Comments on: They Were Exceedingly Rejoiced http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/23/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/ A Mormon Blog Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:06:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: By Common Consent » It Supposeth Me http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/23/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18712 Sat, 21 Oct 2006 21:29:15 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18712 [...] In my They Were Exceedingly Rejoiced thread, Wm Jas asks this question: “Is there a similar explanation for the BoM’s odd use of “suppose” — as in “it supposeth me that thou art a child of hell”?” Baneemy at ZLMB asked a similar question without receiving any useful response: In several places the BoM uses the word suppose anomalously, using “it supposeth me” to mean “I suppose.” As far as I can tell, the BoM is the only place the word is used that way. I haven’t been able to find “it supposeth me” or “it supposes me” used this way anywhere else. Is it just a little grammatical error by JS, or is it some archaic form analogous to “methinks”? Does anyone happen to know? [...]

]]> By: Wm Jas http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/23/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18711 Sat, 21 Oct 2006 13:04:45 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18711 Is there a similar explanation for the BoM’s odd use of “suppose” — as in “it supposeth me that thou art a child of hell”?

]]> By: Edje http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/23/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18710 Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:59:09 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18710 Another data point: Webster’s 1828 dictionary includes transitive and intransitive forms of “rejoice” with no comment on their relative obscurity.

]]> By: Tatiana http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/23/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18709 Sun, 24 Sep 2006 17:07:58 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18709 Plus, archaisms are just cool. Maybe God struggles to keep up with the changes in human languages that occur over eyeblinks of time like centuries. =) Maybe he deliberately speaks in ways that link us to our brethren across the aeons. Or maybe he just knows we connect in the right way with that sort of language.

When Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings, he also chose archaic language. It just feels right that way, doesn’t it? I’ve never been able to enjoy reading updated versions of scriptures. It comes across to me as faintly ridiculous sounding, like translating things into current slang, “Yo! friends, Romans, homies, listen up!”

]]> By: Kevin Barney http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/23/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18708 Sun, 24 Sep 2006 15:09:34 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18708 The examples of a passive “were rejoiced” given in the OED range from 1375 to 1841.

On BoM archaisms, Royal Skousen has recently argued that some of the vocabulary and usage in the BoM derives from the 1500s and 1600s rather than the 1800s. See his “The Archaic Vocabulary of the BoM,” Insights 25/5 (2005), here. I suspect at least part of the reason for this may be the persistence of archaisms in backwoods America, but this is a recent finding and I don’t think anyone, including Skousen himself, has a very good handle yet on what it means.

]]> By: Dan http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/23/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18707 Sun, 24 Sep 2006 09:26:38 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18707 The Book of Mormon, while written by Mormon, was translated by Joseph Smith. Does the OED provide any guidance as to the first occurence of “rejoiced?”

Joseph Smith translated the BOM in the language he knew. I think that “rejoiced” was the best way he could understand the meaning of the original word on the golden plates.

]]> By: Tatiana http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/23/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18706 Sun, 24 Sep 2006 07:15:39 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/09/they-were-exceedingly-rejoiced/#comment-18706 (is rejoiced at this post)

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