Mosiah 17:13 typo?

[abeChristianson]

And it came to pass that they took him and bound him, and scourged his skin with faggots, yeah, even onto death.

Is this a typo or what? I am just wondering, because it doesn't man\ke much sense. ANy help here would be great! Thanks!

[Misshalfway]

It isn't a typo. From what I understand, Faggots are bundles of sticks used to build fires....the kind of fires that took the life of our beloved Abinadi.

[BenRaines]

True, faggots are like the branches used to start a fire, they are not logs but thinner branches. Like you would beat someone with as torture, not hit them with to kill.

Ben Raines

[Truegrits]

Beat me to it, Misshalfway...faggots are kindling, bits of dry wood used for starting fires.

[pam]

I just learned something. Thanks everyone.

[abeChristianson]

Thank you all. I didn't know that. I suppose I could have looked it up somewhere....

[rameumptom]

In fact, our modern minds tend to think that Abinadi was bound to a stake and set on fire. From the actual terminology in this verse, it seems that they used several faggots, or burning sticks, and poked them at him, burning him slowly with pain.

Personally, I think I'd prefer the raging fire than a slow and painful death as that....

[Vort]

And it came to pass that they took him and bound him, and scourged his skin with faggots, yeah, even onto death.

Is this a typo or what? I am just wondering, because it doesn't man\ke much sense. ANy help here would be great! Thanks!

Royal Skousen, a scholar of the original manuscript and the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon, has suggested that "scourged" may be a mistake by the scribe; Joseph may perhaps have actually said "scorched", which makes somewhat better sense in context. As it now reads, we have Abinadi being beaten almost to death with faggots (bundles of sticks), then burned alive. Possible, of course, but seems a bit strange, especially since he gives his last pronouncements as he's burning, supposedly already almost dead from the whipping. If "scourged" is really "scorched", then we simply have him being burned at the stake.

In either case, as others have pointed out, "faggots" just means bundles of sticks. How it took on its modern, rather vulgar meaning of "homosexuals", I don't know...though that does give a rather bizarre mental image of Abinadi's martyrdom...

Edited August 11, 2008 by Vort

[Palerider]

Thank you all. I didn't know that. I suppose I could have looked it up somewhere....

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......thats good....

[Islander]

Is this a typo or what? I am just wondering, because it doesn't man\ke much sense. ANy help here would be great! Thanks!

It could very well mean they hit him severely with sticks. After all the word could also imply

1. A means of inflicting severe suffering, vengeance, or punishment.

2. A whip used to inflict punishment.

3. To flog.

In places like Malasya, Singapore and Indonesia they still use rattan sticks (or faggots in 18th century language) for corporal punishment. In India today the police carries rattan stick as a defensive and offensive weapon.