A Closer Look at Transliterations in Divine Translations

Abstract: The Book of Mormon contains many words left untranslated by Joseph Smith, such as cureloms, cumoms, senine, and ziff. While some might wonder why these words are left untranslated, a closer examination of the kinds of words that are simply transliterated as well as the frequency at which these phenomena occur provide evidence that Joseph Smith actually had an ancient record that he was translating into English. In this paper, I examine why some words have been transliterated in historical translations of the Bible or other ancient texts and compare these explanations to the Book of Mormon. In the end, I show that the Book of Mormon consistently transliterates the same types of words typically left untranslated in other works in ways that would have been unknown to Joseph Smith.

In the Book of Mormon, it is reported that the Jaredites had tamed multiple animals. These are mentioned in a brief list: “And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms” (Ether 9:19). It is generally accepted by Latter-day Saint scholars that the words cureloms and cumoms are transliterations of words on the Book of Mormon plates. They may have been provided by Moroni_2, Mosiah_2, or by Joseph Smith, none of whom had any functionally equivalent words in their languages to designate these animals.[1] Furthermore, while perhaps [Page 122]some of the most enigmatic examples, these are far from the only transliterations in the Book of Mormon. Multiple words are left untranslated in the text with no explanation ever given for this process by the Prophet Joseph Smith.

The presence of transliterations may be surprising to readers who assume that the Book of Mormon, translated by the gift and power of God, should, by nature, provide clear English terms throughout the text. However, this assumption is reading something into the text that is not there, and a close look at the transliterated words of the Book of Mormon will show that their presence is fitting for a translation of an ancient text where certain words do not have clear meaning to the translator. Translators can face various challenges when determining whether or not to translate some words. These challenges are,

1. the low frequency at which the words appear in the text,

2. the general fact that not all words, especially technical terms, have a one-to-one correlation with words used in different cultures, and

3. the fact that rare animal or plant names can be a particular source of confusion when translating ancient texts.

Frequency of Untranslated Words

Untranslated words may generally reflect rare or unusual words in the source text. One example of these rare words would be hapax legomena, or “words (other than proper names) which occur only once” in the text.[2] This is especially true of the Book of Mormon, in which various hapax legomena are present, such as the words sheum and neas (Mosiah 9:9). Other untranslated words in the Book of Mormon, including ziff (Mosiah 11:3, 8), cureloms, and cumoms, could technically be categorized as dis legomena, that is, words that occur only twice in a given text. However, since these words occur in such close proximity to one another (and, for cureloms and cumoms, even in the same sentence), the same challenges of translating these words apply.

Hapax legomena are by nature difficult to translate, and most [Page 123]biblical scholars will turn to other instances in texts of the same language and cognate words in other languages to better understand the intended meaning of the words in question. While they can generally find success in doing so, there are still a myriad of issues when trying to identify how incidents of hapax legomena should be translated.

Emmanuel Tov observes that the ancient translators of the Septuagint refrained from translating many unfamiliar words. These typically fell into one of four groupings: proper nouns, technical words, common nouns mistaken as proper nouns, or “words probably unknown to the translator, which thus remained untranslated. All these are either hapax legomena or very rare.”[3] This could be true for “hapax legomena in the Bible or in the book under consideration.”[4]

Furthermore, Tov elsewhere notes that “there is no certainty about the reason for the transliteration of a given Hebrew word, that is, whether it was transliterated because it was unknown to the translator or because of other reasons. However, it stands to reason that the former was the case when the Hebrew word is a hapax legomenon,” citing cases such as those in Genesis 36:24, Judges 8:7, 1 Kings 5:25, 2 Kings 8:15, and 1 Chronicles 21:20.[5] Elsewhere, Tov provides a more complete list of untranslated words, including those done so because of their rare occurrence.[6]

While proper names are typically not classified as hapax legomena, a similar phenomenon of transliterating, rather than translating, personal names occurs as well. This was true anciently, but also especially since the Medieval period. However, some names (typically place names) were translated anciently to better convey the meaning of the text. In the Book of Mormon, this could explain some potential place names which may have been translated from a Jaredite to a Nephite language (e.g. the Mount Shelem or Heshlon). While personal or place names will not be discussed further in this paper, they can [Page 124]provide some insight into this practice overall, but they must be considered separately.[7]

As will be seen, other factors regarding the complexities of translating some hapax legomena also need to be considered with the Book of Mormon. However, the overall rarity of these words is one of the first factors to keep in mind when considering the translation process of the Book of Mormon.

