Posted by:
Paul Davidson
(
)
Date: December 10, 2010 12:18AM
Just wanted to add one more thought on the Book of Mormon problem. Even when the Book of Mormon quotes Isaiah it keeps the King James bible translation errors which is problematic since it does not make any sense to find King James bible translation errors in the Book of Mormon.
In 2 Nephi 23:21, the Book of Mormon quotes Isaiah 13:21, mentioning a creature called a satyr. A satyr is a mythical creature that is not known to have ever existed, although the King James Bible translates Isaiah 34:14 thusly: "But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there."... The Book of Mormon says the following: "But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there."
The Isaiah found in the Book of Mormon does mimic the Isaiah of the King James bible in exact verbatim.
But what is a satyr?
In Greek and Roman mythology, Satyr was a half-man/half-beast god and frequent companion of Bacchus, the Graeco-Roman religion’s god of fruitfulness and vegetation (known more popularly as the god of wine and ecstasy). In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word sa‘ir occurs some fifty-two times. It is related to the term se‘ar (hair), and generally means “a hairy one.” It is used, for example, to speak of the male goat that was employed as the Israelites’ solemn, collective sin offering on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16).
In two cases, however, the King James Version renders sa‘ir as “satyr” (Isaiah 13:21 and 34:14). But the specific context of both passages makes it quite clear that the term is being used to refer to the wild goats that frequently inhabited the ruins of both ancient Babylon and Edom.
This is another fatal mistake that Joseph Smith and friends made in putting together the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon would have said "wild goats" as all versions of the Bible except the KJV does then I would give the Book of Mormon a great deal of credit, but instead the Book of Mormon keeps the King James errors.