Mormon and the Book of Ether

[Bernard Gui]

Ether 1: “1 And now I, Moroni, proceed to give an account of those ancient inhabitants who were destroyed by the hand of the Lord upon the face of this north country. 2 And I take mine account from the twenty and four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ether.“

What was the language of the Book of Ether and how did Mormon translate it?

 

 

Edited January 7, 2025 by Bernard Gui

[Duncan]

King Mosiah translated them via the Urim and Thummim as per Mosiah 28:10-19

[CV75]

33 minutes ago, Bernard Gui said:

Ether 1: “1 And now I, Moroni, proceed to give an account of those ancient inhabitants who were destroyed by the hand of the Lord upon the face of this north country. 2 And I take mine account from the twenty and four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ether.“

What was the language of the Book of Ether and how did Mormon translate it?

 

 

My understanding is that Mosiah translated the 24 plates using the interpreters (Mosiah 28). Moroni had this translation with the other plates and records that were passed down from Alma (Alma 37), so he did not need to translate them himself. He simply gave an account (Ether 1:1), an abridgement (verse 5) instead of a copy of Mosiah’s translation.

[Bernard Gui]

Duplicate

Edited January 7, 2025 by Bernard Gui

[Bernard Gui]

1 hour ago, CV75 said:

My understanding is that Mosiah translated the 24 plates using the interpreters (Mosiah 28). Moroni had this translation with the other plates and records that were passed down from Alma (Alma 37), so he did not need to translate them himself. He simply gave an account (Ether 1:1), an abridgement (verse 5) instead of a copy of Mosiah’s translation.

Thanks.

Probably, but he does not specify that he used Mosiah’s translation…”I take mine account from the twenty and four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ether.”

Minor quibble. 

[Bernard Gui]

1 hour ago, Duncan said:

King Mosiah translated them via the Urim and Thummim as per Mosiah 28:10-19

See reply to CV75. Just musing…..

[longview]

From the time of Noah up to the building of the Tower, all the people may have spoken the original Adamic language which was "pure and undefiled." Jared and his people may have been spared from losing this language?

[CV75]

1 hour ago, Bernard Gui said:

 

Thanks.

Probably, but he does not specify that he used Mosiah’s translation…”I take mine account from the twenty and four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ether.”

Minor quibble. 

Good point! Perhaps he left out that detail (whether he translated or used Mosiah's translation), in the spirit of abridgement  . He did possess the interpreters and the 24 plates, so he could well have used them and even emended any earlier translations. For example, King Benjamin (who was still alive alive for three years while Mosiah was king and also had access to the Jaredite plates and the interpreters) could have translated them, with Mosiah subsequently retranslating and emending those, with Moroni in turn translating and/or emending those (and others) centuries later, and finally Joseph Smith (and later Orson Pratt emending the name Benjamin to Mosiah).

 https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Book_of_Mormon/Textual_changes/"Benjamin"_changed_to_"Mosiah"

[Dario_M]

Hmmm lovely piece of scripture from the book of mormon. I've read it all offcourse. So i know that one as well. 📓

[Benjamin McGuire]

17 hours ago, Bernard Gui said:

What was the language of the Book of Ether and how did Mormon translate it?

Although we often portray the Book of Ether as a translation, whatever was translated, it is clearly highly redacted and editorialized by Mormon in places (if not across the entire book). This means that the text of Ether shouldn't be seen as a direct translation of an earlier text. Consider this from Ether Chapter 6:1 -

Quote

And now I, Moroni, proceed to give the record of Jared and his brother.

[Robert F. Smith]

On 1/7/2025 at 3:50 PM, Duncan said:

King Mosiah translated them via the Urim and Thummim as per Mosiah 28:10-19

Nope.  The stone Interpreters of the Bro of Jared, even though some deny that this was possible.  The Urim & Thummim are exclusively biblical instruments, unless we also count the ancient Egyptian Wr & Tm used by the HP of the Sun-god Re at Heliopolis, Egypt.

[Robert F. Smith]

On 1/7/2025 at 3:18 PM, Bernard Gui said:

.........................

What was the language of the Book of Ether and how did Mormon translate it?

Mosiah translated from Sumero-Akkadian, the languages of Mesopotamia.  When we kook at Jaredite and derived Nephite names, we find many Sumero-Akkadian names and name-elements.  Mosiah would have rendered it into Egyptian, which is the language used by Mormon and Moroni as well.  Much later someone in England translated it into Early Modern English, which Joseph Smith later read to his scribes.

[Wilderland]

Quote

Much later someone in England translated it into Early Modern English, which Joseph Smith later read to his scribes.

I don’t follow this. Would you please explain. Thanks.

[Nofear]

Fun tidbit. Ether never refers to the Tower of Babel just the "great tower". It wasn't called the Tower of Babel until later after Jared et al. left.

[Calm]

On 1/13/2025 at 8:28 PM, Wilderland said:

I don’t follow this. Would you please explain. Thanks.

https://scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/language-original-text-book-mormon

Quote

During the thirty years Royal Skousen has been working on the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, he has discovered certain words and phrases that appear on the surface to be either ungrammatical or stylistically unusual. Some critics have claimed that these phrases are Joseph Smith’s dialect mixed with a crude imitation of the language of the King James Bible. But many of these phrases can be tied to Early Modern English, in use from 1530 to 1730. Skousen also identifies phrases from the King James Bible that are skillfully woven into the Book of Mormon text in unexpected ways as well as numerous issues that Protestants argued over during the 1500s and 1600s, such as infant baptism. Although the Book of Mormon contains elements from Early Modern English, it is not an Early Modern English text. It is unique.

If you prefer a more casual explanation:

https://www.deseret.com/2014/8/21/20546937/the-very-surprising-language-of-the-book-of-mormon/

Edited January 15, 2025 by Calm

[Wilderland]

Calm,

Thank you! A very interesting article, and it helps me understand Robert’s comment was toung-in-cheek.

[Benjamin McGuire]

17 hours ago, Calm said:

If you prefer a more casual explanation:

Skousen has his critics. I am one of them.

[Calm]

4 hours ago, Benjamin McGuire said:

Skousen has his critics. I am one of them.

Based on mainly yours (because you had provided details here) and others’ analyses (iirc Brent Gardner isn’t a fan of it either, trying to remember if I have seen Ben Spackman refer to it), it does seem unnecessary to me, but I have absolutely no background in this and must depend on people who do.

I love the idea, quite fun.  It would be great if it is true though.   

[Calm]

15 hours ago, Wilderland said:

Calm,

Thank you! A very interesting article, and it helps me understand Robert’s comment was toung-in-cheek.

Robert supports the EModE theory, I believe (meaning it’s in the Book of Mormon, I don’t believe there is a theory on exactly how it got there from Carmack and Skousen) so I am not sure it is tongue in cheek.

Carmack has posted in the topic on this board (champatsch).  The discussions have been informative.

https://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/75975-inspired-fiction-did-joseph-smith-believe-he-was-translating-real-records/page/3/#findComment-1210190399

An earlier one is here:

https://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/71061-skousen-carmack-lecture-take-aways/

 

Edited January 16, 2025 by Calm