Untranslated Technical Terms

Second, many of these untranslated words refer to technical terms found in the Book of Mormon and consists of a system of weights and measures, measurements of grains, or a specialized type of metal. These words include senine, seon, shum, limnah, senum, amnor, ezrom, onti, shiblon, shiblum, leah, and antion. These words are also rare, only occurring a handful of times in a list of weights and measures in Alma 11:3–19 or a brief reference in Mosiah 9:9 and could also be explained as transliterations based on their low frequency alone. The challenge of translating these words is further compounded when it is considered that these technical terms would have mostly been known to the Nephite culture and not a nineteenth-century American setting. The word ziff, apparently a type of metal, would also fit into this classification, as well as the words Liahona, Rameumptom, and Gazelem.

As with hapax legomena, transliterating technical terms was also typical among the Septuagint translators “because no adequate renderings could be found by the translators.”[8] Significantly, this also involved transliterating weights and measures but no real consistency is shared between individual words. “Hence,” Tov notes, “a certain word may be transliterated in one translation unit, while translated in others. Moreover, even within the individual translation units there is no consistency with regard to the treatment of individual technical terms.”[9] [Page 125]The weights and measures often transliterated in the Septuagint included an ʾēpāh (איפה),[10] hîn (הין),[11] ḥōmer (חמר),[12] kōr (כר),[13] and ʿōmer (עמר).[14] While occasionally translated into measurements that would have been familiar to Greek-speaking Jews outside of Israel, the presence of these transliterations shows that there was often a reticence to provide one-to-one translations for technical terms.[15] This is yet evident in later Bible translations, which typically (but not always) leave these words untranslated, including modern translations. It should thus be no surprise that the Book of Mormon’s senine, senum, onti, and so forth are all likewise untranslated technical terms.[16]

Other technical terms that are left untranslated may not refer to a system of weights and measures or even an unknown metal. This is true of the Bible as well as other ancient texts. For example, some translators of the New Testament leave words such as logos or kosmos untranslated given the complexities each word offers that does not offer a clean one-to-one translation.[17] Regarding the word logos specifically, which David Bentley Hart leaves untranslated in his New Testament, Hart notes that this word,

in certain special instances [such as John’s prologue] is quite impossible for a translator to reduce to a single word in English. . . . The word is so capacious in its meanings and [Page 126]associations that it must be accounted unique; any attempt to limit it to a single English term would be to risk reducing it to a conceptual phantom of itself.[18]

This is not unique to the Bible, either. Gene Reeves, in a translation of the Lotus Sutra, notes that the word dharma does not equate well with a simple English translation and chose to leave the word untranslated—using similar reasoning as Hart for this choice.[19]

While not a weight or measure, or even a technical theological term such as logos or dharma, the words ziff or Rameumptom could also either be considered technical terms in their own right or words Tov identified as common nouns mistaken as proper nouns.[20] Ziff, for instance, is only mentioned twice in the Book of Mormon and only in the context of King Noah’s taxes (see Mosiah 11:3, 8). It likely referred to a type of metal, perhaps an alloy, named for its lustrous properties that was unknown to Joseph Smith, thus meriting a transliteration.[21]

A potential example of a common noun mistaken as a proper noun appears to be Rameumptom.[22] This word is recorded as the name of a place of worship only located once in the text (Alma 31:21). Furthermore, it is introduced specifically as a Zoramite word, and Mormon provides an interpretive gloss, something usually done to indicate it is a word foreign to the author (i.e. Mormon). Furthermore, we know that the Zoramites continued to exist following Alma_2’s mission, and their wars with the Nephites, and even spread from their city of Antionum to other Lamanite-controlled lands (see, for example, Alma 43:4–5, Alma 48:4–6, 3 Nephi 1:29). It is likely that, when they did so, they built other “holy stands” or Rameumptoms, just as the Amalekites had their synagogues built for their own worship services (see Alma 21:4). As readers of a Nephite history, however, we are only introduced [Page 127]to this word during the moment that Zoramite religious practices are pertinent to Mormon’s record as he contrasts true and false worship.

