How about Syracuse? NY? Try Sicily! But it wasn't even Italian. It was a Greek colony. So, is it the original? Or was it named after another? Who knows?
Is the Euphrates river even the one mentioned in Genesis? Or is it named after another for the same reasons cities in the USA were named after much, much older cities in distant lands?
In the Book of Ether 3:1, Mahonri Moriancumer, in order to make his light bulbs (which were actually not for generating light, but for transmitting it), climbed the mountain "which they called the mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height".
According to Hugh Nibley, the word, "Shelem means high, safe, secure. The word shalom is derived from that. Remember, shalom means you're safe. Shalom is a 'ladder, a high place.' If you're going to a high place, it is a safe place, a secure place, a shelem. He went to the highest mountain around. Moses did the same thing. Lehi and Nephi did the same thing. So again this is a pattern." (Teachings From the Book of Mormon, Lecture 111, p. 271)
But Nibley quit prematurely. Why? I don't know, because I'm pretty sure he knew what I'm about to tell you, and that is that, while linguists insist that our western languages descend from Nesite, the language of the Hittites, allowing for some Sumerian loanwords, there's also a pretty strong case to be made that they actually hail from Akkadian, and the word, Shelem, is evidence of that. It's neither Nesite nor Sumerian, but Akkadian which enlightens us to the etymology, and, thus, the true meaning of the Proto-Semitic root:
Š-L-M
And, yes, I know that what I'm about to tell you contradicts what others (especially those convinced that, lom, is a root word here) will tell you. You'll have to decide for yourselves who's more correct, but, before you do, you may want to watch this first:
The linguistic community can be a very contentious bunch, and they don't always see eye-to-eye on everything. Or even much.
The first root word to be considered is Šm (Shem/Shum/Shim). They're all just nuances of the same word whose common root is the S(h), or Š (remember sibboleth/shibboleth), which figures into a LOT of Akkadian words referring to mountains, and is still the root of many of our words (like 'in situ') still today.
And when I say that it figures into a lot of Akkadian words, I don't mean that it can be found if you look hard enough; I mean that it's practically impossible to miss. And, I am, after all, trying to prove a point in the face of considerable opposition, so I'm not going to give you just a few examples here. I'm going to give you a lot of examples.
You be the judge.
šadû - mountain
Šamaš - the Sun-god Shamash (Saturn) (THE fabled, wise, old man on the mountain) (By the way, this is also the name of the center candle in the hanukiah Menorah.)
simmiltu - a stair/staircase leading to a citadel (Remember that quote from Nibley?)
šīḫu -
1) (gods, men, trees, vegetables ...) grown (tall), fully-grown, tall
2) (mountains ...) lofty, high, great
ṣītu - (See? Told you!) (But you won't find that in any dictionary!)
1) exit, sunrise, issue, outlet
2) exit, issuance (abcess, spring-water ...), gushing, (place of) origin
3) (new plant) growth, revival, renewal, upsurge, that originating from trees, mountains, person from womb - ūru
aban šaddî - mountain rock
sappāru - a mountain ram
akṣu - (enemy, mountains, illness) brazen, insolent, cheeky, impudent, sassy, dangerous, racy, perilous, risky, hazardous, daredevil
bišimtu - formation, shape, product
ḫuršānu -
1) mountain
2) siege mound
karašu -
1) a leek (cultivated, or wild in mountains)
2) a kind of stone
pulukkiš - like a mountain peak (top, pinnacle)
sukinnu - lane, narrow path (through mountains for smuggling)
ṣerru šadî - mountain-snake (Mountain-snake?! What's that? Think: Cosmic!)
šad erēni - cedar mountain
šaddāiu - highlander, mountain-dweller, mountaineer
šerû - to lay down beam, vegetation on mountain-side, feature on liver
šitqu - a cleft, a crack, a split, a cranny, a crevice, a rift, a slit; rock, stone
'Nuff said? I'll take that as a yes.
