Monday, May 17, 2021

Eric Wendt on the use of "Bible" in the Book of Mormon

 Former Latter-day Saint Eric Went, in a youtube interview where he gave his "testimony," stated that one of the biggest historical "mistakes" in the Book of Mormon is the appearance of "Bible" therein. The offending passage is 2 Nephi 29:3 where we read, “Many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.”


The word “Bible” is the English form of the Greek term meaning “books.” The term was not used until the fifth century C.E. to describe the entire collection of sacred books, so of course the word “Bible” was not used in Nephi’s time. But when Joseph Smith translated the gold plates, he knew that the collection of books or scriptures the Prophet Nephi was talking about in 2 Nephi 29:3-4, 6 was the latter-day Bible, so he used that word so there would be no doubt to the world what the prophecy was about. Using the word “Bible” would be expected since the Book of Mormon was translated from an ancient language to a modern-day language. There are other places in the Book of Mormon where apparently anachronistic words are used to convey the meaning of the text, such as the French word “adieu” at the end of the Book of Jacob, because at the time Joseph translated it, that word seemed the most appropriate 19th century word to use to represent Jacob’s feelings as he said good-bye. Bible translators also used French derived words such as “tache” (Exo 26:6) and “bruit” (Jer 10:22) to best convey the meanings of the Hebrew words they are translating.

Interestingly, other translations of ancient texts use "Bible" in the same way the Book of Mormon does. The Letter of Aristeas is a text that is variously dated from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. One can read it on-line, such as Charles’ 1913 English translation here, or the Greek text here. The relevant text reads thusly:

I have also received from Theodectus the tragic poet (the report) that when he was about to include in a play a passage from that is written in the Bible, he was afflicted with cataract of the eyes. He suspected that this was why the affliction had befallen him, so he besought God for many days. (v.316) ( "The Letter of Aristeas" translated by R.J.H. Sutt in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2: Expansions of the "Old Testament" and Legends, Wisdom and Philosophical Literature, Prayers, Psalms and Odes, Fragments of Lost Judeo-Hellenistic Works, ed. James H. Charlesworth (New York: Doubleday, 1985), 7-34, here, pp.33-34; emphasis added. The underlining Greek is ἐπισφα-λέστερον ἐκ τοῦ νόμου προσιστορεῖν (alt: "unreliable translations of the Law" [Charles]). As Shutt notes(p. 34 n. 3), this is a reference to the texts of the Old Testament.)

Additionally, in his translation and commentary of Galatians, Craig Keener offered the following translation of Gal 3:13:

Christ purchased our deliverance from the above-mentioned curse of the law, by becoming a curse on your behalf. This is because the Bible says, “Everyone who was hanged on tree is cursed.” (Craig S. Kenner, Galatians: A Commentary [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2019], 253 [the Greek is ὅτι γέγραπται, "for it is written"])

If scholarly translations such as those of R.J.H. Stutt's and Craig Keener's can use "the Bible," so can Joseph Smith in the Book of Mormon.