a role in the name Mormon, first
seen in the story of Alma baptizing his followers at the waters of
Mormon, emphasizing the importance of love and desires in his words.
Here
is the abstract — but please read the full article to appreciate
the depth of Matthew Bowen's proposal:
The
names Mary and Mormon most plausibly derive from the Egyptian word
mr(i),
“love, desire, [or] wish.” Mary denotes “beloved
[i.e., of deity]” and is thus conceptually connected with
divine love, while Mormon evidently denotes “desire/love is
enduring.”
The
text of the Book of Mormon manifests authorial awareness of the
meanings of both names, playing on them in multiple instances.
Upon
seeing Mary (“the mother of God,” 1 Nephi 11:18, critical
text) bearing the infant Messiah in her arms in vision, Nephi, who
already knew that God “loveth his children,” came to
understand that the meaning of the fruit-bearing tree of life “is
the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the
children of men; wherefore it is the most desirable above all things”
(1 Nephi 11:17-25).
Later,
Alma the Elder and his people entered into a covenant and formed a
church based on “love” and “good desires”
(Mosiah 18:21, 28), a covenant directly tied to the waters of Mormon:
Behold here are the waters of Mormon … and now, as ye are
desirous to come into the fold of God … if this be the desire
of your hearts, what have you against being baptized …?”;
“they clapped their hands for joy and exclaimed: This is the
desire of our hearts” (Mosiah 18:8-11).
Alma
the Younger later recalled the “song of redeeming love”
that his father and others had sung at the waters of Mormon (Alma
5:3-9, 26; see Mosiah 18:30).
Our
editor, Mormon, who was himself named after the land of Mormon and
its waters (3 Nephi 5:12), repeatedly spoke of charity as
“everlasting love” or the “pure love of Christ
[that] endureth forever” (Moroni 7:47-48; 8:16-17; 26).
All
of this has implications for Latter-day Saints or “Mormons”
who, as children of the covenant, must endure to the end in
Christlike “love” as Mormon and Moroni did, particularly
in days of diminishing faith, faithfulness, and love (see, e.g.,
Mormon 3:12; contrast Moroni 9:5).
Understanding
this proposed meaning of Mary's name helps me better appreciate
Nephi's response in 1 Nephi 11, which previously always puzzled me. I
felt I was missing something, or perhaps the text was missing
something, for Nephi's answer to the angel seemed a little
incongruous, until now.
In
First Nephi 11, when Nephi sees Mary in vision, we have this exchange
with the angel giving him a visionary tour:
[14]
And it came to pass that I saw the heavens open; and an angel came
down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest
thou?
[15]
And I said unto him: A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all
other virgins.
[16]
And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God?
[17]
And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children;
nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.
[18]
And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother
of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.
[19]
And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the
Spirit; and after she had been carried away in the Spirit for the
space of a time the angel spake unto me, saying: Look!
[20]
And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her
arms.
[21]
And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son
of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy
father saw?
[22]
And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which
sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men;
wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.
Nephi
did not understand the symbolic meaning of the tree until he realized
that the woman he saw was the mother of Christ. That's when he
grasped the symbolic meaning of the love of God, most desirable above
all things — concepts linked to the meaning of Mary, or mr(i).
Bowen
argues that Nephi is keenly aware of her name due to his use of
related wordplays, though Mary is not explicitly spelled out. Mary,
the loving mother bearing the Christ child is, with that child,
associated with the tree of life, symbolizing the love of God, most
desirable above all things, even as she is most beautiful and fair
above all.
The
tree of life bearing sacred fruit, linked to Mary and her sacred
child, are also linked in Nephi's vision to the fountain of pure
water, the water of life and perhaps also the water of birth and
cleansing.
This
is also the role of the waters of Mormon, where a covenant people
joined together in the love of God, according to the desires of their
hearts, with language in the text (Mosiah 18:8-11) again emphasizing
love and desire, related to both the name Mary and the name Mormon.
There's
more to Mary than meets the eye in the pages of the remarkable text
of the Book of Mormon, where Nephi's vision and the story of baptisms
at the water of Mormon are important themes, teaching us about God's
love and our need to bring our desires in line with His will.
This
Christmas, let us remember its deeper message about the love of God
and reflect upon the symbols we have for that love, including Mary
herself. May we experience and share that love more deeply as we seek
to follow Christ.
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.