Is the Book of Mormon Hebrew?

Pre- versus post-Babylon captivity Judaism, and the preservation of Messianic teachings and traditions.

From: DJ Mansfield  <mansfielddj@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri Jan 19, 2001 5:56am
[Posted to David's Outcasts]
Subject: Is The Book Of Mormon Hebrew?

Shalom All,

   As I said to Lynn, I have been operating under the hypothesis
  that the Book of Mormon is an English translation of an ancient
  Semitic record that came to light by extraordinary means, i.e.,
  through the mediumship of celestial messengers and a Gentile seer.

   As I also said, the book is not Jewish in terms of what Judaism
  is today.  My thesis is that it may represent an earlier, perhaps
  a more basic strand of Hebrew religion, that existed before the
  Babylonian Captivity.

   The Babylonian Captivity left an indelible mark on Judaism.  It
  was considered by the sages as a great chastisement of the LORD.
  The Pharisee Party (of which Jesus undoubtedly belonged) evolved
  out of Babylon and the Babylonian experience.  These Parushim,
  "separated ones" desired to achieve a greater level of holiness.
  And when the Babylonian exile ended, there remained a strong
  Jewish school in Babylon.  The later development of rabbinic
  Judaism with its Talmud, calendar and present-day writing system,
  all came as a result of the Jewish school in Babylon.  The great
  Hillel, whose teachings are often echoed in Jesus' own words, was
  born and raised in Babylon.

   Jeremiah had told the Judean kings and the people not to resist
  the king of Babylon, that it was the LORD's will for them to
  submit.  He said God had raised up the Babylonian king to
  accomplish his own purpose.  This was a great turning point for
  the House of Israel that remained centered in Judea.  The Northern
  Kingdom had been dispatched by Assyria some 120 plus or so years
  before.  The Judean Southern Kingdom was all that remained of
  Israel.  (The Northern Kingdom became known as the 10 lost tribes.)

   The Judeans did not heed Jeremiah and harsh measures were taken
  against them by their Babylonian conquerors.  The temple was
  destroyed and the people were taken into captivity in a much more
  difficult way than would have been the case had they listened to
  Jeremiah.

   This is where the Book of Mormon narrative begins.  There are
  116 lost pages of the Book of Lehi which would have been the first
  book.  But in Nephi the narrative picks up, supposedly retracing
  the highlights of Lehi's missing account.

   Nephi says his narrative consists of "the learning of the Jews
  and the language of the Egyptians."  By this I believe he means
  Egyptian Jews.  It had been prophesied by Isaiah that a Jewish
  temple would be established in Egypt.  Josephus says one was
  built in Alexandria.  Curious enough, the Aramaic Targum (trans-
  lation) uses "Alexandria" as a kind of cover-term.  It uses it to
  refer to ancient No-Amon (Thebes).  It is known now that a temple
  was built south of Thebes in Syene in Egypt.  It could have been
  under the Egyptian jurisdiction of Thebes.  Could this have been
  the place of the temple in "Alexandria" that Josephus mentions
  or the Egyptian temple spoken of in Talmud?

   The Jews in Syene used Aramaic for their official writings and
  often in Egyptian demotic script.  Some Psalms in this script in
  Aramaic were found not too long ago.  Other demotic-Aramaic works
  have been found as well.  From historical sources it appears that
  the Syene temple had the same dimensions as Solomon's and
  sacrifices were performed there.  From recently discovered docu-
  ments and religious writings, the Jews there referred to God as
  "YaH," and also worshipped a female deity.  This was undoubtedly
  the "Queen of Heaven" that Jeremiah chastised the Egyptian Jews
  for worshipping.

   It is my thesis that Lehi was part of the religious party that
  was trying to preserve the pure religion of Israel of that time,
  including safeguarding the Ark of the Covenant and things which
  belonged to the temple.  His kinsman, Laban, was perhaps involved
  in this, too.  They were going to relocate everything to Syene
  south of ancient Thebes until the Babylonian conquest and wars
  had subsided.  But Lehi was diverted by Divine Intervention to
  take the Ark and other holy things (Urim & Thummim, etc) to a
  very different place.  Some decoy or replica arks were made which
  eventually found their way to the temple in Egypt and later to
  Ethiopia.  (A recent book by a British journalist explores this
  possibility of finding the lost Ark in Ethiopia.)

