Alpha & Omega: A Book of Mormon anachronistic blooper

[_Shulem]

It's a tight translation

3 Nephi 9:18 Tight Translation

I am the first letter of an alphabet which is called Alpha by the Greeks who live in the old world which is across the sea from the land of Israel and Omega which is the last letter of their alphabet, the beginning and the end.

[_Shulem]

Yeah, the plates probably had "I am the snake glyph and the monkey glyph" or something like that, on them. And every good Mesoamerican would have known exactly what Quetzalcoatl meant by that.

Well, think about it, Mormon Jesus descends and says he's Alpha and Omega the first and the last. What are the Nephites to think of that? Based on what? How were the Nephites supposed to make sense of a theology that was foreign and out of context?

[_zerinus]

French doesn't belong in the English Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith was just being dumb in thinking he could fancy things up with a European expression for greetings.The English equivalent for adieu would have been sufficient. . . .

Anachronism upon anachronism flows throughout the entire Book of Mormon. Using adieu was silly. You say you don't know what word was on the plates. How about, "FAREWELL"? Does that sound reasonable? Wouldn't that be more consistent and accurate? What's the difference between farewell and goodbye? One thing we can be sure of is that the Nephites could NOT have known a single French word . . .

Idiocy multiplied by ignorance times stupidity raised to the power of ten. There is no language on earth that has not been influenced by other languages, and English more than most. Here is a quote (emphasis added):

“The percentage of modern English words derived from each language group are as follows: French: ~29%; Latin: ~29%; Germanic: ~26%; Others: ~17% [including Greek: ~6%].

“A great number of words of French origin have entered the English language to the extent that many Latin words have come to the English language. According to different sources, 45% of all English words have a French origin. This suggests that 80,000 words should appear in this list; this list, however, only includes words imported directly from French, such as both joy and joyous, and does not include derivatives formed in English of words borrowed from French, including joyful, joyfulness, partisanship, and parenthood. It also excludes both combinations of words of French origin with words whose origin is a language other than French . . .” link. See also here.

So which other “french” words would you like to exclude from the Book of Mormon? How about “joy,” as in “men are that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25); or perhaps this one: “. . . enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:21). Oh wait, that came from the Bible. Silly me.

[_krose]

Good grief. Using words that are 'derived' or 'related' is not the same as taking a current word from another language and using it as is.

The English word "joy" is not the same as the French word "joie." Regular speakers of English don't use the two words interchangeably.

[_krose]

French phrases such as "joie de vivre" or "je ne sais quoi" have become part of the vocabulary of many English speakers. They are not uncommon.

All the same, if one of those phrases had popped up in the Book of Mormon it would have been strange indeed.

[_I have a question]

Alpha and Omega - as dictated by Joseph Smith.
Has no bearing on what language was written on the plates. The translation of the plates is not claimed to be a linguistic endeavor.
If you believe the Book of Mormon from God (which we know you don't) then it isn't that complicated to figure out that whatever words were used on the plates meant the same thing as Alpha and Omega.

It was an English translation, so why not use beginning and end and leave it at that?
Why introduce Greek terms for an English translation of plates that contained no Greek?

[_SteelHead]

Timothy the Greek nephite. He taught them alpha and omega.

The Book of Mormon did happen on the Italian peninsula.

[_Shulem]

Idiocy multiplied by ignorance times stupidity raised to the power of ten.

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were smart enough to know that Mormon Jesus would need to use a Nephite coin, "senine" when quoting a New Testament sermon because had he used farthing it would have made no sense to his listeners. The Nephites couldn't have known what a farthing was. Right? Yes or no?

Well, the same holds true with the New Testament sermon of Alpha & Omega. It's all Greek and the Nephites didn't know Greek and couldn't have known what Jesus was saying, thus we see, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in their ignorance dropped the ball. It's not just an inconsistency but an anachronism. Letters or symbols known to the Nephites should have been used and reflected in the translation as was the Nephite coin, senine.

You've not addressed that, zerinus. There simply is not an intelligent apologetic excuse you can offer to cover for Smith's and Cowdery's blunder -- that warms my heart. You do realize this is just one Book of Mormon anachronism of many? One right after the other. It's a clear cut pattern in showing it's a sloppy work of fiction.

[_Shulem]

Timothy the Greek nephite. He taught them alpha and omega.

The Book of Mormon did happen on the Italian peninsula.

According to Joseph Smith there was "no Greek" on the plates. Also, the Nephites couldn't have known Greek because Lehi's expedition predated Greek.

So, how is it that one of the twelve disciples of Mormon Jesus was Greek? That makes no sense at all. It seems that Smith and Cowdery made another blunder. Surely they knew that the name Timothy was no where in the Old Testament for obvious reasons but was only in the New Testament, a Greek name.

Thus we see, Smith and Cowdery, as always, borrow and steal from Peter to pay Paul. A classic example of Book of Mormon fraud and an anachronism for sure.

[_Shulem]

It was an English translation, so why not use beginning and end and leave it at that?
Why introduce Greek terms for an English translation of plates that contained no Greek?

The introduction of the Greek letters to the Nephites was a literary and historical blunder by the true author of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith. The apologist's excuse of "we don't know what was on the plates" is taken from the apologetic comprehensive package of not knowing and admitting there is no reasonable explanation to justify their position. It's just, "we don't know". That's Mormon apologetics in a nutshell.

The fact is, there could not have been Greek on the plates. Joseph Smith insisted there was no Greek on the plates, therefore, it makes no sense for Mormon Jesus to quote Greek from the New Testament because they didn't know Greek and it wasn't going to be etched in gold. So, if Mormon Jesus used letters or symbols known to the Nephites then the plates would contain those words that correspond with that specific declaration.