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Mormonism has never explained how godly Jews [sic] of A.D. 400 allegedly knew Egyptian, nor why they would have written their sacred records entirely in the language of their pagan, idolatrous enemies" (p. 284). "How likely is it that the allegedly Jewish [sic] Nephites would have used the Egyptian language to write their sacred scriptures? Their strong antipathy to the Egyptians and their culture makes this difficult to accept. When modern Jews copy their scripture, they use Hebrew. They do not use Egyptian or Arabic, the language of their historic enemies" (pp. 294-95). "[N]o such language [as reformed Egyptian] exists and Egyptologists declare this unequivocally.{{ref|ankerberg1}} | Mormonism has never explained how godly Jews [sic] of A.D. 400 allegedly knew Egyptian, nor why they would have written their sacred records entirely in the language of their pagan, idolatrous enemies" (p. 284). "How likely is it that the allegedly Jewish [sic] Nephites would have used the Egyptian language to write their sacred scriptures? Their strong antipathy to the Egyptians and their culture makes this difficult to accept. When modern Jews copy their scripture, they use Hebrew. They do not use Egyptian or Arabic, the language of their historic enemies" (pp. 294-95). "[N]o such language [as reformed Egyptian] exists and Egyptologists declare this unequivocally.{{ref|ankerberg1}} | ||
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+ | They are, however, spectacularly wrong: | ||
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+ | :The statement "When modern Jews copy their scripture, they use Hebrew. They do not use Egyptian or Arabic, the language of their historic enemies" is quite an astonishing display of ignorance. Since the Egyptian language has been dead for centuries, it is hardly remarkable that modern Jews do not read the Bible in Egyptian. On the other hand, "the first and most important rendering [of the Old Testament] from Hebrew [into Arabic] was made by Sa'adya the Ga'on, a learned Jew who was head of the rabbinic school at Sura in Babylon (died 942)" (George A. Buttrick, ed., The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible [hereafter IDB], 4 vols. and supplement [Nashville: Abingdon, 1962-1976], 4:758b). Thus, Jews have indeed translated the Bible into "Arabic, the language of their historic enemies." They also have translated it into the language of their "historic enemies" the Greeks (IDB 4:750b on the Septuagint) and Aramaeans (IDB 1:185-93; 4:749-50, on the Aramaic Targums).{{peterson1}} | ||
===What is "Reformed Egyptian"?=== | ===What is "Reformed Egyptian"?=== | ||
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# {{note|GeeTved1}} John Gee and John A. Tvedtnes, "Ancient Manuscripts Fit Book of Mormon Pattern," ''Insights'' 19:2 (February 1999): 4–5.{{link|url=http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=insights&id=58}} | # {{note|GeeTved1}} John Gee and John A. Tvedtnes, "Ancient Manuscripts Fit Book of Mormon Pattern," ''Insights'' 19:2 (February 1999): 4–5.{{link|url=http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=insights&id=58}} | ||
# {{note|TvedRicks1}} {{JBMS-5-2-7}} | # {{note|TvedRicks1}} {{JBMS-5-2-7}} | ||
+ | # {{note|ankerberg1}} Ankerberg and Weldon, 294. | ||
+ | # {{note|peterson1}} {{FR-5-1-2}} | ||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
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*Ariel Crowley, "The Anthon Transcript," ''Improvement Era'', 45:1 (January 1942) and 45:2 (February 1942), 45:3 (March 1942). [http://www.shields-research.org/Scriptures/BoM/Anthon_Transcript-Crowley/Anthon_Transcript-Crowley.htm *] | *Ariel Crowley, "The Anthon Transcript," ''Improvement Era'', 45:1 (January 1942) and 45:2 (February 1942), 45:3 (March 1942). [http://www.shields-research.org/Scriptures/BoM/Anthon_Transcript-Crowley/Anthon_Transcript-Crowley.htm *] | ||
*John Gee and John A. Tvedtnes, "Ancient Manuscripts Fit Book of Mormon Pattern," ''Insights'' 19:2 (February 1999): 4–5.{{link|url=http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=insights&id=58}} | *John Gee and John A. Tvedtnes, "Ancient Manuscripts Fit Book of Mormon Pattern," ''Insights'' 19:2 (February 1999): 4–5.{{link|url=http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=insights&id=58}} | ||
