The Book of the Law of the Lord
 

The following  page has many parallels to the book of  much like F.A.R.M.S. and others find in Mexico and the Yucatan.  I provide it here and allow you to ponder on the parallels you may or may not see.  I post the page with permission of  Rick Hurd.  I include links to his page and his e-mail address if you wish to learn more from a more informed source on this subject.

To the question as to if I could forward the one web page below, Rick replied.



Sure, help your self.

Unlike the plates the Book of Mormon were translated from where only a few had the chance to view them, thousands seen the Voree Plates. I recently had a man who understands the Hebrew language examine the facsimile of the plates and I am including his translation with this letter.

Sincerely,
Rick Hurd.

First of all I note that the opening portion of the ... translation is a complex form of Hebrew poetry called CHIASMUS (there are also within this Chiasmus several parallelisms).  This Chiastic structure is four levels deep:

A.  My people ARE NO MORE.

A.  AND ARE NOT, but the elect and faithful there shall dwell.
 

This is a very good example of Chiasmus, as good as any I have seen.

Also, regarding the "signature" which in yours reads "Rajah Manchou of Vorito" the copy I have had for some time printed by THE TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST RESTORED has "Rajah Manchore of Vorito." This phase seems also to be Hebrew:

Rajah - A perfect Hebrew name "Yah[weh] sees" or "Yah[weh] is seer" or "Ra is Yah[weh]"

Manchore - Man (Hebrew prefix meaning "from") Chore - To be white, a nobleman (Strong's 2353, 2357, 2361, 2715)

Vorito - Although in Aramaic V'ORITA means "and the Torah" I favor BRIT with the terminal -A found often in Aramaic.  Initial BET in Hebrew is always hard B but in the other parts of a word is usually pronounced "V" so that a shift from "B" to "V" is likely and an initial "V" could only indicate a BET.  This would make this word "covenant"

The above would mean that "Rajah Manchore of Vorito" means:

Rayah from the whitemen/noblemen of the Covenant.

Let me know your thoughts on the above.

I will analyze the script and get back with you.


 
Description of one side of one of the Voree Plates.
 

1st. An eye. The symbol of God, who is all-seeing: consequently it is called THE ALL-SEEING EYE, and has been used as symbolical of the DEITY in all countries, and in all ages of the world.

2nd. The figure of a man down to the waist having a crown resembling a cap, and composed of radiating lines, on his head; and a scepter in his hand. These are symbols of authority, and shew him a ruler. As he has the sun, moon and stars (all the natural lights), below him, and only the ALL-SEEING EYE above him, he is prophet, seer, revelator, translator, and First President of the church-governing not by natural light, or mere human wisdom, but by Revelation or the word of God and derives his authority solely from God, and not in any sense from the actions of men.

3d. The sun on the right and the moon on the left. These represent the two Vice PRESIDENTS, or counsellors in the First Presidency; the two largest natural lights being used as symbols, because they are to assist the First President in wisdom, or natural light merely, and not by revelation.

4th. A cross pillar above and resting upon the center large star, and under the human figure, two pillars above and resting upon the two upper large stars, and below and between the sun and the moon. These represent COADJUTORS, assistants or helps of whom there have been several since the beginning of the church, appointed by revelation.

5th. Twelve stars, six around the sun and six around the moon. These represent the High Council of the Church, The division into classes of six each agrees with established usages in the church, one-half to stand up for the accuser, and the other for the accused. This is not the high council of the stake.

6th. Twelve large stars. Ten of these in two rows at the bottom of the plate, and the other two over them, nearly between the sun and moon. They represent the TWELVE APOSTLES. These stars are larger than those which represent the High Council of the church, because the apostles have a more important ministry but are placed below them because they are subject to their discipline, and below the symbols of the First Presidency because they are subject to its directions.

7th. Seventy small stars immediately within the points of the twelve large ones, being six to each except the center one which has only four. They represent the SEVENTIES, who are subject to the direction of the Twelve Apostles.

8th. A straight line dropping down before the scepter. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste, Judgment also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place."

"Thus he showed me; and behold the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, a plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more."

These symbols were all prophetic of the order that will exist in the fullness of times. Thus God in his goodness to those who lived in days past has shown them not only the rest which he had in reservation for them, but the perfectness of the means by which he will accomplish it. Probably now we understand it in part, but in times to come we shall "know as we are known."

