Thursday, September 8, 2022

Possible Hebrew and Egyptian Words/Phrases Underlying the use of Etc. in Jacob 1:11

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.