Reformed egyptian in the book of mormon book of mormon central. While there is much that is unknown about reformed egyptian, some clues about its nature emerge from a close reading of the book of mormon. While there is much that is unknown about reformed egyptian, some clues about its nature emerge from a close reading of the book of mormon text and comparison with other. The prophet moroni indicated that he and his father mormon wrote their abridgement of the nephite records in a script called reformed egyptian mormon 9. The book of mormon text refers to the language it is written in as reformed egyptian. Both hieratic and demotic were in use in lehis time and can properly be termed reformed egyptian. The who, what, and why of reformed egyptian in the book. It was first published in march 1830 by joseph smith as the book of mormon.
And besides, some add, real jews wouldnt have used it anyway, since jews believe hebrew to be a sacred language, and ancient jews held egyptian, the language of their hereditary enemies, to be evil and corrupt. How joseph smith invented reformed egyptian dan vogel dan vogel. This is the last of my threepart presentation on the book of mormon characters. Egyptian in contrast to hebrew really did save space. Reformed egyptian an evidence for book of mormon deseret news. However, the book of mormon makes it clear that reformed egyptian had been adapted by them for concise writing. Joseph smith, the movements founder, published the book of mormon in 1830 as a translation of these golden plates. Book of mormonlanguagereformed egyptian fairmormon. Evidence for the reformed egyptian mentioned in the book of.
Brian stubbs wrote an article on reformed egyptian and book of mormon language here. Scholarly reference works on languages do not, however, acknowledge. For the creation of the book of mormon someone has. Many skeptics have declared that, contrary to the claims of the book of mormon, there is no such language as reformed egyptian. Moroni makes it clear that reformed egyptian is the name which the nephites have given to a script based upon egyptian characters, and modified over the course of a thousand years see mormon 9. The book of mormon is a sacred text of the latter day saint movement, which, according to adherents, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the american continent from approximately 2200 bc to ad 421. In 1829, as joseph smith was finishing his translation of the book of mormon. This article discusses the term reformed egyptian as used in the book of mormon. In 1829, as joseph smith was finishing his translation of the book of mormon, a french scholar named jeanfrancois champollion was busy preparing the first dictionary and grammar of the egyptian language, which were published after his death in 1832. The book of mormon uses the term reformed egyptian in only one verse, mormon. This clip goes over reformed egyptian, a language mentioned in the book of mormon, and also compares bom. At the beginning of 1 nephi, nephi said that he was writing his record in the language of his father lehi, which consists of the learning of the. Latterday saints are often fascinated and sometimes perplexed with figuring out what reformed egyptian was or how it worked. These are two totally different languages with different writing symbols.
How joseph smith invented reformed egyptian dan vogel. Many critics claim that reformed egyptian does not exist. Moroni indicates that he and his father mormon wrote in a script called reformed egyptian. Evidence for the reformed egyptian mentioned in the book of mormon.
The abridgment that the book of mormon says was prepared by mormon and moroni nearly a. What can be similar is the use of the language, meaning the style the words are written, for instance, the. As far as i know, reformed egyptian is in no way close to hebrew. In lehis day, both hebrew and egyptian were written with consonants only. Shorter clips have been previously posted on the fair youtube site. But no entity outside of the mormon church refers to reformed egyptian as a real, written language. Many have wondered what reformed egyptian might be and why book of mormon recordkeepers wrote in such a script. As nephi introduces himself, he explains that he writes using the learning of the jews and the language of the egyptians, and moroni later describes this as reformed egyptian mormon 9. Why did mormon and moroni write in reformed egyptian. In this video i will discuss what i think is the probable method joseph smith used to create the characters on the. In this respect, the book of mormon has aged better than its detractors. Despite rampant egyptomania in the early nineteenth century, the.
While we certainly still do not know everything about the ancient world, or even the early days of the restoration, we have learned quite a bit. An account written by the hand of mormon upon plates taken from the plates of nephi. So, it is no surprise that egyptians or jews have no script called reformed egyptian, as this was a nephite term. Skeptics of the book of mormon, on the other hand, often dismiss reformed egyptian as a fabrication by joseph smith. The book of mormon uses the term reformed egyptian in only one.
Until champollion, no one had been able to translate ancient egyptian texts since they fell into disuse in the fourth century ad. As discussed in the main article, variant old world forms of egyptian such as demotic were quite compact, and wellsuited for writing with space constraints. Since the book of mormons publication in 1830, significant progress has been made in the fields of egyptology, near eastern and precolumbian american archaeology, linguistics, and latterday saint history. Despite the translation of egyptian and numerous american indian languages, reformed egyptian remains unknown. The book of mormon, a work of scripture of the latter day saint movement, describes itself as having a portion originally written in reformed egyptian characters on plates of metal or ore by prophets living in the western hemisphere from perhaps as early as the 6th century bc until as late as the 5th century ad.
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