Copyright © 1997 by Rick's Indexing. All rights reserved.

e-mail: ricksindexing@hotmail.com

Home

BOOK OF THE LAW OF THE LORD
                     Arguably the most important book ever written in the English language.
                       Parts translated from metal plates found buried under an oak tree.
 
Copyright © 1997 by Rick's Indexing. All rights reserved.
e-mail: ricksindexing@hotmail.com
http://members.aol.com/strangites/index.htm
 

Other plates and translations.
 

From: RickBook <RickBook@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 19:02:20 EDT
To: lds-hist@mail.kingsleymc.com
Subject:[Hist] Harris/Anthon/Mitchell

On May 8, Jim Green wrote:

"I am intrigued by the Martin Harris/Charles Anthon/Dr. Mitchell story:

"1) Who on this planet could read Egyptian Hieroglyphics in 1828?

Could even Egyptians read them?

"2) Anthon was a professor of Classics -- How likely is it that he was proficient in even recognizing hieroglyphics let alone in reading them?

"3) Someone referred to as "Dr Mitchell" is surely a medical doctor (In 1828 anyone with a PhD would have very likely have been called "professor".) No matter how erudite an MD, would he be familiar enough with Egyptian to pronounce the Nephite glyphs as correctly translated?

"4) How likely is it that 1000 yr old Nephite glyphs looked sufficiently like Egyptian for anyone to recognize what Harris showed as Egyptian?

"5) Isn't it much more likely that a puffed up "Professor" Anthon and a "Dr" Mitchell would not want to seem at-a-loss to an apparent country farmer?

And hadn't the foggiest of what they were saying?

"Jim Green JMGreen@sisna.com"


Broadside used in the early days of the Church to publicize the Book of Mormon reproduces the characters Joseph Smith copied from the plates.  The broadside was printed in gold letters on black paper. (Church Archives)

(The Story of the Latter-day Saints, by James B. Allen and Glen Leonard. Page 49)

[Text above, as close as I can read it]

STICK OF JOSEPH,
TAKEN FROM THE
HAND OF EPHRAIM
--------------------
A CORRECT COPY
OF THE CHARACTERS TAKEN FROM THE PLATES THE
BOOK OF MORMON!!
Was translated from the same that was taken to Professor Anthon of New York, by
Martin Harris, in the year 1827 in fulfillment of Isaiah 22: 11, 12
" The vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which [men] deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it [is] sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned."
[a mixture of characters]
"Truth shall spring out of the earth." -- Psalms 85 --11
[a mixture of characters]
"I have written to him the great things of my law, [but] they were counted as a strange thing." -- Hosea 8 -- 12
[a mixture of characters]
"Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which [is] in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, [even] with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand." -- Ezekiel 37  --  19
"Our fathers once has a sacred book like the white man have, but it was hidden in the ground, since then Indian no more prevail against their enemies" -- An aged Indian of the Stockbridge tribe.
 


Isaiah 29:11
 11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which [men] deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it [is] sealed:

JST Isaiah 29:11
 11 And it shall come to pass, that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words of a book; and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered.
 

Isaiah 29:12
 12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

JST Isaiah 29:12
 12 And behold, the book shall be sealed; and in the book shall be a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof.
 

Isaiah 29:13
 13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

JST Isaiah 29:13
 13 Wherefore because of the things which are sealed up, the things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the wickedness and abominations of the people. Wherefore, the book shall be kept from them.
 

Isaiah 29:14
 14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, [even] a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise [men] shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent [men] shall be hid.

JST Isaiah 29:14
 14 But the book shall be delivered unto a man, and he shall deliver the words of the book, which are the words of those who have slumbered in the dust; and he shall deliver these words unto another, but the words that are sealed he shall not deliver, neither shall he deliver the book.
 

Isaiah 29:15
 15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

JST Isaiah 29:15
 15 For the book shall be sealed by the power of God, and the revelation which was sealed shall be kept in the book until the own due time of the Lord, that they may come forth; for, behold, they reveal all things from the foundation of the world unto the end thereof.
 

Isaiah 29:16
 16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

JST Isaiah 29:16
 16 And the day cometh, that the words of the book which were sealed shall be read upon the housetops; and they shall be read by the power of Christ; and all things shall be revealed unto the children of men which ever have been among the children of men, and which ever will be, even unto the end of the earth.
 

