Joseph Smith’s claims about the discovery of the gold plates and the translation of the Book of Mormon are at the core of the founding narrative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to Smith, in 1827, he found (or was led by an angel to) gold plates buried near his home in upstate New York, which contained ancient writings in a language he referred to as “reformed Egyptian.” With the help of his seer stones, Smith claimed to have “translated” this ancient text into what would become the Book of Mormon. His translation work is not the type of translation one usually associates with the term since he didn’t use the original letters or learn this “reformed Egyptian,” and he used his favorite peepstone. He would place this seer stone or peepstone in the bottom of his hat, bury his face deep into it, and using his hands to block ambient light read from the seer stone, and recite words aloud to a scribe. He claims he saw the translation of this Reformed Egyptian via the power of God, but every element of this story raises significant questions and invites skepticism.
Many of these issues have been covered:
- When discussing what was the purpose of the gold plates if they weren’t used for translation?
- How could God bless the use of this seer stone when it had previously been used to con people in digging for treasure?
- Why did the church deny and hide for so many years the process Joseph claimed to translate the Book of Mormon?
- If the text of the Book of Mormon is genuinely ancient and historical, how does it contain so many plagiarisms and anachronisms?
- Was Joseph Smith tricked into attempting a translations of fraud plates from Kinderhook?
Reformed Egyptian
One of the central issues is Smith’s assertion that the gold plates were written in “reformed Egyptian,” a language that has never been found in any credible archeological or linguistic record. No ancient civilization, Egyptian or otherwise, used or recorded a script known as or similar to “reformed Egyptian.” Languages evolve, and while different forms of Egyptian writing—such as hieroglyphics, hieratic, and demotic—are well-documented, there is no evidence of a version of the language corresponding to the term or concept of “reformed Egyptian.” Without external verification of this language, the claim relies entirely on Smith’s testimony, which is problematic given the lack of corroboration from scholars or archaeological findings.
2 Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.
The Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 1:2
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/1?lang=eng&id=p2#p2
32 And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.
33 And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record.
34 But the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof.
The Book of Mormon, Mormon 9:32-34
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/morm/9?lang=eng&id=p32-p34#p32
Moroni stated that he had the ability to write in at least two languages: Hebrew and Egyptian (see Mormon 9:32–34). He noted that if the “plates had been sufficiently large” he would have written in Hebrew; however, those who kept the record used “reformed Egyptian” due to the lack of space (verses 32–33). Previously in the Book of Mormon, both Nephi and King Benjamin acknowledged their use of Egyptian. Nephi stated that he wrote in “the language of the Egyptians” when he engraved the small plates (1 Nephi 1:2). When speaking to his sons about the importance of the brass plates, King Benjamin noted that Lehi could read the record because he had “been taught in the language of the Egyptians” (Mosiah 1:4). Therefore, we understand that Lehi taught the gospel and Egyptian “to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children” (Mosiah 1:4). Evidently, this pattern continued through the generations of record keepers that followed until Moroni learned the language from his father. However, Moroni’s statement that he wrote in “reformed Egyptian” (Mormon 9:32) indicates that some adaptations in the use of the language had occurred over the thousand years from the time of Lehi. This could explain why Moroni concluded with the comment that “none other people knoweth our language” but that God had prepared means for the eventual interpretation and translation of the record (Mormon 9:34).
Book of Mormon Student Manual: Chapter 49, Mormon 7–9: Moroni Wrote in Reformed Egyptian
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-student-manual-2018/chapter-49-mormon-7-9?lang=eng#title18?lang=eng
![The angel charged Joseph Smith to translate the book from the ancient language in which it was written. The young man, however, had very little formal education and was incapable of writing a book on his own, let alone translating an ancient book written from an unknown language, known in the Book of Mormon as “reformed Egyptian.” Joseph’s wife Emma insisted that, at the time of translation, Joseph “could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone dictat[e] a book like the Book of Mormon.” - Gospel Topic Essay on Book of Mormon Translation, LDS Church | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Reformed-Egyptian-Caractors-Gospel-Topic-Essay-1024x1024.jpg?resize=640%2C640&ssl=1)
The angel charged Joseph Smith to translate the book from the ancient language in which it was written. The young man, however, had very little formal education and was incapable of writing a book on his own, let alone translating an ancient book written from an unknown language, known in the Book of Mormon as “reformed Egyptian.” Joseph’s wife Emma insisted that, at the time of translation, Joseph “could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone dictat[e] a book like the Book of Mormon.”
