Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-03-02

Damascus, Esh sham, and 50 on, Thu
names have changed even in Bbl'
lands, and In spite OF uninterrupted his
tory. We are confronted by the sam'
fact, II the names Of the Bible are com
pared with the names Of Bible lands a!
recorded In ancient secular Inscriptions
There Is. for Instance a hieratic pa
pyrus Of the fourteenth century Il. c
which contains description Of car
riage journey through Syria made by
an Egyptian officer, but the Identified
ton Of the names. so scholars tell us
Is very dubious" In some ether rec
ords in cunoiform inscriptions the
names Haa2atu, Ursalimmu, and Sa-
marina are found among others sup
posed Ia he GAIA. Jerusalem and Sa-
maria respectively. Thus names
change. Haz2atu Of the cnneiform in
scription is GAIA in Gen. 10: 10, while
on modern maps II is Ghuzzeh. Jeru-
salem was once Ursaimmu, while to
day II is FL Kuds. =
What force is there, then, IN the al
legation that Bible names stu remain
In Bible lands? Some DO but gres t
many DO not. But suppose that every
copy OF the Bible had been buried
shortly after the destruction of Jeru-
salem, as the sacred implements e. the
ancient temple were once hid by a
Prophet. Suppose the Christians had
been previously all but annhilated by
persecution Suppose that the Bible
lands had been oyerrun with Saracene
and Arabic civilization minus the ele-
ments Of Christian origin, and that H.
ually" a copy" the Bible had been
found. Would II, under those elrcum
stances have been possible to Identify
a single Bible name? The fact that 50
many names have changed. notwlth-
standing every effort to preserve them,
is sufficient reply to all these questions,
Where would a modern scholar with
newly discovered Bible. lost for CEN
turtles, look for Canaan? In the name
Palestine, there is no indication Of
what region is meant by Canaan, Or
where would he look for Mzralm?
Could he guess that Egypt Is the Old
Testament Mizraim? What about shur?
What about such names as Tubal
Jayan. Cog, Magog, Armageddon and
others?
The third statement Is plain case Of
begging the question. Mr.. Hancock says
Book Of Mormon names are not found
In the Americas To prove that, he gives
an incomplete list of such names and a
still more defective list Of ancient
American names, and behold! because
one mutllated list shows no resemblance
TO some fragments of another, therefore
one Is a fraud. II this reasoning were
applied to the Bible that sacred record
would also have to be pronounced fic-
ton. From what has been said in these
paragraphs. II is clear that 1t would be
easy TO pick out half a hundred Bible
names Of cities. rivers and countries,
and place beside them an equal number
Of modern or ancient names. totally diff
ferent, though many Of them would
stand for the same places, 1t Is equally
easy to make similar experiment with
names Of persons. The following names
are supposed to represent the same his
torioal persons:
Bible Names: Secular Records:
Pull Kin. 15 h.. ...,... Khinziros.
Merodach- Baladan. Is. 80: 1,,.."..
u."...".,.,..,.r. Mardokempados.
Sargon, Is. 20 1"....,.n,.. Arkeanos.
Essar- Haddon. Kings. 10 S7."".,
.".t..,,.,.,,,,.,...,. 80. Asarldlnos.
Darius, Dan. 0; Recommendation
Belshazzar, Dan. 7: 1,.... .Labynetus.
This brief list is sufficient to show
the nature Of the discrepancies between
some Bible names and those on other
records. What value then, has the ar
gument against the Book Of Mormon
that Is founded on discrepancies In
names? Were the history Of ancient
America as well known as IS the his
tory of Egypt, Assyrla, Babylonla and
Syria, those discrepancies might easily |
be accounted for.
The critic of the Book of Mormon |
should not lose sight of the history of |
that volume According to the book
itself, shortly after the deluge, some |
members OF the human family were |
brought to this continent where they
became the bearers of their own pecun.
ar civilization. These were the Jare-
dites. Six hundred years before Christ
another colony came from the
Holy Land and settled in South
America, From this colony |
the Nephites and the Lamanites sprung
The two, although Of one common
stock soon developed on different lines.
somewhat similar to the two branches
Of the house of Abraham. A third
colony also came to this hemisphere
from Jerusalem, shortly after the one
Just mentioned, II flourlshed for CEN
turtles and was finally discovered by a
party Of Nephites, travelling northward.
Between the Nephites and the Lamar.
ties there were constant wars and the
former were almost annihilated. Be
fore this, however, the Prophet Mormon
gathered the records OF the people and
copied them in an abridged form.
Moroni, his son, finished this work, and
hid the completed volume in the hill
Nephi was, as he informs
US, Hebrew and Egyptian scholar,
and without doubt the knowledge OF
these two languages was perpetuated
as far as II was possible to do so while
wars were raging, causing more or less
conditions, When finally the
of the Nephlte records was
made the vernacular had, naturally,
been so modified that II was pract
a new tongue.
With these facts before us 1t Is plain
that we cannot look for any LARGE ust |