Two other proper nouns are worth mentioning, namely Liahona and Gazelem. These words are likely left untranslated because they are actually proper names of specific items, much like the name Urim and Thummim is generally left untranslated in modern Bibles. In the case of Gazelem, it is also potentially even the name of a prophet. If this is the case, the previously noted phenomenon of some ancient writers translating a foreign name for people or places into their own language might help explain Gazelem as a Nephite translation of an originally Jaredite name.[23] Potential origins of the term Liahona have also been considered by authors such as Loren Spendlove, Matthew Bowen, Calvin Tolman, Jonathan Cursi, and by the contributors of the Book of Mormon Onomasticon.[24]

In either case, whether we are dealing with weights and measures or names of places of worship, the presence of these words as transliterations would be natural if the Book of Mormon were actually a translation of an ancient text. What strengthens the presence of the transliterations of these technical terms, moreover, is the fact that each of them has promising etymologies regarding Old World languages that would have been unknown to Joseph Smith.

[Page 128]Untranslated Names of Rare Animals and Plants

Finally, a third consideration of transliterations which can help explain some transliterations is that in addition to being hapax legomena, there are some animals and plants that have no clear textual clues to determine their identities. These include the words sheum, neas, deseret, and the enigmatic cureloms and cumoms.

The inability to easily translate the names of rare animals is a feature of translations that has been noted by several scholars with regards to the Bible and other ancient texts. For example, as noted by Sagit Butbul, “Hapax legomena in general, and the nomenclature of fauna and flora in particular, are notoriously hard to identify. This alone suffices to account for the difficulties encountered by translators with these words.”[25] The problems of translating animals that are also hapax legomena are further compounded when the original language is lost. Even with biblical Hebrew, Butbul observes that it became primarily written and read, and was no longer used in everyday life. As a result, “referents of many nouns, such as the nomenclature of fauna, were forgotten.”[26] Because of this, many early translators of the Hebrew Bible refrained from translating the names of some animals into other languages. This can be seen, for example, in the Peshitta, an early translation of the Bible into Syriac for Christians in the Near East. Many historical translations have attempted to identify specific animals, while others have refrained from translating them with any certainty to avoid misidentification; this is especially applicable for those who abstain from eating fowl to avoid accidentally breaking a dietary law.[27]

A similar ambiguity appears in the Mishnah Bikkurim, which refers to an animal called a koy that is rarely mentioned elsewhere. According to this Mishnah,

There are ways in which it is like a wild animal, and there are ways in which it is like a domesticated animal; and there are ways in which it is like [both] a domesticated animal and a [Page 129]wild animal; and there are ways in which it is like neither a domesticated animal nor a wild animal.[28]

This ambiguous identification has often led to the koy being untranslated since different interpreters have debated whether the animal should be considered a deer, goat, or hybrid animal.[29] It is therefore impossible to translate because no clear identity can be given for this animal. This is not unlike Reeves’s translation of the Lotus Sutra, which also leaves the name of the asura (a mythological creature) untranslated.[30]

The words sheum and neas are clearly types of plants and most likely types of grain, listed alongside corn, wheat, and barley (Mosiah 9:9). While it is unclear what type of grain each plant was, there are convincing etymologies for either derived from Akkadian (alongside a potential New World etymology for sheum). Ricks et al. consider the possibility that these were originally Jaredite words adopted by the Mulekites and then later by the Nephites. If this is the case, it is therefore possible that Mormon (separated by enough time and space from the Zeniffite usage of this term) was unfamiliar with these terms and opted to leave them as transliterated plant names.[31]

