The eighth article of faith states that we believe the Bible to the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. Does this hold true for the Book of Mormon as well?
For example, take a look at Ether 11:1 from the Book of Mormon:
And there came also in the days of Com many prophets, and prophesied of the destruction of that great people except they should repent, and turn unto the Lord, and forsake their murders and wickedness.
Does this make sense to anyone? Who prophesied? The many prophets? A single prophet? Someone else? It doesn’t say.
It doesn’t say, “many prophets, who prophesied” or “many prophets, and they prophesied”.
Can someone shed any light on this? Why has the subject been omitted?
UPDATE: While having compaionship scripture study last night, I came across another occurence in verse 12.
And it came to pass that in the days of Ethem there came many prophets, and prophesied again unto the people; yea, they did prophesy that the Lord would utterly destroy them from off the face of the earth except they repented of their iniquities.
Two verses cannot be a coincidence. I must be missing soemthing.
Remember that the Book of Mormon was translated by a man with a third-grade education — it can be the word of God with lousy grammar. (It better be, or else most of the Book of Mormon and D&C get thrown out for the misuse of “wherefore.”)
The sentence makes sense, even though it’s incorrect. Here are a couple of grammatical patches for you:
“And there came also in the days of Com many prophets, WHO prophesied of the destruction of that great people except they should repent…”
Or…
“And in the days of Com many prophets came also, and prophesied of the destruction of that great people except they should repent…”
With all the hundreds of corrections made to the Book of Mormon, you’d think someone would have caught this one.
But it’s not really an impediment to understanding. You read it, you get it. There’s no great doctrinal ambiguity or horrendous misspelling to be tackled.
It impedes our understanding if it wasn’t the many prophets doing the prophesying. We can infer that they are the ones prophesying, but we cannot confirm it.
No one said the BOM was perfect. Obviously there have been corrections. Some corrections enough to change the meaning of certain passages.
I think the answer is yes, the BOM is the word of God as far as it is translated correctly.
“No one said the BOM was perfect”
We must have had different experiences because I have met hundreds of people who have said that it was perfect; the majority of them while I was on my mission in Utah. They equate “most correct” with “perfect”.
Kim,
It is the most correct book on earth. And it is mostly correct bcause it contains the truest principles of the Gospel. Not becuase of grammar or spelling.
“It is the most correct book on earth.”
Or at least it was in the 1830s when Joseph Smith made the statement. Given the advancements in technology and science in the last 170+ years, I am doubtful that it is still the most correct of any other book on earth.
It is now. I dont’ believe that was referring to grammar and literary ability, it was referring to the truth. It still is the msot correct book on earth.
Truth is independent of the gospel. The gospel encompasses only some truths. For example, it does not encompass the truth that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
The Book of Mormon, as a book containing truth, is not necessarily any more correct than a scientific journal, my diary or any other book containing truth.
Are there any examples of this particular grammer problem elsewhere in the BOM? If not, may I postulate that this is an artifact of whatever language Moroni wrote in, and was somehow preserved in Joseph’s translation?
I’ll admit that it’s more than a long shot, but the fact that these two examples are so similar in structure is interesting.