Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Isabel in the Book of Mormon

I have interacted with some of Richard Packham’s arguments in his online paper, “A Linguist Looks at Mormonism: Notes on Linguistic Problems in Mormonism” (searching on “Packham” will bring up a few results on this blog). In this post, I will discuss his argument under the heading, “Isabel the Harlot”:

The Book of Mormon mentions a harlot named Isabel (Alma 39:3). "Isabel" is a name that only came into use in France and Italy during the late Middle Ages.   How could it occur in the Book of Mormon during Alma's life?


Being rather frank, this argument is unbecoming of someone who (allegedly) knows Hebrew. The name appears in the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew underlining "Jezebel" in the KJV is אִיזֶבֶל. The KJV transliterates the letter yod (י) as “j,” which is common (e.g., Jesiah; Jesaiah; Joshua), though the more proper transliteration would be “I” (e.g., Isaiah; Ishmael); furthermore, the letter zayin (ז) can be transliterated as “s”; indeed, the Hebrew can be transliterated as 'izebel, similar to how it appears in the Book of Mormon. Packham’s claims notwithstanding, there is no issue with the appearance of “Isabel” in the Book of Mormon.