Blending

The concept of blending is discussed in the book A Man that Can Translate. Here is an excerpt from pages 223-229:

[Several] passages in the text include bits of New and Old Testament phrases joined together to compose a single verse in the Book of Mormon. Royal Skousen describes this as “blending.”

[Blending] is quite different from a paraphrastic quoting of a single King James passage (or a midrash-like commentary on it). It is as if the translator knows the King James Bible so well that hardly anything can be translated without using biblical phrases and expressions. Thus the Book of Mormon translation is much more than a literal rendition of what was originally on the plates. It is a highly creative translation affected by a thoroughly absorbed knowledge of the King James Bible.[1]

The concept of blending is comparable to the concept of chunking. In both cases, the author or speaker rearranges terms, phrases and concepts drawn from his/her mental language bank to express his/her thoughts that often have little or nothing to do with the original source.

The blending in the Book of Mormon is fluid. The manuscripts show no evidence of trial-and-error dictation or collaboration. And this is exactly how language works in our minds. We formulate thoughts by arranging and rearranging chunks of language we have heard or read elsewhere, converting those chunks into our own unique expressions.

The first example of blending Skousen offers is from Mosiah 18:21, “having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.”

This passage contains the only usage of the term knit in the Book of Mormon. The term appears seven times in the KJV. Three of these involve the term heart(s).

Epistle Dedicatory. “is that which hath so bound and firmly knit the hearts of all Your Majesty’s loyal and religious people unto You…”

1 Chronicles 12:17. “If ye become peaceably unto me to help me, mine heart shall be knit unto you…”

Colossians 2:2. “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love…”

Skousen demonstrates the blending this way:[2]

Mosiah 18:21 having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another

Colossians 2:2 … their hearts… being knit together in love

Skousen points out that other writers used similar phrases.

1652, John Clarke, “and had their hearts knit together in a more than ordinary bond of love.”

1656, Alexander Grosse, “and to have our hearts knit together in love.”

Of course, both of these authors postdated the 1611 King James Version and the Epistle Dedicatory, so they represent blending of biblical passages themselves.

There is another element of Mosiah 18:21 that has a relationship to a Biblical passage. The phrase “in unity” appears only once in the Book of Mormon and once in the Bible. Psalm 133:1 reads, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”

Adding this passage to the blending gives us a more complete accounting for the passage:

Mosiah 18:21 having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another

Colossians 2:2 … their hearts… being knit together in love

Psalm 133:1 …dwell together in unity

Whether he composed the text or translated it, Joseph could have blended Colossians and Psalms subconsciously, by randomly choosing passages from different parts of the Bible, or by coincidence. The combination of Old and New Testament verses is problematic for a literal translation because the Book of Mormon authors presumably had no access to New Testament texts. That’s why this is good evidence of both composition and translation. Note, however, that we still must omit much of Colossians and Psalms to make the blending work.

Skousen treats KJV blending as evidence that Joseph did not translate the text.

It is as if the translator knows the King James Bible so well that hardly anything can be translated without using biblical phrases and expressions… Each example provides an extraordinary demonstration of linguistic gymnastics. Of course, all of this is quite amazing, perhaps even miraculous, if one assumes that Joseph Smith must have been the one responsible for all of this textual manipulation.[3]

Without discounting the spiritual element involved with the translation (“the gift and power of God”), there is a source of blending in the Book of Mormon that Skousen did not consider. That is, the text of the Book of Mormon could blend not only the KJV, but also the writings of prominent Christian theologians such as Jonathan Edwards and James Hervey.

2. 18^th century theologians.

As a rule, preachers and theologians quote, paraphrase, and rearrange passages from the Bible. The blending in the Book of Mormon is different, though, in the sense that passages (chunks) of biblical and theological language are used not to borrow authority from the original, but instead to repurpose the chunks for an entirely different document. That distinction is key to understanding how Joseph translated the text.

Let’s start with Jonathan Edwards, the “father of American theology.”[4] He introduced Colossians 2:2 with his own preface and paraphrased the rest.[5] Separately, he spoke of counsel to live in unity and love one another. His work offers a simpler and cleaner blending than one derived solely from the KJV.

