Source:Echoes:Ch12:12:Sariah

Hebrew Name: Sariah

Hebrew Name: Sariah

Sariah is introduced in the Book of Mormon as the wife of the prophet Lehi and the mother of Laman, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph (see 1 Nephi 2:5). Her name, which would be sryh in Hebrew spelling, has been found in an Aramaic papyrus dating to the fifth century BC.24 In line 4 of this text (denominated Papyrus 22) the name is given as sry[h br]t hws br hrmn, which may be vocalized as Sariah barat Hoshea bar Harman, "Sariah the daughter of Hoshea son of Harman." According to Jeffery R. Chadwick, who has studied this text, "Cowley had to reconstruct part of the text, supplying the final h of Sariah and the initial b-r of barat, but the spacing is adequate, and the comparative context of the papyrus leaves little doubt that the reconstruction is accurate."25 Papyrus 22 belongs to the Elephantine Papyri, discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century, more than seventy years after the first publication of the Book of Mormon.[1]

Notes

  1. Stephen D. Ricks, "Converging Paths: Language and Cultural Notes on the Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Book of Mormon," in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2002), Chapter 12, references silently removed—consult original for citations.
Cateogry:Sariah