Response to Jockers, Criddle, et al., Now Available

[_CaliforniaKid]

Unk,

You make it sound as if there were a "day" when the Book of Mormon author quit using the word "therefore". However, the transition isn't that sudden. It happens over the course of the book of Ether, with a span of about thirteen chapters where both words are used. There are also a few instances of "therefore" in the non-Isaiah chapters of 1 and 2 Nephi. The therefore/wherefore shift is also evident in the D&C, which shifts from therefore to wherefore right around the time the Book of Ether was dictated. These observations strongly imply that the shift occurred in the course of Book of Mormon dictation rather than being the result of multiple authorship within the Book of Mormon.

Peace,

-Chris

[_Uncle Dale]

...list of errors and see which are more or less common according to Jockers' attributions.

Sandra Tanner's book on this topic tabulates the biblical
passage copying in the Book of Mormon, chapter-by-chapter. What I
find interesting there, is that her listings for the Book of Mormon chapters
Jockers attributes to Spalding have relatively little plagiarism
from the Bible.

Where the Spaldingish Book of Mormon chapters do mimic biblical language,
the results are mostly non-polemical and non-religious.

If Joseph Smith wrote all of the text, by himself, did he oddly
lose interest in biblical expressions, whenever he decided to
let his wordprint most closely match that of Solomon Spalding?

No doubt our critics will respond by saying that the Book of Mormon
chapters mostly closely matching Spalding's writing style
are the "non-religious" sections of the Nephite record. But
how the patterns of frequently occurring non-contextual
words (measured by the NSC methodology) result in low
biblical overlap (as per Mrs. Tanner's list), they cannot tell.

Odd, eh?

UD

[_Uncle Dale]

...It happens over the course of the book of Ether...

If you'll go back and read what I said, my conclusion is
that the shift actually begins with the 3rd Nephi Christophany
and then picks up steam in the Ether Christophany narrative.

The 3rd Nephi Christ seems not to have known about his previous
appearance to the Brother of Jared. My conclusion is that when
3rd Nephi was being dictated, the Ether Christophany was not yet
fully composed -- that its finalized wording came later.

When the Ether Christophany was finally dictated, it copied
Matthew's "wherefore" language from the 3rd Nephi plagiarism of
the Bible ---- but it was not only "wherefore" that began to be
emphasized when this Ether change began. Rather, a whole
constellation of vocabulary and phraseology was brought into the
Ether-Moroni text and into the "small plates" text. There was a
noticeable shift away from the "a-going" sort of vernacular, over
to the "and after that..." sort of Early Modern English emulation.

Blame it all upon Joe Smith, if that seems logical to you.

My interest lies in matching up the Jockers' authorship attributions
to the pattern of language shifts just mentioned.

That is why I brought up the "a-going" style of vernacular that we
see in Alma (and once in Mormon), but not in the "small plates."
Generally speaking, Jockers matches of the "a-going" chapters with
Rigdon authorship attributions.

It is that sort of linguistic correspondence that most interests me.

However, if the Smith-alone crowd can present a logical reason for
the Book of Mormon language shift -- having nothing to do with Christophanies --
then I'm most eager to hear it.

UD

[_CaliforniaKid]

Have you collated every instance of the a- prefix in the Book of Mormon? (I assume the list above, almost exclusively from Alma, is not exhaustive?)

[_Uncle Dale]

Have you collated every instance of the a- prefix in the Book of Mormon? (I assume the list above, almost exclusively from Alma, is not exhaustive?)

You'd have to ask Craig Criddle for that information.

He has a master spreadsheet of the 1830 Book of Mormon text, divided into 239
chapters, from which he can instantly compile such word occurrence data.

As I recall, he recently constructed a chart of the "a-prefixed" verbs in
the Book of Mormon, and all instances were in Alma and Mormon -- but I do not
have a copy.

I think it looked something like this one:



(the "that" occurrences here charted are those of the "redundant that."

UD

[_MCB]

Have you collated every instance of the a- prefix in the Book of Mormon? (I assume the list above, almost exclusively from Alma, is not exhaustive?)

Since she was recording "changes" in the Book of Mormon, I would assume that those were all. I will double-check, however. All it would require is a search for the word "a" as a redundancy. I am charting subject/verb disagreement, too. Again, according to her list.

As I recall, he recently constructed a chart of the "a-prefixed" verbs in
the Book of Mormon, and all instances were in Alma and Mormon -- but I do not
have a copy.

OK. No necessity.

[_MCB]

"... and also of Adam and Eve, which was our first parents ..." (page 15) [1 Nephi 5:11]Pratt
"Wherefore, all mankind was in a lost and in a fallen state ..." (page 22) [1 Nephi 10:6]Rigdon
"And all these things of which I have spoken, was done ..." (page 23) [1 Nephi 10:1116]Rigdon
"... and loosed the bands which was upon my wrists ..." (page 49) [1 Nephi 18:15]Pratt

