LittleNipper wrote:I don't understand what the big deal is. Bethlehem is Hebrew and means "house of bread." There is a Bethlehem, PA. The reality is that more non-jewish people know Hebrew than one might imagine. Ben Franklin even wanted Hebrew to be America's languge (though he might have been kidding at the time). Nauvoo is a word that sounds nice. Joseph Smith obviously knew some Hebrew or had a friend who did.
Quasimodo wrote:Well, I suppose that the 'big deal' might be weather or not Joe Jr. had learned a little Hebrew before naming Nauvoo or if he had that word straight from God.
I know of no suggestion that he got the word straight from God, nor is there any reason for such silly speculation.
It appears as though he learned it without divine guidance.
Correct. He studied Hebrew in Kirtland.
His accuracy in translating foreign tongues has been called into question more than a few times.
Perhaps you could favor us with some examples of those times. Or will that be more of the Fawn Brodie by-gosh-and-by-golly approach?
Most specifically his translation of the Book of Abraham, which turned out to be a very common Egyptian prayer.
A very common assumption by anti-Mormons, but which has no justification.
Apologists like to use his naming of Nauvoo as a proof of his other worldly abilities.
False. It was a Jewish professor who wrote the article describing how Joseph learned Hebrew in Kirtland and how Nauvoo was named -- see Louis C. Zucker, “Joseph Smith as a Student of Hebrew,” Dialogue, 3/2 (Summer 1968), 41-55; reprinted as an “Introduction” to a 1981 facsimile reprint of Joshua Seixas, Manual: Hebrew Grammar For the Use of Beginners, 2nd ed. (1834). See nauvoo on p. 111 of that Grammar.