ALAN - While reading in an older copy of the Doctrine and Covenants, I came across the names and language originally used to hide the true names of people and certain places and meanings, such as Gazelam for Joseph Smith, Jr. My question is whether these terms used are made up, from another language, or are from the Adamic language? I noticed in particular some consistent grammatical makeup of some of the words and was curious if possibly the words are from the Adamic language. For example the word "print". For example, shinelah is print, shinelane is printing, and Laneshine is printing office. You can see the pattern for the word print, but all other nouns are also capitalized, such as for Ozondah (mercantile exchange) or Shule (ashery). I know that the term/name Gazelem is used in the Book of Mormon to describe a man, who would appear to be Joseph Smith and Shule is the name of a king in the Book of Ether. These come from D&C 104, but also sections 78, 105, and a couple of others.

JOEL - According to Apostle Orson Pratt the code names were not in the original manuscript revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants(Journal of Discourses 16:155) but were added before printing because of "persecution" in Kirtland.
When the necessity had passed for keeping the names of the individuals unknown, their real names were thereafter given in brackets. Since there exists no vital need today to continue the code names, the real names only are now used in our modern scriptures as they were in the original manuscripts.
It has been suggested that, since Joseph Smith chose the name of Enoch for himself, that some of the other code names also came from other people living in the days of Enoch, which means they could have been derived from the Adamic language. The code name "Shinehah", used for the city Kirtland, is mentioned as a place where Adam dwelt(D&C 117:8). Jesus Christ was given the name "Son Ahman" in D&C 95:17, which was described as being from the "pure" language (Journal of Discourses 2:342). There are a few references that indicate Joseph Smith , Brigham Young, and others knew some of the Adamic or "pure" language(Moses 6:5-6, Journal of Discourses 2:342, History of the Church 1:297).

Return to top

Return to Questions
HOME