Another word connected to the Jaredites with clear Old-World origins is deseret, for which a gloss of “honey bee” is offered (Ether 2:3). Some scholars, including Hugh Nibley, have suggested that this word derives from the Egyptian dšr.t, “the name given to [Lower] Egypt, whose symbol was the bee.”[32] This would have likely been introduced by Moroni_2 or Mosiah_2 as they translated the Jaredite text. If this is the [Page 130]case, it is possible that the gloss “honey bee” utilized a more familiar word to Nephite audiences. It is also possible (as Kevin L. Barney has argued) that the word derives from the Hebrew word for bee, děbôrāh (דבורה), utilizing an archaic feminine ending. This would render the word děbôrāt (דבורת).[33] It would be possible that the closest approximation of Reformed Egyptian could be the sign for dšr.t, with a gloss provided as a contextual clue to help readers understand this choice.

It is also likely that the curelom and cumom of Ether 9:19 likewise fit this pattern of untranslatable animal names. It appears these animals were unknown to Moroni_2 or Mosiah_2. While it is possible that these animals had since become extinct when the Jaredite record was translated by the Nephite prophet, such can only be conjecture. What can be said with certainty, however, is that these represented Jaredite words for which the Nephite translator simply had no point of reference.[34]

Furthermore, while some apparently untranslated words in the Book of Mormon, such as the technical words mentioned above, may be comparable to other Old or New World languages, Book of Mormon readers are disadvantaged in a way not typical to the hapax legomena of the Bible when it comes to these two animals: there [Page 131]are no convincing cognate words that we can confidently connect with these terms from a long-lost Jaredite language, whose grammar and origin are still shrouded in mystery. Stephen D. Ricks, Paul Y. Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith, and John Gee have thus stated that “no etymology may be proposed” for either.[35] This is the case despite creative attempts to find a Hebrew etymology for curelom and cumom by some readers in the past.[36]

This same principle can be seen in another inspired translation that was carried out by the Prophet Joseph Smith. In his translation of the Bible between in 1830–1833, one verse contains a single yet significant change that could help explain Joseph’s role as a translator of an ancient text in the context mentioned above. The King James Version of Isaiah 34:7 reads, “And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls.” The word unicorn is something of a translational anachronism though, as it typically now refers to a Celtic mythological creature rather than the wild cattle the Hebrew originally implied.[37] Joseph apparently recognized that this word did not adequately describe the animal in question, and, not knowing how [Page 132]else to translate this, instead elected to transliterate the Hebrew word, likely with Sidney Rigdon’s help:[38] “And the re-em shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls” (Isaiah 34:7 JST).[39]

While the nature of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible differs from Joseph’s translation of the Book of Mormon, both were clearly dependent upon revelation and inspiration.[40] In both cases, Joseph Smith came across an animal name that was unfamiliar to him and he did not have an English word to adequately capture the intended meanings of either. Instead of attempting to guess what the animal may have been, Joseph instead opted to transliterate the word, which is what one would expect regarding translated texts. Even if Moroni_2 or Mosiah_2 were the first to transliterate these unfamiliar Jaredite words, the principle is still the same, as he likewise dealt with a text originally [Page 133]written in a foreign language and would have potentially met the same challenges that Joseph Smith would face centuries later.

Conclusion

While it is possible to understand the Book of Mormon without knowing how much a senine truly weighed or what a cumom actually was, it is understandable why some readers might assume that the divine translation process used to produce the Book of Mormon would allow some words, for reasons unknown, to remain untranslated. I believe that these words rather clarify that, while Joseph was certainly relying on divine power to translate the Book of Mormon, the Book of Mormon remains a translation, given to Joseph Smith “in [his] weakness, after the manner of [his] language, that [he] might come to understanding” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:24). As such, the Book of Mormon reflects details typical of a translated text in which the translator did his best to share the original intent of the text in his native language but was left with some words that of necessity could not be adequately translated into English.

