Scholarly reference works on languages do not acknowledge the existence of either a "reformed Egyptian" language or "reformed Egyptian" script as it was described by Joseph Smith.[3]
There has been some archaeological and linguistic evidence of the use of Egyptian writing in the ancient Americas. Some found characters match ones given in the Caracters document.[4] In addition, linguistic evidence from Uto-Aztecan languages that were spoken in Mexico and the North American southwest suggests a significant influence from ancient Egyptian.[5]
Reformed Egyptian and the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon uses the term "reformed Egyptian" in Mormon9:32 which says that "the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, [were] handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech" and that "none other people knoweth our language" (Mormon9:32-34). The book also says that its first author, Nephi, used the "learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians" (1 Nephi1:2) to write his record which constitutes the first two books of the Book of Mormon. The abridgment that the Book of Mormon says was prepared by Mormon and Moroni nearly a thousand years later in approximately 380 AD, containing most of the balance of the book, was said to have been written in "reformed Egyptian" because it supposedly took up less space than Hebrew.[6]
Latter-day Saint apologists contend that reformed Egyptian is a form of Egyptian writing similar to other modified Egyptian scripts such as hieratic, a handwritten form of hieroglyphics thousands of years old by the first millennium BC, or early Demotic, a simplified derivative of hieratic, which was used in northern Egypt.[7]
According to believers, Smith translated reformed Egyptian characters engraved on gold plates into English through various means, including the use of a seer stone or the interpreter stones, or both.[8] Smith said when he had finished the translation, he returned the plates to the angel Moroni and as such they were unavailable for study, meaning all examples of the script are due solely to Smith and his associates' transcriptions.[9]
1844 broadside with reformed Egyptian characters, "the same that was taken to Professor Anthon of New York, by Martin Harris, in the year 1827."
The "Anthon Transcript" is a piece of paper on which Joseph Smith said he transcribed reformed Egyptian characters from the golden plates—the ancient record from which Smith claimed to have translated the Book of Mormon. A manuscript known as the "Caractors" document was previously thought to be this transcript. However, handwriting analysis suggests the document was most likely written by John Whitmer, one of the Eight Witnesses.[10] This handwriting analysis casts doubt on the idea that "Caractors" document was the Anthon Transcript because John Whitmer was not affiliated with the Church until June 1829, while the Anthon Transcript was taken to New York in the winter of 1828.
Smith said that when this sample was presented by Smith's colleague Martin Harris to Columbia College professor Charles Anthon, a noted classical scholar, that Anthon had attested to the characters' authenticity in writing but had then ripped up his certification after hearing that the plates had been revealed by an angel.[11] Anthon wrote, to the contrary, that he had believed from the first that Harris was the victim of fraud.[12]
In 1844, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints published a broadside about the Book of Mormon called "The Stick of Joseph" that reprinted some "reformed Egyptian" characters that resemble those on the first three lines of the "Caractors" document. The broadside said that the characters were those that had been shown to Anthon.[13] However, it is unlikely that the characters on the broadside came directly from the "Caractors" document because Whitmer was excommunicated in 1838 and took his papers with him.[14]
Scholarly view of reformed Egyptian
Standard language reference works contain no reference to "reformed Egyptian"[3] and it is described with this term only in the Book of Mormon. No non-Mormon scholars acknowledge the existence of either a "reformed Egyptian" language or a "reformed Egyptian" script as it has been described in Mormon belief. For instance, in 1966, John A. Wilson, professor of Egyptology at the University of Chicago, wrote, "From time to time there are allegations that picture writing has been found in America[...] In no case has a professional Egyptologist been able to recognize these characters as Egyptian hieroglyphs. From our standpoint there is no such language as 'reformed Egyptian'."[15] Anthropologist Michael D. Coe of Yale University, an expert in pre-ColumbianMesoamerican studies, wrote, "Of all the peoples of the pre-Columbian New World, only the ancient Maya had a complete script."[16] Fifteen examples of distinct writing systems have been identified in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, many from a single inscription.[17]