"And great was the covenants of the Lord ..." (page 66) [2 Nephi 3:4]Smith

"... and they were surrounded by the king's guard, and was taken, and was bound, andwas committed to prison." (page 169) [Mosian 7:7]Rigdon
"... and these interpreters was doubtless prepared ..." (page 173) [Mosiah 8:19]Rigdon
"... and the seats which was set apart for the high priests, which was above all the other seats ..." (page 178) [Mosiah 11:11]Spalding
"... the arms of mercy was extended towards them; for the arms of mercy was extended ..." (page 189) [Mosiah 16:12]Rigdon
"... both Alma and Helam was buried in the water ..." (page 192) [Mosiah 18:14]Rigdon
"And the priests was not to depend upon the people ..." (page 193) [Mosiah 18:26]Rigdon
"... and those that was with him." (page 195) [Mosiah 19:18]Rigdon
"... the afflictions of the Nephites was great ..." (page 198) [Mosiah 21:5]Spalding
"... many of his people was desirous to be baptized ..." (page 200) [Mosiah 21:33]Spalding
"And now there was seven Churches ..." (page 209) [Mosiah 25:23]Rigdon
"... there was many of the rising generation ..." (page 209)Rigdon
"... those who committed sin that was in the church ..." (page 209)Rigdon
"Now the sons of Mosiah was numbered ..." (page 212) [Mosiah 27:8] Rigdon

"... I had much desire that ye was not in the state of dilemma ..." (page 241) [Alma 7:18] Cowdery
"... they was angry with me ..." (page 248) [Alma 9:32]Cowdery
"... the land of Nephi, and the land of Zarahemla, was nearly surrounded..."(page 288) [Alma 22:32]Rigdon
"But behold there was no wild beasts ..." (page 460) [3 Nephi 4:2] Spalding

Attributions stated. I see no particular pattern in was/were errors.

[_MCB]

Here is a breakdown for were/was errors:

"... but it all were vain ..." (page 142) [Jacob 7:24] Smith
"... an army of the Lamanites were in the borders ..." (page 204) [Mosiah 23:25] Spalding
"... inasmuch as it were possible." (page 224) [Alma 1:32]Rigdon
"Now the object of these Lawyers were to get gain ..." (page 251) [Alma 10:32]Rigdon
"... every living soul of the Ammonihahites were destroyed ..." (page 267) [Alma 16:9] weak Spalding
"... for the promise of the Lord were, If they should ..." (page 359) [Alma 48:25] Spalding
"... there was not a single soul of the Nephites which were slain." (page 362) [Alma 49:23]Spalding
"... because it were easy to guard them ..." (page 375) [Alma 53:5]Spalding
"And in this year there were continual rejoicing ..." (page 414) [Helaman 3:31]Spalding
"And there were but little alteration in the affairs ..." (page 450) Helaman 16:12] Rigdon/Spalding
"... therefore there were no chance for the robbers to plunder ..." (page 460) [3 Nephi 4:2]Spalding
"... in the which there were so much wickedness ..." (page 463) [3 Nephi 5:6]Rigdon
"Behold I were about to write them all ..." (page 506) [3 Nephi 26:11] Rigdon
"... there were no blood shed." (page 519) [Mormon 1:12]weak Spalding
"... and I were forbidden that I should preach unto them ..." (page 519) [Mormon 1:116] weak Spalding

[_Uncle Dale]

...I see no particular pattern in was/were errors.

As it turns out, for Appalachian vernacular and British
Early Modern English, both use "was" with plural subjects
in some instances. The rigors of today's grammar had not
yet set in back during the period when those language
forms were in vogue.

So, we might expect to find approximately the same ratio
of seeming subject/verb disagreements in the "small plates"
as in the Moroni texts (both of which are EME) and the
"large plates" (mostly Appalachian vernacular).

We would probably have to look for something more distinct
and unique, than simple seeming "errors" of that type.

Obvious failures to emulate true "biblical" English might be
a better sort of error set to seek out. In some places the
Book of Mormon text is quite precise in mimicking biblical grammar
and orthography. In other instances, we see "thee" and "thou"
mismatched with the attached verbs, tenses, etc. Perhaps
those patterns should be mapped out.

Hint: You'll find proper Elizabethan English in the Isaiah
chapters, copied directly from the biblical text.

UD

[_MCB]

Yeah. When I first tried to get at those errors, I was overwhelmed with subject/verb disagreement. There is just no pattern that I can see. And is/are errors:

"... the tender mercies of the Lord is over all ..." (page 7) [1 Nephi 1:20]Rigdon

"... the mixture of thy seed, which is among thy brethren ..." (page 30) [1 Nephi 13:30] Rigdon

"... shall establish the truth of the first, which is of the twelve apostles ..." (page 32) [1 Nephi 13:40]Rigdon

"... there is, save it be, two churches ..." (page 33) [1 Nephi 14:10]Rigdon

"... and all things that in them is ..." (page 64) [2 Nephi 2:14]Rigdon

"... and all things are given them which is expedient ..." (page 65) [2 Nephi 2:27] Rigdon

"... shall be the words which is expedient in my wisdom ..." (page 67) [2 Nephi 3:19]Smith

"But great is the promises of the Lord ..." (page 85) [2 Nephi 10:21] weak Rigdon

"And whoredoms is an abomination before me ..." (page 127) [Jacob 2:28]Smith

"... according to his judgments, which is just ... " (page 150) [Omni v. 22]Spalding

"... and prophesied of many things which is to come ..." (page 171) [Mosiah 7:26]Rigdon

"... or any likeness of things which is in heaven above, or which is in the earth beneath, or which is in the water under the earth." (page 184) [Mosiah 13:12]Smith

"Behold, here is the waters of Mormon ..." (page 192) [Mosiah 18:8]Rigdon

"... ye hope for things which is not seen, which are true." (page 315) [Alma 32:21]Cowdery

"... Behold, here is our weapons of war ..." (page 346) [Alma 44:8]Weak Rigdon