To: wagglebee
The Book of Mormon is purported to be a testament of Jesus Christ, yet Smith claimed that the gold plates were written in hieroglyphics.
The "Caractors" are the only tangible evidence in existence related to Smith's story. No gold plates, no brass plates, no peep stones, no Urim and Thummim... only these "Caractors," not a single one of which is in the purported languages.
Smith's translation of the Caractors. According to Martin Harris (Joseph Smith - History, 1:64), "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated,* and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters."
Speak right up now in all truthfulness. Isn't it revealing how Smith started out making a stab at creating believable "caractors" but quckly gave up and produced nothing but squiggles, ending up wih a series of nothing more than crude little scribbles? Yet Professor Anthon supposedly translated them!
*Harris must have had two or three pieces of paper with himone with characters and a translation of them (on the same paper or a separate one) and one with untranslated charactersquite likely the "Caractors." Some Mormon "scholars" have gone out on a limb, sawed it off, and knocked themselves out trying to translate from these true Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic characters a segment that would correspond with a verse from 1 Nephi.
Modern-day experts in Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic. In 1829, any knowledge of these languages possessed by U.S. scholars would have been rudimentary at best. Expertise in them has vastly improved since then. So go ahead, do it. Get any modern expert in these languages to identify which of these "Caractors" are Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac and Arabic. Better still, accept the claim of Mormon apologists that Anthon did indeed so testify and that his appraisal of the Caractors was correct. (Op. cit, pp. 73-75)
Save your money! Samples of Assyriac/Aramaic and Arabic writing:
What say you? Which of Smith's "Caractors" resemble the Assyriac and Arabic ones? No need to pay experts for their analysis. A child could accurately check this out. These writing systems have remained constant for well over 3000 years.
152 posted on
04/29/2008 12:41:16 PM PDT by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Elsie
As I recall there are records of Smith giving examples of some other figures from a papyrus that he translated. The papyrus was lost, but later found in some museum. The examples Smith gave are pretty close to the actual found in the museum, and the originals have scribbles on the back referencing Mormon things - so they are no doubt the same papyrus.
The only trouble is that the examples (and originals) pertain to “everyday” Egyptian stuff - one was how to bury somebody as I recall. But instead of “put spices on the body” (or whatever!) the translation Smith came up with would be something like “And then Moroni led the Nephites to beyond the gates of Narhou and fought the Phelites and gained a mighty victory. They then settled in the land of ....” (Well, not real verses - but you get the idea. As I recall, what should have been a word or two in the Egyptian turned out to be a paragraph or so by Smith).
I also seem to recall that Egyptian Hieroglyphics were all the rage in New York at that time - new discoveries in Egypt, etc.
161 posted on
04/29/2008 12:57:47 PM PDT by
21twelve
(Don't wish for peace. Pray for Victory.)
To: Elsie
It would be interesting to see if the hieroglyphs on the golden plates were written from left to right, right to left or top to bottom. Because it is my understanding that NO writing prior to Greek was from left to right.
163 posted on
04/29/2008 1:01:24 PM PDT by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: Elsie
Wouldn’t the seerstone or one of the angels told him how to spell “character”?
167 posted on
04/29/2008 1:04:42 PM PDT by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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