Mormon scholars have longed mined the Book of Mormon in search of Hebraisms--words, patterns, and other linguistic clues that point to its Semitic origin. Most spectacularly Jack Welch has shown the widespread use of chiasm in the book. This paper will show how Hebrew assumptions about time--which differ markedly from the Indo-European ones of the Western intellectual tradition--explain some seemingly awkward passages in Mosiah.

During the course of his trial, Abinadi speaks repeatedly of the Savior's atonement. Despite the fact that he is speaking more than a century and a half before the birth of Christ, Abinadi repeatedly refers to the Lord's suffering and atonement in the past tense. At the same time, he claims to be prophesying about the future. The result is--to Indo-European ears--an awkward shifting back and forth of tenses because of Abinadi's "speaking of things to come as though they had already come" (Mosiah 16:6). Modern Indo-European readers are left asking, "Why not simply let a single, consistent, chronology govern the use of language?" The answer lies in Abinadi's Hebrew attitude toward time.

Language is a kind of fossilized philosophy. Inherent in any language there are basic assumptions that become the "common sense" of those using that language. Scholars such as James Faulconer and Thorlief Boman have pointed out the ways in which the concepts of time embedded in Hebrew differ from those embedded in Indo-European languages such as Greek and English. Indo-Europeans are inclined to think of time spatially. The present is viewed as being a point on a line, with the past stretching backwards on the line and the future stretching forward. Time is made up of discreet instants that relate to one another primarily in terms of chronology.

In contrast, Hebrew rejects the primacy of space in thinking about time. Instead, there are two other things that powerfully structure their thinking: rhythm and a different concept of tense. Hebrews view time in terms repeated patterns or rhythms. To Hebrews the notion of discreet events makes less sense than the idea that events are defined by their relationships within a larger rhythm. In Indo-European languages chronology structures tense. Indo-European tenses communicate whether an action is located in the past, the present, or the future. Hebrew, however, is less tied to these chronological distinctions. Instead, Hebrew tenses communicate whether or not an action is complete or incomplete. Thus English translations of Hebrew verbs often mask this complete/incomplete paradigm with English's Indo-European concepts of tense.

Abinadi's use of tense to speak about the atonement fits into a consistent pattern or rhythm in the Book of Mormon. Repeated narratives in the book follow a pattern whereby the righteous escape from danger by a route prepared in advance by the Lord. Lehi is warned to flee before the destruction of Jerusalem (1 Ne 2). Nephi obtains the plates because of Laban's drunkenness (1 Ne 4). Mosiah I is warned in advance by the Lord to flee Zarahemla (Omni 12). Repeatedly, the book shows that "the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them" (1 Ne 3:7). Abinadi's discussion of the atonement follows this pattern, referring to "the redemption [that] . . . was prepared from the foundation of the world." (Mosiah 15:19). Thus, his use of the past tense is required by the rhythm through which he understands the atonement.

Finally, the use of tense makes sense in light of what we know about Hebrew. Abinadi is calling for immediate repentance, which he assures his listeners will be fully efficacious for all. Nowhere does Abinadi (or any other pre-meridian prophet) suggest that repentance might not work because Christ might not accomplish his mortal task at Gethsamene. Rather, he affirms that only faith in Christ (in contrast to faith in the law) is true and reliable. This being the case, the atonement is already complete and available. The way of repentance is open and reliable, regardless of the chronological position of sinner in relationship to Christ's mortal suffering. Since the atonement is complete, it makes perfect sense from a Hebrew standpoint that Abinadi speaks of it in the passed tense. The English tense used by Joseph Smith in his translation simply masks an underlying account that places less stress on chronology and more stress on completeness of the atonement.

Bowman, Thorlief. 1960. Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek. trans. Jules L. Moreau. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.

Bushman, Richard. 1982. The Book of Mormon and the American Revolution. in Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins ed. Noel Reynolds. Provo: FARMS.

Faulconer, James. 1999. Scripture Study. Provo: FARMS.