The following comments show how the book is of Hebrew origin. These are only a few examples.

IT CAME TO PASS.
This phrase is used 1297 times in the current edition of the Book of Mormon. “Instead of punctuation the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon divides up its phrases by introducing each by an ‘and,’ ‘behold,’ ‘now,’ or ‘it came to pass.’ Simply outrageous – as English historical texts… Dramatic texts are held together by the constant repetition of ‘It came to pass.’ In Egyptian these expressions were not merely adornments, they are a grammatical necessity and may not be omitted.” Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah, p. 169.

RIVER OF WATER
(1 Nephi 2:6) Although the term “river of water” probably seemed foreign to Joseph Smith, the use of the term in the Book of Mormon is consistent with both modern and ancient Hebrew and with other Semitic languages of the Middle East. Different words are used in these languages to differentiate between (1) a riverbed that has water flowing in it and (2) a dry riverbed. This is one of many examples that prove the Book of Mormon is translation literature. Daniel H. Ludlow, Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, p. 92-3.

ALTAR OF STONES
(1 Nephi 2:7) Lehi built an altar of stone to make an offering and give thanks. It was an altar of unhewn stones as stipulated in Exodus 20:25. The wording is intentional, again showing the Book of Mormon to be translated from an ancient Semitic record. It was not a stone altar (which might allow for cut, fitted stones), but an altar of stones. D. Kelly Ogden, Studies in Scripture, 7:23.

RIVER AND VALLEY WITH DIFFERENT NAMES
(1 Nephi 2:8) In the background of Joseph Smith it was customary for the river and the valley through which the river flowed to carry the same name; hence the Mississippi River and the Mississippi Valley, the Missouri River and the Missouri Valley. However, this is not necessarily the practice in the Middle East, and it evidently was not the practice there 600 years B.C., as is indicated by the fact that Lehi named the river after his son Laman and the valley through which the river flowed after his son Lemuel. Daniel H. Ludlow, Unlocking the Book of Mormon, p. 4.

WALLS OF JERUSALEM
(1 Nephi 4:4) Joseph Smith was translating with the seer stones, he looked up with surprise and said, “Emma, did Jerusalem have walls? He didn’t even know the city had walls. He didn’t know anything about what he was writing here. Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, 1:159.

PLATES OF BRASS
(1 Nephi 3:3) In many of the Semitic languages (from which we get the thought patterns contained in the Book of Mormon) it is not customary to have the adjective precede the noun. Thus the Book of Mormon mentions the “plates of brass" of Laban but never refers to the “brass plates of Laban." Daniel H. Ludlow, Unlocking the Book of Mormon, p. 5 (Also similar to rod of iron, land of promise, and altar of stones.)

ADIEU
(Jacob 7:27) Some anti-LDS critics of the Book of Mormon have raised the question as to how Jacob could possibly have used such a word as “adieu” when this word clearly comes from the French language, which was not developed until hundreds of years after the time of Jacob. Such critics evidently overlook the fact that the Book of Mormon is translation literature, and Joseph Smith felt free in his translation to use any words familiar to himself and his readers that would best convey the meaning of the original author. It is interesting to note that there is a Hebrew word Lehitra’ot, which has essentially the same meaning in Hebrew as the word “adieu” in French. Both of these words are much more than a simple farewell; they include the idea of a blessing. Would it be unreasonable to remind these critics that none of the words contained in the English translation of the book of Jacob were used by Jacob himself? These words all come from the English language which did not come into existence until long after Jacob’s time? Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, p. 163.

WHY NOT ADVERBS?
The Book of Mormon often uses a prepositional phrase in place of an adverb. This is not good English but Hebrew has very few adverbs. WITH GLADNESS instead of gladly (2 Nephi 1:21, 2 Nephi 28:28) WITH PATIENCE instead of patiently (Mosiah 24:15, Alma 1:25, Alma 31:31. WITH DILIGENCE instead of diligently (1 Nephi 15:11) IN ABUNDANCE instead of abundantly (1 Nephi 18:6, 24, 2 Nephi 5:11, Mosiah 11:15. IN RIGHTEOUSNESS instead of righteously (1 Nephi 12:11-12, 1 Nephi 22:21, 26, 2 Nephi 26:9) OF WORTH instead of worthy (1 Nephi 6:6) OF A SURETY instead of surely (1 Nephi 5:8, 1 Nephi 17:55)

