The tenor of the book of Mormon[1] is in this wise: Following the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel, the peoples of the earth were scattered abroad, one colony being led by the Lord across the ocean to America. Fifteen hundred years after, or six hundred years before Christ, they were destroyed for their wickedness. Of the original number was Jared, among whose descendants was the prophet Ether, who was their historian. Ether lived to witness the extinction of his nation, and under divine direction he deposited his history in a locality where it was found by a second colony, Israelites of the tribe of Joseph, who came from Jerusalem about the time of the destruction of the first colony, namely, six hundred years before Christ. Thus was America repeopled; the second colony occupied the site of the first, multiplied and became rich, and in time divided into two nations, the Nephites and the Lamanites, so called from their respective founders, Nephi and Laman. The former advanced in civilization, but the Lamanites lapsed into barbarism, and were the immediate progenitors of the American aboriginals.
The Nephites were the beloved of the Lord. To them were given visions and angels' visits; to them the Christ appeared with gifts of gospel and prophecy. It was, indeed, the golden age of a favored people; but in a time of temptation, some three or four centuries after Christ, they fell, and were destroyed by
- ↑ ‘The word “Mormon,” the name given to his book, is the English termination of the Greek word mormoo, which we find defined in an old, obsolete dictionary to mean bugbear, hobgoblin, raw head, and bloody bones.’ Howe's Mormonism Unveiled, 21. ‘The word “Mormon” is neither Greek nor derived from the Greek, but from the “reformed Egyptian.”’ Bell's Reply to Theobald, 2. In Times and Seasons, Mr Smith writes as follows with regard to the meaning of the word ‘Mormon’: ‘We say from the Saxon, good; the Dane, god; the Goth, goda; the German, gut; the Dutch, goed; the Latin, bonus; the Greek, kalos; the Hebrew, tob; and the Egyptian, mon. Hence, with the addition of more, or the contraction mor, we have the word “Mormon,” which means, literally more good.’ ‘Joseph Smith, annoyed at the profane wit which could derive the word “Mormon” from the Greek mormo, a bugbear, wrote an epistle on the subject, concluding with an elaborate display of his philological talent, such as he was accustomed to make on every possible occasion.’ Taylder's Mormon's Own Book, xxxiv., xxxv.