Isaiah 29:17
 17   [Is] it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?

JST Isaiah 29:17
 17 Wherefore, at that day when the book shall be delivered unto the man of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world, that the eyes of none shall behold it, save it be that three witnesses shall behold it by the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered; and they shall testify to the truth of the book and the things therein.
 

Psalms 85:11
 11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
 

Hosea 8:12
 12 I have written to him the great things of my law, [but] they were counted as a strange thing.
 

Ezekiel 37:19
 19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which [is] in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, [even] with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.


Facsimile of characters made from the Plates of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith and given to Martin Harris and by him submitted to Professors Charles Anton and Samuel I. Mitchell. Used by permission, Church Historian's Office
(The Restored Church, by William Edwin Berrett)



[To which RickBook replies]

The natural implications of Jim's questions are broad in scope, and would require a lengthy book to answer.  Aspects have already been handled by various writers, so my following comments are intended as simple reflections.

One year to the day before Joseph Smith's reported first viewing of the gold plates, Jean François Champollion (born fifteen years, to the day, before Smith) formally announced his discovery of the phonetic equivalents of Egyptian hieroglyphic figures, based on his analysis of the Rosetta Stone.

Thomas Young, a contender for the honor, published "An Account of Some Recent Discoveries in Hieroglyphical Literature, and Egyptian Antiquities.  Including the Author's Original Alphabet, As Extended by Mr. Champollion, with a Translation of Five Unpublished Greek and Egyptian Manuscripts. . . ." (London, 1823).  F. J. Chabas, the eminent French Egyptologist, declared in 1867 that Young's phonetic approach to the study of hieroglyphs had been the "Fiat Lux" of that science.  For a lengthy technical discussion, see George Peacock, "Life of Thomas Young," (London, 1855), pp. 258-344.

Although most scholars of the time had little understanding of Egyptian writing or its translation, this did not dampen their enthusiasm for the subject.  In 1814, for example, Ethan Smith suggested that many ancient nations used Egyptian hieroglyphics to write their own more symbolic material ("A Key to the Figurative Language Found in the Sacred Scriptures, In the Form of Questions and Answers.  By Ethan Smith, A.M.  Minister in Hopkinton, N.H." . . . [Exeter, NH, 1814], discussions nos. 10-11; compare to the "Reformed Egyptian" concept in the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 1:2; Mosiah 1:4; Mormon 9:32).  The previous year, Elias Boudinot, even more influential than Ethan Smith, had commented on "this hieroglyphical language" with a reflection that "The Jews understood this manner of writing, being the learning of that age .

. .  ("The Second Advent, or Coming of the Messiah in Glory, Shown to Be a Scripture Doctrine, and Taught by Divine Revelation, From the Beginning of the World.  By an American Layman. . . ." [Trenton, NJ, 1815], p. 171).  The year that the Book of Mormon was published, the eminent Biblical scholar, Moses Stuart, commented on Abraham's affinity with the Egyptians, and asked, inasmuch as "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, who can well suppose that some of his written characters in Hebrew, where these agreed in sound with the Egyptian letters, would not be more or less conformed to the Egyptian mode of writing them?" (introduction to J. G. Honoré Greppo's "Essay on the Hieroglyphic System of M. Champollion, Jun.  And on the Advantages Which it Offers to Sacred Criticism.  Translated from the French . . . , with Notes and Illustrations. . . ." [Boston, 1830], p. 270.  Stuart was a colleague and close friend of Joshua Seixas, who would soon teach Joseph Smith Hebrew in the School of the Prophets at Kirtland).

Backing up to 1828, however, and Jim's question about "Dr Mitchell," there is really only one serious candidate for the position, in my mind.  When book or product promoters of that era wanted the ultimate testimonial in their advertisements, the most auspicious name they sought was that of Samuel Latham Mitchill, a walking encyclopedia and "chaos of knowledge" whose very name could silence critics and command awe & respect.  There isn't room in this e- mail to list his titles and accomplishments, but since the death of "Dr.

Franklin," and his generation, it was "Dr. Mitchill" to whom Americans turned for the final word on everything from ancient American ruins to natural history, medicine or agriculture.  In the upstate New York farming journal, "The Plough Boy" (Albany, 1819-23 - just the sort of publication a prosperous Palmyra farmer like Martin Harris would read), the references to "Dr.

