Thursday, July 30, 2020

Donald W. Parry on Numbers without a Noun in Biblical Hebrew and the Book of Mormon

In his Preserved in Translation: Hebrew and Other Ancient Literary Forms in the Book of Mormon, Donald W. Parry wrote the following which reminded me of the Hebraism one finds in the earlier readings of Alma 46:19):

 

Book of Mormon Echoes of Biblical Hebrew: Numbers Without a Noun

 

In Biblical Hebrew a number might be given without an accompanying noun. For instance, Genesis 45:22 states that Joseph “gave three hundred of silver” to Benjamin. For clarity the King James translation supplied the word pieces, distinguished by smaller type in a different font (later italicized) to show it was not part of the original text. Other biblical examples are “ten shekels weight of gold” (Genesis 24:22) and “he measured six measures of barley” (Ruth 3:15).

 

In the Book of Mormon, Laban is described as a “mighty man” who can “command fifty, yea, even he can clay fifty” (1 Nephi 3:31). Do the two instances of fifty refer to men, warriors, princes, or commanders of armies? We can guess, but the translation does not specify. The verbs command and slay in the parallelism heighten the principal idea that further dealings with Laban will put Lehi’s sons in jeopardy of their lives. One mighty enough to slay fifty is certainly more powerful and dangerous than one who can command fifty.

 

Other Book of Mormon examples that follow the Hebrew pattern of omitting nouns in expressions involving numbers include “by the words of three, God hath said, I will establish my word” (2 Nephi 11:3), “my little band of two thousand and sixty fought most desperately” (Alma 57:19); and “it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty” (Alma 57:25). (Donald W. Parry, Preserved in Translation: Hebrew and Other Ancient Literature Forms in the Book of Mormon [Provo/Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University/Deseret Book, 2020], 36)