Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Taylor Halverson and Brad Wilcox on wordplay on "Sariah" in the Book of Mormon


Commenting on the wordplay in the Book of Mormon, based on the name “Sariah,” Taylor Halverson and Brad Wilcox wrote:

Sariah, one of the few named women in the Book of Mormon, has a Hebrew name that means “Jehovah is a prince/captain.” What do princes or captains do? They command. They protect. They deliver. They empower. Only two direct quotes are attributed to Sariah in the Book of Mormon. In one, she expresses her faith in the princely powers of Jehovah—that is, the powers to command, protect, save, and deliver. When her sons safely return from the confronting Laban, her expression of faith plays upon the meaning of her own name and does it in beautiful chiastic structure:

A “Now I know of a surety that the Lord [iah] hath commanded [sar] my husband to flee into the wilderness
               B yea, and I also know of a surety that the Lord [iah]
               hath protected my sons
               and delivered them out of the hands of Laban,
               and given them power
A whereby they could accomplish the thing which the Lord [iah] hath commanded [sar]  them”(1 Nephi 5:8, emphasis added).

Significantly, mother Sariah’s testimony seems to have had a powerful impact on Nephi’s own testimony, evident in his declaration, “I will go and do the things which the Lord [iah] hath commanded [sar], for I know that the Lord [iah] giveth no commandments [sar] unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he [Lord/iah] commandeth [sar] them” (1 Nephi 3:7; emphasis added). (Taylor Halverson, The Book of Mormon: Scriptural Insights and Commentary [American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, Inc., 2019], 13)

On the attestation of “Sariah” as a name for a female, my friend Neal Rappleye has an excellent discussion at: