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The Nephite writing used simplified forms of Egyptian hieroglyphics to convey meanings of their basic words. In this illustration we see various combinations of 7 different characters, starting at the top: ‘Christ’ was represented by a tiny loop that was derived from a hieroglyphic that meant ‘flesh’ and was a picture of the hind leg of a sacrificed animal. (for the symbolism refer to John 1:1-14);
‘tongue’ was derived from a hieroglyph that represented a cow’s tongue and meant the tongue itself and anything done by the tongue, such as speaking, a story (account), or a language;
‘of’ is only one of many prepositions that were represented by the Egyptian sound of ‘em’ but in the CT, it always means ‘of’;
’caused-to-be’ is derived from a hieroglyphic that sounded like our English ‘ess’ but, when added to the beginning of an Egyptian word, meant ’caused-to-be’ (thus, ’caused-to-be tongue’ was read as ’caused-to-be spoken’ which means ‘word’);
‘word word’ is the way the Nephites spelled the name of Nephi, an early spiritual leader. Nephi prepared two records and we understand that this is how he was remembered in their writing form;
‘from’ was derived from another hieroglyph that sounded like ‘em.’ As noted above, ‘em’ was a sound that indicated a preposition and the Nephites always used it to mean ‘from’;
‘from-word’ is how the Nephites remembered the Hebrew tribe of ‘Judah’ and we call those people ‘the Jews.’ The connection here is seen as the Jews being ‘from word’ i.e., possessing a special record of their dealings with God and which we call the Bible.
‘God’ (or ‘Lord’) is the meaning of an Egyptian hieroglyphic that represented a temple bowl that was used upon an Egyptian altar to offer sacrifices to Egyptian gods;
‘word of God’ is the combination that means ‘Jesus.’ Jesus is so identified in John 1:1, 14; and in Revelation 6:9 and 9:13.
These Nephite characters may be combined to produce slightly different meanings. Thus ‘from’ when added to ‘Jesus’ yields ‘from Jesus’ of character D9.
Other uses of Jesus’ name (such as in C15 and F1) will be presented later.
The Book of Mormon account tells us that the Nephites knew of Jesus’ birth almost 600 years before he was born in the Land of Jerusalem. After His resurrection but prior to His ascension to heaven, Jesus also appeared to the Nephites and taught them the same kind of instructions he had given his disciples in Palestine during His earthly ministry.
The Nephite word ‘word’ is a part of other names that are found in the Book of Mormon. You will, in fact, find it in the name of ‘Mormon’ which means ‘word promise.’ It is also in ‘King Mosiah’ where the character meaning is ‘King word.’