[...] and no non-Mormon linguists have recognized any direct contact between New World and Old World languages.[18]
—Grant Hardy (2023)
Translation of the Caracters document
A translation of the Caracters document has been done by Jerry D. Grover, Jr. The translation and analysis of the document states the document contains authentic Hebrew and Mesoamerican characters. The Egyptian hieratic also correlates with the correct time frame as stated in the Book of Mormon.[19]
Translation of the First Four Lines of the Caractors Document
In the nineteenth regnal year of Mosiah I, the Nephites exited over the mountains to the foreign speaking people of Mulek. These twenty thousand “children of Mosiah1” traveled over the mountains for eleven days and then downriver on the east side of the River Sidon [Grijalva River] for eighty days reaching Zarahemla. And then it came to pass that after eleven years thus began the Period of the Seven Tribes. After the space of twenty-one more years had passed, Zeniff, with sixty of his people, departed. Fifty-three more years then passed; then the Limhites departed and obtained the Twenty-Four plates from the West in the Land of Desolation, returning upriver on the River of Lamanite Possessions [Usumacinta]. Seven years from the date of the departure to obtain the Jaredite plates, the Limhites traveled west, bringing the pure gold Jaredite plates to Mosiah2, which he translated. Previous to the arrival of the Limhites, Benjamin was made king in the second month of the four hundred and thirty sixth year after Lehi left Jerusalem. At the age of eighty-three, king Benjamin ascended to eternity, which was four hundred seventy-nine years after Lehi left Jerusalem. King Benjamin’s death occurred one and one third years before the arrival of the Limhites. Four years before the arrival of the Limhites, the Period of the Seven Tribes ended in conjunction with the Jubilee Year.[19]
Translation of the Second Three Lines of the Caractors Document
—Sixty and one half months [prior to the coming of Christ] — Samuel the Lamanite came to the Nephites and the Lamanites prophesying of darkness — The Nephite primary count calendar was shifted from the 1,000 Year Calendar to the Coming of Christ Calendar, effective retroactively nine years after the Coming of Christ Calendar started — The 600 year Lehi Departure Calendar period ended; in the ninety-second year of the Reign of the Judges, the First and Most High King, Christ the Son, came to the Land of Jerusalem; while he was born occurred two days of brightness — The Gaddianton tribe arose; Nephi2 departed — Siege of the Gaddianton robbers, praise voiced to God; a Jubilee Year takes place, which completes the Twelfth Jubilee Period of the 1,000 Year Calendar — On the first month of the one hundred and twenty-fifth year of the Reign of the Judges Calendar, Christ came at the time of darkness to the people — After remaining fifty weeks, in the twelfth month of the thirty-fourth year of the Coming of Christ (the Most High) Calendar, Christ ascends upward to heaven; the Reign of the Judges Calendar period ends; thus commences a period of truth and prosperity — Nephites seek after riches; the rise of the Fourth Generation is complete — Nephites retreated downriver on the River Bountiful [Coatzacoalcos] to the north countries; Three Disciples departed — Innumerable multitudes of Lamanites came — The Nephites and the Lamanites are without Christ and God the Father, now choosing to be led by Satan — Moroni and Mormon are in the hands of Christ — three hundred eighty-four years.[19]
Reformed Egyptian characters copied by Joseph Smith's scribe, Oliver Cowdery, written in the early 1830sReformed Egyptian characters copied by Joseph Smith's scribe, Frederick G. Williams
Since no outside evidence exists, Mormon studies of reformed Egyptian are limited to whatever linguistic evidence can be obtained from the text of the Book of Mormon plus the extant seven-line "Caractors" document believed by some to be the symbols copied from the gold plates.[22] Four Mormon non-linguist translators with varying levels of education have attempted to decipher the "Caractors" document.[23] According to Brigham Young University Egyptologist John Gee, "the corpus is not large enough to render decipherment feasible."[24]
↑Hardy, Grant (2010). Understanding the Book of Mormon: a reader's guide. New York: Oxford University Press. p.6. ISBN978-0-19-973170-1. Joseph and his associates insisted from the beginning that the Book of Mormon was a translation from an authentic ancient document written in "Reformed Egyptian" on metal plates and buried by the last ancient author about AD 421.