Mitchill" and his pronouncements are almost countless, including numerous letters to and from Mitchill (together with occasional lengthy addresses) whenever a final authority on some matter was required.

"There is not in the United States," wrote the editor, "a more scientific man than Dr. Mitchill-there is not, perhaps, a more useful man. . . . whose amiable disposition in connection with his real science, his ardent thirst for philosophic attainments, and his invaluable labours in the vineyard of human improvement, render him at once the ornament of his country, and the benefactor of mankind." ("The Plough Boy," issue for Saturday, September 8, 1821 [III:15], p. 112).

If such a man suddenly answered his door in New York City to find an enthusiastic farmer - come all the way from Palmyra with a transcription of characters from plates of gold revealed by an angel - he might understandably treat the man kindly but without commitment.  A man of Mitchill's extensive (but broad, Renaissance-style) learning might understandably glance at the transcript, suspect it had little to do with Egyptian (hieroglyphic or Demotic), and refer his visitor to the greatest classic linguist available -over at Columbia College, Prof. Charles Anthon, hoping that he might recognize the origin of the curious-looking text.

At age thirteen, young Anthon had entered Columbia, ". . . where," according to the Dictionary of American Biography, "he was awarded so many distinctions that his name was withdrawn from competition . . .

"In 1820 [at age 22!] he was chosen adjunct professor of Greek and Latin in Columbia College, and thus entered upon his life-work.  While preparing for the bar he had adopted the habit, which he retained for many years, of rising at 4 a. m. and devoting the early hours of the morning to his literary labors.

His college duties occupied a large part of the day, and the rest was carefully divided, with a liberal allowance for modern languages.  His Saturdays were spent in careful and exhaustive preparation for the next week's classes." I remember reading in a rare eulogy pamphlet written years later by a friend of Anthon, that this professor pursued an unvarying course worthy of the fictional Mycroft Holmes, progressing daily from his rooms, along the courtyard to classes, to his regular duties, and back home like clockwork.

This was the quintessential "nerd," not a man of vanity or imprecision.

Anthon would not have been able to translate Egyptian, I presume, but neither did he attempt to do so, according to his own testimony.  "The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscription to be 'reformed Egyptian hierogylphics' is perfectly false.," he wrote six years after the fact.  "Some years ago, a plain, and apparently simple-hearted farmer, called upon me with a note from Dr. Mitchell of our city, now deceased [Samuel L. Mitchill died September 7, 1831], requesting me to decypher, if possible, a paper which the farmer would hand me, and which Dr. M. confessed he had been unable to understand.  Upon examining the paper in question, I soon came to the conclusion that it was all a trick, perhaps a hoax. . . . He requested an opinion from me in writing, which of course I declined giving, and he then took his leave carrying the paper with him.  This paper was in fact a singular scrawl.  It consisted of all kinds of crooked characters disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets.  Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes; Roman letters inverted or placed sideways, were arranged in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican Calendar given by Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was derived.  I am thus particular as to the contents of the paper, inasmuch as I have frequently conversed with friends on the subject, since the Mormon excitement began, and well remember that the paper contained any thing else but 'Egyptian Hieroglyphics.'" (letter to Eber D. Howe, dated New York, February 17, 1834, published in Howe's "Mormonism Unvailed . . ." (Painesville, OH, 1834), pp.

270-2).

Rather than viewing Charles Anthon as "puffed up," I think we must defer to the earlier version of Martin Harris' story given by Joseph Smith in 1832 (and the other earliest sources), which agree with Anthon's strong assertion that he did not attempt any translation, but offered to examine the plates, which Harris informed him was forbidden (see Dan Vogel, "Early Mormon Documents" I:71, n.46).  That earlier version, after all, is the one which best fulfills the "learned man" prophecy in Isaiah (29:11), and it is supported by a number of faithful LDS scholars.  The original, honest-Mitchill/ sincere-Anthon version makes the most sense in relation to the historically-established temperaments of Mitchill, Anthon and Harris which I have researched over the last fifteen years.

Rick Grunder

-- LDS History Mailing List
----------------------------------
http://www.kingsleymc.com/Clark/Lists/lds-hist.htm
----------------------------------
 



Back.