Reformed Egyptian
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The Book of Mormon (a sacred text of Mormonism) states that it was written with "reformed Egyptian" (Mormon 9:32) characters on "plates of ore" (1 Nephi 19:1) by Messianic Israelite prophets between 600 B.C. and A.D. 421. Joseph Smith, Jr. (the founder of Mormonism), said that the last of those prophets appeared to him on September 21, 1823 in resurrected form, told him "gold plates" were "deposited" near his home, and commanded him to translate them. Smith published the Book of Mormon in 1830 as that translation. There is no consensus outside Mormonism that the Book of Mormon is a translated ancient record. But Mormons generally believe that the Book of Mormon was translated from ancient gold plates inscribed with reformed Egyptian characters.
Those who have examined the position critically (including but not limited to linguists, archaeologists and opponents of Mormonism, eg: [1] (http://www.myfortress.org/MormonChurch_Archaeology.html)) have commented on the Book of Mormon's claim to have been written with reformed Egyptian characters. Because there is no archeaological, linguistic, or other evidence of the use of Egyptian writing in ancient America, some have suggested that the claims of the Book of Mormon regarding reformed Egyptian are implausible (or false). Mormon apologists have generally responded that the Book of Mormon at least allows for, and possibly suggests, that reformed Egyptian writing was solely used for writing on sacred plates, and that the choice of Egyptian for the scribal language of sacred plates is plausible in light of the statements in the Book of Mormon and the historic influence and development of Egyptian writing. In either case, even within Mormonism, studies of Book of Mormon reformed Egyptian are necessarily limited to to linguistic footprints in the translated text itself and a seven line sample that may be the characters Joseph Smith and associates said was copied from the gold plates. Some Mormons, however, believe that the writing system may have existed in Mesoamerica outside The Book of Mormon, and that evidence that it did exist may someday be discovered.
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History and classification of reformed Egyptian
The Book of Mormon says "the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, [were] handed down and altered by us" and that "none other people knoweth our language" (Mormon 9:32, 34 LDS). The Book of Mormon also describes this language as consisting of the "learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians" (1 Nephi 1:2 LDS). While the term "reformed Egyptian" apparently does not refer to any other language, some Mormons have hypothesized that "reformed Egyptian" was Hebrew written in an adaptation of Egyptian hieroglyphics similar to demotic or hieratic script.
According to Joseph Smith, Jr. and his associates, Smith translated reformed Egyptian characters engraved on Golden Plates into English through various means including the use of an ancient device called the Urim and Thummim which, like the plates, were said to have been eventually returned to the angel named Moroni who originally gave them to Smith.
Examples of reformed Egyptian
Only two possible examples of reformed Egyptian characters currently persist. Only the first is the subject of serious study.
The Anthon transcript or Caractors document
The Hofmann sample
In the early 1980s, convicted forger Mark Hofmann sold some so-called McLellin papers to various Mormon investors and the LDS Church (see Mark Hofmann and Salamander Letter). The papers included an alleged sample of reformed Egyptian characters. According to one researcher, the sample appears to have been copied from the Caractors Transcript somewhat carelessly (line for line in the first four lines) to more closely agree with a description given by Charles Anthon. Blair Bryant explains:
- "Find a copy of that forgery and you can easily compare and see how Hofmann did it. Just turn a copy of the Caractors Transcript 90 degrees clockwise. Now compare the right-hand most column (line A) with Hofmann's left-hand most column. Reorient the individual characters as in the original (rotate each individual character 90 degrees counterclockwise) and you can identify every character.... Then Hofmann added a couple of additional squiggles to the bottom.
- "Then, go to the line B and compare it from top to bottom with Hofmann's second column and so on. He copied it character-by-character with a few changes in flourishes or combinations of elements. He did that for the first four lines. In his fifth column he took elements in sequence from line E at the top and segments of other lines for the circular figure at the bottom.
- "In a letter written several years after the Martin Harris meeting (1834, if memory serves), Professor Anthon described the document characters as being like mixtures of ancient alphabets jumbled and that there was a circular figure similar to an Aztec calendar at the bottom. It seems apparent that Hofmann rearranged the pattern to agree with Professor Anthon's description."
