Busy week? Me too. LDS Living is here to catch you up and get you ready for discussions on Sunday. Here’s a nugget of wisdom from this week’s Come, Follow Me study of 2 Nephi 6–10.
As the technical supervisor for the Sunday on Monday podcast, I gather and publish the show notes you can find for every episode at ldsliving.com/sundayonmonday. And even though we are only two months into this year, we’ve had a fascinating recurring theme pop up in the show notes, and one that was heavily referenced in this week’s episode: Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon.
Hebraisms
The host of Sunday on Monday, Tammy Uzelac Hall, is a student of the Hebrew language as well as being an entertaining and likable person, and this week our guest was Professor Don Parry. One of my favorite parts of the episode is listening to them nerding out about the language of the Book of Mormon this week.
All year Tammy has been highlighting wording in the Book of Mormon that is reflective of its Hebrew language roots. These are quirks of an ancient language that Joseph Smith wouldn’t have known.
For example, ever get a little tired of reading “and it came to pass” over and over again? Well, that’s a Hebraism common in the original Hebrew found in the Bible too, but over time it was translated in different ways to avoid repetition.
Word pairs like “good and evil,” “day and night,” and “soul and heart” are other examples of Hebraisms. There’s also the Book of Mormon’s use of the word “and,” antithetical parallelism, revelatory speech forms, and much more. This week’s scripture reading also has some wonderful examples of chiasmus, which is a sort of poetry structure.
The episode this week—and the continual discussion of these Hebraisms in our Come, Follow Me scripture reading—has helped prove to me once again that God has His hand in everything. Every page of the Book of Mormon is evidence of that. And it‘s a helpful and comforting truth to have in the back of my mind when I’m facing a herculean trial, a new Church calling, or just the stresses of everyday life. He 100 percent knows what He’s doing, and I can trust Him completely.
So that was my takeaway this week. To hear more takeaways from other Latter-day Saints on this block of scripture, join our study group on Facebook and Instagram.
Sunday on Monday is a Come, Follow Me podcast hosted by Tammy Uzelac Hall that is released every Monday to guide you through the scripture readings for the week. This week covers 2 Nephi 6–10 and our podcast guest was Donald W. Parry. You can listen to full episodes on Deseret Bookshelf Plus and find out more at ldsliving.com/sundayonmonday.
