“Nephi Jonas Mathoni Kumen Shemnon Zedekiah Isaiah Names in the Book of Mormon”

Alan C. Miner

According to Widtsoe and Harris in Seven Claims of the Book of Mormon, in no instance is there a letter "Q", "X", or "W" in an uncorrupted proper name in the translated Nephite records. Nor is one of them in an uncorrupted Hebraic proper name found in the Bible. Not one of these letters occurs in the Hebrew alphabet under any name, and the Nephites as Israelites, or Hebrews, could not therefore make use of them. . . . Furthermore, there are no surnames in the Book of Mormon--a profoundly wise omission, since surnames first came into general use about A.D. 1040. [Quoted in Roy E. Weldon, Book of Mormon Deeps, Vol. III, p. 289]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

References