LDS Website > Gospel Topics Essays > Book of Mormon Translation > “By the Gift and Power of God”
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#p3
The Anthon Transcript
The Anthon Transcript contains the only examples of reformed Egyptian today. It’s called the Anthon Transcript because of the church history story when Martin Harris took a sample of reformed Egyptian to Charles Anthon. The church narrative states Anthon confirmed the text as an ancient language, but upon hearing this Anthon made multiple statements declaring the script a fraud. The church version of the story has been made official and, even if false, is canonized in church scripture.
!["The Anthon Transcript was a sheet of paper, thought to be lost, upon which Joseph Smith copied sample “reformed Egyptian” characters from the plates of the Book of Mormon. In the winter of 1828, Martin Harris showed these characters to Dr. Charles Anthon of Columbia College, and hence the name... [Anthon] maintained that he told Harris that he (Harris) was a victim of a fraud. Modern research suggests that, given the state of knowledge of Egyptian in 1828, Anthon’s views would have been little more than opinion... [The Anthon Transcript] contains seven horizontal lines of characters apparently copied from the plates. David Whitmer, who once owned the document, said it was this text that Martin Harris showed to Charles Anthon. However, this claim remains uncertain because the transcript does not correspond with Anthon’s assertion that the manuscript he saw was arranged in vertical columns. Even if the document is not the original, it almost certainly represents characters either copied from the plates in Joseph Smith’s possession or copied from the document carried by Harris. Twice in late 1844, after the Prophet’s martyrdom, portions of these symbols were published as characters that Joseph Smith had copied from the gold plates." Anthon Transcript. Danel W. Bachman. BYU Studies | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Anthon-Transcript-Caractors-Document-Reformed-Egyptian-1024x1024.jpg?resize=640%2C640&ssl=1)
The Anthon Transcript was a sheet of paper, thought to be lost, upon which Joseph Smith copied sample “reformed Egyptian” characters from the plates of the Book of Mormon. In the winter of 1828, Martin Harris showed these characters to Dr. Charles Anthon of Columbia College (now Columbia University), and hence the name…
[Anthon] maintained that he told Harris that he (Harris) was a victim of a fraud. Modern research suggests that, given the state of knowledge of Egyptian in 1828, Anthon’s views would have been little more than opinion. Whateverthe case may be about a written statement from Anthon, Harris returned to Harmony ready to assist Joseph Smith with the translation.
The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints possesses a handwritten text known as the Anthon Transcript that contains seven horizontal lines of characters apparently copied from the plates. David Whitmer, who once owned the document, said it was this text that Martin Harris showed to Charles Anthon. However, this claim remains uncertain because the transcript does not correspond with Anthon’s assertion that the manuscript he saw was arranged in vertical columns. Even if the document is not the original, it almost certainly represents characters either copied from the plates in Joseph Smith’s possession or copied from the document carried by Harris. Twice in late 1844, afterthe Prophet’s martyrdom, portions of these symbols were published as characters that Joseph Smith had copied from the gold plates—once as a broadside and once in the December 21 issue of the Mormon newspaper The Prophet.
Anthon Transcript. Danel W. Bachman, BYU Studies
FARMS Staff. “Martin Harris’ Visit to Charles Anthon: Collected Documents on Short-hand Egyptian.”
FARMS Preliminary Report. Provo, Utah, 1985. Kimball, Stanley B. “I Cannot Read a Sealed Book.” IE 60
(Feb. 1957): 80—82, 104, 106.
“The Anthon Transcript: People, Primary Sources, and Problems.” BYU Studies 10 (Spring 1970): 325—52.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=8&article=1093&context=mi&type=additional
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acquired the document in 2024 from the Community of Christ, and it is now held at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City.
Tuesday March 5, 2024, the responsibility and ownership for the Kirtland Temple, several historic buildings in Nauvoo, and various manuscripts and artifacts officially transferred from Community of Christ to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for an agreed-upon amount.
Community of Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joint Statement, March 5, 2024
https://media.deseret.com/media/misc/pdf/church-news/general/2024-03-05-Joint-Statement.pdf
The historic sites and artifacts in this transaction “relate to significant events and people in the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” according to the statement… Significant documents and artifacts include: A document with the title of “Caractors,” which may contain a sample of inscriptions from the gold plates.