This is especially clear when the former cases are studied in their context. As has been shown, the Book of Mormon consistently provides the same types of transliterations expected of a translation of an ancient text. This conclusion is only strengthened when the words are themselves considered as remnants of a lost language, as most (with the Jaredite words being the exception) have clear links to Old World languages that would have been unknown to Joseph Smith. If Joseph Smith had left these untranslated words in as a red herring to make his claims to have translated an ancient record more believable, it would be inconceivable to get so many details consistently right. As John A. Tvedtnes described this, “If it had been written by Joseph Smith, such untranslated words, especially ones that correlate closely with ancient Old World languages wholly unknown to Joseph Smith, would almost certainly have been absent.”[41] Because this is not the case, it would appear that the untranslated words in the Book of Mormon provide [Page 134]better clues into its nature as an ancient book in both how the words are used and how often they appear in the text.

[Author’s Note: I would like to thank Allen Hansen for providing me with some sources used throughout this paper, and most especially those relating to the Mishnah and Talmud.]

1. See Brant A. Gardner, The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2011), 161, 281–82; Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007), 6:259–60. It is unclear if Moroni_2 provided his own translation or (more likely) utilized and adapted Mosiah_2’s translation of the Jaredite record. I will thus use both names where appropriate in this paper.

2. Frederick E. Greenspahn, “Hapax Legomena,” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols., ed. David Noel Freedman et al. (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 3:54–55.

3. Emanuel Tov, The Greek and Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays on the Septuagint (Boston: Brill, 1999), 504; see also 204.

4. Tov, The Greek and Hebrew Bible, 204.

5. Emmanuel Tov, “Loan-words, Homophony, and Transliterations in the Septuagint,” Biblica 60, no. 2 (1979): 234.

6. Tov, The Greek and Hebrew Bible, 507–12; on p. 507, Tov notes that “The majority of the words in the list [on pp. 507–10] are hapax legomena or rare words in the Bible (sometimes rare in a certain book),” with the additional words on pp. 510–12 being transliterated for other reasons.

7. See generally Jože Krašovec, The Transformation of Biblical Proper Names (New York: T&T Clark, 2010). For the potential translation of the name Shelem or Heshlon, see Stephen D. Ricks, Paul Y. Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith, and John Gee, Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2022), s.vv. “Shelem,” “Heshlon;” see also Matthew L. Bowen and Pedro Olavarria, “Place of Crushing: The Literary Function of Heshlon in Ether 13:25–31,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 14 (2015): 230–33, journal.interpreterfoundation.org/place-of-crushing-the-literary-function-of-heshlon-in-ether-1325-31/.

8. Tov, “Loan-words, Homophony, and Transliterations in the Septuagint,” 231.

9. Tov, “Loan-words, Homophony, and Transliterations in the Septuagint,” 231.

10. A “corn-measure,” or a measure for “something cooked” or a “liquid measure.” Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, trans. M. E. J. Richardson, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2001), s.v. איפה; hereafter cited as HALOT.

11. A liquid measure. HALOT, s.v. הין.

12. A “dry measure,” typically of wheat, barley, or seed. HALOT, s.v. חמר.

13. A “measure of six ass-loads” or “the unit of square measure which needs one kor of seed for sowing.” HALOT, s.v. כר.

14. Either “a small heap of cut corn” or “a measure of corn.” HALOT, s.v. עמר.

15. A list of these and other transliterated weights and measures is found in Tov, “Loan-words, Homophony, and Transliterations in the Septuagint,” 232.

16. See (in order of their appearance in this paper) Ricks et al., Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, s.vv. “senine,” “seon,” “shum,” “limnah,” “senum,” “amnor,” “ezrom,” “onti,” “shiblon,” “shiblum,” “leah,” and “antion.”

17. For example, David Bentley Hart, The New Testament: A Translation, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017), 549–51 discusses the difficulties of translating the word logos. Also see the renderings of passages such as Revelation 19:13; Matthew 24:21, 27; John 1:1, 9, 10, 14, 29; and John 3:16–17 in Scott McKnight, The Second Testament: A New Translation (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2023), which likewise transliterates logos as well as kosmos.

18. Hart, The New Testament: A Translation, 549–51.

19. See Gene Reeves, trans., The Lotus Sutra: A Contemporary Translation of a Buddhist Classic (Sommerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2008), ix.