Reformed Egyptian studies
Most study of reformed Egyptian in Mormonism is via the proxy of the purported English translation, the Book of Mormon. Some Mormons and non-Mormons have made attempts to study and decipher the Anthon transcript.
Crowley Study
In the January, February, and March 1942 issues of the Improvement Era magazine, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published a study of the Anthon Transcript (http://www.shields-research.org/Scriptures/BoM/Anthon_Transcript-Crowley/Anthon_Transcript-Crowley.htm) in three articles by Ariel L. Crowley, a young LDS attorney from Boise, Idaho.
In the January issue, Crowley presented evidence that the transcript owned by David Whitmer (now by Community of Christ) is the one used by Martin Harris in his meeting with Professor Anthon and contains Egyptian-like characters:
- "Martin Harris, with David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery was one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. The three were therefore closely associated. The transcript itself passed into the hands of David Whitmer along with the second copy of the manuscript of The Book of Mormon."
- After Whitmer's death on January 25, 1888, the manuscript passed into the hands of his family, then in 1903 to Community of Christ, where it remains.
- President Frederick M. Smith of The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now Community of Christ) quoted a Mr. S.A. Burgess's published account as saying "the paper itself is old, and of the same quality and appearance of the paper of the [Book of Mormon] manuscript and of early revelations, manuscripts undoubtedly made before 1833."
- A printed reproduction of three of the seven lines of the transcript was made onto a black and gold placard, apparently designed for framing, and published before 1845, with a known copy of the placard preserved in the LDS Church Historian's Office with the signature of "Mrs. Hyrum Smith" and the recital "1844 placard Stick of Joseph. This was formerly owned by Hyrum Smith. Sent to Historian's Office, March 22, 1860, by his son, Joseph Fielding Smith." The fact that the characters on the placard of 1844 are without question poor copies of the characters of the Anthon Transcript is additional evidence of the genuineness of this transcript.
In the February issue, as introduced in the January issue, Crowley presented evidence that the Anthon Transcript characters were of Egyptian origin:
- He discussed Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic in relation to hieratic and demotic Egyptian, the Anthon Transcript characters, and Martin Harris's report that Anthon mentioned those languages when he reviewed the transcript.
- He 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.
Bryant Caractors Translation
Community of Christ adherent Blair Bryant claims to have found correlation between the Caractors (Anthon) document and the Book of Mormon title page that leads to a plausible translation of the 7 lines (see Blair Bryant's Caractors Translation (http://www.geocities.com/bbbinil/)). According to Bryant's work, the Caractors document consists of 216 characters written right to left, top to bottom, in 7 lines. The Bryant work postulates:
- that the top four lines (95 characters) are in the hand of Mormon, and the bottom three lines (121 characters) are in the cramped hand of Moroni [2] (http://www.geocities.com/bbbinil/TranslationHistory/Translation.htm)
- that the Caractors Transcript is two statements of intent defining the purpose of the Book of Mormon and alluded to in Mormon 8:5 (LDS) [3] (http://www.geocities.com/bbbinil/TranslationHistory/Translation.htm)
- that within the "Caractors Transcript" there are 20 modified Nephite characters which are based in meaning and appearance on known Egyptian characters [4] (http://www.geocities.com/bbbinil/Languages/RelCharToEgyptian.htm)[5] (http://www.geocities.com/bbbinil/Languages/MergedLanguage.htm)
- that the message of the Caractors Document is very similar to the Book of Mormon Title Page, and that many words and phrases are shared between them [6] (http://www.geocities.com/bbbinil/TranslationHistory/TranslationKey.htm)
Bryant has offered a tentative rendered English prose translation of the document. His translation has the document bearing testimony that the Book of Mormon is a marvelous gift of God to His covenant people [7] (http://www.geocities.com/bbbinil/TranslationHistory/EnglishTrans.htm).
External links
- One theory of how Joseph Smith could have written The Book of Mormon (http://utlm.org/newsletters/no95.htm#How%20were%20the%20Plates%20Translated) Salt Lake City Messenger, #95 - April 1999
- Some Notes on the Anthon Transcript (http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=329) by John Gee (Ph.D. in Egyptology, Yale University).