Robert writes home #105 21 Dec 1997
21 Dec 1997
Dear Mother,
I picked up Carrie and Charlie at the Oakland airport yesterday, after a session at the temple. Christmas is almost here. We won't have any little kids here but we'll have our college kids home. Pete and Jessie are coming the day after and Meg and Travis are coming Christmas afternoon.
We are really having nice weather. It isn't even foggy today, which is rare for the Christmas vacation here.
I picked my last pomegranates. They still haven't frozen, but the birds have eaten most of them. They are peak for flavor right now.
The oranges are also coming on now. My tomato plant just got froze 2 nights ago.
Friday was my last day of seminary until the kids go back to school.
I was reading in Hugh Nibley's book, "Since Cumorah, today. He talks about the composition of the Book of Mormon and says when it was first published, critics ridiculed it as an example of illiteracy and outrageous English. They made fun of the way monotonous way he used phrases like, "It came to pass" and "behold". That is just the way Egyptian was written. Always beginning with the same stock phrases in a monotonous way. The stock phrases where used as punctuation, separating thoughts. And that the typesetter added the periods and commas. I thought that was just because Joseph wasn't well educated enough to punctuate a sentence. But the manuscript was written without punctuation, as we know it in English. The Egyptian used those phrases for punctuation. Joseph may not have been able to punctuate a sentence well, I don't know. But if he had of been well educated he might have destroyed some of the authenticity of the document by overlaying it with English form
He spoke of it being written in reformed Egyptian...which was laughed at. They hadn't even been exposed to words like Demotic then. But subsequently it has come to light that abbreviated reformations of Hieroglyphics evolved, called Demotic and Hieratic, until at the time of Lehi, 600 BC. They had a short hadn version of Egyptian writing.
I am intrigued with these bits of information because most of my life I have passed these discrepancies off s being the result of Joseph not being well educated or having a broad vocabulary or the literary genius to write with scintillating style and variable descriptive phrases. Now, I'm beginning to see those features that I thought were weaknesses may be some of the most significant features relative to substantiating evidence, which verify it's authenticity. These concepts aren't so much proof of it's authenticity as they are enlightening insights to the believers. The only way we know of it's truthfulness is by the witness of the Spirit, but these evidences certainly enjance my appreciation for it.
I hope you're doing well.
Love,
Robert, Janet, Sam, Heidi Jo
Dear Mother,
I picked up Carrie and Charlie at the Oakland airport yesterday, after a session at the temple. Christmas is almost here. We won't have any little kids here but we'll have our college kids home. Pete and Jessie are coming the day after and Meg and Travis are coming Christmas afternoon.
We are really having nice weather. It isn't even foggy today, which is rare for the Christmas vacation here.
I picked my last pomegranates. They still haven't frozen, but the birds have eaten most of them. They are peak for flavor right now.
The oranges are also coming on now. My tomato plant just got froze 2 nights ago.
Friday was my last day of seminary until the kids go back to school.
I was reading in Hugh Nibley's book, "Since Cumorah, today. He talks about the composition of the Book of Mormon and says when it was first published, critics ridiculed it as an example of illiteracy and outrageous English. They made fun of the way monotonous way he used phrases like, "It came to pass" and "behold". That is just the way Egyptian was written. Always beginning with the same stock phrases in a monotonous way. The stock phrases where used as punctuation, separating thoughts. And that the typesetter added the periods and commas. I thought that was just because Joseph wasn't well educated enough to punctuate a sentence. But the manuscript was written without punctuation, as we know it in English. The Egyptian used those phrases for punctuation. Joseph may not have been able to punctuate a sentence well, I don't know. But if he had of been well educated he might have destroyed some of the authenticity of the document by overlaying it with English form
He spoke of it being written in reformed Egyptian...which was laughed at. They hadn't even been exposed to words like Demotic then. But subsequently it has come to light that abbreviated reformations of Hieroglyphics evolved, called Demotic and Hieratic, until at the time of Lehi, 600 BC. They had a short hadn version of Egyptian writing.
I am intrigued with these bits of information because most of my life I have passed these discrepancies off s being the result of Joseph not being well educated or having a broad vocabulary or the literary genius to write with scintillating style and variable descriptive phrases. Now, I'm beginning to see those features that I thought were weaknesses may be some of the most significant features relative to substantiating evidence, which verify it's authenticity. These concepts aren't so much proof of it's authenticity as they are enlightening insights to the believers. The only way we know of it's truthfulness is by the witness of the Spirit, but these evidences certainly enjance my appreciation for it.
I hope you're doing well.
Love,
Robert, Janet, Sam, Heidi Jo
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