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THE SAME EDITION USED BY JOSEPH SMITH TO LEARN HEBREW (MORMONS.) Joshua Seixas. Manual Hebrew Grammar for the Use of Beginners . . . Second Edition Enlarged and Improved. 119 pages. 8vo, publisher's cloth-backed boards with printed label on front board, moderate wear; moderate foxing, minimal wear to contents; Richmond, VA bookseller's tag and early Virginia library stamp on front board. Andover, MA: Gould and Newman, 1834
In 1836, Joseph Smith decided that the Saints required knowledge of Hebrew to advance their theological studies. They brought the Hebrew scholar Joshua Seixas to Kirtland to give daily lessons to a group of more than thirty, including Smith. Seixas had written a Hebrew grammar, and provided Smith with a copy of the 1834 second edition for his studies. The lessons continued for more than two months, and had some influence on the further development of the faith--most notably in the word Nau-Voo, which appears on page 50 of the Seixas grammar. See Louis C. Zucker, "Joseph Smith as a Student of Hebrew," in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 3 (Summer 1968), pages 41-55. The grammar offered here is not the one used in Kirtland--that remains among Smith's papers in Salt Lake City--but it retains the same binding and printed label as Smith's copy. Goldman 183n; Rosenbach 381; Singerman 0590; not in Flake although an 1836 supplement is noted (7619).
