Taken from
Robert F. Smith, Egyptianisms
in the Book of Mormon and Other Studies (Provo, Utah: Deep Forest Green
Books, 2020), 33
Etcetera
When addressing the occurrence of et cetera in Book of Mormon
superscriptions and in Jacob 1:11, the late Sidney Sperry suggested a
comparison with Greek. [168] However, if such a phrase is a direct
translation from the original text on the plates, comparison with Hebrew and
Egyptian equivalents seems far more pertinent. Yet the one possible Classical
Hebrew equivalent is so rare that few biblical scholars are even aware of it,
i.e., wekūllānā “etc., et alii, and all of them”
(Genesis 10:10, 42:36), which the KJV mistakenly has in the first instance as a
toponym based on the corrupt MT Hebrew vocalization wekalnē. [169]
When we turn to Egyptian, the possibilities are vastly richer – whether in
Middle or Late Egyptian: ḥmt-r3 “et cetera, and so forth” [170]; wb3 r(3w)
(Coptic ΟΥΗΡ?) “et cetera, whatsoever, howsoever many there may be.” [171]
Notes for the
Above:
[168] Sperry,
Book of Mormon Compendium, 144.
[169] Speiser,
Genesis (Doubleday, 1964), 67, citing Albright, JNES, 3 (1944),
254-255. Of course, Sumero-Akkadian usage included KI.MIN “etc., ditto”
(Assyrian Gilgamesh XI:142-144; the Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon,
''63-101, in Pritchard, ed., ANET, 3rd ed., 539-540).
[170] Faulkner,
CDME, 170; de Buck, Egyptian Coffin Texts, 7 vols. (Univ. of
Chicago Press, 1935-1961), I, 16, 154; Ebers Medical Papyrus, 1, 4; Edwin
Smith Medical Papyrus, 19, 5; JEA, 38:26 n. 2; Piehl, Sphinx,
3, 83; Goodwin, ZÄS, 6 (1868):89.
[171] Recueil
de travaux, 35, 56; Stern, ZÄS, 12 (1874):89; Goodwin, ZÄS, 6
(1868):89.
