Adverbials in the Book of Mormon

Parent page: Book of Mormon/Anthropology/Language/Hebraisms

Hebrew influence on Book of Mormon text: Adverbials

Hebrew has fewer adverbs than English. Instead, it often uses prepositional phrases with the preposition meaning in or with. The English translation of the Book of Mormon contains more of these prepositional phrases in place of adverbs than we would expect if the book had been written in English originally—another Hebraism. Here are some examples:

"with patience" instead of patiently (Mosiah 24:15)

"with much harshness" instead of very harshly (1 Nephi 18:11)

"with joy" instead of joyfully (Jacob 4:3)

"in spirit and in truth" instead of spiritually and truly (Alma 34:38)

"in righteousness" instead of righteously (1 Nephi 20:1)

"with gladness" instead of gladly (2 Nephi 28:28)^[1]

Notes

1. ↑ John A. Tvedtnes, "The Hebrew Background of the Book of Mormon," in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon, edited by John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Co.; Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1991), Chapter 8.