The Church News: Church purchases Kirtland Temple, other historic buildings and artifacts from Community of Christ: What was purchased? March 5, 2024
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2024/03/05/church-purchases-kirtland-temple-historic-buildings-artifacts-community-of-christ/
What does this transcript, also called the “Caractors” Document, have to teach us about the ancient language?
Deformed English
No credible evidence has ever been discovered of a “Reformed Egyptian” language written by Israelites on gold plates. The concept of “Reformed Egyptian” comes from the narrative of the Book of Mormon, where it is described as the language used to inscribe the text on golden plates. However, historians, archaeologists, and linguists have found no substantiated examples of such a language in the historical or archaeological record.
No Historical Evidence of “Reformed Egyptian”
Linguists and Egyptologists have found no reference to or evidence of a language called “Reformed Egyptian” in the ancient world. Egyptian hieroglyphs, hieratic, and demotic scripts were well-documented writing systems, but there is no record of Israelites adopting or modifying these into a “reformed” version.
Unlikely Cultural Context
Ancient Israelites predominantly used Hebrew or other Semitic languages. Writing a sacred record in Egyptian—let alone an unknown “reformed” version—would be unusual given the strong cultural and linguistic identity of ancient Israelites.
Gold Plates and Archaeological Challenges
While other ancient societies (e.g., Mesopotamians) occasionally wrote on durable materials like stone or clay, writing long records on gold plates is not something archaeologists have uncovered in the ancient Near East. The production, preservation, and use of gold plates as a medium for sacred texts is unattested.
Critical Analysis of the “Caractors” Document
The “Caractors” document, purported to contain samples of the writing on the gold plates, has been analyzed extensively. The symbols in the document do not match known Egyptian writing systems or any other historical language. The symbols resemble a fabricated script with no linguistic consistency.
Upon examination, many symbols in the original document share a striking resemblance to English letters and numbers, suggesting they were deliberately crafted to imitate the Latin alphabet. Some appear rotated, flipped, or combined with minor embellishments to create a veneer of uniqueness. However, the similarities are too consistent to be coincidental. All 26 letters from the alphabet are found (some with both upper and lowercase characters) as well as all numerals.
This “Caractors” document is in the handwriting of John Whitmer, and was likely made between 1829 and 1831. Though it does not derive directly from the process of Book of Mormon translation, the document may be illustrative of characters copied from the plates.
LDS History Website > Significant Artifacts from Early Church History on Display: Caractors
https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/blog/significant-artifacts-from-early-church-history-on-display
Instead of “Reformed Egyptian” many of the “Caractors” are deformed English, as any one will observe who will compare them with English letters, figures and signs. I have counted thirty-six different characters in the fac-simile, some of them occurring more than once, which are either identical with, or which closely resemble, the English. The fact is that Joseph Smith, in drawing the transcript, employed different kinds and styles of English letters, changing a few of them to make the imposture less observable. Latter-day Saints are very quick to see a resemblance between the “Caractors” a n d the letters in the Maya and Egyptian alphabets of Le Plongeon; will they be as quick to see the similarity between the “Caractors” and the English? If similarity proves anything, it proves that the transcript is a bold, bare forgery and one not above the ability of a Smith or a Harris to execute.
Cumorah Revisited, 1910, pp. 538-39
https://archive.org/details/cumorahrevisited00shoo/page/538/mode/2up
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.cumorahrevisited00shoo_0/?sp=544
As early as 1834 Professor Anthon suggested that the letters appearing on the transcript had been “inverted or placed sideways.” We have taken the liberty, therefore, of turning some characters around and in some cases have used the same character to represent more than one letter or number. Nevertheless, all the characters are taken from photographs of the original document and have not been recopied by hand.
Utah Lighthouse Ministries, Newsletter #43: Joseph Smith’s “Caractors” Found! Important Discovery Puts President Kimball on the Spot: Reformed Egyptian Or Deformed English?
https://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no43.htm#Reformed
The “Caractors” document claims to represent “Reformed Egyptian,” but the characters’ overwhelming resemblance to English suggests otherwise. Simple analysis shows that many characters in the original document are derivations or adaptations of English letters and numbers. The visual match supports the argument that “Reformed Egyptian” was fabricated, and draws directly from the English alphabet. Even though Emma Smith claimed Joseph couldn’t write a “coherent and well-worded letter,” it seems he tried to craft an unknown language to inspire his followers to believe he really had ancient records.
