I took my Elder Buddies out to lunch today, so we could talk some more about my questions from last time.
There is a great wealth of conversations to relate here. I felt sad for these guys, who are very sincere and yet seem unable to really engage with the questions I am asking them. No doubt because they are trying to convert me. Ahem.
Anyway, I had read a brief passage of the Book of Mormon at their urging. It's a part where Jesus reveals himself to the Lost Tribe of Israel and they are all Very Impressed and line up to put their hands in his side (which I thought was weird, but we didn't discuss that today).
Me: You know what really bothered me about this? You have all these Semitic people -- and what language was the Book of Mormon translated from?
Elder J: Hebrew and Egyptian.
Me: Right. So you have these Semitic people, and somehow Jesus introduces himself as Jesus Christ.
(Silence.)
Me: And Christ is a Greek word. We should expect that, at the least, it would say Messiah, and maybe it would be translated "annointed one." But for a Greek word to show up in the middle of a Hebrew text, that's just weird. And then it talks about "baptism" which is a Greek word, too. Both "baptism" and "Christ" are transliterated from Greek, not translated. So how do you explain that?
Elder J: That's a good question.
Elder M: I don't know the answer to that. But I know that God knows the answer.
Me: Okay.
Elder M: And if you pray and ask God to show you the truth of the Book of Mormon, I can guarantee he will do that.
