On Instagram, a well-meaning post claims the phrase "river of water" is evidence that the Book of Mormon came from a Hebrew source.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYaoV6kA9ZY/?igsh=MWdpd2hzMHZoYW54Zw%3D%3D
priesthoodmen
One of the interesting linguistic details in the Book of Mormon is the phrase “river of water.”
In English, we usually just say “river.”
But in Hebrew, phrases like “river of water” are common because the language uses descriptive compound expressions that translate directly that way into English.
Joseph Smith didn’t study ancient Hebrew until years after translating the Book of Mormon.
So how did that phrasing end up there?
A simple search of the scriptures would have shown that the phrase "river of water" appears in the KJV, right in Revelation:
1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
(Revelation 22:1)
Jonathan Edwards used that phrase many times, both by referencing Rev. 22:1 and separately.
The phrase "rivers of water" appears 4 times in the Old Testament, such as this passage in Isaiah:
2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. (Isaiah 32:2)
Edwards even paraphrased Proverbs 21:1
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. (Proverbs 21:1)
Proverbs 21:1, "The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, as the river of water : he turneth it whithersoever it pleaseth him."
All of this is evidence that Joseph Smith translated the engravings on the plates using his own language he obtained from the Bible and his "intimate acquaintance with those of different denominations" such as Jonathan Edwards.
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Additional examples from Edwards, some of which refer to the deserts of Arabia:
Now when a man finds Jesus Christ, he is like a man that has been traveling in these deserts till he is ready to perish with thirst, and at last finds a river of cool and clear water; 'tis exceeding refreshing. Christ was once actually typified by a river of water that was miraculously caused to flow in the dry deserts of Arabia...
That Son of God who is the brightness of his Father's glory appears there in his glory, without that veil of outward meanness in which he appeared in this world, as a root out of dry ground destitute of outward glory. There the Holy Spirit shall be poured forth with perfect sweetness, as a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, Revelation 22 at the beginning; a river whose waters are without any manner of pollution.
There the Holy Spirit shall be poured forth with perfect sweetness, as a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal
The earnest is a part of the inheritance; which shows that our future inheritance, that happiness spoken of that God will give his saints, is nothing but a fullness of his Spirit. This is that " river of water of life" which comes from the throne of God and the Lamb
To the like purpose, Christ is called a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, and as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (Isaiah 32 at the beginning).
God hath provided a watercourse for the overflowing of the waters and he turns the rivers of water whithersoever it pleaseth him.
Isaiah 32:2. "As rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." There is an allusion here to the deserts of Arabia, which was an exceeding hot and dry place. One might travel many days' going, and see no sign of a river, brook, or spring, nothing but a dry and parched wilderness...
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