There is one thought on ““Rise Up, O Light of the Lord”: An Appropriate and Defensible Etymology for Cumorah”.

  1. The proposed meaning of Cumorah as “Rise up, O Light of the Lord,” also carries with it a temple theme. Matthew Bowen, in his 2013 Interpreter article, “In the Mount of the Lord It Shall Be Seen and Provided”
    (https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/in-the-mount-of-the-lord-it-shall-be-seen-and-provided-theophany-and-sacrifice-as-the-etiological-foundation-of-the-temple-in-israelite-and-latter-day-saint-tradit/ ), demonstrates a theophany or a temple theme in the word Moriah which contains the Hebrew verb rāʾâ (to see). Joshua Berman suggests that a temple allusion may also be found in the Talmud, from in the meaning of the word “Moriah,” because of its relationship to hora’ah, which means instruction ( https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/the-temple-a-multi-faceted-center-and-its-problems/ ), There is a similarity to the Hebrew word Moriah with the Nephite word Cu-morah, suggesting a temple theme there also. The Jaredite word for Cumorah was Ramah (presumably in the Adamic tongue) and it has a similar structure. Ramah is also a Hebrew word meaning “height” or “high point,” thus also lending temple significance.

    George L. Mitton in his article, “Joseph Smith at the Veil:”
    (https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/joseph-smith-at-the-veil-significant-ritual-symbolism-and-temple-influence-at-latter-day-saint-beginnings/#footnote10sym ) wrote:

    “…the coming forth of the plates in brilliance from a rock box that was its hillside tomb at Cumorah, can be interpreted as a type and similitude of the Lord’s resurrection in glory from a rocky hillside tomb…[also],The Book of Mormon coming forth from a sacred ark hidden on a cosmic mountain resembles the book of the law, once stored in the ark, being found in the cosmic mountain of the temple by the priest Hilkiah”.

    For the final battle of the Jaredites, a repenting Coriantumr spent four years gathering all his people to the hill Ramah to make their last stand (Ether 15:3, 11-14). What significance was there about Ramah that caused him to make that momentous decision? There is a distinct military advantage to the high ground, but there are other locations in that wider area that could have been used for greater strategic advantage. Why did Mormon select the same location for their final battle with the Lamanites (Mormon 6:2-5)? Do not a people always gather to the temple of the God of their fathers to invoke the assistance of their father’s God in the day of their greatest peril? The ancient Jews have always gathered around the temple of their fathers’ God in their darkest hours, and will again in the great final battle (Revelation 11: 1-2).

    Perhaps Cumorah was an important antediluvian temple site. Perhaps the site of the Temple of Enoch.

    I am also encouraged to read an Interpreter scholar “leaving aside the two-Cumorah theory.

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