White and Delightsome

“When the Book of Mormon speaks of white and delightsome, its translator means, ‘shining, glittering in gladness,’ not Caucasian. The Old English version of Genesis speaks of elf-sheen, and I suppose that is what our Book of Mormon implies: shining, glittering, lucid being. There is no racism here, but a promise of becoming like Ahman, and to reside gladly in Ahman, the name of Him giving us the name of a realm where his children gather and find rest.”¹ The earliest extant versions of the Book of Mormon use “white” and “delightsome”; “pure” was first substituted for “white” in the 1840 edition.² “Notice, in the Book of Mormon that peculiar thing: ‘a white and delightsome people’ and ‘a dark and loathsome people’. It doesn’t refer to skin color at all [only to countenance], but there’s a lot about race in the Book of Mormon. [Speaking of the text of an Egyptian who lived a short time before Nephi, The Autobiography of Kai, he refers] to himself as hd-hr (white of countenance), nfr bi-t (excellent of character), ph3 h-t (clean of body and in moral habits). And he shunned everything that was snk-wt. The word is very interesting. It means ‘black of countenance,’ and it also means ‘greed or anything that is evil.’ He [Kai] used those peculiar terms. He was hd-hr. He has a picture of a white face (white of countenance). And he was clean of body, and he eschewed snk-wt (what is greedy or what is dark of countenance).”³ The promise of becoming a delightsome people is extended in the last days to the remnant of Lehi’s seed, as well as to the Jews. The use of the word white is used extensively in scripture, in a literal sense as well as a figurative one. Nephi said: I beheld a virgin, and she was exceeding fair and white (1 Nephi 3:8 RE). The Covenant of Christ expresses that she was very beautiful and pure. “Why do they use white… ? … In Arabic there’s an expression that means ‘may God cheer him,’ or ‘may God show him favor.’ Literally, it says, ‘bayyad Allāhu, may God whiten his countenance.’ Another one is ‘he is white of face,’ which simply means ‘he is of good character, ‘or ‘he is a good person.’ In the Book of Mormon it says the Nephites were ‘white and delightsome’ and others were ‘dark and loathsome.’ It means white in this sense, in the sense of good character. But it is the regular word for white. You ask for the al-bayad, who is the white man of the place? That means the ‘foremost man, the most respected man.’ If he is white, he is most respected. What are ayyām al-bayād, ‘days of whiteness?’ They are ‘happy days, days of prosperity.’”⁴ “And then shall they rejoice (he is talking about his people)… and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes [2 Nephi 12:12]. (Is he talking about real scales? No, of course he isn’t. I say this because of the rest of the sentence); and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people. Does that mean literally (white) any more than the scales fall? White means delightsome if you consider the various meanings of white. Next, he says that the Jews shall also become a delightsome people [ibid.]. Were the Jews black? This is using white and delightsome in the broadest sense, as against the dark and uncivilized.”⁵

“Now this cursing. There’s a great deal said about this race business in the Book of Mormon. It’s very clear what it is — it’s a cultural thing. It tells us here: Wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome (2 Nephi 5:21 [LE; see also 2 Nephi 4:4 RE]). That doesn’t mean they had complexions of milk, that they were pale white and ghostly. That’s not healthy anyway. Nor does it mean that the others were coal black. Black is much too strong a word to use here, if you are using it literally… Anything that’s abyad [white] is good, delightful, pleasant; and everything that’s aswad [black] isn’t. In the paintings, whether it’s Greek vase paintings or wall paintings in Egypt, the people who live in the beit al shaar, ‘the houses of hair,’ out in the desert are always painted with dark complexions. The people who live in the beit al hajar, ‘the houses of stone,’ are always depicted with light complexions. The women never went out; they would paint their faces with white lead, as a matter of fact. It’s a cultural thing. Of course, if you live that way, you become dark. Also, the camps of natives, Asiatics or anything like that, become garbage dumps. They live by hunting and plunder. They are not cultivating the soil and are not bound to work too much, so they become slovenly and dark in their manner. They become dirty, different, smelly and all that sort of thing. That’s what it means by loathsome — dirty, smelly, not very well groomed or anything like that. This is a cursing….One was exceedingly fair and delightsome and the other was a skin of blackness. Shāhōr is a skin of blackness, which means dark. A good source for that would be Morris Jastrow’s Aramaic Dictionary.”⁶ “For the word black, it gives dark, unpleasant — everything sort of uncomplimentary. [This same verse] says it’s a cultural affair. If you mixed your seed with them, you got the same cursing. If you intermarry with them, you are sharing their culture, and you become just like them. In other words, it is not a racial thing.”⁷

By means of Covenant of Christ the Lord has redefined this dated language for our day from white, fair, and delightsome to pure, radiant, and highly pleasing: He imposed a cursing on them. It was a severe cursing because of their iniquity, because they had hardened their hearts against Him. They were unyielding, like flint. Therefore, although they had been pure and radiant and highly pleasing, the Lord God made their dark countenance show through so they wouldn’t be attractive to my people (2 Nephi 4:4 CE).