12Standard language references such as Peter T. Daniels and William Bright, eds., The World's Writing Systems (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) (990 pages); David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (Cambridge University Press, 1997); and Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages (Cambridge University Press, 2004) (1162 pages) contain no reference to "reformed Egyptian." "Reformed Egyptian" is also ignored in Andrew Robinson, Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts (New York: McGraw Hill, 2002), although it is mentioned in Stephen Williams, Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991).
↑Ainsworth, Jerry (March 15, 2000). The Lives & travels of Mormon & Moroni. PeaceMakers Publishing. ISBN978-0967389806.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
↑Scripture Central Staff, “Uto-Aztecan,” Evidence 131, 28 February 2022, Brian D. Stubbs, Exploring the Explanatory Power of Semitic and Egyptian in Uto-Aztecan (Provo, UT: Grover Publications, 2015); Brian D. Stubbs, Changes in Languages from Nephi to Now (Blanding, UT: Four Corners Digital Design, 2016); Mary LeCron Foster, “The Transoceanic Trail: The Proto-Pelagian Language Phylum,” Pre-Columbiana: A Journal of Long-Distance Contacts 1, nos. 1–2 (1998): 88–113.
↑"And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also ..." Mormon9:33
↑Hamblin, William J. (2007). "Reformed Egyptian"(PDF). FARMS Review. 19 (1). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-05-14. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
↑Michael Morse, Smith's brother-in-law, said that he watched Smith on several occasions and said his "mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face." Michael Morse interview with William W. Blair, May 8, 1879, in EMD, 4: 343. Morse was clearly awed by Smith's ability to dictate as he did and called it "a strange piece of work." David Whitmer said that at one point "the plates were not before Joseph while he translated, but seem to have been removed by the custodian angel." David Whitmer Interview with the Chicago Times, August 1875, in EMD, 5: 21. Whitmer also stated that "after affixing the magical spectacles to his eyes, Smith would take the plates and translate the characters one at a time. The graven characters would appear in succession to the seer, and directly under the character, when viewed through the glasses, would be the translation in English." Chicago Tribune, 15 December 1885 in EMD, 5: 124. Isaac Hale said that while Joseph was translating, the plates were "hid in the woods.""Mormonism, Susquehanna Register and Northern Pennsylvanian 9 (May 1, 1834): 1 in EMD 4: 286–87. "No primary witness reported that Joseph used [the plates] in any way." Grant H. Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 2–5.
↑"Joseph Smith Interview with Peter Bauder, October 1830" in EMD, 1: 17; "Joseph Smith Interview with Leman Copley, 1831" in EMD, 1: 24–25. Yet even after Smith had returned the plates to the angel, other early Latter Day Saints testified that an angel had also showed them the plates. Grant Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 201. In 1859, Brigham Young referred to one of these "post-return" testimonies: "Some of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, who handled the plates and conversed with the angels of God, were afterwards left to doubt[...] One of the Quorum of the Twelve, a young man full of faith and good works, prayed, and the vision of his mind was opened, and the angel of God came and laid the plates before him, and he saw and handled them, and saw the angel." Journal of Discourses, June 5, 1859, 7: 164.