POSSESSIVES
Where English uses possessives, Semitic languages like Hebrew and Arabic use what is called the construct state. Instead of saying David’s city, the Hebrew literally says city David. This is translated “city of David.” This word order also applies to descriptions. While the normal English phrasing would be brass plates, the Hebrew word order would be plates brass, translated “plates of brass,” the “of” being supplied by the translator. The phrase “brass plates” does not occur in the Book of Mormon, while “plates of brass” occurs 27 times. 

These Hebraisms are used in the Book of Mormon: NIGHT OF DARKNESS (Alma 41:7) MIST OF DARKNESS (1 Nephi 8:23-24) ROD OF IRON (1 Nephi 8:19, 20, 24, 30) LAND OF PROMISE (1 Nephi 2:20, 1 Nephi 4:14) SWORD OF LABAN (2 Nephi 5:14) PLATES OF NEPHI (1 Nephi 9:2) ARMY OF MORONI (Alma 43:34 BROTHER OF JARED (Ether 6:15, 19, 20, 23, 25) LANGUAGE OF JACOB (Alma 46:26) PEOPLE OF AMMON (Alma 35:8,9,10,11,13).

NEITHER “MORE” NOR “ER”?
In Hebrew there is no equivalent for the normal English phrasing of comparisons. In English we might say, “He is more… handsome,” or “She is taller.” Neither this use of more nor the addition of the suffix er, is possible in Hebrew. Instead of more, Hebrew uses “above all.” Like in 1 Nephi 13:30.

TAXING TAXES
There exists in the Semitic languages a construction called the “cognate accusative.” It consists of a verb immediately followed by a noun derived from the same root, and is often used for emphasis. Examples are 2 Nephi 1:22 – they are cursed with a sore cursing; Mosiah 11:10 – work all manner of fine work; Mosiah 29:29 – and he did judge righteous judgments; 1 Nephi 8:2 – Behold I have dreamed a dream ; Mosiah 7:15 taxed with a tax.

NUMERALS
In English compound numbers are hyphenated. We write twenty-five. In Hebrew the conjuction “and” is always used to express this compound. Alma 43:17.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS SCRIPTURE?

1 Nephi 2:10
And he also spake unto Lemuel: O that thou mightest be like unto this valley, firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord! As if to prove that no westerner could possibly have dreamed up Nephi’s account, we are challenged by the remarkable expression, “like unto this valley, firm and steadfast, and immovable" (1 Nephi 2:10). Who west of Suez would ever think of such an image? At the very least the proofreader should have caught such a howler, which should certainly have been corrected in subsequent editions. For we, of course, know all about everlasting hills and immovable mountains, the moving of which is the best-known illustration of the infinite power of faith, but who ever heard of a steadfast valley? The Arabs, to be sure. For them the valley, and not the mountain, is the symbol of permanence. It is not the mountain of refuge to which they flee, but the valley of refuge. The great depressions that run for hundreds of miles across the Arabian peninsula pass for the most part through plains devoid of mountains. It is in these ancient riverbeds alone that water, vegetation, and animal life are to be found when all else is desolation. They alone offer men and animals escape from their enemies and deliverance from death by hunger and thirst. The qualities of firmness and steadfastness, of reliable protection, refreshment, and sure refuge when all else fails, which other nations attribute naturally to mountains, the Arabs attribute to valleys. Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites, p. 105-06.

1 Nephi 2:16
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers. Nobody liked the idea of leaving Jerusalem. Nephi liked it just as little as the others. After he prayed and cried unto the Lord, the Lord visited him and softened his heart so he would go along with his father. [Nephi] had to be convinced, too. So everybody had to be sold on this trip in the first place, including Nephi and Sam. Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, 1:126.