   Soon after Lehi & Company arrived in the New World, they like-
  wise built another temple patterned after Solomon's to house the
  Ark.  The Ark is not specifically mentioned in the Book of Mormon,
  but to me there are quite a number of veiled allusions to indicate
  they had the Ark.  I believe it was placed in "the Hill Shim"
  before Nephite civilization collapsed with many other holy things.
  They remain there to this day, if my thesis is correct.

   It seems to me the Nephites maintained the earlier Hebrew culture
  that existed before the Babylonian Captivity.  They had the
  original solar calendar, observed full moons rather than crescent
  or dark moons, performed the sacrificial offerings and were
  Messianic.  They wrote in the ancient script which is called
  Ketav-Elohim, the "script of God" (in Shemos--Exodus).  They had
  come to the Antedeluvian starting place of mankind before the
  Great Flood.

   Their permanent, official record, however, was written in Aramaic
  in some kind of demotic shorthand.  I believe that part of the
  reason for this was it could be streamlined, highly formatted to
  facilitate its eventual translation into our modern tongue.  With
  200 to 300 hieroglyphs, the whole condensed book could be conveyed.
  So Smith simply had to learn through the translation device that
  was provided these basic characters which evoked in him the means
  to translate.  He was told that the only gift he would be given
  was to translate and that he should pretend to no other gift.

   Perhaps the Hebrew aspect that has the strongest suggestion of
  a Judaism that has survived is in the area of Kabbalah.  Nephi
  refers to this as "having had a great knowledge of the goodness
  and mysteries of GOD."  This was passed onto him by his father.
  Kabbalah means that which has been "received."  Most modern Jews
  know very little about Kabbalah, which descends from the ancient
  school of prophets in Israel.  The study is frowned upon in
  Ashkenazic Judaism and has nearly died out in Sephardic Judaism.
  But the Hassidic Jews have kept it dimly alive.

   When Lehi praised his God in 1 Nephi, he mentions three Sefirot
  (Emanations) as attributes of God.  These particular three
  correspond to each other in the three pillars of the Sefirot.  In
  fact, his vision begins with a sefirahic pillar of fire.  Later
  on he has a vision of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.  Everything,
  however, centers on Messiah and his work of salvation, which, I
  now believe must have been the ancient focus.

   The Nephite book is divided as the TaNaK:

     1.  Torah     --    Brass Plates; Jaredite Plates
     2.  Nevim     --    Smaller Plates of Nephi
     3.  Ketuvim   --    Larger Plates of Nephi

   And there is Ha-Brit Ha-Khodesah or New Covenant in 3rd Nephi.

   One of the features that leads me to believe the plates were
  similar to Aramaic Targumim is that in the early Targums the
  translators felt free to include commentary and/or many didactic
  expositions.  The Book of Mormon is replete with these by the two
  redactors (Mormon & Moroni).

   Also, I believe the Nephite lands are indicated in the book.
  It is the Near East upside down, with the Mississippi corresponding
  to the Nile (River of Egypt) and the Rio Grande corresponding to
  the Euphrates (Great River).  Based on Bible Code "finds" I believe
  the ancient site of Zarahemla corresponds with Babylon.  Take a
  map of the Middle East and turn it upside down.  Match the rivers,
  the Mississippi & Nile, and Rio Grande & Euphrates, and notice
  that El Paso and Baghdad come together:  Zarahemla & Babylon.

   The Code suggests to me that Himni, son of Mosiah, was the
  inscriber of the Los Lunas stone.  (Los Lunas is a couple of
  hundred miles north of El Paso [Zarahemla] and is thought to
  date from the period of king Mosiah in the Book of Mormon).

   This is a rough overview of the thesis I working with.  I do not
  accept the LDS Church except as trustees of the Book of Mormon.
  The LDS come under a strong guardian angel, Sachiel, who watches
  over them.  So I make it a point not to offend this angel in
  the work I am doing.  Meantime, I remain a Jew having become a
  proselyte in the 1980s.  Judah comes under the guardianship of
  Michael.  Each people/religion has its own angel.  (David's
  Outcasts--Geriel).  (This angel stuff I have discovered in the
  Bible Code.)  Dean.

This page created on January 19, 2001