Any
discussion of the name MORMON must start by dealing with a letter
published in the Times and Seasons (15 May 1843): 194, which is
attributed to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
But
first a probable explanation for why the letter was written in the first place
is in order. E. D. Howe, in his 1834 Mormonism Unvailed, 21, emphasis in
original, claimed that “the word Mormon, the name given to his [Joseph
Smith’s] book, is the English termination of the Greek word ‘Mormoo,’
which we find defined in an old, obsolete Dictionary, to mean ‘but-bear,
hob-goblin, raw head, and bloody bones.’” Almost any knowledgeable reader,
even in 1834, would have recognized that this definition is not only fabricated
but downright silly. Closer in time to the letter in question is this passage
from a local Illinois newspaper in 1841 from the “Communications” section of
the Warsaw Signal, 11 August 1841, in an anonymous letter to the editor:
“I will here give you the signification of the word Mormon, and also, book of
Mormon, which every person that has read a dictionary of the reformed Egyptian
tongue knows to be correct. Mormon—Anciently in Egypt—a set of
black-legs, thieves, robbers, and murderers.” This satirical attempt to define Mormon
is even more fanciful and absurd than E. D. Howe’s. Such doggerel regarding
Mormon became the standard fare in the yellow journalism of the times.
But no matter how outdated and fetid the nonsense, a reply seems to have been
the reason for writing the letter that was published in 1843 in the Times
and Seasons.
And
now the letter, which was printed over the name of Joseph Smith: “I may safely
say that the word Mormon stands independent of the learning and wisdom of this
generation.—Before I give a definition, however, to the word, let me say that
the Bible, in its widest sense, means good; for the Savior says
according to the gospel of John, ‘I am the good shepherd;’ and it will
not be beyond the common use of terms, to say that good is among the most
important in use, and though known by various names in different languages,
still its meaning is the same, and is ever in opposition to bad. We say
from the Saxon, good; the Dane, god; the Goth, goda; the
German, gut; the Dutch, goed; the Latin, bonus; the Greek,
kalos; the Hebrew tob; and the Egyptian, mon. Hence, with
the addition of more, or the contraction, mor, we have the word Mormon;
which means, literally, more good.” “To the Editor,” Times and
Seasons 4 (15 May 1843): 194.
It
is possible that the tone of the letter was at least partially meant to imitate
the flippant anti-Mormon literature of the previous ten years. After all,
satire is a tempting retort to satire. Although some of the letter might be an
application of lex talionis (an eye for an eye), there is a more salient
issue that needs to be addressed. The first issue with this statement is that
it is not certain that Joseph Smith is responsible for all of the content. The
Prophet’s journal entry for 20 May 184[3], cited by Faulting, in An American Prophet’s Record,
378, reads, “in the office heard Bro Phelps read a definition of the Word of
Mormon – More-Good – corrected and sent to press.” Unfortunately, not enough
information is given to determine which parts of the letter published over
Joseph’s signature stem from W. W. Phelps and which parts Joseph corrected.
What appears certain, however, is that Joseph was not the original author, but
that Joseph made changes in the text, and that he gave approval to have it
published over his name. That was not the first or last time that W. W. Phelps
was a ghostwriter for Joseph. (For W. W. Phelps as a ghostwriter for Joseph
Smith, see Brown, “Translator
and the Ghostwriter,” 26-62. Further, see page 42,
where Brown discusses this Times and Seasons passage, as well as page
54. Another piece ghostwritten by W. W. Phelps is discussed by Hicks in “Joseph
Smith, W. W. Phelps,” 63-84.) . . . there are other issues with this letter.
When the letter states that “the Bible in its widest sense, means good,”
the writer was not suggesting that the word Bible etymologically means good.
Rather, the writer was suggesting that the Bible is good and reading of it
promotes good. This certainly is an acceptable metaphorical meaning of “Bible”
that no Christian in the nineteenth century would deny.
This
metaphorical meaning leads to an examination of the phrase, “The word Mormon,
means literally, more good.” Just as today, the word literally was used
in nineteenth-century English in the sense of “actually,” “really.” One further
example from Roberts’s Comprehensive history of the Church, 4:181, will
suffice here: “They then commenced to whip me with large gads which they had
for the purpose, and literally mangled me from my shoulders to my knees.” Here,
literally means flesh wounds, not that his whole upper body was mangled.
In other words, the word literally can be understood in the letter to mean
“actually” and not necessarily “word-for-word.” Thus, if for Latter-day Saints
the Bible, which is true as far as it was transmitted correctly, means “good,”
then the Book of Mormon, which was transmitted correctly, must actually mean
“more good.” The conclusion can be drawn that “more good” is not translation of
the word MORMON, but a metaphorical interpretation in the sense that
while the Bible means “good, “Mormon means “more [of the] good,” or possibly
“better translated than the Bible.” (“Mormon,” in Dictionary of Proper Names
and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks, Paul Y.
Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith, and John Gee [Orem, Utah: Interpreter Foundation;
Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2022], 232-35 n. 27)