Reformed Egyptian: Difference between revisions

The Book of Mormon uses the term "reformed Egyptian" in only one verse, {{Sourcetext|source=Book of Mormon|version=1981|book=Mormon|chapter=9|verse=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."<ref>The prophet-historian Moroni ({{Sourcetext|source=Book of Mormon|version=1981|book=Mormon|chapter=9|verse=32|range=-34}}).</ref> The book also says that its first author, [[Nephi, son of Lehi|Nephi]], used the "learning of the Jews and the language of the [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]]s" ({{Sourcetext|source=Book of Mormon|version=1981|book=1 Nephi |chapter=1|verse=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 written in "reformed Egyptian" because it took less space than [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], which had also been altered after the people left [[Jerusalem]].<ref>According to the Book of Mormon prophet [[Moroni (Book of Mormon prophet)|Moroni]] (more than a thousand years after [[Nephi, son of Lehi|Nephi]] began the record): "And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also ..." {{Sourcetext|source=Book of Mormon|version=1981|book=Mormon|chapter=9|verse=33}}</ref>

Latter day-Saint scholars note that other scripts were developed to write Egyptian through the centuries and have hypothesized that the term "''reformed Egyptian"'' refers to 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 (Egyptian)|Demotic]], a simplified derivative of hieratic, which was used in northern Egypt fifty years before the time that the Book of Mormon states that prophet-patriarch [[Lehi (prophet)|Lehi]] left Jerusalem for the [[Americas]] ({{circa|600 BC}}).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hamblin|first1=William J.|title=Reformed Egyptian|journal=FARMS Review|date=2007|volume=19|issue=1|url=http://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/review/19/1/S00006-5176a7ad373d86Hamblin.pdf|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20160514203811/http://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/review/19/1/S00006-5176a7ad373d86Hamblin.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2016-05-14|access-date=17 March 2017}}</ref> The archaeological record includes occasional use in the Landland of Israel, known as Palestinian Hieratic, mostly of isolated hieratic symbols, dating from the 8th through early 6th centuries BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wimmer |first1=Stephan |title=Palastinisches Hieratisch: Die Zahl- und Sonderzeichen in der althebraischen Schrift |date=2008 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |location=Wiesbaden, Germany |isbn=978-3447058629 |pages=10–55}}</ref>

Although accounts of the process differ, Smith is said to have translated the reformed Egyptian characters engraved on gold plates into [[English language|English]] through various means, including the use of a [[Seer stone (Latter Day Saints)|seer stone]] or the [[Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)|interpreter stones]], or both.<ref>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.</ref> Smith said when he had finished the translation, he returned the plates to the [[angel Moroni]], and therefore they are unavailable for study.<ref>"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 {{nbsp}}[...] 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.</ref>