SAMUEL

From Book of Mormon Onomasticon
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Biblical PN 1. Prophet (3 Nephi 20:24)
Lehite PN 2. Prophet, perhaps named from No. 1, who, being an Ephraimite, was also a descendant of JOSEPH (Helaman 13:2; Mormon 2:10)

SAMUEL is the English rendering of the Hebrew name šĕmûʾēl. Other Hebrew names in the Book of Mormon are also reproduced in their English form and not according to their Hebrew pronunciation. For example, the Book of Mormon has Jacob, not the Hebrew form Ya’ăkōb, and Messiah and not Māšȋāḥ.

SAMUEL is composed of two common Semitic vocables, šm and ʾl. The former means “the name,” “Name,” or even “descendant/offspring;”[1] and the latter is the common Semitic word for “god” or “El.” Thus the name could mean, “Name of God,” “The Name is God/El,” or “Scion of God.”[2]

Notes

  1. HALOT, sub שמואל. See also Scott C. Layton, Archaic Features of Canaanite Personal Names in the Hebrew Bible, Harvard Semitic Monographs 47 (Atlanta, GA: Shcolars Press, 1990), 78, 86, and note 232.
  2. See HALOT, sub שמואל. For a thorough discussion of the name, see Layton, 78-87.