Well, in the previous posting that I made on the Book of Mormon, I briefly mentioned an account of Martin Harris taking characters copied from the Golden plates to be verified as actual Egyptian characters. Again, I would like to note that at the time, Egyptian was in it's beginning stages. There was enough information for people to be able to read and recognize Egyptian characters, however, it was not until 1836 that grammar rules were finally made known to the public and published. There were, however, at the time people who had enough knowledge of Egyptian to be able to recognize it and read it.
Another thing I would like to point out is that there are many, many forms/stages of Egyptian characters. Egyptian was in it's 4th stage, a form of shorthanded Egyptian called "Demotic Egyptian", when the historical record began to be made by the ancient prophets.
One question that might be asked is "Why Egyptian?" or another common one is "How did someone on the American continent have knowledge of the Egyptian language?" First, let us point out that the historical record begins in Jerusalem, at the time of the first year of the reign of Ezekial from the bible (600 B.C.). The Book of Mormon actually begins in Jerusalem, not in the Americas, but they are later on led to the American Continent by the Lord Himself. These people spoke Hebrew, however this short handed form of Egyptian was used to save space on the plates. It is a very hard task to engrave characters on something that it metal.
Now let's begin. I'll give you a brief historical background. In 1827 Joseph and Emma Smith were being heavily persecuted in their hometown. Everyone knew that Joseph had the golden plates, and everyone was after them. The heavy persecution made things very hard for the family, and made it hard for Joseph to be able to fulfill his assignment and translate the plates. In December of 1827 they decided to pack up and leave their town, and move to Harmony, PA. The original plan that they had was to live with the parents of Emma. Her parents were alright with the idea, however the father had a lot of pride and agreed to have them stay with them, but under the condition that he could see the plates with his own eyes. The Lord prohibits Joseph from showing the plates to his father-inlaw, so they find a house up the street from them and live there. It is when they arrive to their new home that Joseph can finally begin the translation of the Book of Mormon. He still though does not get a lot accomplished, but does get some of it done.
A few months later, in February 1828, Martin Harris shows up to the house of Joseph and Emma. Martin had received a revelation from the Lord commanding him to take a sample of the characters to a specialist. Joseph also receives the same instructions of the Lord allowow him to do so. A lot of people think that Martin Harris was doubting, and that was the reason why he wanted to get the Egyptian characters verified, however that is a false statement. Martin Harris had a pretty solid testimony of the work, and he only did so because of the Lord's command. There are a few accounts of what actually happened when the hieroglyphics were verified. I will first tell the story from the perspective of Martin Harris.
Martin Harris went to someone by the name of Charles Anthon, and well known Egyptian specialist at the time. Martin showed Anthon a copy of the characters that had been directly copied from the plates. After studying the characters Anthon agreed that the characters were indeed real Egyptian characters, and signed a letter of authenticity as evidence that he found the characters to be true. When Martin Harris was leaving Anthon asked questions as to where the characters came from, and Martin Harris explained to him the story. Anthon suggested that he be the one to translate the plates, and Martin Harris responded that he could not for the book was sealed. Anthon then ripped up the letter that he wrote saying that he could read a sealed book. This is the only account given by Martin Harris.
There are 2 recorded stories given by Charles Anthon on his point of view of the event. The first was was given in 1834. Anthon claimed at the time that he had met with Martin Harris and that at "one glance" he "could tell it was a fraud." He also said in the first account that he did NOT give his opinion in writing.
The second answer given by Anthon was in 1841. He responded that previously NO ONE had ever asked for his account on the series of events. (Note that he had...). He also said that he DID give his opinion in writing to Martin Harris. (Notice that the 2 accounts that he gave do not match up at all)
My point is not to bash on Charles Anthon, he has attributed many great books to our society and has a great impact on the world. You would not believe how many useful books that this guy has written.
Lets think about this for a second. What motives did Martin Harris have to lie? The truth is that Martin Harris had absolutely no motives to lie. He was just this farmer boy who already knew that the characters were true before even arriving, he was only going to Anthon because the Lord commanded him to. On the other hand, Charles Anthon was a well known figure, and he had his reputation at stake. He probably did not want his signature attached to the work. Another thing to take in account is maybe, because Egyptian was in it's early stages as far as knowledge of it goes, he really was not able to make a decision on wither or not they were true characters and simply slapped his signature on paper so that he wouldn't look like he didn't know Egyptian that well. His thought process might have been "This is an unlearned farmer boy. What difference would it make if I sign or not." But, when he heard that Joseph was directed to the plates by an Angel he panicked and realized that if he attached his signature to something and later it turned out not to be real Egyptian, he could be in big trouble as far as his reputation goes. If you heard a crazy story about Angels and God Himself talking to a boy and directing him to golden plates would you not be skeptical too? Would it not be hard for you to believe it? Would you want to attach your signature to something that you were not sure of? Many of you have probably realized while reading this that you yourself have had to make that same decision in your life, of wither or not to believe the story or not. I myself thought it was weird when presented to me, even know I was born into the Church I too had to come to my own decision. That decision to believe has made all the difference in my life, and the truth of it has verified itself to me time and time again during my life.
This is not the end of the story. Remember that the Lord always verifies the truth of things through 2-3 witnesses. Martin Harris then took the characters to another Egyptian specialist who also verified the characters to be true Egyptian characters and signed a certificate of authenticity.
In 1844, after the death of Joseph Smith, there was an article posted in the newspaper known as the "Anthon Transcript". It is claimed to be the characters presented to him by Martin Harris, however there is no source to this transcript and there is no way of knowing if is real or not. Most scholars that look at it see it as giberish and it is not believed to be a real copy of the Egyptian characters contained in the golden plates.
One last intersting things I would like to point out is this story was prophisied to happen in the scritpures themselves. If you have the time read 2 Nephi 27. This story fuffils prophecy made in the Book of Mormon.