Rick Grunder wrote: ↑Wed Aug 10, 2022 5:37 pm
Marcus makes a powerful point by asking, “Why would an author of an ancient document need to include a modern explanation in that ancient document?” I would ask further why an ancient author should think to warn on the Book of Mormon’s statedly-ancient title page that “if there be fault, it be the mistake of men; . . .”; -or fear that his readers might wonder “if these things are ^not^ true,” as in Moroni 10:4 (“not” added above-line in the printer’s manuscript)?
Regarding “dreamed a dream” and similar examples, Mormon defender Donald with. Parry wrote: "The cognate accusative is a direct object noun that shares the same root as the preceding verb, as in Joseph 'dreamed a dream' (Genesis 37:5) instead of the more customary English rendering 'Joseph had a dream.' " Dr. Parry explains that Bible texts in Hebrew contain "numerous examples of the cognate accusative . . . although literal representations of this form is [sic] generally not used in translation." –Parry, "Hebraisms and Other Ancient Peculiarities in the Book of Mormon," in Parry, Daniel C. Peterson and John with. Welch, eds.,
Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon. (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), [2002]), 176-77).
Among "many instances of the cognate accusative" in the Book of Mormon, Dr. Parry cites 1 Nephi 2:23 ("I will curse them even with a sore curse"); 1 Nephi 3:2 and 8:2 ("Behold I have dreamed a dream"); 1 Nephi 13:5 ("yoketh them with a yoke"); 1 Nephi 14:7 ( "I will work a great and a marvelous work"); 2 Nephi 5:15 and Mosiah 23:5 ("build buildings"); Enos 1:13 ("this was the desire which I desired of him"); Mosiah 4:16 ("succor those that stand in need of your succor"); Mosiah 7:15 ("taxed with a tax"); Mosiah 11:10 and Ether 10:23 ("work all manner of fine work"); Mosiah 29:29, 43 ("judge righteous judgments"); Alma 5:26 ("sing the song"); and Alma 18:5 ("fear exceedingly, with fear"). (Parry, 177; see also Largey, 322-23)
Note that while "sing the song [of Moses]" does occur once in the Bible, in Revelation 15:3, Alma's version, to "sing the song [of redeeming love]," above, is a non-biblical Protestant phrase seen in Joseph Smith's nineteenth-century world.
Compare this biblical style imitation to that of Gilbert J. Hunt in
The Late War, Between the United States and Great Britain, From June, 1812, to February, 1815. Written in the Ancient Historical Style. . . . Third Edition. With improvements by the author. (New York: Published by Daniel D. Smith, No. 190, Greenwich-Street, 1819; and numerous other identically-paged editions):
–sealed with the signet [p. 11]
–And the great Sanhedrim honored Isaac with great honor [p. 32;] Jackson was honored with great honour [p. 219]
–rejoiced with great joy [p. 55; see also p. 142]
–and they pitched them within and without with pitch; after the fashion of the ark. [p. 98]
–the men shouted with loud shouting. [p. 107]
–And they yelled with dreadful yellings, [p. 119]
–and slew them with great slaughter [pp. 127, 176; see also pp. 111 and 159. This construction, to slay with slaughter, occurs four times in the Old Testament ("slew") and five times in the Book of Mormon ("to slay," "did slay," and "slew"). The Old Testament slaughters recounted using this construction are all "great"; Hunt's slaughters include three "great" and one "terrible," and the Book of Mormon's, three "great," one "exceedingly great" and one "much."]