Dragons in the Book of Mormon

The word dragon is used four times in the Book of Mormon. Two of the four references are quotes from Isaiah (2 Ne. 8:9 [Is. 51:9]; 2 Ne. 23:22 [Is. 13:22])

Isaiah 13:22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

Comment: The Hebrew word thannîm is translated as dragons in this KJV verse. This is the plural form of tan and is sometimes translated as jackals or wild dogs.

Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

Comment: The Hebrew word tannîn is translated as dragons in this KJV verse. This is normally thought
of as a sea-serpent or sea monster. In a blog entitled “Moses and His Crocodile”¹, Dr. Claude Mariottine quotes Simcha Jacobovici, the Naked Archaeologist, as saying: “Did you know that, when facing Pharaoh, it is not Moses that throws down his staff; it is his brother Aaron and, according to the original Hebrew [ed. Ex. 7:9-12], it did not turn into a snake but a crocodile? Since the Egyptians worshipped the crocodile god - Sobek, when Aaron's crocodile swallowed up the Egyptian crocodiles, Pharaoh understood that the God of Israel was more powerful than his entire pantheon. All this is lost if the Hebrew word ‘tanin’ is mistranslated as ‘snake’ instead of ‘crocodile.’” In this blog he quotes from many other sources that argue for the crocodile translation.

In the Oxford English Dictionary entry for dragon (meaning 3), we read the following.
In the Bible versions reproducing draco of the Vulgate and δράκων of the Septuagint, where the Hebrew has  tannīn a great sea- or water-monster, a whale, shark, or crocodile, also a large serpent; or  tan a desert mammalian animal, now understood to be the jackal, and so rendered in the Revised Version.

In the other two references (Mosiah 20:11; Alma 43:44), the word dragon is used as a simile for ferocity – both verses refer to people who fight like dragons. It is entirely possible that of the whales, sharks, crocodiles, and other animals that were tannīn, the one animal that the Book of Mormon record keepers may have most easily seen fighting with incredible ferocity was the crocodile.

People living on the Baja Peninsula would have been familiar with crocodiles. Johan Jakob Baegert, a German Jesuit Priest who had lived in Baja California between 1751 and 1768, in describing the small water courses of Baja¹ says: “in all of them abide alligators of considerable size and since some of them are capable of devouring a full-grown man, it is necessary to be on guard while drawing water, bathing, or washing. I have seen several of these creatures.”³ Alligators⁴ are not found on Baja today⁵; however, the mangrove swamps that are a usual habitat for alligators are rather common, especially on the East coast of Baja.

Further evidence that the people of this area knew of crocodiles is furnished by Brian Stubbs. He has studied relationships between the Uto-Aztecan languages and the Hebrew and Egyptian languages: the Uto-Aztecan languages have a word for crocodile and it is related to the Egyptian word for crocodile. A word for dragon is unknown in the Uto-Aztecan languages.⁶

Sources:
¹http://doctor.claudemariottini.com/2010/03/moses-and-his-crocodile.html;

²Reports from the American Peninsula California translated from the Original German with an Introduction and Notes, by M.M. Brandenburg and Carl L. Baumann, University of California Press, Berkley, Los Angeles, London, copyright 1952 by the Regents of the University of California. The original text is Nachrichten von der Amerikanischen Halbinsel Californien by Johan Jakob Baegert, published in Germany in 1771;
³The English translation has different page numbering than the original German text. In the original German text this reference is found in Chapter One, page 2;
⁴The original German word Baegert used for this animal was Krokodillen - the English translators chose to translated it as alligators instead of crocodiles. The difference between an alligator and a crocodile is a modern taxonomy distinction that meant nothing before the 19^th century – even today, under certain conditions, the distinction between the two is very difficult to make. Perhaps the most common distinction today between the two is that alligators are normally found in the Americas and crocodiles are found elsewhere;
⁵They were most likely hunted to extinction for their skins;
⁶Private communication between David Rosenvall and Brian Stubbs.

Possible Meaning of "goodly" in 1 Nephi 1:1

The idea that goodly parents in 1 Nephi 1:1 might also mean wealthyparents has been expressed by others (including Hugh Nibley – see An Approach to the Book of Mormon, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley: Volume 6, 3rd ed., Deseret/FARMS, Salt Lake City & Provo, 1988, P. 47). However, the work of Royal Skousen and his assertion that Middle English vocabulary is found in the Book of Mormon, places this idea in a new light (see The Archaic Vocabulary of the Book of Mormon, Royal Skousen, Provo, Utah, Maxwell Institute, 2005).

In the OED, the second listed meaning of goodly is “notable or considerable in respect of size, quantity, or number.” The OED cited references for this meaning place its usage in the Middle English time period (e.g. Chaucer, 1374) and thus this may be one more example of Archaic English in the Book of Mormon.

The Word "Traffic" in the Book of Mormon

1. The word traffic occurs 3 times in all of the LDS Scriptures. Twice in 4 Nephi 1:46 and once in Ether 10:22 (see below)
2. In all three instances it occurs with a description of what happens when the people focus on acquiring wealth (gold and silver) and forget the commandments of God.
3. In the OED meaning 2b for traffic we read “To have dealings of an illicit or secret character; to deal, intrigue, conspire.” This meaning is old and is a possible Archaic English example. It is also a possible meaning for the word traffic as used in both these verses.
4. The double occurrence in 4 Nephi 1:46 is also a classic example of a Hebraism called paired cognate. This structure pairs a noun and a verb from the same cognate (root word).

