the counterargument addresses the issue directly and shows that christ is used in the book of mormon in the same way that biblical scholars have interpreted the term they have translated the relatively synonymous terms 'khrist s' and 'messiah' into english giving each a distinct usage joseph smith seems to have followed the same patterns in translation because the purpose of a translation is to convey the meaning of the base language not to be overly literal obviously the word khrist s would not have been etched on the plates the nephites didn't speak greek just as they didn't speak french see the end of the book of jacob joseph smith chose to translate whichever word or character was written into the english word christ because that is how christ is used in not only modern english but in the english bible itself the fact remains that english bibles use the terms christ and messiah in the same way that the book of mormon does which the critics fail to mention and they do not fault the bible for doing so