20. See Tov, The Greek and Hebrew Bible, 504.

21. See Ricks et al., Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, s.v. “ziff.” For another discussion on ziff, including an additional etymology, see Jerry D. Grover Jr., Ziff, Magic Goggles, and Golden Plates: Etymology of Zyf and a Metallurgical Analysis of the Book of Mormon Plates (Provo, UT: Grover Publishing, 2015), scripturecentral.org/archive/books/book/ziff-magic-goggles-and-golden-plates-etymology-zyf-and-metallurgical-analysis-book-mormon.

22. See Ricks et al., Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, s.v. “Rameumptom.”

23. See Ricks et al., Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, s.vv. “Liahona” and “Gazelem.” Also see Elliott Jolley, “Gazelem the Jaredite,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 27 (2017): 85–105, journal.interpreterfoundation.org/gazelem-the-jaredite/.

24. See Loren Spendlove, “And the One Pointed the Way: Issues of Interpretation and Translation Involving the Liahona,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 45 (2021): 1–36, journal.interpreterfoundation.org/and-the-one-pointed-the-way-issues-of-interpretation-and-translation-involving-the-liahona/; Matthew L. Bowen “Look to the Lord! The Meaning of Liahona and the Doctrine of Christ in Alma 37–38” in Give Ear to My Words: Text and Context of Alma 36–42: The 48th Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, ed. Kerry Hull, Nicholas J. Frederick, and Hank R. Smith (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University [BYU], 2019), 275–95; Calvin D. Tolman, “Liahona: “Prepared of the Lord, a Compass,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 51 (2022): 211–52, journal.interpreterfoundation.org/liahona-prepared-of-the-lord-a-compass/; Jonathan Curci “Liahona: ‘The Direction of the Lord’: An Etymological Explanation,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 16, no. 2 (2007): 60–67; and Book of Mormon Onomasticon, s.v. “Liahona,” onoma.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=LIAHONA.

25. Sagit Butbul, “The Rendering of Bird Names in Early Judeo-Arabic Biblical Translations,” Aleph 10, no.1 (2010): 14.

26. Bubtul, “Rendering of Bird Names,” 14.

27. See Butbul, “Rendering of Bird Names,” 14–37 for a discussion on how the names of birds in Leviticus 11 have historically been translated by various interpreters.

28. Mishnah Bikkurim 2:8, translation taken from Jacob Neusner, trans., The Mishnah: A New Translation (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988), 171, brackets in original. See also Tosefta Bikkurim 2:1–2, available in Jacob Neusner, trans., The Tosefta, 2 vols. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002), 1:348–49. Richard S. Sarason is also listed as a translator for Tosefta Bikkurim 2:1–7.

29. See, for example, Heinrich W. Guggenheimer, trans., The Jerusalem Talmud, First Order: Zeraim; Tractates Kilam and Seviit (New York: de Gruyter, 2001), 280n91.

30. See Reeves, The Lotus Sutra, ix.

31. See Ricks et al., Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, s.vv. “sheum” and “neas.” Sheum is also worth noting as having potential Old and New World etymologies.

32. As summarized in Ricks et al., Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, s.v. “deseret.” (This source indicates that the name applies to Upper Egypt, but the correct application is to Lower Egypt.) For Nibley’s full discussion, see Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, The World of the Jaredites, There Were Jaredites, vol. 5 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: FARMS, 1988), 189–94.

33. See Kevin L. Barney, “On the Etymology of Deseret,” BCC Papers 1, no. 2 (November 2006): 5–6, scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/etymology-deseret; also see HALOT, s.v. דבורה.

34. It may also be significant that these animals are listed alongside the elephant, an animal long thought to be extinct before the time of the Jaredites. However, rather than viewing this animal as an anachronism, it is possible that pockets of elephants (and perhaps even the curelom and cumom, should they also be extinct) survived into more recent times, allowing the Jaredites to declare them as especially useful for man. This has been discussed in Wade E. Miller, Science and the Book of Mormon: Cureloms, Cumoms, Horses and More (Laguna Niguel, CA: KCT & Associates, 2009), 49–53, scripturecentral.org/archive/books/book-chapter/elephants-book-mormon. Matthew Roper has also discussed the matter of elephants in an excellent forthcoming article. See Matthew Roper, “Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book of Mormon Criticisms, Part 1: Animals” (forthcoming). It is also worth mentioning that the word elephant does not appear in the Old Testament, although ivory is listed as one of Solomon’s imports in 1 Kings 10:22 and 2 Chronicles 9:21. It is therefore more likely that Moroni_2 or Mosiah_2 was familiar with stories about a mastodon from the New World, although an Old World connection need not be dismissed entirely, especially as we do not know what version of Israelite history (particularly relating to the royal history) was kept on the brass plates.

