Biblical scholars have long known that the phrase “it came to pass” is a good translation of a common Hebrew element. Hugh Nibley points out that “it happened that” or “it came to pass” are also “standard Egyptian practice.” “In Egyptian,” according to Hugh Nibley, “these expressions were not merely adornments … they are a grammatical necessity and may not be omitted. At any rate they are much commoner in Egyptian than in the Bible, just as they are much commoner in the Book of Mormon. However bad they are in English, they are nothing to be laughed at in Egyptian” (Since Cumorah, 150).