Jonathan Edwards: “and seemed, by their discourse and behavior after public worship, to have their ‘hearts knit together in love’ Colossians 2:2.” Also: "giving of them counsel, to live in unity and love one another, as one that was going from them…”

Combining these quotations, we see a closer fit than the KJV verses, and without the omissions those verses require. Plus, the Edwards phrase starts with a form of the verb have.

Mosiah 18:21 having their hearts knit together in unity and in love

Colossians 2:2 … their hearts… being knit together in love

Psalm 133:1 … dwell together in unity

_____

Mosiah 18:21 having their hearts knit together in unity and in love

Edwards have their hearts knit together in love

Edwards in unity and love

To be sure, Edwards used the Bible here, but he did so in chunks, putting biblical passages in his own construction to paraphrase rather than directly quote the Bible, much the same way that the Book of Mormon does. Because the original chunks are so diverse, I suggest this blending in the Book of Mormon is not evidence of copying from the Bible (or from Edwards) but instead is evidence of composition or translation from Joseph’s mental language bank.

Earlier in this chapter we noted Lucy Mack Smith’s observation that Joseph “had never read the Bible through in his life.” The evidence in the text suggests that, instead of blending passages directly from the KJV, Joseph may have blended passages from the theologians whose work he read.

Mosiah 18:21 offers a clue. The conclusion of Mosiah 18:21 reads having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another. This is close, but not identical to, the conclusion of the Edwards passage—to live in unity and love one another.

Mosiah 18:21 is one of three instances in the Book of Mormon of the phrase one towards another. The phrase one towards another does not appear in the KJV. It is a non-biblical phrase.

But Edwards uses the phrase often. Here are some examples.

“When religion therefore prevails among a people, there will be seen much of a spirit of love one towards another amongst them…”

“The love of men one towards another oftentimes grows up suddenly…”

“all living in love, studying to promote one another's good, abounding in deeds of righteousness and mercy, apt to forbear with one another, apt to forgive one another, ready to deny themselves one for another, living together like a society of brethren in all Christian and holy behavior one towards another.”

While Joseph could have added this phrase to his mental language bank from a variety of sources, Jonathan Edwards is a likely candidate. If we search for similar phrases instead of the exact phrase, we find that the phrase one toward another (without the s) appears in the Bible five times, but never in the Book of Mormon. The non-biblical phrase one towards another appears in Edwards 76 times.

Statistically, we see that Edwards is far more likely to use towards than toward, but he still uses both. A qualitative analysis suggests a more specific reason for the difference between the Bible and the Book of Mormon, however.

Edwards misquoted the Bible the same way the Book of Mormon does.

One of the biblical passages is 1 Thessalonians 3:12. “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:”

Jonathan Edwards misquoted the passage this way:

"The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another, and towards all men, even as we do toward you."

Another biblical passage is Romans 12:16. “Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.”

Edwards never quoted this passage from Romans accurately, but twice, he misquoted it in a paraphrase:

(i) “with Brotherly Love be of the same mind one towards another in Love serving one another.”

(ii) “Here we are exhorted to unanimity, and to be of the same mind one towards another; not to mind high things, but to condescend to men of low degree.”

In fact, two of the three times Edwards wrote “one toward another” he was misquoting (or paraphrasing) John 13:35.

John 13:35. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

Edwards. “that particular token of their being the disciples of Christ, viz., of their ‘having love one toward another’ John 13:35”

Edwards. “Their hearts were full of ‘love one toward another’ John 13:35.”

This example of blending shows both that Mosiah 18:21 is closer to Edwards than to the KJV, and that the last phrase of verse 21 does not appear in the KJV but does appear in Edwards many times—including in his misquotes of Romans 12:16.

This evidence leads me to conclude that Jonathan Edwards is a more likely source for the blending in Mosiah 18:21 than the KJV.

Notes

[1] Skousen, Part 4 (2018): 1031.

[2] Skousen, Part 4 (2018): 1032.

[3] Skousen, Part 4 (2018): 1031.

[4] Wilson (2012): 132.

[5] For the original source, enter search terms at http://edwards.yale.edu/.