35. Ricks et al., Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, s.v. “curelom,” “cumom.”

36. For example, George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1973), 6:145 suggests that the curelom was the llama based on the Hebrew garal, “to roll forth or to roll off.” They similarly propose the cumom was a bear, based on the Hebrew qūm, “to rise.” Elsewhere, the authors also suggest on p. 149 that each animal could be a mastodon, alpaca, or llama, but they do not give any etymologies for these. While creative, these etymologies carry the assumption that Moroni_2 or Mosiah_2 would have translated the name from the Jaredite language into a Hebrew equivalent to describe the animal’s function and should be used cautiously. Another creative proposal is found in Jerry D. Grover, Jr., The Swords of Shule: Jaredite Land Northward Chronology, Geography, and Culture in Mesoamerica (Provo, UT: Challex Scientific Publishing, 2018), 25–27, this time utilizing the Sumerian. However, his proposal is not without significant problems, and it may not accurately capture the syntax or grammar of the Sumerian language.

37. When Marco Polo saw a rhinoceros in his travels, he found the best way to describe it as a unicorn, going on to say that it was “a very ugly beast to see and unclean. And they are not so as we here say and describe, who say that it lets itself be caught in the lap by a virgin girl: but I tell you that it is quite the contrary of that which we believe that it was.” This loan shift has become out of date, however, as few today would describe a rhinoceros (even though it has one horn) as a unicorn. One can also read in Polo’s account an uncertainty (and perhaps even a hesitancy) how to describe this animal and found the only way he could was to use the name of the Celtic mythological creature. Marco Polo, The Description of the World, 2 vols., ed. and trans. A. C. Moule and Paul Pelliot (London: Routledge, 1938), 1:166.

38. While some (such as Thomas A. Wayment) have attempted to demonstrate that Joseph Smith was dependent upon Adam Clarke’s commentary during his translation of the Bible, such theories have been shown to be based on faulty findings, and no clear connection to Adam Clarke’s commentary can be found. See Kent P. Jackson, “Some Notes on Joseph Smith and Adam Clarke,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, 40 (2020): 15–60, journal.interpreterfoundation.org/some-notes-on-joseph-smith-and-adam-clarke/. While Clarke does note the Hebrew behind the word unicorn in the King James Version, Jackson notes, “Several factors argue against Clarke’s commentary being the source” (p. 33). Furthermore, while Clarke offers some suggestions for what the unicorn likely was, it is telling that there is no attempt on Joseph’s part to replace the word unicorn for another English animal name. While Joseph likely got this word from an outside source, Adam Clarke does not appear to be the origin of this word, especially when compounded with the remainder of Jackson’s findings.

39. Joseph Smith’s translation taken from Kent P. Jackson, ed., Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible: The Joseph Smith Translation and the King James Translation in Parallel Columns (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, BYU; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022), 204. Unlike cureloms and cumoms, the word re-em is not a hapax legomena of the Bible, but it is an unknown animal name (for Joseph) that apparently merited this similar treatment on his part. For the meaning of re-em, see HALOT, s.v. ראם.

40. For a recent discussion on Joseph’s translation of the Bible, see Kent P. Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, BYU; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022), 14–15. The literature on Joseph’s translation of the Book of Mormon is extensive, but for a recent, approachable, and accurate summary of Joseph’s translation process, see Gerrit J. Dirkmaat and Michael Hubbard Mackay, Let’s Talk about the Translation of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2023).

41. John A. Tvedtnes, The Most Correct Book: Insights from a Book of Mormon Scholar (Salt Lake City: Cornerstone Publishing, 1999), 347, scripturecentral.org/archive/books/book-chapter/untranslated-words-book-mormon.

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