Friday, December 10, 2010

Gold Plated Epistles

Alma 61:1 [Book of Mormon]
“Behold, now it came to pass that soon after Moroni had sent his epistle unto the church governor, he received an epistle from Pahoran, the chief governor. And these are the words which he received.” (Alma 61:1)
Epistle? Really? So they are sending letters back and forth to each other. But Joseph translates the word letter as epistle, because that is a natural translation? It doesn’t make sense. The word epistle in the English language carries connotations that it did not in the original Greek. It has come to mean a religious letter sent by an apostle. So that a “prophet” or whatever sent and epistle would be understandable. But here he also receives one? Hmm. From a governor? Governors send memos.
One also wonders what these epistles are written on? I can just see messengers running back and forth with golden plates filled with the latest memo from the governor.

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