![]() (g)reek, Hebrew, and all sort of letters. The import of what I wrote was, as far as I can now recollect, simply this, that the marks in the paper appeared to be merely an imitation of various alphabetical characters, and had, in my opinion, no meaning at all connected with them." In the 1841 account, Anthon described the characters as "arranged in columns like the Chinese mode of writing. I did so without hesitation, partly for the man's sake, and partly to let the individual 'behind the curtain' see that his trick was discovered. Īnthon gave a second account in 1841 that contradicted his 1834 account as to whether he gave Harris a written opinion about the document: " requested me to give him my opinion in writing about the paper which he had shown to me. ![]() arranged in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks." Anthon stated in the letter that the story of his supposed authentication was false, that Anthon had identified the writings as a hoax, and that he had told Harris that the writings were part of "a scheme to cheat the farmer of his money". requested an opinion from me in writing, which of course I declined giving." Anthon described the transcript in that letter as containing "(g)reek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters inverted or placed sideways. I soon came to the conclusion that it was all a trick, perhaps a hoax. In 1834, Anthon stated in a letter that, "The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscription to be 'reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics' is perfectly false. Critics of Smith claim that Anthon believed any idea of the plates containing an ancient language was a hoax all along and that Harris was being deceived. Some adherents to the Book of Mormon claim that Anthon attested to the characters' authenticity in writing to Martin Harris but then ripped up his certification after hearing the story of Smith and the plates. ![]() In 1828, this paper was delivered to Charles Anthon, a well-known classical scholar of Columbia College, for an expert opinion on the authenticity of the characters and the translation. According to Smith, these characters were from the golden plates (the ancient record from which Smith claimed to have translated the Book of Mormon) and represent the reformed Egyptian writing that was on the plates. The " Anthon Transcript" (often identified with the " Caractors document") is a piece of paper on which Joseph Smith wrote several lines of characters. Photograph of the "Caractors" document, previously purported to be the Anthon Transcript ![]()
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