An Embarrassment of Riches in the Book of Mormon Text
by Jeff Lindsay
Years
ago when I first opened up my newly purchased blue-bound volume from
Royal Skousen containing the details of the surviving original text
of the Book of Mormon, I was immediately disappointed. Yikes, hick
grammar! Not just archaic KJV language, but genuinely bad grammar,
like "he found Muloki a
preaching the word."
I
was chagrinned and wondered why we couldn't get more up-to-date
English in the divine text. Having the beautifully printed summation
of Royal Skousen's work, The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), hereafter The
Earliest Text, lessens the impact of the awkward grammar, but the discomfort is still
there.
As I
read more about the process, I came to terms with the idea that God
could give revelation to people in their own language, even their own
dialect. I guess that was OK — except now there's growing
evidence that many of these "errors" weren't necessarily
the result of Joseph's New England dialect and aren't as much bad
English as much as they are legitimate older English, namely, Early
Modern English, often slightly predating the era of the King James
Bible, in spite of heavy quotations therefrom.
Puzzling,
strange, weird, and controversial — but with detailed data that
shouldn't be ignored.
Although
I saw some grammar that bothered me, I'm glad the first few pages I
looked at did not contain what may be the most jarring grammatical
oddity in the text: "in
them days," with two
painful occurrences in the Earliest Text of the Book of Mormon at
Helaman 7:8 and 13:37, which Joseph mercifully exterminated in the
1837 edition.
It's
not just quaint or archaic to my ears, but immediately evokes a
visceral reaction in me because it sounds so uneducated. Please, I
can handle someone a preaching as they are a going,
but not if it happens "in them days."
Naturally,
it came as a relief and a surprise to see that "them days"
did occur occasionally in formal EModE, as Stanford Carmack
demonstrates in "A Look at Some 'Nonstandard' Book of Mormon
Grammar," Interpreter:
A Journal of Mormon Scripture 11 (2014): 209-262.
As
I wondered about those two occurrences, it seemed strange that they
were so close together in the Book of Mormon, both in the Book of
Helaman. I wondered if there might be other factors that their usage
had in common. Interestingly, I discovered that both occur within
quotations of public laments from prophets, quotations rich in
parallelism, with apparent elements of Hebrew poetry such as paired
bicola (couplets).
Here's the first occurrence in Helaman 7:
6. ... And he did exclaim in the agony of his soul:
7. Oh, that I could have had my days in the days
when my father Nephi first came out of the land of Jerusalem,
that I could have joyed with him in the promised land.
Then were his people easy to be entreated,
firm to keep the commandments of God,
and slow to be led to do iniquity.
And they were quick to hearken unto the words of the Lord.
8. Yea, if my days could have been in them days,
then would my soul have had joy in the righteousness of my brethren.
9. But behold, I am consigned that these are my days
and that my soul shall be filled with sorrow
because of this the wickedness of my brethren.
Look at the nice grouping of parallel elements in bicola:
A.
Nephi in Jerusalem / him [Nephi] in the promised land
B. easy to be entreated / firm to keep the commandments
C. slow to do iniquity / quick to hearken
D. them days, soul have had joy in righteousness of brethren / these days, soul shall filled with sorrow [from] wickedness of my brethren.
In addition to this series of four paired bicola, there may be a small chiastic structure as well in verses 7-9:
A. Past days: joy with my father Nephi
B. easy to be entreated
C. firm to keep the commandments
C'. slow to do iniquity.
B'. quick to hearken.
A'. Current days: sorrow with my wicked brethren.
Here's the passage from Helaman 13, taken from the Earliest
Text prepared by Royal Skousen:
32 ... And then [in the days of your poverty] shall ye weep and howl in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts, and then shall ye lament, and say:
33. O that I had repented
and had not killed the prophets and stoned them and cast them out.
Yea, in that day ye shall say:
O that we had remembered the Lord our God
in the day that he gave us our riches,
and then they would not have become slippery,
that we should lose them.
For behold, our riches are gone from us.
34. Behold, we lay a tool here and on the morrow it is gone.
And behold, our swords are taken from us
in the day we have sought them for battle.
35. Yea, we have hid up our treasures,
and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land.
36. O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us.
For behold the land is cursed;
and all things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them.
37. Behold, we are surrounded by demons;
yea, we are encircled about by the angels of him
who hath sought to destroy our souls.
Behold, our iniquities are great. O Lord, canst thou not turn away thine anger from us?
And this shall be your language in them days.
Parallelism also abounds in this lament of the prophet, Samuel the Lamanite:
A. then shall ye weep and howl / then shall ye lament,
B. repented and not killed the prophets / stoned them and cast them out, had remembered the Lord
C. our riches, become slippery / our riches are gone from us.
D. tool … on the morrow it is gone / swords are taken in the day of battle.
E. hid up our treasures / they have slipped away from us
F. curse of the land, repented [turned toward God] / word of the Lord , the land is cursed;
G. all things slippery / we cannot hold them.
H. surrounded by demons / encircled by Satan's angels
I. destroy our souls / our iniquities are great.
And there may be a chiastic structure:
A. then shall ye weep and howl in that day,
B. O that I had repented
C. killed the prophets and stoned them and cast them out [destroy the prophets, great sins listed]
D. remembered the Lord our God
E. Riches have become slippery, that we should lose them [BIG SLIPPERY SECTION]
F. the curse of the land.
G/G': O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us.
F'. the land is cursed;
E'. all things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them.
D'. surrounded by demons of Satan
C'. destroy our souls / our iniquities are great.
B'. O Lord, canst thou not turn away thine anger from us?
A'. And this shall be your language in them days.
Section E comprises several lines introducing the theme of slippery riches.
Above it is collapsed to its key phrasing, but it may actually be a chiasmus within a chiasmus:
A. our riches have become slippery
B. our riches are gone
C. a tool here and on the morrow it is gone.
C'. our swords are taken from us in the day of battle.
B'. hid up our treasures
A'. they have slipped away from us
Reference
to "days" (including "the morrow") occur in the
middle of the slippery chiasmus, and in the middle and outer ends of
the large chiasmus. Days is a unifying feature, and the jarring "in
them days" at the end almost seems to invite us to look at these often-overlooked words
in new ways to understand the structure and poetry that is there.
Poetry
marked with an ironic instance of hick grammar (albeit acceptable
EModE) — strange, I know. Yes, perhaps it's another example of
the many ironies found in the Book of Mormon, where weak and foolish
things start getting a little stronger and smarter over time.
Or
is it just an overactive imagination on my part? Intended Hebraic
poetry? Actual EModE? All just the result of Joseph's natural lack of
education in the frontier spewing out bad grammar? I think there's
more than lucky accidents going on in the sophisticated text that
Joseph Smith dictated rapidly to his scribes back in them days.
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.