But that's just Akkadian. Not good enough, you say? How about Hurrian then? Ever heard of the Hurrian 'mountain' god, Sarruma? No? Well, while we're looking, consider this: The word we're discussing, Shelem, is found in the Book of Ether, the Jaredite record, the Jaredites who came from the tower, whose language was not corrupted. Ever notice that the Jaredite names contain mostly the letters M, R, and S? Now, what's the name of that Hurrian God?
Now, on to the next root word: El. This is the El Elyon you probably already know, which is found in our words, elevate, elate, alleviate, leaven, lever, levity, and ... ready for this? Leprechaun. And all mean: to increase, raise, grow, (easy to) lift, etc., just as it also did to our Akkadian forebears. And that is why God was known to them as El, and God the Highest was still known to the later Hebrews as El Elyon. And, yes, there is a difference, and it was even referred to by Christ himself, twice. (But more on that some other time.)
Again, examples sufficient, I hope, to eliminate all doubt:
ellu - [Religion]
1) water, oil - pure, clean, pristine, unpolluted, clear
2) metal, stone - bright, shining
3) mountain, forest, onions, hands, person, incantation, place, temple, offering, wine - ritually clean / pure, holy
4) noun - substantive for - a priest
5) a social class - free, a free man; pure, holy;
elallu - [Sky → Climate] cloud
elama(t)tu - [Religion → Myths]
1) goddess of Elam
2) name of the Bow star -[qaštu]-
3) name of a month in Susa (Where we get the name, Susan!)
elamkû - [Army → Weapons] (a kind of) arrow (Think: Zeus' arrows/thunderbolts)
elān * - above, upstream, upwards, against the tide (Think: The fountain/4 rivers from the tree of life)
elān* - above
elāniš - above, upwards
elānīu * - topmost, uppermost
elānu * - uphill, upstairs
elānu ° - above, over, upwards, upstream
elat * - beyond
elât šamê - [Sky → Astronomy] zenith (We could have included this in the previous set, too.)
elat - [Humanities → Geography]
1) beyond, over and above
2) in addition to, apart from, except [ša elat] - (adverb) additionally, moreover
eldu :
elēlu (1) - [Art → Singing] a cheerful, joyous song, a jubilation
elēlu (2) - [Moral life → Quality] to be pure, to purify
elēlu (3) - [Moral life → Feelings] jubilation, rapture, joy, rejoicing, happiness, bliss, delight, felicity, elation, glee
elēlu sadrūtu - songs written down in sections (hymns)
elēlu * - [Art] joyous song
elēlu*, ḫidāti - [Moral life → Feelings] jubilation
elep nēburu - [Transport → Sea] a ferry-boat, a wherry
eleppu - [Transport → Sea] boat
elēpu - [Country → Plants]
1) to sprout, to grow (plant), to increase (cattle ...), to multiply (descendance, cattle ...)
2) [astronomie] - said of a halo ("agû")
3) in personal names - "grants growth to"; causes to grow, increases, multiplies
4) Gt - grow into one another, to interlock (fighters, weapons ...), to intermingled, to intertwine, to entangle, to enmesh
5) š - to cause to grow, to cause to intermingle (vegetation, fighters), to increase (descendants, regnal years ...)