1 Nephi 3:11
And we  cast lots—who of us should go in unto the house of Laban . And it came to pass that the lot fell upon Laman and Laman went in unto the house of Laban, and he talked with him as he sat in his house. While modern people might be familiar with casting lots to create a pure chance selection, it would be a disservice to these brothers to assume that the casting of lots was done to create a random assignment. Casting lots in the ancient world assumed that the randomness inherent in the lots opened the door for God to place His hand in the outcome. The casting of lots was used as a means of discovering the will of the Lord. Ludlow: The “casting of lots" was practiced extensively by the Hebrews of Old Testament times. This authentic and typical use of the custom in the Book of Mormon would indicate again that this part of the story in the Book of Mormon is concerned with a group of people with a Hebrew background and that the Book of Mormon is a translation of an ancient record. (If you want to review some of the examples in the Bible where the casting of lots was used, see Leviticus 16:8; 1 Samuel 14:42; 1 Chronicles 26:13; Psalms 22:18; Isaiah 34:17; Joel 3:3; Obadiah 11; Jonah 1:7; Nahum 3:10; Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; John 19:24; Acts 1:26.))

Mosiah 1:1
AND now there was no more contention in all the land of Zarahemla, among all the people who belonged to king Benjamin, so that king Benjamin had continual peace all the remainder of his days. The first chapter of Mosiah in our current text does not begin in any expected way. In the first place, we are missing the introductory material that Mormon included with all other books he edited. This strongly suggests that our Mosiah chapter 1 was not the beginning of the book of Mosiah. Skousen’s examination of the manuscripts indicates that what we have as Mosiah 1 was originally Mosiah III, or the third chapter of the book of Mosiah rather than the first (Skousen, Royal. “Critical Methodology and the Text of the Book of Mormon." In: Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6/1. FARMS 1994 p. 138).

Mosiah 16:6-7
And now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption. 7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. “Although he lived nearly 150 years before the birth of Christ, Abinadi was so certain Jesus Christ was going to be born on the earth that he sometimes referred to the life of the Savior in the past tense. He was aware, of course, that he was doing this. In Mosiah 16:6 he states: ‘ … and now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption.’ (Italics added.)” (Daniel Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, p.187)

Alma 7:10
And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God. Joseph Fielding Smith said: “Dr. Hugh Nibley, in his course of study for the priesthood for 1957, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, in Lesson 8, page 85, has this to say on this point: ‘. . . One of the favorite points of attack on the Book of Mormon has been the statement in Alma 7:10 that the Savior would be born ‘at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers.’ Here Jerusalem is not the city ‘in the land of our forefathers,’ it is the land. Christ was born in a village some six miles from the city of Jerusalem; it was not in the city, but it was in what we now know the ancients themselves designated as ‘the land of Jerusalem.’ Such a neat test of authenticity is not often found in ancient documents.” (Answers to Gospel Questions, vol. 1, pp. 173-5) 

2 Nephi 12:2
And it shall come to pass in the last days, when) the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. The Prophet Joseph Smith said: “All nations (which means some people from all nations) shall come to obey the God of all nations and to build the kingdom of God. For something to flow like a river, up a mountain, a power greater than gravity must be at work; this power is the power of God and of the temple.”

Alma 32:28
Now, we will compare the word unto a seed.  Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motion  ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me. Notice the words SWELL, ENGLARGE, ENLIGHTEN, DELICIOUS. Put them together and what do they spell? SEED.

EXTERNAL EVIDENCES

Although we should not rely on archaeological evidence to prove the truth of the Book of Mormon, these interesting facts have recently been discovered.

