Wednesday, October 13, 2021

"To Signify" in the Book of Abraham and the 19th-century

In the Book of Abraham and the interpretations offered of various figures in the facsimiles, we read of something being said “to signify” something else. For instance, in facsimile 1, figure 12, we read:

 

Raukeeyang, signifying expanse, or the firmament over our heads; but in this case, in relation to this subject, the Egyptians meant it to signify Shaumau, to be high, or the heavens, answering to the Hebrew word, Shaumahyeem.

 

“To signify” and like-terms (e.g., signifies) does not mean “translation of” from one language into another; instead, it means to make something known by something else. An analogy would be how giving thumbs up would “signify” a good job. Note how it is used in Webster’s 1828 dictionary:

 

SIG'NIFYverb transitive [Latin significo; signum, a sign, and facio, to make.]

1. To make known something, either by signs or words; to express or communicate to another any idea, thought, wish, a hod, wink, gesture, signal or other sign. A man signifies his mind by his voice or by written characters; he may signify his mind by a nod or other motion, provided the person to whom he directs it, understands what is intend by it. A general or an admiral signifies his commands by signals to officers as a distance.

2. To mean; to have or contain a certain sense. The word sabbath signifies rest. Less, in composition, as in faithless, signifies destitution or want. The prefix re, in recommend, seldom signifies any thing.

3. To import; to weigh; to have consequence; used in particular phrases; as, it signifies much or little; it signifies nothing. What does it signify? What signify the splendors of a court? Confession of sin without reformation of life, can signify nothing in the view of God.

4. To make known; to declare. The government should signify to the protestants of Ireland that want of silver is not to be remedied.

SIG'NIFYverb intransitive To express meaning with force. [Little Used.]

 

Note how it is used in literature contemporary with Joseph Smith:

 

Ans. The would soul in English, nephesh in Hebrew, phyche in Greek, and anima in Latin, &c. signifies not only the conscious and active principle in man, which thinks and reasons, loves and hates, hopes and fears, and which is the proper agent in virtue or vice, but it is used also to signify the principle of animal life and motion in a living creature. (Isaac Watts, The World to Come [1816], 39-40)

 

Jupiter upon an eagle, to signify the sublimity of his dominion . . . Neptune with a trident, to signify the commander of a fleet, composed of three squadrons . . . Æ, a giant head with 50 heads and 100 hands, to signify Neptune with his men in a ship of 50 oars; Thoth, with a dog's head, and wings at his cap and feet, and a caduceus writhed about with two serpents, to signify a man of craft, and an ambassador who reconciled two contending nations; Pan, with a pipe and the legs of a goat, to signify a man delighted with piping and dancing . . (Hugh Clark, A Short and Easy Introduction to Heraldry, in Two Parts [1827], 118)

 

The Hebrew word (כביד) which is commonly translated glory is used in such a manner as might be expected from the signification of the words from whence it comes. Sometimes it is used to signify what is internal, inherent, or in the possession of the person: and sometimes for emanation, exhibition or communication of this internal glory: and sometimes for the knowledge, or sense of these, in those to whom the exhibition or communication is made; or an expression of this knowledge, sense, or effect. And here I would note, that agreeable to the use of the word in the Old Testament, is the Greek word (δοξα) in the New. For as the word (כביד) is generally translated by the just mentioned Greek word (δοξα) in the septuagint; so it is apparent that the word is designed to be used to signify the same thing in the New Testament with the other in the Old. . . . The word glory denotes sometimes what is internal: When the word is used to signify what is within, or in the possession of the subject, it very commonly signifies excellency, dignity or worthiness of regard. Thus, according to the Hebrew idiom, is as it were, the weight of a thing, as that by which it is heavy; as to the light, is to be worthless without value, contemptible. (Jonathan Edwards, Dissertation of the end for which God created the world [1829], 72)

 

The passover was also to be eaten with unleavened bread; which St. Paul interprets to signify sincerity and purity of heart in opposition to malice, wickedness, and falsehood, and which must necessarily accompany faith in Christ in order to his being our passover, that is, our protection from the wrath of God, and our Redeemer from spiritual bondage and misery. (1 Cor. v. 7, 8.) (Thomas Hartwell Horne, An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures [1833], 309)