↑John A. Wilson, March 16, 1966, cited in Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Changing World of Mormonism (Chicago: Moody Press, 1979), ch. 5. Richard A. Parker, department of Egyptology at Brown University, wrote, "No Egyptian writing has been found in this [Western] hemisphere to my knowledge". Parker to Marvin Cowan, March 22, 1966, in Jerald and Sandra TannerThe Changing World of Mormonism (Chicago: Moody Press, 1979), ch. 5. In the same letter Parker said, "I do not know of any language such as Reformed Egyptian". In 1959, Mormon archaeologist Ross T. Christensen said that "'reformed' Egyptian" is a "form of writing which we have not yet identified in the archaeological material available to us". Book of Mormon Institute, December 5, 1959, BYU, 1964 ed., p. 10, cited in Jerald and Sandra TannerThe Changing World of Mormonism (Chicago: Moody Press, 1979), ch. 5. In 1956 a request for review of the Caractors Document was made to three recognized Egyptologists, Sir Alan Gardiner, William C. Hayes, and John A. Wilson. Gardiner replied that he saw no resemblance with "any form of Egyptian writing." Hayes stated that it might be an inaccurate copy of something in hieratic script and that "some groups look like hieratic numerals," adding that "I imagine, however, that the inscription bears a superficial resemblance to other scripts, both ancient and modern, of which I have no knowledge." Wilson gave the most detailed reply, saying that "This is not Egyptian writing, as known to the Egyptologist. It obviously is not hieroglyphic, nor the "cursive hieroglyphic" as used in the Book of the Dead. It is not Coptic, which took over Greek characters to write Egyptian. Nor does it belong to one of the cursive stages of ancient Egyptian writing: hieratic, abnormal hieratic, or demotic." Wilson added that "it does not conform to the normal pattern of cursive," and that because it was purported to be altered it may "remove this context from the professional analysis by the Egyptologist." https://www.academia.edu/31894670/1956_Statements_of_Egyptologists_on_the_Caractors_Document. Earlier in 1956 Hayes had provided his analysis of his assertion of hieratic numerals within the Caractors Document. https://www.academia.edu/38458222/2002_Sunstone_article_Dr._Hayes_analysis_of_Caractors_Document_characters_as_numerals;
↑Michael D. Coe, Breaking the Maya Code, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1999), preface.
↑Macri, Martha J. (1996). "Maya and Other Mesoamerican Scripts," in The World's Writing Systems. England: Oxford. pp.172–182.
↑Some Mormons also accept the Kirtland Egyptian papers and Frederick G. Williams note as genuine. "BYU".
↑Shields, Steven L. (2021). "The Quest for "Reformed Egyptian"". The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal. 41 (2): 101–125. The four translators identified are Blair B. Bryant, Jerry D. Grover, Jr, Mary Jo Jackel and Stanley Q. Johnson.
↑See Some Notes on the Anthon TranscriptArchived 2016-09-24 at the Wayback Machine by John Gee. Various LDS Church authors have made the attempt. In the February 1942 issue of Improvement Era, Ariel L. Crowley, a Mormon attorney from Boise, Idaho, presented evidence that the "Caractors" document characters could be of Egyptian origin. See The Anthon Transcript. He discussed Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic in relation to hieratic and demotic Egyptian, the "Caractors" document characters, and Martin Harris's report that Anthon mentioned those languages when he reviewed the transcript. He also presented 194 pairs of photographs comparing characters from the Anthon Transcript with similar or identical characters in recognized Egyptian works such as the Book of the Dead and the Rosetta Stone. Stan and Polly Johnson, in the book Translating the Anthon Transcript (Parowan, Utah: Ivory Books, 1999) argue that the Anthon transcript corresponds to Ether 6:3–13 in the present Book of Mormon. However, John Gee notes that if the so-called Anthon transcript is the actual piece of paper that Martin Harris took to Charles Anthon, it is safe to assume that the characters came from the text they were then translating (the 116 missing manuscript pages, which contained a record from the time of Lehi to the time of King Benjamin). Thus, Ether should not be a logical source for the transcript's contents. See Some Notes on the Anthon TranscriptArchived 2016-09-24 at the Wayback Machine by John Gee.
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