Source:Echoes:Ch7:15:Many "ands" in Book of Mormon

Many "Ands"

Many "Ands"

Biblical Hebrew uses the equivalent of the conjunction and much more than English uses and, especially in historical narrative and prose but also in poetry and direct speech. Its frequent appearance in English sounds irregular and repetitive. Consider the ten ands in the King James Version of 1 Samuel 17:34–35:

and David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father'ssheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:

and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. (emphasis added)

Compare also the thirteen ands in a single verse of Joshua:

and Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. (Joshua 7 24:{{{4}}}, emphasis added)

The Book of Mormon corresponds to the Old Testament in its use of many ands throughout its historical and prose sections. There are twenty-two ands in 1 Nephi 11:30–32, which describes Nephi's vision of the Lamb of God ministering among his people; 1 Nephi 12:4 contains twelve ands in a single verse pertaining to Nephi's vision of the destruction of the land shortly before Christ's coming; Mosiah 10:8 contains eight ands in a list of weapons; and Alma 46:12–13 contains fifteen ands in a description of {{s||Moroni|and his title of liberty. Helaman 3:14, with its eighteen ands in a single verse, is a good example of how an awkward construction in the English translation of the Book of Mormon makes perfectly good sense in Hebrew and reflects the ancient character of the book:

But behold, a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people, yea, the account of the Lamanites and of the Nephites, and their wars, and contentions, and dissensions, and their preaching, and their prophecies, and their shipping and their building of ships, and their building of temples, and of synagogues and their sanctuaries, and their righteousness, and their wickedness, and their murders, and their robbings, and their plundering, and all manner of abominations and whoredoms, cannot be contained in this work. (emphasis added)