Hebrew names in the BoM

[RobertFSmith]

Nauvoo is the plural of naeh, and is taken from Isaiah 52:7. He should have called the city naavah.

Correct. Joseph and his Brethren in the School of the Prophets had a Sephardic Hebrew teacher, which is the reason for transliterating the Hebrew in Isaiah 52:7 as Nauvoo. Hugh Nibley's ward in Provo is still named Manavu Ward, using the whole phrase for "How beautiful . . ." , which is quoted by Abinadi in the Book of Mormon at Mosiah 12:21 and then in a midrash focusing on 15:15-18.

[RobertFSmith]

I thought נפיל would be hiphil of נפל ("to fall"), hence would be "the fallen one", "he that is fallen" (hence נפילים in Gen. 6)

Isn't there an Israeli military base called Nephilim adjacent to Eilat?

Anyhow, it is more likely that Nephi is an ancient Egyptian name, Nfy, which means "Captain."

[volgadon]

Correct. Joseph and his Brethren in the School of the Prophets had a Sephardic Hebrew teacher, which is the reason for transliterating the Hebrew in Isaiah 52:7 as Nauvoo. Hugh Nibley's ward in Provo is still named Manavu Ward, using the whole phrase for "How beautiful . . ." , which is quoted by Abinadi in the Book of Mormon at Mosiah 12:21 and then in a midrash focusing on 15:15-18.

Well, my pronunciation of Hebrew is Sephardic.

Never knew about Nibley's ward. Interesting.

[mapman]

I noticed that from reading Royal Skousen's The Book of Mormon: the Earliest Text that some of the names were different from the official edition. He explained that Joseph would spell out the name out the first time and then not the rest of the times. This meant that names were not always spelled consistently. The official edition has mostly the first spellings, but a few are not. This is a complete list of these names:

current spelling - original spelling

Amalekites - Amlicites

Angola - Angolah

Comnor - Comron

Ezias - Ezaias

Ezrom - Ezrum

Gadianton - Gaddianton

Giddonah - Gidanah

Jacobugath - Jacob-Ugath

Jeneum - Joneum

Kishkumen - Kishcumen

Midian - mistakenly put in place of Middoni

Morianton - Morionton

Mulek - Muloch

Onidah - Oneidah

Pahoran - Parhoron

Shiblom - Shiblon

Shiblum - Shilum

Zenock - Zenoch

I don't know a lot about Hebrew, but I'd guess that these differences might make a difference in forming etymologies.

Edited December 25, 2010 by mapman

[volgadon]

Isn't there an Israeli military base called Nephilim adjacent to Eilat?

Bot that I'm aware of. I know of only Ovda and Eilat in that region.

[RobertFSmith]

In 1968 I walked from Eilat to the entrance of the Nephilim base. It was near the Egyptian border, northwest of Eilat and inside a forbidding set of small but sharp hills -- a very unusual geologic formation.

[RobertFSmith]

You are right, Mapman. Some of them do make a great deal of difference. Shilum, for example, means "payment, recompense," in Hebrew -- a reasonable term for a monetary or silver-weight designation in Alma 11:16 equivalent to a quarter-measure of barley.

[mapman]

I noticed that from reading Royal Skousen's The Book of Mormon: the Earliest Text that some of the names were different from the official edition. He explained that Joseph would spell out the name out the first time and then not the rest of the times. This meant that names were not always spelled consistently. The official edition has mostly the first spellings, but a few are not. I think this is a complete list of these names:

current spelling - original spelling

Amalekites - Amlicites

Angola - Angolah

Comnor - Comron

Ezias - Ezaias

Ezrom - Ezrum

Gadianton - Gaddianton

Jacobugath - Jacob-Ugath

Jeneum - Joneum

Kishkumen - Kishcumen

Midian - mistakenly put in place of Middoni

Mulek - Muloch

Pahoran - Parhoron

Shiblum - Shilum

Zenock - Zenoch

I don't know a lot about Hebrew, but I'd guess that these differences might make a difference in forming etymologies.

I missed these:

Giddonah - Gidanah

Onidah - Oneidah

Morianton - Morionton

Shiblom - Shiblon

[KerryShirts]

Eh, perhaps. But with most of the differences being vowels, it's not a big deal. There were no vowels in Semitic languages......

[Guest rockmanlinux]

I haven't read this whole thread, perhaps someone already said this but its said Nephi used a reformed Egyptian (only his family new his language) for writing as its much easier than Hebrew. However, its not mentioned if he just used Egyptian to write it for the Hebrew words. I've been studying both and it seems thats exactly what was done let alone reading this forum thread.

[JanSan]

I guess this is the end.

Sad, I REALLY enjoyed most of these comments and wish that they had continued.

I had a friend who was raised in the Jewish faith, we served in the same mission field.

I was starting to read Jesus the Christ and we talked about it, I took a full sized paper full of notes and I write small, on just the first page!

I would love to be able to talk things through like this with someone who has this kind of knowledge, there is SOOOOOOOOOO much that we can learn from them.

Sorry that I came to late to get in on the action.. but still if anyone is reading this, thanks again for this thread.

[stevejames1012]

thekabalist I just wanted to reaffirm what many have said. Your service on this forum has not only vindicated (not that my belief and testimony relies on vindication, but it's still cool), but it has enlightened. IMHO, EVERY LDS person who wants to get good in-depth perspective into the BoM should learn of your transliterations.

[stevejames1012]

I would be all about assembling a BoM name Hebrew dictionary.

[gmaxx0071]

This is a really interesting topic. I had a German teacher in college who also taught Hebrew. He was looking into Hebrew influence in Europe, like from the scattering of Israel, but I bet he'd have input into this as well.