Beggar's Bread

by Fred W. Anson
Christian Researcher, Richard B. Stout, has done extensive research correlating the alleged “Reformed Egyptian” characters on the plates that the Book of Mormon were “translated” from to Ancient Irish. The following questions and supporting evidence explain and summarize his case:

Q: According to Mormon History were the Anthon Transcript characters copied from the alleged Golden Plates?
A: Yes. We have documented evidence from Martin Harris, David Whitmer, and Joseph Smith that they were.

Q: Can a correlation between the Anthon Transcript characters and Egyptian Hieroglyphs be established?
A: No. Anthon was not a qualified “expert” and modern Egyptologists can find no correlation.

Q: Can a correlation between the Anthon Transcript characters and the Detroit Manuscript characters be established?
A: Yes. There are character for character matches.

Q: Since it has been established that the Detroit Manuscript characters are ancient Irish (thus resulting in near-complete translation of the document) what are the Anthon Transcript characters?
A: Ancient Irish.

Thus the following question/challenge/problem remains for Mormon Scholars:
If you accept Martin Harris’s assertion that the characters on the Anthon Transcript were copied from the Golden Plates, then how you explain why the Golden Plates were written in Ancient Irish rather than ‘Reformed Egyptian’ as Joseph Smith claimed?”

Supporting Evidence
Please consider these links between the Detroit Manuscript and the Anthon Transcript are compelling. This is from Richard B. Stout’s article “A Singular Discovery”:

“According to Mormon history, Joseph Smith, Jr. discovered a hidden, religious work in 1823. Facsimiles of the “unknown characters” in which the Book of Mormon was written were later copied and taken to “the learned.” One of the opinions sought was that of Dr. Mitchell of New York City. Earlier, secular history had also recorded the discovery of a hidden, religious work in 1823.

Facsimile pages were made of this book’s “characters,” which were also said to be “unknown.” They too were taken to “the learned”-one of whom was Dr. Mitchell. However, Joseph Smith did not discover what became known in the national press as the Detroit Manuscript. That honor went to Col. Abraham Edwards, a business partner of Joseph’s uncle, Stephen Mack.

Especially because of this family connection, it would appear likely that Joseph Smith used the details surrounding the Detroit Manuscript as a template upon which to construct his story of the Book of Mormon’s “coming forth.” Further, there is evidence which proves that events, names, places, and even controversial animals which appear in the Book of Mormon could have been borrowed from the writings of the well-known scholar identified in both accounts as Dr. Mitchell. Perhaps most startling of all, paleographic research indicates that Joseph may have copied many of the characters he had Martin Harris take to Dr. Mitchell directly from the Detroit Manuscript.”
(“A Singular Discovery: The Curious Manuscript, Mitchill, and Mormonism Part 1” by Richard Stout, The Evangel, Oct 2001)

In addition, Stout’s research has established an interesting correlation between the characters on the Anthon Transcript (which Harris claimed were characters from the Golden Plates) and the Detroit Manuscript (which turned out to be ancient Irish characters). He then validated this Irish correlation by extending the character comparisons out to other ancient Irish manuscripts.

Here are the exhibits from the article. Exhibit “B” has been excluded as it is only clear and relevant within the context of the article’s main text.

Exhibit “A”
This small sample of early modern shorthand above is from Jeremiah Rich’s 1673 New Testament. The reader will find more than fifteen different characters here which are also found in the “Anthon transcript.”

Exhibit “C”
The ogham code symbol on the left is from page 311 of the 14th century Book of Ballymote (the vertical line is merely a divider). The three symbols on the right are from the “Anthon transcript.”

Exhibit “D”
The highlighted symbol (left) of four dots below a stem line is from page 312 of the Ballymote manuscript. The “Anthon transcript” symbol to its right is from line four of the transcript.

Exhibit “E”
Naithair fria fraech (“Serpent through the heather”) ogham code letter on left Book of Ballymote, p. 313. Two of several similar “Anthon transcript” symbols on right.

So, again, I suppose the question that Mormon Scholars must address at this point is this:
If you accept Martin Harris’s assertion that the characters on the Anthon Transcript were copied from the Golden Plates, then how you explain why the Golden Plates were written in Ancient Irish rather than ‘Reformed Egyptian’ as Joseph Smith claimed?”

Even if you’re not an Egyptologist, intuitively it’s hard to see how “Reformed Egyptian” which allegedly looks like this . . .

. . . in any way correlates to Egyptian Hieroglyphics which look like this:

And in their purest form like this:

And the research continues while this question remains to haunt us: Why was the Book of Mormon Written in Ancient Irish?