As promised here are the results from our research of Greek & Latin Words in the Book of Mormon.  Our most significant finding is the realization that the more we studied the Book of Mormon; the heavier our hearts became as the list of words became endless.

     Our main concern and the reason we did this wasn’t for some vindictive purpose.  It’s motivated out of a deep concern for the Mormon people.  (As a personal side note here – each time I publish anything like this I do it out of the heartache I carry for my own mother.  The Lord has taken that concern for her and expanded it to include all the Mormon people.)

     In just a few short weeks my mother and the rest of the clan will be celebrating “Pioneer Days” in Utah.  The twenty-fourth of July celebrations rival those of the Christmas season with parades, rodeos and re-enactments of the Mormon pioneers trekking across America with their handcarts.  Other than fleeting thoughts of Brigham Young carving out a destiny and culture of hard work in the Beehive state, and the multi-generational lies that are passed on about persecution, not much thought goes into what the real purpose was for going to Utah to begin with. 

    On July 24, 1847 one hundred and forty nine people including Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake Valley with another 1,650 souls following within a few months just as winter settled in.

http://www.americanwest.com/trails/pages/mormtrl.htm

     What intrigues me the most about this is what the pioneers carried with them in their handcarts, that being the Book of Mormon.  I find myself wondering if any of my family members opened it up and saw the problems in it that I see today.  I would like to think that they had their doubts, unfortunately the evidence speaks otherwise.  The proof that I was born into the Church tells me they either didn’t understand or chose to ignore it.  Historical evidence tells us that most of the population in America was literate so if they didn’t read their Book of Mormon, it didn’t stem from the inability to do so. (1) 

     The LDS Church has always claimed they are open to scrutiny and invite those who have questions to come forth.  Neal Maxwell reiterated this in his work “Lord Increase Our Faith”.  On page 64 it says;

 

“The real focus on the Book of Mormon should be on the details of the book itself, not on the details of the process by which it came forth.  Although we do not know everything about the process of its coming forth or its translation, the Book of Mormon is open to full scrutiny.”

 

     Take special notice of how he has tried to set the rules of what your opinion should be by saying it shouldn’t matter how the Book of Mormon came about.  I find it interesting in light of what he said just two pages later;

 

“Over fifty able English scholars labored for seven years, using previous translations, to produce the King James Version of the Bible, averaging about one precious page per day. The Prophet would sometimes average ten pages per day!”

 

     Why shouldn’t we question Smith’s “translation” process? The truth about the translation process for the King James Bible is obviously nothing short of miraculous!  The stats they provided in the quote above are only partially true though.  (Surprise I know.)  Fifty four scholars were chosen in 1604, but by the time the translation process got underway seven had dropped out.  They were divided into groups of six to translate the Bible and each group had assigned sections of the Bible to work on.  When that group was finished they gave it to one of the other groups who would check everything and then send it back to the original group with notes and suggestions of where to correct or give approval.  When the entire section was complete it was given to all the groups to study and then sent to an independent group of scholars to verify.

     Everyone involved was highly educated, multi-lingual in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.  Now compare the techniques of able bodied scribes and scholars taking seven years to translate the Bible which came from languages that have been well known to man for thousands of years to that of an uneducated young farm boy who “translated” something from an unknown language.  I can’t imagine that a sovereign God would do this to His people.

     I’m also perplexed by their angry attitude towards Life After Ministries and all other ministries out there that do call the doctrines of the Church into question.  Their shiny, professionally bound books that proclaim they want everyone to scrutinize their works are exactly the opposite of what we encounter every day in ministry work.  Let’s just say they are less than pleased.

     A few of the questions I ponder regarding the pilgrimage of all Mormon pioneers and the Book of Mormon are –

 

Did they see the willful disregard for God’s commandments in 600 BC when Lehi left Jerusalem while the obedient children stayed because God told them to?  (See 1 Nephi 2:20-21 & Jeremiah 42:10-17.)

 

What about people using the name of Jesus in 550 BC?  (Compare 2 Nephi 31:10 with Matthew 1:18-25.)  Jesus is a NT Greek name and never appears in the BC era or the OT.

 

Polytheism is clearly taught and embraced in Mormonism while the Bible completely denounces it and emphatically proclaims there is only one God. (See TPJS, pg. 342 & Isaiah 43:10-11.)

 

The Book of Mormon openly condemns the practice of polygamy in Jacob 2:25 as does the Bible in Deuteronomy 17:17.  However, the prophets of Mormonism declared that Joseph Smith’s prophecy in D&C 132 was directly from the mouth of God.

 

One of several verses in the Book of Mormon clearly defines that every church which is not  part of the LDS Church is the “whore of Babylon” in 1 Nephi 14:10, when in fact Jesus promised His disciples in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell wouldn’t prevail against His church.

 

What about those who already believed in Jesus and were then introduced to Mormonism?  If God’s presence couldn’t be found here on earth then how did they already know His name?

 

Did any Mormon pioneer question the length of time it took to “translate” the Book of Mormon?

 

Did anyone question the authenticity of the Book of Mormon?

 

     The LDS Church has written extensively asking why they haven’t been accepted as a mainstream Christian church over the years.  Their surprise at this finding equals my surprise that they would think they are!  In the March 1988 issue of Ensign the Church published an article with a half a dozen comparisons of their pagan practices with the pagan practices of early Christian church heretics, one of which was Marcion.  (2)  Using Marcion as an example of a common Christian and his practices is appalling and only proves they don’t qualify to be considered as part of the body of Christ.  Equally appalling is watching how members of the Church still believe in Joseph Smith’s every word with no questions asked.

