RAMATH: Difference between revisions

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'''Variants'''
'''Variants'''


'''Deseret Alphabet:'''
'''[[Deseret Alphabet]]:''' ๐ก๐๐ฃ๐Š๐›


'''Notes'''
'''Notes'''

Revision as of 15:48, 5 June 2013

Biblical GN 1. A location in ancient ISRAEL (2 Nephi 20:29 = Isaiah 10:29)

Etymology

RAMATH is the name of a location in ancient ISRAEL but is not mentioned as a separate PN or GN in the book of Mormon.[1]

This spelling, RAMATH, occurs only once in the Book of Mormon, namely in the quote from Isaiah 10:29. The King James Bible text of Isaiah 10:29, however, has Ramah, meaning โ€œheightโ€ in Hebrew.

Royal Skousen, ATV 2:759, makes a strong case that the Book of Mormon spelling in this ISAIAH passage, RAMATH, is a scribal error on Oliver Cowderyโ€™s part for the King James ISAIAH spelling Ramah. He cites the proximity of Aiath in verse 28 and Hamath in verse 9 as being the analogical source for Cowderyโ€™s error, along with the fact that Cowdery analogically misspells other King James biblical names in the ISAIAH passages of 2 Nephi 18-20.

Both JAT and RFS have suggested that the Book of Mormon spelling with โ€“th (which represents the sound of an aspirated Hebrew taw, ๏ฌจ) might be an archaic form of the feminine ending.[2] It is however unlikely that the Hebrew of LEHIโ€™s day would have retained the anachronistic feminine ending โ€“at(h). Nevertheless, there is a plausible scenario in which the archaic ending might have been preserved, namely, if the EGYPTIAN text (see Mosiah 1:4) of the ISAIAH portions of the Brass Plates had somehow represented a taw, and that taw was copied onto the small plates.

The Ramath of King James Joshua 19:8 is not related to the Ramah of Isaiah 10:29, and hence also not related to 2 Nephi 20:29, for two reasons: It is spelled with an aleph in Hebrew, rรขสพmat (the construct form); and, rather than being in the tribal territory of BENJAMIN (as in the ISAIAH passage), the Ramath in Joshua 19:8 is specifically designated as being in the Negev/South.

See also RAMAH.

See also Ramath Variants.

Variants

Deseret Alphabet: ๐ก๐๐ฃ๐Š๐›

Notes


  1. โ†‘ The Book of Mormon GN in the Book of Ether, Ramah, will be treated as a separate entry.
  2. โ†‘ In Semitic languages in general, what became the grammatical feminine forms ended originally in โ€“at or โ€“t. Those which ended in the latter retained the feminine marker โ€“t. But those that ended in โ€“at eventually dropped the phoneme /t/, leaving the /a/ vowel, which was indicated in Hebrew orthography with the vowel/consonant combination /-ฤh/. In biblical Hebrew the /t/ returns when any suffix is attached to the end of a /-ฤh/ feminine form.