CAVITY OF A ROCK
(1 Nephi 3:27) Recently, the published research of three Non-Latter-day Saint scientists have found such a “cavity of a rock,” twenty-two miles southeast of Jerusalem – just east of Hebron. The reconstruction of the site by these scholars astonishingly resembles the Book of Mormon account of Nephi’s refuge in the cavern. It is expected that Nephi and his party, with the brass plates, would head toward the Hebron area to seek refuge. Historically, Joshua had designated the city of Hebron as a city of refuge, where those unjustly or rashly accused could find safety. Nephi and his party fled from the servants of Laban on the southern road which also leads ultimately to the Valley of Lemuel/Al Beda, where Lehi was camped, but additionally passes through Hebron, the city of refuge. Ten miles east of Hebron is a cave, uncovered during construction of a highway in 1961, that for ages has been called by the local populace Khirbet Beit Lei, “The Ruins of the House of Lehi” (or even “The Ruins of Lehi’s Family,” as Beit means either “house” or “family”). Kirk Holland Vestal and Arthur Wallace, The Firm Foundation of Mormonism, p. 107-8. A display in the Israel Museum of Jerusalem shows artifacts from a cave some twenty-three miles southwest of Jerusalem in an area known as Lhi (Lahi or Lehi). They are dated to six hundred years before Jesus’ time and seem to connect to Lehi’s family departing the area of Jerusalem. The oldest-known writing of the name of Jerusalem and the spelling out of the name of Jehovah appears in the cave. Daniel Rona, Book of Mormon Supplemental Study Material, p. 5

NAHOM
(1 Nephi 16:34) “A group of Latter-day Saint researchers recently found evidence linking a site in Yemen, on the south-west corner of the Arabian peninsula, to a name associated with Lehi’s journey as recorded in the Book of Mormon. Warren Aston, Lynn Hilton, and Gregory Witt located a stone altar that professional archaeologists dated to at least 700 B.C. This altar contains an inscription confirming ‘Nahom’ as an actual place that existed in the peninsula before the time of Lehi. The Book of Mormon mentions that ‘Ishmael died, and was buried in the place which was called Nahom’ (1 Ne. 16:34). “This is the first archaeological find that supports a Book of Mormon place-name other than Jerusalem or the Red Sea…” (Ensign, Feb. 2001, p. 79).

BOUNTIFUL
(1 Nephi 17:5) “After traveling a vast distance in a south-south-easterly direction (16:14, 33), the party struck off almost due eastward through the worst desert of all, where they ‘did wade through much affliction,’ to emerge in a state of almost complete exhaustion into a totally unexpected paradise by the sea. There is such a paradise in the Qara Mountains on the southern coast of Arabia….. Of the Qara Mountains which lie in that limited sector of the coast of south Arabia which Lehi must have reached if he turned east at the nineteenth parallel, Bertram Thomas, one of the few Europeans who has ever seen them, writes: ‘What a glorious place! Mountains three thousand feet high basking above a tropical ocean, their seaward slopes velvety with waving jungle, their roofs fragrant with rolling yellow meadows, beyond which the mountains slope northwards to a red sandstone steppe….Great was my delight when in 1928 I suddenly came upon it all from out of the arid wastes of the southern borderlands.’ …Compare this with Nephi’s picture….It is virtually the same scene: the mountains, the rich woodlands with timber for ships, the rolling yellow meadow a paradise for bees, the view of the sea beyond, and above all the joyful relief at the sudden emergence from the ‘red sandstone steppe,’ one of the worst deserts on earth.” (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert and The World of the Jaredites, pp. 125-6) As Nephi described that land, it must have contained water, fruit, large trees for a ship, grass, wild honeybees, flowers or blossoms, a mountain, a shoreline, a cliff overlooking the depths of the sea, and metal ore. Incredible as it seems, the south coast of the Arabian peninsula from Perim to Sur has only one place in its entire length of 1,400 miles that meets that description. It is a tiny sickle of land curved around a little bay, about 28 miles long and only 7 miles wide, backed by the Qara Mountains. For three months of the year, the monsoon clouds gather on the slopes fronting the sea and cover them with summer fog, mist and rain. This place is Salalah, in the state of Dhofar, the Sultanate of Oman. The coast in both directions stretches away in unbroken barrenness. We repeat, this is the only place on the whole Arabian peninsula seashore which receives significant rainfall and where large trees grow – and it is known to have been this way for well over two thousand years. Hugh Nibley, In Search of Lehi’s Trail, p. 50-51.

