Hebrew names in the BoM

[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]

Originally Posted by 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......

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.