Editing Reformed Egyptian (section)

==Mormon studies of reformed Egyptian==
{{fringe-section|date=March 2024}}
[[File:Reformed Egyptian Characters Oliver Cowdery.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|left|Reformed Egyptian characters copied by Joseph Smith's scribe, [[Oliver Cowdery]], written in the early 1830s<ref>"Appendix 2, Document 2a. Characters Copied by Oliver Cowdery, circa 1835–1836," p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed February 16, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/appendix-2-document-2a-characters-copied-by-oliver-cowdery-circa-1835-1836/1</ref>]]
[[File:Reformed Egyptian Characters Frederick G Williams.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|left|Reformed Egyptian characters copied by Joseph Smith's scribe, [[Frederick G. Williams]]<ref>"Appendix 2, Document 2b. Writings and Characters Copied by Frederick G. Williams, circa Early to Mid-1830s," p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed February 16, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/appendix-2-document-2b-writings-and-characters-copied-by-frederick-g-williams-circa-early-to-mid-1830s/1</ref>]]

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 that may or may not be the symbols said to have been copied from the gold plates.<ref>Some Mormons also accept the Kirtland Egyptian papers and Frederick G. Williams note as genuine. {{cite web|url = http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/byustudies&CISOPTR=14&REC=2&CISOSHOW|title = BYU}} {{cite web|url = http://www.reformed-egyptian.com/100years.bmp|title = 100 Years|publisher = Reformed Egyptian}}</ref> Four Mormon non-linguist translators with varying levels of education have attempted to decipher the "Caractors" document.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shields |first1=Steven L. |title=The Quest for "Reformed Egyptian" |journal=The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal |date=2021 |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=101–125 |url=https://www.academia.edu/85016162}} The four translators identified are Blair B. Bryant, Jerry D. Grover, Jr, Mary Jo Jackel and Stanley Q. Johnson.</ref> According to [[Brigham Young University]] Egyptologist [[John Gee]], "the corpus is not large enough to render decipherment feasible."<ref>See [http://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1451&index=3 Some Notes on the Anthon Transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924083835/http://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1451&index=3 |date=2016-09-24 }} 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 [http://www.shields-research.org/Scriptures/BoM/Anthon_Transcript-Crowley/Anthon_Transcript-Crowley.htm 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 [[Book of Ether|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 [http://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1451&index=3 Some Notes on the Anthon Transcript]  by John Gee.</ref>

Mormon apologist [[Terryl Givens]] has suggested that the characters are early examples of Egyptian symbols being used "to transliterate Hebrew words and vice versa," that [[Demotic (Egyptian)|Demotic]] is a "reformed Egyptian", and that the mixing of a Semitic language with modified Egyptian characters is demonstrated in inscriptions of ancient Syria and the land of Israel.<ref>[[Terryl L. Givens]], ''By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion'' (New York: [[Oxford University Press]], 2002) 132–33.</ref> Other Mormon apologists have suggested that the characters resemble those of [[shorthand]] for various languages<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tracking the White Salamander - Chapter 6 Part A |url=http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/trackingch6a.htm |access-date=2023-05-12 |website=www.utlm.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-04-10 |title=The Anthon Affair by Jerome J. Knuijet |url=http://thedigitalvoice.com/enigma/essays/AAffair1.htm |access-date=2023-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100410210806/http://thedigitalvoice.com/enigma/essays/AAffair1.htm |archive-date=2010-04-10 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Anthon Transcript - SHIELDS |url=http://www.shields-research.org/Scriptures/BoM/BYUSAntn.html |access-date=2023-05-12 |website=www.shields-research.org}}</ref><ref>{{citation |contribution-url= http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/EoM/id/5542 |contribution= Book of Mormon Language |last= Stubbs |first= Brian Darrel |pages= 179–181 |editor-last= Ludlow |editor-first= Daniel H |editor-link= Daniel H. Ludlow |year= 1992 |title= [[Encyclopedia of Mormonism]] |location= New York |publisher= [[Macmillan Publishing]] |isbn= 0-02-879602-0 |oclc= 24502140 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Grover |first=Jerry |url=https://www.academia.edu/19655755 |title=Translation of the &quot;Caractors&quot; Document |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100927000427/http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ancients/060228egyptians.html |archive-date=2010-09-27 |url-status=live}}</ref> including [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]],<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=5&num=2&id=124|title=The Anthon Transcripts and the Translation of the Book of Mormon: Studying It Out in the Mind of Joseph Smith|author=David E. Sloan|journal=Journal of Book of Mormon Studies|volume=5|issue=2|pages=57–81|year=1996|jstor=44758792 |s2cid=11807890 |access-date=2010-12-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100301065324/http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=5&num=2&id=124|archive-date=2010-03-01|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shields-research.org/Books/Sperry/AChap09.PDF|title=Some Problems Arising from Martin Harris' Visit to Professor Charles Anthon}}</ref> [[Demotic (Egyptian)]],<ref>See [[Hugh Nibley]], ''Since Cumorah'', 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and [[Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies|FARMS]], 1988), 149–150, and [https://web.archive.org/web/20091026224402/http://geocities.com/rameumptom/bom/demotic.html archive]</ref> [[Hieratic|Hieratic (Egyptian)]],<ref>Later in E.B. Howe's Mormonism Unveiled, Anthon recalled that the characters were not hieroglyphics. See [http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/anthon.htm Anthon Transcript] and {{cite journal|url=http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=5&num=2&id=124|title=The Anthon Transcripts and the Translation of the Book of Mormon: Studying It Out in the Mind of Joseph Smith|author=David E. Sloan|journal=Journal of Book of Mormon Studies|volume=5|issue=2|pages=57–81|year=1996|jstor=44758792 |s2cid=11807890 |access-date=2010-12-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100301065324/http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=5&num=2&id=124|archive-date=2010-03-01|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Coptic language|Coptic (Egyptian)]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=jbms&id=128|title=Jewish and Other Semitic Texts Written in Egyptian Characters – Maxwell Institute JBMS|access-date=2007-06-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607225132/http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?id=128&table=jbms|archive-date=2007-06-07|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Maya script|Mayan]]/[[Olmec]],<ref>Anthon in ''Mormonism Unveiled'', compared the characters to Mexican calendars. See {{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/31864298|title=New Light: "Anthon Transcript" Writing Found?|journal=Journal of Book of Mormon Studies|volume = 8|issue = 1|pages= 68–70|last1=Grover |first1=Jerry }}</ref> and Irish [[ogham]] ciphers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Review of William L. Moore "Mitchill Affair" Article |url=http://solomonspalding.com/SRP/saga/saga02c.htm |access-date=2023-05-12 |website=solomonspalding.com}}</ref> [[Hugh Nibley]] argued that a "revealed text in English" is preferable to trying to understand the original language.<ref>"A revealed text in English is infinitely to be preferred to an original in a language that no one on earth could claim as his own. It frees the members and leaders of the Church as it frees the investigating world from the necessity of becoming philologists or, worse still, of having to rely on the judgment of philologists, as a prerequisite to understanding this great book. At the same time, it puts upon the modern world an obligation to study and learn, from which that world could easily plead immunity were the book in an ancient language or couched in the labored and pretentious idiom that learned men adopt when they try to decipher ancient texts." Hugh Nibley, "New Approaches to Book of Mormon Study," ''The Prophetic Book of Mormon'' (1989), 97 (link [http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1112&index=5 here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221095446/http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1112&index=5 |date=2013-12-21 }} for the specific excerpt from the book)</ref>
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