Friday, September 9, 2022

Robert F. Smith on a Possible Egyptian background to "And it came to pass" and Making an Abridgement

Taken from

 

Robert F. Smith, Egyptianisms in the Book of Mormon and Other Studies (Provo, Utah: Deep Forest Green Books, 2020), 69

 

I prefer, with the late Hugh Nibley, [343] to see this as a translation of a form of ancient Egyptian ḫpr “become, come into existence; occur, happen, come to pass,” specifically as narrative past ḫpr.n. Classical Egyptian texts use various forms of ḫpr.n in this latter sense, [344] but it is far more common in Late and Demotic Egyptian: (i-w3ḥ) (i.)ir.s ḫpr or ḫpr.f “(and) it came to pass,” which is well attested by its later Saˁidic Coptic 3rd feminine singular tripartite-perfect form: (αΥο) αcωωΠε (Judges 14:11,17) or αcωωΠε Δε (with the enclitic Greek particle, as in the Coptic version of Judges 14:15). [345] The phrase systematically replaces the standard Hebrew and Greek expressions throughout the Coptic versions of the Bible.

 

Notes to the Above:

 

[343] Nibley, Since Cumorah (Deseret Book, 1967), 169, citing Grapow, Das Hieroglyphensystem, 25 (= Collected Works of Hugh Nibley VII:150); though the Hebrew equivalent would probably have been kept in mind by a fluent Hebrew speaker.

 

[344] Sinuhe R 18, B 35,37,160; Shipwrecked Sailor 22,125,135; BH I, 8, 10-11; JEA 52, plate IX.  

 

[345] W. Till, Koptische Grammatik (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1955), §§313,421; cf. his "(und) es geschah" for Luke 6:6, 7:11, αcωωΠε Δε; J. Plumley, Introductory Coptic Grammar (London, 1948), §232, αcωωΠε “it happened” as the 3rd feminine singular I perfect, impersonal; §379 αcωωΠε (<iw.s ḫpr) can introduce a prospective conditional.

 


Making an Abridgement:


Taken from

 

Robert F. Smith, Egyptianisms in the Book of Mormon and Other Studies (Provo, Utah: Deep Forest Green Books, 2020), 29-30

 

Making an Abridgment

 

I know of no ancient Hebrew word or phrase appropriate to the expression “make (write) an abridgment” (I Nephi 1:17, Words of Mormon 1:3, Mormon 5:9, Moroni 1:1), although the Egyptian phrase sḥwy p3w n šfdw pn “abridgment of this book” seems suitable, [150] and “to make an abridgment” would simply be irt sḥwy. The late Hugh Nibley found it a particularly Egyptian concept. [151] The similar phrasing in II Maccabees 2:23,26,28,31, and 10:10 was composed in Greek, [152] and does not suggest a Hebrew Vorlage.

 

This applies as well to the KJV of Isaiah 10:23 (II Nephi 20:23), which is quite obscure. The LDS Bible includes a note there correctly interpreting “make a consumption” as “cause the decreed destruction” (see vs 22), while the LXX Greek translation provides the interpretive phrase συvτετμημέvov πoιήσει (which repeats συvτέμvωv from the previous verse), which, as Paul Hoskisson points out, the Latin Vulgate translation had rendered as abbreviationem, and the Wycliffe Bible had translated “a breggying” (abridging), since that is one of the meanings given for συvτέμvω “cut in pieces, chop up; cut down; cut short, curtail, summarize, abridge.” [153] Indeed, in II Maccabees 10:10 it is used to mean “summarize.” There is nothing in the Hebrew Vorlage of Isaiah 10:22-23 (חרוץ . . . נחרצה), however, which could be interpreted as “abridge” or “summarize” in any textual sense whatsoever.

 

It has been claimed that Hebrew tiqqēn in Ecclesiastes 12:9 means “edit, arrange, set in order,” and even “abridge,” [154] but that last seems unlikely, and outside the meaning of cognate Akkadian taqānu/tuqqunu “set in order, reorganize, secure.” [155]

 

Notes for the Above:

 

[150] Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, I:205, citing the hieroglyphic text and translation of M. Jéquier, Le Livre de ce quil y a dans lHades (Paris, 1894), 37ff.; the tomb of King Seti I contained a full text of the “Book of That Which is in the Netherworld,” as well as the “abridged” form of it (M. Lefébure, “Le Tombeau de Seti Ier,” Memoires de la Miss. Arch. Français [Paris, 1886]).

 

[151] Nibley, BYU Studies, 11/2 (Winter 1971):164.

 

[152] επιτεμειν “abridge, condense, shorten”; επιτομης “abridgement, epitome, summary”; συντομον τηε λεξεως “conciseness of expression”; μετάφρασιv “paraphrase, metaphrase, adaptation.” These passages were pointed out to me by Gordon Thomasson.  

 

[153] Liddell & Scott, Intermediate Greek Lexicon, 780; J. Lust, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, 2 parts (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1996), II:461.

 

[154] Book of Mormon Central, “How is the Phrase ‘Make a Record’ an Evidence for the Book of Mormon? (1 Nephi 19:4),” KnoWhy #444, June 26, 2018, online at https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/how-is-the-phrase-make-a-record-an-evidence-for-the-book-of-mormon.

 

[155] Tawil, Akkadian Lexical Companion, 414.