Use of English Homophones
Some examples of homophones found in the English Book of Mormon are the words strait and straight, and the words sun and son.
A few passages in the Book of Mormon appear to use phrases from the King James Bible, but with certain words changed to English homophones. For example, 3 Nephi 25:2 reads, "But unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves in the stall." This is identical to Malachi 4:2, except that the word Son is used in place of Sun. The two words are homophones in English but not similar at all in Hebrew or Egyptian. In 1959, LDS scholar Sidney B. Sperry indicated that an 'error of the ear' had occurred during the transcription of 3 Nephi 25:2, meaning that the scribe wrote a homophone of the word he heard. Sperry noted that the Hebrew in Malachi 4:2 uses the word shemesh, which means sun, rather than ben which is the word for son, and that "Sun of Righteousness" should indeed be the correct reading of the passage as found in the Book of Mormon. Sperry also points out, however, that the meaning is unchanged, since "most conservative scholars through the centuries have agreed that 'Sun of Righteousness' refers to the Savior." The Church has left this spelling intact while it has regularized many other spellings since the first edition.
Read more about this topic: The Book Of Mormon And The King James Bible
Famous quotes containing the word english:
“The English were very backward to explore and settle the continent which they had stumbled upon. The French preceded them both in their attempts to colonize the continent of North America ... and in their first permanent settlement ... And the right of possession, naturally enough, was the one which England mainly respected and recognized in the case of Spain, of Portugal, and also of France, from the time of Henry VII.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)