Scriptures

46 And it came to pass that the robbers of Gadianton did spread over all the face of the land; and there were none that were righteous save it were the disciples of Jesus. And gold and silver did they lay up in store in abundance, and did traffic in all manner of traffic.
(Book of Mormon | 4 Nephi 1:46)

22 And they were exceedingly industrious, and they did buy and sell and traffic one with another, that they might get gain.

23 And they did work in all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore, they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work.
(Book of Mormon | Ether 10:22–23)

Scholarship and the Book of Mormon

Because I was raised by active LDS parents, I was exposed to the Book of Mormon at a very early age. The strange language structures of the book just seemed natural to me – that was just the way scripture was. It wasn’t until I was a college student that I learned enough to appreciate just how different the language of the Book of Mormon was.

About 30 years ago I first read an article about Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon (see“Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon: A Preliminary Survey”, BYU Studies, 1970, Vol11:1 – available online). I finally understood why the English of the book was so different. The knowledge I gained from reading this and similar scholarship changed my ability to study and understand the Book of Mormon.

The next major influence that helped me better understand the Book of Mormon came in about 2003 when I attended a seminar in the BYU College of Humanities given by Dr. Royal Skousen. He proposed that the revealed Book of Mormon translation given to Joseph Smith by the “gift and power of God” included many words, whose meaning as used in the Book of Mormon, came from Middle English (15^ththrough 17^th centuries - I refer to this as Archaic English). I became a frequent user of the online Oxford English Dictionary because of its priceless historical data on the English Language (see Appendix: Oxford English Dictionary, below). Every time I see a word that seems unusual, I consult the OED online and dozens of times I have found that old meanings of words fit the Book of Mormon context much better than contemporary or 19^th century meanings.
In November of 2008, I was invited to a special presentation by my brother, Dr. Lynn A. Rosenvall (PhD in Geography) and his son David L. Rosenvall (MBA, BS in Engineering, David has considerable experience with internet systems) concerning their work on the Geography of the Book of Mormon. As Lynn said at the time: “the story had to take place somewhere.”Their proposal that Baja California was the site where the Book of Mormon record keepers lived was both stunning and startling to me personally. For years I had believed the story might have occurred in Mesoamerica; however, I knew there were serious challenges matching that location to the story contained within the Book of Mormon. Just two of many challenges were climate mismatches and scale mismatches.

Most satisfying to me personally was the match of their Baja proposal to the Archaic English meanings of Book of Mormon words as proposed by Royal Skousen. Time after time Lynn and David found that geographical terms as used in the Book of Mormon match with the old meanings of words (e.g. OED: isle or island: “a piece of land completely surrounded by water but formerly used less definitely, including a peninsula… see Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 10:20, “we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea.”)

Because of all of this, I will post articles to this blog dealing with all three subjects: Language (including insights about Hebrew), Archaic English in the Book of Mormon, and research related to Baja and its geography.

Appendix: Oxford English Dictionary

In the Book of Mormon Ether 6:10 we read (emphasis added) “And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water.” With the usual meaning of damage, destroy or blemish, this verse make little sense. However, notice the OED entry for mar. An old meaning of the word is “hamper or hinder”, and it appears that this meaning is being used in the Book of Mormon.

Possible Meaning of the Word "slippery"

The word "slippery" in the Book of Mormon text has led to various interpretations.  I have added the Archaic English meanings to the verses where the word "slippery" occurs.  Hopefully these older meanings will throw new light on these verses. Note that the older meanings of the words, "hold" and "retain" have also been added.

1. Hel. 13: 31, 33, 36

  31 And behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become slippery [we forget where they were put or hidden], that ye cannot hold them [remember where they were put]; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them [remember where they were put].

      •  •  •

  33 O that I had repented, and had not killed the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out. Yea, in that day ye shall say: O that we had remembered the Lord our God in the day that he gave us our riches, and then they would not have become slippery [we forget where they were put or hidden] that we should lose them; for behold, our riches are gone from us [can't remember where they were put].

      •  •  •

  36 O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us; for behold the land is cursed, and all things are become slippery [we forget where they were put or hidden], and we cannot hold them [remember where they were put].

2. Morm. 1: 18

  18 And these Gadianton robbers, who were among the Lamanites, did infest the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof began to hide up their treasures in the earth; and they became slippery [they forget where they were put or hidden], because the Lord had cursed the land, that they could not hold them [remember where they were put], nor retain them again [remember where they were put].

The word "slippery" in Archaic English comes from the same root word as "slipper" and "slip." We still use this older meaning of the word "slip" in such phrases as: "It slipped my mind,"  that is, we can't remember something. This, of course, is the meaning  of "slippery" as used the Book of Mormon verses above. It appears that the Lord cursed the people and their riches by affecting the memory of where they hid their riches.  It would be interesting to know how this memory could be taken away. This is like forgetting the location of a bank account that contains a significant quantity of money.