Joseph Smith’s Claims vs. Scholarly Consensus
Joseph Smith claimed to have translated the gold plates through divine means, but without external corroboration or evidence of “Reformed Egyptian,” the claim remains unverified. Scholars outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints generally view the narrative as a product of 19th-century American religious and cultural contexts.
Smith repeatedly said that the plates had been returned to the angel Moroni after the translation process was complete. The only sample of the “reformed Egyptian” characters that has ever surfaced was presented in the form of a paper known as the “Anthon Transcript.” This document was a small collection of symbols Smith said he copied from the plates. When these characters (or “Caractors”) were shown to Charles Anthon, a prominent scholar of the time, his response was far from affirming. Anthon reportedly said that the characters were a hoax and bore no resemblance to any known ancient language. In fact, the characters look more like a crude attempt at copying elements of English alphabetic writing, with random shapes and symbols thrown in—far from any sophisticated or recognized script. After Anthon stated the writing was not ancient or translatable, Smith countered by including a prophecy in the text that mentions the incident. It states in 2 Nephi 27:20 about the book of scripture that “The learned shall not read them, for they have rejected them.”
Beyond the dubious linguistic claims, the translation method is also cause for scrutiny. Smith claimed to have translated the gold plates not by reading or studying them in a conventional sense, but by looking into seer stones placed in a hat, which would reveal the English words corresponding to the characters on the plates. Smith’s reliance on seer stones—a common tool in folk magic practices at the time—further distances the Book of Mormon’s translation process from any credible scholarly or linguistic methodology. No other religious or historical text of similar importance claims such a fantastical means of translation, and the use of seer stones places the Book of Mormon’s origin in a realm of mysticism rather than verified historical practice.
The idea of “Reformed Egyptian” and gold plates as described in the Book of Mormon lacks support from historical, linguistic, or archaeological evidence. Without external verification, the concept is widely regarded outside the Latter-day Saint faith as fictional.
The Book of Mormon’s narrative also claims that the ancient peoples who used this “reformed Egyptian” language were a large and significant civilization in the Americas. However, no archaeological evidence has been found to support the existence of the cities, technologies, or cultural markers described in the book, let alone a group of people who communicated in “reformed Egyptian.” The translated text includes many other anachronisms as well, like indicating these ancient Lamanite and Nephite people rode horses, grew wheat, and had steel swords, but these were not introduced to the new world until the Columbian Exchange centuries later.
All of this leads to a clear conclusion: Smith’s story, while captivating, lacks historical, linguistic, and archaeological support. The mysterious and unknown “reformed Egyptian” is a language with no basis in any known linguistic tradition, and the one example of the text he shared looks more like deformed English characters than any lost ancient writing. Combined with the fantastical method of translation using seer stones, the narrative unravels significantly under scrutiny. Without external evidence to support these claims, they appear more as products of imagination or fabrication than as the foundation of a divinely revealed text and religion.
More reading:
- Canonized Lies About Charles Anthon
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/18q02bh/can_someone_create_a_reformed_egyptian/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/fxq0ny/official_book_of_mormon_reformed_egyptian/
- https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/appendix-2-document-1-characters-copied-by-john-whitmer-circa-1829-1831/1
- https://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no43.htm#Reformed
- https://reformed-egyptian-generator.netlify.app/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/mkr83o/lazy_fraud_if_you_are_going_to_come_up_with_a/
- https://missedinsunday.com/memes/scripture/caractors/
- Book of Mormon Characters Examined, Dan Vogel – https://youtu.be/aMPFKZ2E4MM
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthon_Transcript
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformed_Egyptian
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-student-manual-2018/chapter-49-mormon-7-9?lang=eng#title18?lang=eng
- https://www.ldsdiscussions.com/translation
- https://www.ldsdiscussions.com/cannot-read-a-sealed-book
- https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2024/03/05/church-purchases-kirtland-temple-historic-buildings-artifacts-community-of-christ/
- “Cumorah revisited”, Charles A. Shook, 1910: https://archive.org/details/cumorahrevisited00shoo/page/538/mode/2up
- “Cumorah revisited”, Charles A. Shook, 1910: https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.cumorahrevisited00shoo_0/?sp=544