Episode 1: Title Page

One thing that's advantageous about the Book of Mormon is the fact that its editor had a very specific goal in mind when compiling the various records.  When the prophet, Mormon, sat down in the Nephite library and looked at a thousand years of history sprawled out across the room, he knew exactly what information he wanted from each of the records.  He wasn't simply trying to preserve a history: he was trying to tell a story with a moral.

For Mormon's sake, I hope the Nephite library
didn't look like this

Of course, there was no Dewey Decimal System, so he was forced to read through what must have been countless pages of trivial information ("...and now the annual report for the Internal Revenue Service of Zarahemla for the third year of the reign of the judges"....zzzzzzzz).  However, as any college student knows, having a thesis statement gives your paper the focus and direction that it would not otherwise have.  Thus, on the Title Page of the Book of Mormon, Mormon gives us his "thesis statement."  

He tells us that the purpose of this compilation is "to show unto the remnant of the House of Israel (not just those at Jerusalem, but ALL the remnant of Israel) what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever."

This is something that the prophet Nephi would see in vision himself, that the record is written to the Lamanites (1 Ne. 15:13-14) and to all of Israel, and even to the Gentiles (1 Ne. 14:1-2).  That pretty much includes everyone on earth.

Something else unique, however, is that this record would come unto the remnant of the House of Israel through the Gentiles, which Christ prophesied of in 3 Ne. 28:32.  This is significant because this has much to do with what the Lord means when he says, "The last shall be first, and the first shall be last." The Gentiles (the "last") received the word of the Lord from the House of Israel (the "first): this entails the Hebrew Bible (which Christians commonly call the "Old Testament") and the writings of Christ's apostles (or "New Testament"); now, in the last days, the House of Israel (this time the "last") is being offered more of God's word (i.e. the Book of Mormon) from the "Gentiles" (this time the "first").

Did any of that make sense?

I also want to point out something about the language into which the Book of Mormon has been translated.  Joseph Smith wasn't simply using a secret decoder ring that spelled everything out for him--the English wasn't handed to him on a silver platter--but Joseph Smith really translated the record in as much the traditional sense as the miraculous; he was given meaning and nuance through inspiration, but the actual words were his own in many respects.  An example of this would be his translation of Second Nephi chapter 29 in which we see the word "Bible" popping up all over the place.  This was something that gave him some grief by detractors of the Book of Mormon.  The term "Bible," with its modern connotation, was not around in Nephi's day.  The collection of writings known to us as "The Holy Bible" didn't settle down into their modern format until centuries after Christ's death.  In fact, the word "bible" simply means "book."  I imagine Nephi's prophecy probably even just said "book"; but Joseph Smith, while given the ability to see the words exactly as they were written, could also see the greater context behind the words (there's a whole world of academics dedicated to this sort of thing: it's called "hermeneutics").  And even if it wasn't given directly to Joseph Smith, by inspiration, that Nephi was talking about the "Bible" in chapter 29, he certainly had enough context given to him in the prophecies recorded in First Nephi 13 and Second Nephi 3, so that by the time he got to Second Nephi 29, it was almost completely self-apparent.  (Please understand, though, that this is all my own opinion that I've developed from my own study of the Book of Mormon and the Prophet's own accounts of his experience in translating it: I really don't know all the "gritty" details of the translation of the Book of Mormon).

I'd also like to add that, anyone who speaks another language, or is at least somewhat familiar with another language, knows that there are many words in that language that could mean various things in English.  And even then, when translating that language into English, you can use different tones in English (you could translate something describing a trip to the store as, "I drove to the store," or "I travelled to the grocery store," or "I popped into Costco real quick").  

Joseph Smith's exposure to scripture was predominantly stuff written in Old English: he had grown up reading from the King James Version of the Bible.

So, it's no wonder that he would use Old English (or "formal" English) when translating sacred text.  But this isn't just a Joseph Smith thing: if you read Wallis Budge's translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (done in 1895) you see he's translated it using Old English; even several decades later when Ivan Linforth published his book on Solon (the ancient Greek politician credited with laying the foundation for Greek democracy), Linforth translated the Greek excerpts into formal English.  This idea of translating ancient records--especially sacred records--into "thee", "thou," and "wist" (rather than the more relaxed language of the day), was common practice up until very recent times.

Of course, this doesn't make it any easier to read.  But that's not the point.  The "bread of life" that Christ promised isn't fast-food: this is a meal that takes time, comes in several courses, must be savored and mulled; later on we'll read about a Nephite king named Mosiah who had his sons taught "in all the language of his fathers."  He did this so his sons would understand the scriptures.  We must do likewise: there's a language to the Book of Mormon; and just as Joseph Smith had to labor--mentally as well as spiritually (he always had to study these things out)--to translate the Reformed Egyptian into Old English, we likewise have to translate that Old English into "Dougish" (insert your own name there--I don't imagine anyone else out there wants to learn Dougish).