HORSES
(1 Nephi 18:25) “If Joseph Smith had been writing the Book of Mormon instead of translating it from ancient records, he would have been very foolish to have included references to horses on the American continent in Book of Mormon times. (1 Nephi 18:25; Enos 1:21.) In 1830, nearly all the historians and scholars were convinced there had been no horses on the American continent before the coming of Columbus. After the Book of Mormon was published, however, archaeological discoveries were made that clearly indicate that horses were in the Americas before Columbus arrived. In the asphalt deposits of Rancho LaBrea in southern California, numerous fossil remains of horses have been found that antedate Book of Mormon times. Although these discoveries do not absolutely prove horses were in the Americas in the time period covered by the Book of Mormon (about 2600 B.C. to A.D. 421), they do prove horses were there before the coming of Columbus.  Some scientists have now accepted the possibility that horses and men lived concurrently in the Americas before the coming of Columbus. Franklin S. Harris, Jr., quotes the zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson as saying: ‘There is a body of evidence both from the mainland of Central America and even from rock drawings in Haiti itself tending to show that the horse may have been known to man in the Americas before the coming of the Spaniards.’ (The Book of Mormon Message and Evidences [Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1953], pp. 88-89.)” (Daniel Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, p.117)

THUS WE SEE 

Help your students be alert to this phrase and the message that Mormon is trying to tell us.

1 Nephi 16:29 – Thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things.

1 Nephi 17:3 – And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled.

Alma 12:21 – And thus we see that there was no possible chance that they should live forever.

Alma 12:22 – and thus we see that by his fall, all mankind became a lost and fallen people

Alma 24:19 – And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin…. And thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace.

Alma 24:27 – Thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people.

Alma 28:13 – And thus we see how great the inequality of man is because of sin and trangresssion, and the power of the devil, which comes by the cunning plans which he hath devised to ensnare the hearts of men.

Alma 28:14 – And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason to sorrow, and also of rejoicing – sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ.

Alma 30:60 – And thus we see the end of him who perverteth the ways of the Lord; and thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell.

Alma 42:4 – And thus we see that there was a time granted unto man to repent, year, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God.

Alma 42:7 – and thus we see they became subjects to follow after their own will.

Alma 42:14 – And thus we see that all mankind were fallen, and they were in the grasp of justice; yea, the justice of God, which consigned them forever to be cut off from his presence.

Alma 46:8 – Thus we see how quick the children of men do forget the Lord their God, yea, how quick to do iniquity, and to be led away by the evil one.

Alma 50:19 – And thus we see how merciful and just are all the dealings of the Lord, to the fulfilling of all his words unto the children of men.

Helaman 3:28 – Thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.

Helaman 6:34 – And thus we see that the Nephites did begin to dwindle in unbelief, and grow in wickedness and abominations, while the Lamanites began to grow exceedingly in the knowledge of their God

Helaman 6:35 – And thus we see that the Spirit of the Lord began to withdraw from the Nephites, because of the wickedness and the hardness of their hearts.

Helaman 6:36 – And thus we see that the Lord began to pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites, because of their easiness and willingness to believe in his words.

Helaman 6:40 – And thus we see that they were in an awful state, and ripening for an everlasting destruction.

Helaman 12:3 – And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.

Ether 14:25 – And thus we see that the Lord did visit them in the fullness of his wrath, and their wickedness and abominations had prepared a way for their everlasting destruction.

NAME ORIGINS/MEANINGS 

Sariah.
The wife of Lehi. The name is derived from the Babylonian, ‘Sarratu,’ which, in the city of Ur, where Abraham lived, was the title of a goddess, the consort of the moon god. In the language of Abraham, ‘Sarratu’ became ‘Sarai.’ (Gen. 11:28) Later when the Lord made a covenant with the Patriarch and changed his name from ‘Abram’ to ‘Abraham,’ his wife’s name was changed from ‘Sarai’ to “Sarah.’ (Gen. 17:15) The name means ‘Princess.’ In the Book of Mormon the form of the name is somewhat different. I venture the suggestion that ‘Sariah’ is an abbreviation of ‘Sarah-Jah,’ and that means ‘Princess of the Lord’ (Jehovah).

Lemuel.
The second son of Lehi, probably named after Lemuel mentioned in Prov. 31:1, 4, who is supposed to be Solomon, the king. The name means either ‘Godward’ or ‘God is bright.’

