Many names of people and places in the Book of Mormon make apparent its Semitic and Egyptian background. The name Paanchi is of Egyptian origin, a fact not even disputed by Book of Mormon critics. In “A Note on the Name Nephi” (Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 1/1), scholar John Gee describes the name Nephi as an “attested Syro-Palestinian Semitic form of an attested Egyptian man’s name dating from the Late Period of Egypt.” Jewish names in the Book of Mormon include Sariah, Jershon, and Cumorah, the first of which was found in an Aramaic papyrus that dates to the fifth century BC. Although the place-name Jershon is not used in the Bible, its origin is authentically Hebrew, the root meaning “to inherit.” (Three Book of Mormon verses use Jershon when speaking of the inheritance of land.) Cumorah may be a corruption of Gomorrah, the name of a biblical city, or may have a connection with the name Qumran—a site near the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. (See Echoes, 401–404.)