     On May 15, 1843 Joseph Smith claimed that no Greek or Latin words were on the plates that he found from which he translated the Book of Mormon into English.   (3)  Our investigation has led us to the discovery of more than 100 Greek and/or Latin words that were used 7, 354 times!  (We’ve listed 93 of them.)    

     Smith’s capricious claims were thrown to the Mormon people and they bought it hook, line and sinker.  Our findings are listed below with the number of times that word and their derivatives occur.  If you’d like a copy of the 130 page document which gives a detailed account of where each word is located, e-mail me at michelle@lifeafter.org and I’ll send you a copy in a PDF.

 

With Love in Christ;

Michelle …

1 Cor. 1:18

 

1 – Abomination/Abominable – Latin - 114

2 – Abridgement – Latin – 5

3 – Adieu – Latin – 1

4 – Alpha – Greek – 1

5 - Apostles – Greek – 16

6 – Astonish – Latin – 44

7 – Authority – Latin – 47

8 – Baptize – Late Latin/Greek – 154

9 – Bible – Greek - 11

10 – Blasphemy – from the Latin from the Greek – 3

11 – Christ – Latin, Greek – 312

12 – Christians – Latin, Greek – 4

13 – Church – Greek – 259

14 – Commanded – Latin – 278

15 – Commandment – Latin – 238

16 – Confound – From Middle English – Anglo Norman & Latin – 31

17 – Contend – Latin – 56

18 – Contentious/Contention – Latin – 86

19 – Covenant – Latin – 145

20 – Cross – Latin, Greek – 37

21 – Crucified – Greek – 9

22 – Destruction & Destroy – Latin – 446

23 – Disciples – Latin – 55

24 – Dissension, dissent, dissented – Latin – 52

25 – Doctrine – Greek – 26

26 – Epistle – Greek – 39

27 – Establish & derivatives – Latin – 92

28 – Exceedingly – Latin – 327

29 – Exhorting – Latin – 29

30 – Expedient – Latin – 60

31 – Experiment – Latin – 4

32 – Expound – Latin – 16

33 – Faculties, faculty – Latin – 6

34 – Genealogy – from the Latin from the Greek – 9

35 – Genius – Latin – 1

36 – Gentile – Latin – 148

37 – Glory – Latin – 90

38 – Gospel –Greek – 41

39 – Govern, governor, government & derivatives – from the Latin, from Greek – 65

40 – Grace – Latin – 31

41 – Holy Ghost – Holy is Latin & Greek, Ghost is Greek– 94

42 – Holy Spirit – Spirit is Latin – 16

43 – Hypocrite – Latin – 12 

44 – Inasmuch – Greek, Indo-European roots – 31

45 – Industry – Latin – 6

46 – Insomuch – Middle English from the Greek – 180

47 – Intercession – Latin – 4

48 – Interposition – Latin – 1

49 – Invent – Latin – 1

50 – Jesus – from the Latin, from the Greek – 112

51 – Jesus Christ – 83

52 – Jesus is the Christ – 3

53 – John – Greek – 3

54 – Know & derivatives – Greek – 886

55 – Lamb of God – Lamb is Greek – 67

56 – Language – Latin – 41

57 – Liberty – from Middle English from Latin – 51

58 – Martyr & derivatives – Greek – 2

59 – Messiah – Greek – 31

60 – Monster – from old French from Latin – 6

61 – Mystery – Greek – 24

62 – Nevertheless – Indo-European roots from the Latin 173

63 – Notwithstanding – Medieval Latin – 66

64 – Obedient & derivatives – Latin – 32

65 – Omega – 24th Letter of the Greek alphabet - 3

66 – Omnipotent –Latin – 6

67 – Pacify – Latin – 9

68 – Pastor – Latin – 1

69 – Peace – Latin – 120

70 – Pray – Latin – 175

71 – Preach – Latin – 135

72 – Priest – Latin – up to Mosiah 6 – 112

73 – Priesthood – Latin & Greek – 8

74 – Privilege – Latin – 20

75 – Prophecy – from Latin from Greek – 69

76 – Prophesy – Latin – 94

77 – Prophet – from Latin from Greek – 181

78 – Religion – 10

79 – Repent – Latin – 354

80 – Restoration/Restored – Latin – 68

81 – Resurrection – 81

82 – Revelation – Latin – 47

83 – Rude – Latin – 4

84 – Sacrament – Latin – 1

85 – Saint – Latin – 29

86 – Save, Salvation – Late Latin – 381

87 – Scripture – Latin – 45

88 – Stratagem – Latin from the Greek – 7

89 – Sufficeth – Latin – 14

90 – Tempt, Temptation – Latin – 28

91 – Timothy – Greek – 1

92 – Transfiguration (Transfigure) – Latin – 3

93 – Whore & derivatives – Latin – 35

 

 

 

Greek & Latin words not used that appear in the BoM:

 

 

 

Armies  Battle  Character  Concerning  Descendant  Divers  Exist  Extinct  Faith

Garments  Generation  Grant  Inhabitants  Iniquity  Insurrections  Judge

Judgment  Justice  March  Miracle  Misery  Ordain  Perfect  Perish  Pride  Proud  Pollution

Possession  Power  Quarter  Record  Redeem  Redemption  Remnant - from Latin, remain  Retreat  Sanctuary Tongues  Usurp  Victory