6) št - to flourish, to grow densely
elēṣ libbi, ḫadūtu, ḫidātu, ḫidūtu, ḫudû, ḫūdu - [Moral life → Feelings] joy, happiness, cheerfulness
eli, elu, el, ili -
1) on, over, above, against (an ennemy), more than
2) on to (a place), toward, regarding (an obligation)
3) in addition to
eli ṣēr - over
eli -
1) on, over, above, against, more than; - on, on to (a place, a thing), on to a person (obligation), (person) over another, (task) in addition to, more than (quantity / quality), against (ennemy / person), shout (of anger), on account of (someone), on behalf of (someone) to (someone) after [ṭiābu] - to please; after [marāṣu] - to displease
2) on account of, because of, owing to
eliāti - [Religion] the upper world
eliltu - [Moral life → Quality]
elīlu - [Moral life → Quality]
eliš, elān, elāniš, elānu, ṣēriš, šēr - above
eliš -
1) above, upwards, over, uphill *, in addition
2) up above / in heaven (or on earth)
elīta -
1) furthermore, moreover, what is more
2) adverb - aloud
elītu - [Clothing] an upper garment
elīu - upper, high, upper part, pinnacle topmost * uppermost *
ēliu - climber
ella-mê - [Religion → Myths] a deity's garment - pure in divine powers
ellāmu- * - before, in front of
ellatu * - [Army]
1) a band, a group
2) a family group, a clan, a tribe (?)
3) the god of the clan
4) a band of evildoers, armed ..., a troop / a band of soldiers, a host (?)
ellatu - [Human → Family] a clan, a (small) tribe
ellemēšu - [Nature → Minerals]
ellepu - [Transport → Sea] - boat, vessel, barge
ellu, qašdu * - holy, sacred
ellu B * - [Feeding → Cooking] sesame oil
ellû :
ellūtu B *, ḫammar ṭīki, kiškanû, musku, samullu ° - [Country → Trees] (kind of) tree
ellūtu - [Religion] purity, holiness, sainthood (?) / saintliness (?)
elû (1) - [Measures] high, tall, of high stature, head, neck - raised high; exalted
elû (2) -part of the body, liver, building - upper
elû - G. to go up, rise; to arrive, come up; to result, be produced; to go upstream; stat. - to be high Gt. to go up and away; to forfeit sth. (+ina) D. to raise; to elevate, extol, praise; to take away, remove Dt - Gt; to be raised higher than (+ana) š. to make climb, go up; to embark (v.t.); to bring forward (a witness); to bring out (a document); to subtract, determine (a root) (Mathematics)
elû - upper
Elūlu - [Time → Month]
Elūnu - [Time → Month] Elul, sixth month of the year (approximately August-September)
And if you're wondering about the many words for God, deity, and divine things being associated with water, boats, and mountains, recall the Mount of Congregation and The Mountain of the Lord's House, Isaiah's prophecy of streams and rivers on all high hills, and, of course, the boats that necessarily accompany all water, as with Noah's ark, and the Jaredite barges.
Associations with time, of course, should be obvious. It's in the very word, temple, tempus, time, The Highest God, El Elyon, the one Christ was referring to in Acts 1:7, the God of time: Eternity itself.
Finally comes the (o/i)M, which, of course, is the plural, as in cherubim, serafim, nephilim, and Elohim, which does not mean God, or even god, but actually means the gods and the goddesses, or rather the Grand Counsel of the Gods. I mention this only because it differs from our word in a way which betrays its age, hailing, as it does, from a time before Eve, to a time when there was only Adam. Elohim vs. Elim.
So, put them all together, and what do you have? S(h) (mountain) + EL (God) + im (plural) = The Mountain of the Gods. (NOT the gods and the goddesses) (That would be Sheloihim).
You recognize the name, right? It's Olympus! And notice the consonants, recalling that in the ancient languages, unlike ours, where vowels are the emphasis, it was the consonants which carried the root meanings. Vowels, to the ancients were afterthoughts which evolved to delineate subtler meanings, such as the subtle differences between our words, read (reed) and read (red). Same consonants, ergo same basic meaning; different tenses. Thus Ol = El, ym(p) (the p is more an artifact of the transition between the m and the u kind of like we say sumpthin' instead of sumthing) = im, and us = s(h), ... LMS.
So all the Greeks did was swap the syllables around, LMS instead of SLM, which is a fairly common morphology. (Just look at how the French say things.)
So, Shelem = Shalom = Olympus = The Mountain of the Gods.
