“Both Soul and Body”

Brant Gardner

The Hebrew provides an interesting juxtaposition between the fruitful field and what is here rendered as “body and soul.” Blenkinsopp notes that “it may be a merism elsewhere unattested, and is so translated here [as ‘root and branch’].” Merism is a rhetorical/literary device where two or more similar elements are combined to indicate the whole, hence “root and branch” is a merism for the whole tree. The “body and soul” merism works for a whole human, but there isn’t a good parallel between a fruitful field and a human. If, as Blenkinsopp suggests, it is an unattested agricultural merism, then “root and branch” makes a better parallel and therefore translation.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 2

References