Saturday, November 6, 2021

Isaiah 48:3 in 1 Nephi 20:3

Isa 48:3 in the KJV reads:

 

I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

 

It appears as follows in 1 Nephi 20:3:

 

Behold, I have declared the former things from the beginning. And they went forth out of my mouth and I shewed them. I did shew them suddenly

 

David P. Wright criticizes the Book of Mormon reading thusly:

 

Isaiah 48:3//1 Nephi 20:3: The KJV reads "and I shewed them; I did _them suddenly." The BM reads: "and I shewed them, I did shew them suddenly." The BM has the word "did" as in the KJV, but requires a different underlying Hebrew term. The KJV translates the verb caçîtî "I did, performed, acted," as an independent verb. The word "did" in the BM is not independent but an auxiliary with a following infinitive "shew." The underlying Hebrew would be hir'îtîm "I showed them," or better, hi$mactîm "I announced them," the verb which KJV translates "shew" in vv. 3 and 5.60 A further indication that this variant is English-based is that it occurs next to a word italicized in the KJV.

 

60. This is one of the cases where the BM maintains imprecise KJV language. It could be added to the list of questionable translations in the KJV in Part 3. (Isaiah in the Book of Mormon...and Joseph Smith in Isaiah: Part 4: Disparities with Hebrew Language, Text, and Style)

 

In his study of the Isaiah variants in the Book of Mormon, John Tvedtnes wrote:

 

This seemingly great problem is easily explained by a comparison of the two Hebrew texts behind the English versions cited:

 

MT (like KJV): w-'šmyc pt'm c'śyty w-tb'nh m-dcty ky . . .

BP (probably): w-'šmyc pt'm. cśyty m-dc ty ky . . .

 

By deleting a single word from MT, we have the presumed BP reading, which translates into BM with only one "show." Note that, instead of MT m-dcty (lit., "from my knowing"), 1QIsa reads m-'šr ydcty, lit., "from which I knew" (i.e., "because I knew") (the dots are on the scrolls, probably having been added by a later scribe to show that these letters were not found in other texts available to him). The idea of "coming to pass" is found also in Isa. 42:9, but is missing from similar passages (e.g., Isa. 41:22; 32:9; 44:7-8; 45:21; 56:9-10). LXX here reads kai akouston egento, following MT. BM is without support and it may be that BP (or its copy in the Nephite BM) deleted the one word which is missing. (John A. Tvedtnes, The Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon, 66)