Neither ancient Egyptian nor Hebrew had punctuation.
The following words and phrases effectively serve as punctuation in the Book of Mormon, with the number of occurrences noted.
Yea – 1663
Behold – 1651
And it came to pass – 1123
And now – 650
And thus – 321
And thus we see – 21
* * * * * *
Joseph translated the Book of Mormon and Oliver Cowdery wrote it down. The original translation was “closely written and legible, but not a punctuation mark from beginning to end.”
“The man responsible for punctuating the first edition of the Book of Mormon was John H. Gilbert, the non-Mormon typesetter who worked for E. B. Grandin.” Gilbert added both punctuation and paragraphing.
- Larry C. Port, From a Book Coming Forth, Ensign, July 1988.
- George Horton, Understanding Textual Changes in the Book of Mormon, Ensign, December 1983.
- Robert J. Matthews, I Have a Question, Ensign, March 1987.
– Tom Irvine