Russell M. Nelson
“In the English language, the components are at-one-meant, suggesting that a person is at one with another. Other languages employ words that connote either expiration or reconciliation. Expiation means ’to atone for.’ Reconciliation comes from Latin roots re, meaning ‘again’; con, meaning ‘with’; and sella, meaning ’seat.’ Reconciliation, therefore, literally means ’to sit again with.’…In Hebrew, the basic word for atonement is kaphar, a verb that means ‘to cover’ or ’to forgive.’ Closely related is the Aramaic and Arabic word kafat, meaning ‘a close embrace’—no doubt related to the Egyptian ritual embrace….While the words atone or atonement, in any of their forms, appear only once in the King James translation of the New Testament, they appear 35 times in the Book of Mormon. As another testament of Jesus Christ, it sheds precious light on His Atonement.” (Ensign, Nov. 1996, pp.34-5 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 85)