The Egyptian Connection of Words in the Book of Mormon

Here are some matches here unique words from the Book of Mormon to the current dictionaries of ancient Egyptian.

Background Information

The first six books of the Book of Mormon where from metal plates that were called The Small Plates of Nephi. It was written in the Egyptian Language – most likely an early demotic style of Egyptian. The claim of it being early demotic is my own claim not shared universally. It is based on an analysis of multiple early church history documents.

1 Nephi 1:2 Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.

In the early portion of the Book of Mormon, Nephi obtained the scriptural record which they called The Brass Plates. The Brass Plates were written in Egyptian. As Demotic was a new language in 600 BC, the Brass Plates were most likely written in Hieratic Egyptian.

Mosiah 1:4 For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates; for he having been taught in the langage of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time.

The rest of the Nephite and Jaredite records were abridged onto the Gold record about 350-400 AD. This language use is what they called Reformed Egyptian.

Mormon 9:32 And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.

More information on how poor of a written language reformed Egyptian was is taught by Moroni in Ether 12 where he bemoans how difficult it is to be articulate in this language.

Ether 12:23 And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;

24 And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them.

As Egyptian was such an important part of their records, does it not make sense that if there are special non-english words in the Book of Mormon, then we should look to Egyptian first and secondly to Hebrew for their interpretation?


Below are separated write ups on these words with an Egyptian connection:


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