The Virtues and Vices of Contention
Languages change over time. Words evolve in their meaning. What a word means in 1611 won't be exactly the same as what it means in 1828, it in 2024. Because scriptures are historical texts, using historical dictionaries and lexicons to understand them is good practice. There is a website dedicated to the 1828 edition of Webster's Dictionary. Because the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price were translated, written, and compiled in the 19th century, understanding the 19th century meaning of words helps us to understand them better. So whenever I want to understand the way language is used in those scriptures, that is the dictionary I use. An added bonus of this resource is that many of the usage examples come from the Bible. You can see layers of meaning for the same word being used in different places in the Bible. It also emphasizes opposite uses, where the Bible contradicts itself. It's a testimony of how the Bible is a text with many ...