+ | *William J. Hamblin, "Reformed Egyptian," FARMS Featured Papers, 1995. {{link|url=http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?id=36&table=transcripts}} | ||
*{{Ensign1|author=John L. Sorenson|article=Digging into the Book of Mormon: Our Changing Understanding of Ancient America and Its Scripture, Part 2|date=October 1984|start=17}}{{link|url=http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1984.htm/ensign%20october%201984%20.htm/digging%20into%20the%20book%20of%20mormon%20our%20changing%20understanding%20of%20ancient%20america%20and%20its%20scripture%20part%202%20.htm}} | *{{Ensign1|author=John L. Sorenson|article=Digging into the Book of Mormon: Our Changing Understanding of Ancient America and Its Scripture, Part 2|date=October 1984|start=17}}{{link|url=http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1984.htm/ensign%20october%201984%20.htm/digging%20into%20the%20book%20of%20mormon%20our%20changing%20understanding%20of%20ancient%20america%20and%20its%20scripture%20part%202%20.htm}} | ||
* {{JBMS-5-2-7}} | * {{JBMS-5-2-7}} | ||
* {{FR-15-1-11}} | * {{FR-15-1-11}} | ||
===Printed material=== | ===Printed material=== | ||
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*Carl H. Jones, "The 'Anthon Transcript' and Two Mesoamerican Cylinder Seals," ''Newsletter and Proceedings of the Society for Early Historical Archaeology'' 122 (September 1970): 1–8. | *Carl H. Jones, "The 'Anthon Transcript' and Two Mesoamerican Cylinder Seals," ''Newsletter and Proceedings of the Society for Early Historical Archaeology'' 122 (September 1970): 1–8. | ||
− | * | + | *{{Nibley7_1|start=149}}{{GL1|url=http://gospelink.com/library/doc?doc_id=274530}} |
Critics claim that
The claim that Israelites would not use Egyptian is clearly false. By the ninth to sixth centuries before Christ, Israelites used Egyptian numerals mingled with Hebrew text. The Papyrus Amherst 63 contains a text of Psalms 20:2-6 written in Aramaic (the language of Jesus) using Egyptian characters. This text was originally dated to the second century B.C., but this has since been extended to the 4th century B.C.[1]
Anti-Mormon authors Ankerberg and Weldon claim:
Mormonism has never explained how godly Jews [sic] of A.D. 400 allegedly knew Egyptian, nor why they would have written their sacred records entirely in the language of their pagan, idolatrous enemies" (p. 284). "How likely is it that the allegedly Jewish [sic] Nephites would have used the Egyptian language to write their sacred scriptures? Their strong antipathy to the Egyptians and their culture makes this difficult to accept. When modern Jews copy their scripture, they use Hebrew. They do not use Egyptian or Arabic, the language of their historic enemies" (pp. 294-95). "[N]o such language [as reformed Egyptian] exists and Egyptologists declare this unequivocally.[3]
They are, however, spectacularly wrong:
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 9:32). So, it is no surprise that Egyptians or Jews have no script called "reformed Egyptian," as this was a Nephite term.
There are, however, several variant Egyptian scrips which are "reformed" or altered from their earlier form. Hugh Nibley and others have pointed out that the change from Egyptian hieroglyphics, to hieratic, to demotic is a good description of Egyptian being "reformed." By 600 BC, hieratic was used primarily for religious texts, while demotic was used for daily use.off-site
One can see how hieroglphics developed into the more stylized hieratic, and this process continued with the demotic:
What could be a better term for this than an Egyptian script that has been "reformed"?
There was a clear evolution of Egyptian script in the Old World, and these modified scripts were in use in Lehi's day. People of Lehi's time and place did use both Hebrew and Egyptian, just as Nephi claimed (See 1 Nephi 1:2).
Given that Moroni says the Nephites then modified the scripts further, "reformed Egyptian" is an elegant description of both the Old World phenomenon, and what Moroni says happened among the Nephites.
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