And that's not the only Greek word for it. As with the English words, sky and heaven, both of which actually mean the same thing, the Greek Olympus, syllables rearranged, also appears as, Omphalos, which is a Lingam or a Baetylus.
And it's really worthwhile reading about that word, Baetylus, as it really brings the connections ... home.
But the mountain the brother of Jared climbed was not THAT mountain. They called it by the same name because it, too, was very tall, probably the tallest they could see, or had ever seen. Nevertheless, it was a real, stone, mountain, not that ephemeral Olympus.
And the Jaredites, although neglecting to inform us which son of Noah they hail from, at least told us when and where they came from: The great tower. And that suggests a Hamitic heritage. And the time, circa 2,200 B.C., suggests that whatever language they spoke (likely the Adamic) was the great ancestor to all other languages. And this suggests a good chance of seeing that same mountain mentioned among the traditions of people all over the earth, though, due to its antiquity, not necessarily by the same, or even a similar name. But we should at least be able to find something indicating a connection, just as the Mountain of the Gods strongly suggests a relationship with the mountain where Mahonri met Christ. And it would appear that there is no shortage of similar sites. Take, for example, Mount Kailash in Tibet, sacred to no fewer than four religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Bön and Jainism. (And Bön, by the way, is a religion founded by a Tertön, who is a discoverer of ancient, hidden texts.)
We shouldn't neglect the fairly well-known Mount Meru of India either, but you already knew about that one.
Now, for the punchline: While Greek can be traced (by us) to Akkadian (which most linguists seem to avoid by stopping at the imaginary PIE, or Proto Indo-European), the Greeks themselves could not explain the heritage of the word, Olympus. And this is remarkable primarily because the Greeks themselves were well aware of their own diverse origins. They knew that there was no real 'Greek' language; there were several. Over time, the Greeks merged their languages, just as they merged their religions, giving us the confusing pantheon of Greek gods parallelling the Egyptian and Indian pantheons, which arose through similar processes, and which all referred to a mountain of exceeding height, a mountain which prophets ascended (look up 'ascension literature'). As a result, the Greeks, unlike any other people, as far as I can tell, not only knew of, but pursued the roots of their own language much as we do today. The word, etymology, is a Greek word, after all. And yet, the Greeks did not know the origin of their word, Olympus, and may not have known the etymology of their word, omphalos. And this can only mean that these words descend, intact, from beyond some calamity separating even the most ancient Greeks from their ancestors. And this, in turn, testifies to the great antiquity of both the words and the objects they described.
Now for the rest of the story: Mahonri may have been deliberately blending the two, not to confuse us, but to enlighten us. Notice that this is where he sees Christ. It's always upon this mountain where prophets meet God. And yet, the brother of Jared leads us to believe that this was a real, physical, earthly mountain, one from which he mined the rocks from which he had already fashioned the stones which were to light the barges. And yet, he meets Christ here.
WHAT is going on?
You know, it's a very curious thing that, when your genealogy is complete enough, you begin to discover names that you might think really just can't be there. And yet, there they are. Several of my own lines end in strange times and places with fairly well-known mythical characters before whom really can come no one else. One Norse king, when you read his story, appears to be another version of Zeus. Yet another is King Arthur, who is just the British version of Zeus (red coloring and all). Yep! They claim he's my ancestor. As is King David, and his entire line in both directions. And as is ... ready for this? ... Christ himself! I kid you not. It's right there on familysearch.org, and I didn't put him there.
But how can that be?
Well, if you read Christ's own genealogy in the scriptures, all the way back to the beginning, you'll find that Adam, too, is a son of God. But Christ is the only begotten! And yet, there it is, written in black and white in our Bibles.
How can this be?
Clearly, there is more to this story that has to be told, and Paul told it. Joseph told it. We just didn't get it.
Galations 4 is a good place to start.
See also: Paradise Found - William F. Warren
I won't leave you all hanging ...
... forever.
But no more for today.
You've probably had all you can take.
I know I have.
This is exhausting work.