The Language of Our Fathers – Part II

Continuing with this two-part series regarding the writing in Reformed Egyptian on the plates of brass and on the gold plates of Nephi.

Question #7: “Who wrote in Reformed Egyptian? Was it the entire Nephite nation, or just a part?”

Response: No, not the entire nation, but only a few. One would think that it was just those who kept the sacred records, which evidently were just those mentioned. However, Mosiah tells us that Lehi had “been taught in the language of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time” (Mosiah 1:4). This suggests that each prophet taught his sons, who would have taught their sons, etc., thus both Nephi and Jacob knew, and when Omni finished his brief record, he gave the plates to his brother Chemish, who obviously also knew how to write Reformed Egyptian. We also find that Mosiah taught his three sons, Mosiah II, Helorum and Helaman, to read and write Reformed Egyptian (Mosiah 1:2). Thus we find that the teaching of Reformed Egyptian was restricted to those who needed to read or write the sacred records, and might have included others than just those whose names we know wrote on the plates. But it was not a widespread requirement and there would have been few in number.

Question #8: “Were all the Nephite records written in Reformed Egyptian?”

Response: No. Helaman tells us that the Nephites kept a great many records (Helaman 3:13). Now since these records were daily activities, including their shipping and their building of ships, and their building of temples, and of synagogues and their sanctuaries, as well as their righteousness, and their wickedness, and their murders, and their robbings, and their plundering, and all manner of abominations and whoredoms (Helaman 3:14), it would seem that these would have been written in Hebrew, since Moroni made it clear that if they could have written their sacred records in Hebrew there would have been no imperfections (Mormon 9:33).

“Question #9: “Why did they write in Reformed Egyptian and not Hebrew? Moroni said there would have been no problems if they had written in Hebrew.”

Response: Evidently it was an issue of space on the plates. As an example, a 13-page article written in English takes only two pages when written in Hebrew. Reformed Egyptian must have been so condensed, that it took far less than Hebrew.

Comment #10: “I heard that Lehi considered it of utmost importance that the Egyptian language and Egyptian script be preserved among his descendants.  This was one of the principal reasons for his taking the "brass plates" along to the New World”

After Nephi, Sam and their brothers returned with the Brass Plates from Laban and handed them over to their father, Lehi, he immediately sat down and read them

Response: The quote you mention originally comes from the book Ancient America and the Book of Mormon, by Milton R. Hunter and Thomas Stuart Ferguson, Kolob Book, 1950, rev. 1964, p99. However, despite Elder Hunter’s extensive work in the First Council of Seventy, and being the co-founder of the New World Archaeological Foundation, and the 23 books he authored, along with Ferguson, a noted Book of Mormon archaeology supporter, on this particular issue, they were simply wrong. The incorrectness is found in the scriptural record, of which they obviously would have read: “And behold, it is wisdom in God that we should obtain these records, that we may preserve unto our children the language of our fathers; And also that we may preserve unto them the words which have been spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets, which have been delivered unto them by the Spirit and power of God, since the world began, even down unto this present time” (1 Nephi 3:19-20). In addition, the Lord commanded Lehi to obtain the Brass Plates (1 Nephi 3:4) for his people could not keep the commandments of the Lord without possessing the law (1 Nephi 4:15) and the law was engraven upon the plates of brass (1 Nephi 4:16).  Nephi was commanded to kill Laban to obtain these plates for “it is better that one man should perish than a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief” (1 Nephi 4:13). Around 450 years later, Mosiah tells his sons, “I would that ye should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God” (Mosiah 1:3), and a few years later Alma, who clearly understood the value of these plates, said, "And these plates of brass, which contain these engravings, which have the records of the holy scriptures upon them, which have the genealogy of our forefathers, even from the beginning” (Alma 37:3).  Note the issue here is not the language in which the plates were engraved, but the message upon the plates that was important.  

After Lehi read the brass plates, he sat his sons down and taught them the language of their fathers--he taught them what was written on the plates

Lehi further added that the plates of brass would go forth unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people who were of his seed (1 Nephi 5:18), and Alma passed this on to his sons: "It has been prophesied by our fathers, that they should be kept and handed down from one generation to another, and be kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord until they should go forth unto every nation, kindred and tongue, and people, that they shall know of the mysteries contained thereon."  (Alma 37:4). We are even told why the message on these plates was so important.  "Were it not for these things that these records do contain, which are on the plates, Ammon and his brethren could not have convinced so many thousands of the Lamanites of the incorrect tradition of their fathers; yea, these records and their words brought them unto repentance; that is they brought them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and to rejoice in Jesus Christ their Redeemer."  (Alma 37:9). Hunter and Ferguson can claim the Egyptian language was one of the principal reasons for taking the plates along, but Nephi saw it quite differently:  "The plates...were desirable; yea, even of great worth unto us, in so much that we could preserve the commandments of the Lord unto our children.  Wherefore, it was wisdom in the Lord that we should carry them with us, as we journeyed in the wilderness towards the land of promise" (1 Nephi 5:21-22). Obviously, none of this even remotely suggests that the Egyptian language itself was of any particular import.