The Takeaway

Roper continues his examination of claimed Book of Mormon anachronisms, looking at 19 items related to records, writing, and language presented in the text. He concludes that 58% of these purported anachronisms have received subsequent confirmation in the archaeological record, with 5 items that are yet to trend toward confirmation (New World evidence of metal plates, inscriptions of Book of Mormon names and texts, and Hebrew and Egyptian inscriptions).

The Summary

In this article, Matthew Roper presents the seventh chapter of his book, Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book of Mormon Criticisms, this one focusing on records, writing, and language in the Book of Mormon. Roper’s analysis covers 19 different items, concluding that 11 have received subsequent confirmation. The ones that have not include 3 that have been partially confirmed (Egyptian in the Anthon Transcript, and evidence of Egyptian and Hebrew language contact in the New World), and 5 that remain unconfirmed (New World evidence of metal plates, inscriptions of Book of Mormon names and texts, and Hebrew and Egyptian inscriptions). His list (with some categories combined for brevity) is outlined below; see the end of the article for some helpful charts.

• Jews Writing Scripture in “Reformed Egyptian” (Confirmed). Despite critical claims to the contrary, Jewish texts, including scriptural ones, have been found written in Egyptian, such as Amherst Papyrus63, which contains a portion of Psalm 20 written in Demotic, a modified (or Reformed form of Egyptian.

• Anthon Transcript and Egyptian (Partially Confirmed). Though some critics have claimed that the Book of Mormon characters copied from the plates bear no resemblance to Egyptian, that claim was contradicted by Anthon himself (via Martin Harris) as well as two other non-Latter-day Saint Egyptologists (William Hayes and Richard A. Parker).

• Writing Scripture on Metal Plates (Confirmed for Israelites writing scripture on metal plates; Unconfirmed for New World writing on metal plates). While the idea of writing on metal plates was dismissed by some critics, we since have examples of Israelites writing on metal (e.g., a copper scroll found with the Dead Sea Scrolls), including scriptural texts (the Ketef Hinnomamulets, dating to 600 BC). To date there have been no example of writing on metal plates in the New World.

• Early Pre-Columbian Writing (Confirmed). Early critics were dismissive of the idea of pre-Columbian writing in the Americas, we now know that those in the Americas were quite literate, potentially as early as Olmec times.

• New World Egyptian/Hebrew Language and Writing (Partially Confirmed for Language Contact; Unconfirmed for Inscriptions). Based on the work of Brian Stubbs, we now have formidable evidence of linguistic contact in the Americas for both Egyptian and Hebrew, via the Uto-Aztecan language family, which Roper counts as the claim being partially confirmed. However, evidence of Hebrew and Egyptian writing has not yet been found.

• Book-of-Mormon-Specific Inscriptions (Confirmed for Nahom; Unconfirmed for New World names and texts). Roper cites the famed Nahom inscriptions as concrete evidence of an identified Book of Mormon location, directly contradicting critical claims. No inscriptions have yet to be discovered in the New World for Book of Mormon locations or texts.

• Hiding Up Records
  (Confirmed). Though some critics looked askance at the idea of hiding up records for future generations, this is now a well-attested ancient practice.

• Inscribed Stone Monuments (Confirmed). Despite what was commonly believed among early critics, there is now (very obvious) evidence of engraved stone monuments in pre-Columbian times.

The Reflection

As my summaries have been posted the last few weeks, it’s been fun to watch what critics tend to bring up in response. And every week at least one person brings up Reformed Egyptian, in the same manner as someone might hold up a cross in front of a vampire. And of course, when I point them to some of the discoveries outlined here by Roper they find immediate excuses to not pay any attention.

I doubt much will change this week (and I’m sure the irony of it being brought up will be lost on them), but it does highlight for me how slowly knowledge permeates when it runs counter to preconceived ideas. We’ll still be having to patiently present evidence in favor of Reformed Egyptian for probably the next century, but that won’t make it any less real, just as it was real for a few thousand years before that outside of everyone’s notice. The difference is how willing we are to accept that evidence when we find it. Skeptical interrogation of the evidence is one thing. Sustained ignorance is another.