One critic of the Book of Mormon, as part of an article on John 10:16 and its relationship, or lack thereof, to the Book of Mormon peoples, wrote the following about a purported KJV mistranslation in the Book of Mormon (emphasis added):
Why does the Book of Mormon quote exactly from a modern and slightly inaccurate translation of John 10:16?
Finally, 3 Nephi quotes John 10:16 in obvious dependence on the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible:
That other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (3 Nephi 15:17; see also 15:21)
And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (John 10:16 KJV)
And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (John 10:16 KJV)
Other than the first, transitional word of each sentence, the two quotations are verbally identical. This is a 30-word string or word sequence that is identical in both texts, leaving no reasonable basis for doubt that the Book of Mormon is here dependent on the KJV.
. . .
The text we are considering here, 3 Nephi 15:17, is a perfectly good example. Here again is John 10:16 as it reads in both the KJV and as it is quoted in 3 Nephi 15:17:
…other sheep I have which are not of this fold;
them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice;
and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice;
and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
The word fold occurs twice in this statement: Jesus says he has sheep “not of this fold” that he will bring, so that “there shall be one fold.” In the Greek text of John 10:16, however, two different words are used. The first word is αὐλή (aulē), which meant an enclosure such as a court or courtyard or a sheepfold. The second word is ποίμνη (poimnē), which meant a flock, a group of livestock, specifically of sheep. In short, the first word means a structure or enclosure for the sheep while the second word means the sheep viewed collectively as a group. The meaning of Jesus’ statement at the end of John 10:16 is not that the sheep will be all in one place but that they will all be part of one flock or group. Hence, modern translations correctly use the word flock for the second word where the KJV had mistakenly used the word fold (e.g., the ASV, CSB, ESV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NJB, NKJV, NLT, and NRSV). Jesus’ meaning is not that his people will be gathered together physically into one place but that they will be united spiritually through their common faith in him. The Book of Mormon not only reproduces the minor mistranslation of the KJV at this point here in 3 Nephi 15:17, 21 (and also 16:3), it does so clearly in 1 Nephi 22:25 noted earlier and implicitly in several other places (see 1 Ne. 15:15; 2 Ne. 9:2; Mosiah 18:8; Alma 5:39, 60; 26:4). By repeating this translation mistake from the KJV, the Book of Mormon betrays its quite human dependence on the KJV.
Wrong.
This highlights the importance of one consulting Webster’s 1828 dictionary. “Fold” in the language of the time had “flock” in its active semantic domain, not only "fold."
The second meaning of “fold” in Webster’s 1828 dictionary reads as follows:
A flock of sheep. Hence in a scriptural sense, the church, the flock of the Shepherd of Israel.
Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold John 10:16.
Such a meaning is reflected in the Book of Mormon; after all, the “other sheep” (Book of Mormon peoples) and the Old World sheep were “one flock/fold,” but they were not in the same geographical area.
