And it came to pass (wayehi)
Hugh Nibley wrote: “Nothing delighted the critics more than the monotonous repetition of ‘it came to pass’ at the beginning of thousands of sentences in the Book of Mormon. Here again is something that Western tradition found completely unfamiliar. Instead of punctuation, the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon divides up its phrases by introducing each by an ‘and,’ ‘behold,’ ‘now,’ or ‘It came to pass . . . .’ Simply outrageous--as English literature, but it is standard Egyptian practice. Egyptian historical texts, Grapow points out, ‘begin in monotonous fashion’ always with the same stock words; at some periods every speech is introduced with the unnecessary ‘I opened my mouth.’ Dramatic texts are held together by the constant repetition of Khpr-n, ‘It happened that’ or ‘It came to pass.’ In Egyptian these expressions were not merely adornments, as Grapow points out, they are a grammatical necessity and may not be omitted. Paul Humbert has traced the origin of prophetic
biblical expressions to archaic oracular formulas. At any rate they are much commoner in Egyptian than in the Bible, just as they are much commoner in the Book of Mormon. However bad they are in English, they are nothing to be laughed at as Egyptian.” (Since Cumorah, p. 29))
But why does the phrase “and it came to pass” appear in the Book of Mormon so much more often, page for page, than it does in the Old Testament? The answer is twofold. First, the Book of Mormon contains much more narrative, chapter for chapter, than the Bible. Second, but equally important, the translators of the King James Version did not always render wayehi as “and it came to pass.” Instead, they were at liberty to draw from a multitude of similar expressions like “and it happened,” “and… became,” or “and…was.” Wayehi is found about 1,204 times in the Hebrew Bible, but it was translated only 727 times as “and it came to pass” in the King James Version. Joseph Smith did not introduce such variety into the translation of the Book of Mormon. He retained the precision of
“and it came to pass,” which better performs the transitional function of the Hebrew word. The Prophet Joseph Smith may not have used the phrase at all – or at least not consistently – in the Book of Mormon had he created that record. The discriminating use of the Hebraic phrase in the Book of Mormon is further evidence that the record is what it says it is – a translation from a language (reformed Egyptian) with ties to the Hebrew language. Donald W. Parry, Ensign, Dec 1992, 29. Instead of punctuation the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon divides up its phrases by introducing each by an “and,” “behold,” “now,” or “It came to pass.” Simply outrageous – as English historical texts… Dramatic texts are held together by the constant repetition of … “It came to pass.” In Egyptian these expressions were not merely adornments,… they are a grammatical necessity and may not be omitted. Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah, p. 169.
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