One of many arguments for Mosiah priority is that when stylistic trends are mapped according to Nephi priority we get an abrupt shift between Words of Mormon and Moroni, whereas when the changes are mapped according to Mosiah priority the changes over the course of the Book of Mormon are more gradual and natural. The most famous example (first advanced by Brent Metcalfe in the essay cited above) compares Joseph's usage of the roughly synonymous words "therefore" and "wherefore". We can see from the Doctrine and Covenants revelations given during this period that Joseph's preference changed from "therefore" to "wherefore"; in his earlier revelations he almost exclusively uses the former, whereas in the later ones he almost exclusively employs the latter. This shift can also be observed in the Book of Mormon, with Ether as the pivot point. In the early chapters of Ether "therefore" predominates. In the middle chapters both words are used with more or less equal frequency. Near the end of the book "wherefore" is dominant. We can graph this trend to see the difference between Mosiah and Nephi priority:
The reason there is a spike of "therefore" in 2 Nephi is that it copies verbatim at great length from KJV Isaiah, and in these passages Joseph tended to retain the translators' uses of "therefore". (This, by the way, is another evidence for these copied passages' dependence on the KJV rather than on an ancient manuscript source.)
2 comments:
Well I think the graphs are interesting but I wonder what you are trying to point out, or if you're trying to point anything out. I know that you know that the Book of Mormon claims that there are three main authors of the BoM. Mormon, compiled the text from the Words of Mormon to Mormon, Moroni, compiled, Ether and Moroni, Nephi authored 1 & 2nd Nephi. The sudden changes in the uses of therefore and wherefore map quite well to those internal claims.
Hi Max,
They don't map as well against those internal claims as you might think. Words of Mormon uses "Therefore" not at all, overwhelmingly preferring "Wherefore" instead. But the rest of the books by Mormon omit "Wherefore" entirely, overwhelmingly preferring "Therefore". This is what we'd expect in Mosiah priority, but not what we'd expect if the shift was due to ancient authors.
More importantly, though, exactly the same shift from "therefore" to "wherefore" happens in the D&C, at the same time that it happens in the Book of Mormon. In other words, the shift was Joseph Smith's, not an ancient author's.
The same can be said for the transition between Mormon's and Moroni's works. Over the course of Ether, we see a very gradual shift from "therefore" in the early chapters to "wherefore" in the later ones. This is consistent with the change in Joseph's vocabulary during that period, but is not the sudden shift we'd expect if it was due to the switch from Mormon to Moroni.
How would an ancient author differentiate between therefore and wherefore, anyway? The two English words are basically synonymous, at least as they are used in the Book of Mormon. The difference between the two is more an English idiosyncracy than a substantive difference. Did ancient Hebrew have such a distinction? I'm pretty sure it didn't. Did ancient Egyptian? I doubt it.
Anyway, hope that helps understand where I'm coming from.
Best,
-Chris
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