Sam.
The third son of Lehi. The name is Egyptian. ‘It was the distinctive name of one of the highest orders of the priesthood. The great Rameses, himself, belonged to the order of Sam.’ (George Reynolds)” (Reynolds and Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 1, p. 25-26) 

Laman.
The first son of Lehi. His name does not appear anywhere in the Bible.  Obviously, it is very similar to the Biblical name of Laban but its meaning is unclear. Hugh Nibley writes: “The only example of the name of Laman to be found anywhere to the writer’s knowledge is its attribution to an ancient Mukam, or sacred place, in Palestine. Most of these Mukams are of unknown, and many of them of prehistoric, date. In Israel only the tribe of Manasseh built them. It is a striking coincidence that Conder saw in the name Leimun, as he renders it (the vowels must be supplied by guesswork), a possible corruption of the name Lemuel, thus bringing these two names, so closely associated in the Book of Mormon, into the most intimate relationship, and that in the one instance in which the name of Laman appears.” (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites, p. 45) Nibley goes on to explain that Laman and Lemuel were Arabic names and that Nephi and Sam were Egyptian names (see p. 46).

Jarom.
The English equivalent of Jarom is Richard. Jarom means to be prosperous, to be happy. It also may mean Jehovah exalts.

Enos.
The name Enos is a poetic Hebrew word meaning “man.” It first appears in the Bible as the name of Seth’s son. As a grandson of Adam, through Seth, Enos was privileged to be part of the ancient patriarchal line of the priesthood. That Jacob named his son, Enos, should not be surprising because the Nephites often gave their children names from the scriptures.

Mosiah.
The Meaning of the name Mosiah: In 1965, John Sawyer published an article titled “What was a Mosiac?" He argues that the term mosiah was an ancient Hebrew term, like go’el (“redeemer, or avenger of blood"), or sedeq (“victor, savior"). Such terms originally had meaning in Hebrew daily life and culture but came to be used among their titles for God. The word mosiac (pronounced moe-shee-ah) is a word peculiar to Hebrew, a “word invariably implying a champion of justice in a situation of controversy, battle or oppression." Sawyer’s analysis sheds interesting light on the name Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. Several subtle reasons show why Nephites, who continued to speak Hebrew in the New World, would have been attracted to the use of such a name or title. Apparently the form of the word Mosiah is a “hiphil participle" in Hebrew. It occurs in the Hebrew in Deuteronomy 22:27; 28:29; Judges 12:3; Psalms 18:41; and Isaiah 5:29-texts that in all probability were on the Plates of Brass. This word, however, was not transliterated into the English by the King James translators, and thus the Hebrew would not have been known to Joseph Smith. It was, however, known and used as a personal name in the Book of Mormon, as well as by people in the Jewish colony at Elephantine in the fifth century B.C. The key meaning of the word mosiac was “savior." People in danger cry out, “But there is no mosia" (Deuteronomy 22:27). After examining all occurrences of this term in the Hebrew Bible, Sawyer concludes that the term applied to a particular kind of person or role and was sometimes a title designating “a definite office or position." Typical of this office are the following traits: 1. The mosiac is a victorious hero appointed by God. 2. He liberates a chosen people from oppression, controversy, and unjustice after they cry out for help. 3. Their deliverance is usually accomplished by means of a nonviolent escape or negotiation. 4. The immediate result of the coming of a mosiac was “escape from unjustice, and a return to a state of justice where each man possesses his rightful property."  5. On a larger scale, “final victory means the coming of mosicim [plural, pronounced moe-shee-eem] to rule like Judges over Israel."  Thus the term also had judicial, legal, or forensic connotations, similar to the word advocate." A mosiac gives refuge to those on his “right hand" from their accusers in court (Psalm 17:7). (John W. Welch, ed., Reexploring the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book Co., Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992], 107.) 

LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES TO OURSELVES

Nephi encouraged his people to liken the scriptures unto themselves. For each set of scriptures discussed in your class, ask your students how they can apply the scriptures to themselves.

POSSIBLE TYPO BY MORMON

There is at least one phrase that seems like a mistake in the engraving that Mormon could not correct except by making an additional comment. Alma 24:19 … they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried their weapons of war, for peace.