The
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi''.
The book is one of ...
, a work of scripture of the
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by ...
, is asserted by both itself and
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thou ...
, the founder of the movement, to have been originally written in the Native American writing system of reformed Egyptian characters.
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.
[Standard 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).] There is no archaeological, linguistic, or other evidence of the use of Egyptian writing in the ancient Americas.
Reformed Egyptian and the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon uses the term "reformed Egyptian" in only one verse, , which says that "the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian,
erehanded down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech" and that "none other people knoweth our language" (). The book also says that its first author,
Nephi, used the "learning of the Jews and the language of the
Egyptians" () 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
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
, which had also been altered after the people left
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
.
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
Hieratic (; ) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BCE until the rise of Demotic in the mid-first millennium BCE ...
, a handwritten form of hieroglyphics thousands of years old by the first millennium BC, or early
Demotic
Demotic may refer to:
* Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language
* Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language
* Chữ Nôm
Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used t ...
, 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 left Jerusalem for the
Americas
The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...
(). The archaeological record includes occasional use in the land of Israel, known as Palestinian Hieratic, mostly of isolated hieratic symbols, dating from the 8th through early 6th centuries BC.
Although accounts of the process differ, Smith is said to have translated the 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. Smith said when he had finished the translation, he returned the plates to the
angel Moroni
The angel Moroni () is an angel whom Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, reported as having visited him on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21, 1823. According to Smith, the angel Moroni was the guardian of the gold ...
and as such they were unavailable for study.
The "Anthon Transcript"

The "
Anthon Transcript" is a piece of paper on which
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thou ...
is said to have
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. 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. Anthon wrote, to the contrary, that he had believed from the first that Harris was the victim of fraud.
In 1844,
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian restorationist Christian denomination and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded dur ...
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. 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.
Scholarly view of reformed Egyptian
Standard language reference works contain no reference to "reformed Egyptian"
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
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
, 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'." Anthropologist
Michael D. Coe
Michael Douglas Coe (May 14, 1929 – September 25, 2019) was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, epigraphy, epigrapher, and author. He is known for his research on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya civilization, Maya, an ...
of Yale University, an expert in
pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...
Mesoamerican
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...
studies, wrote, "Of all the peoples of the pre-Columbian New World, only the ancient
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (East Africa), a p ...
had a complete script." Fifteen examples of distinct writing systems have been identified in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, many from a single inscription.
Mormon studies of reformed Egyptian

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. Four Mormon non-linguist translators with varying levels of education have attempted to decipher the "Caractors" document. According to
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...
Egyptologist
John Gee, "the corpus is not large enough to render decipherment feasible."
Mormon apologist
Terryl Givens
Terryl Lynn Givens is a senior research fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute of Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University (BYU). Until 2019, he was a professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, where he held the ...
has suggested that the characters are early examples of Egyptian symbols being used "to transliterate Hebrew words and vice versa," that
Demotic
Demotic may refer to:
* Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language
* Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language
* Chữ Nôm
Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used t ...
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. Other Mormon apologists have suggested that the characters resemble those of
shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to Cursive, longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Gr ...
for various languages including
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
,
Demotic (Egyptian)
Demotic (from ''dēmotikós'', 'popular') is the ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of hieratic used in the Nile Delta. The term was first used by the Greek historian Herodotus to distinguish it from hieratic and Egyptian hiero ...
,
Hieratic (Egyptian),
Coptic (Egyptian),
Mayan/
Olmec
The Olmecs () or Olmec were an early known major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 Before the Common Era, BCE during Mesoamerica's Mesoamerican chronolog ...
, and Irish
ogham
Ogham (also ogam and ogom, , Modern Irish: ; , later ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish language ( scholastic ...
ciphers.
Hugh Nibley argued that a "revealed text in English" is preferable to trying to understand the original language.
Brian D. Stubbs, a Mormon scholar, has argued in his comparison of the
Uto-Aztecan languages
The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of native American languages, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ...
with
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
,
Aramaic
Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
and
Egyptian that he found more than 1,500 lexical and grammatical similarities, as well as systematic patterns of phonetic changes among them.
See also
*
Anthon Transcript forgery
*
Book of Abraham
Notes and references
External links
*
John GeeSome Notes on the Anthon Transcript Mormon apologetics.
*
William J. HamblinReformed Egyptian Mormon apologetics.
*Richard G. Grant
Mormon apologetics.
*
Jerald and Sandra TannerA book excerpt critical of Book of Mormon archeology
*Summary of skeptical material about the Anthon Transcript fro
{{Latter-day Saints
Book of Mormon studies
Language and mysticism
Book of Mormon words and phrases
Spurious languages
Seership in Mormonism