The Quest for "Reformed Egyptian" (original) (raw)

Translation of the "Caractors" Document Revised and Updated

2019

Mormon’s Chronological Summary of the Period from the 19th Regnal Year of the Reign of MosiahI to the Coming of the Limhites and Mormon’s Synopsis of the Book of Mormon Prophetic Calendar A small scrap of paper entitled “Caractors” (also known as the Anthon Transcript) that contained reformed Egyptian characters copied from the plates from which the Book of Mormon has remained an enigma for more than a hundred years. The characters were successfully translated in 2015. This initial translation has been recently revised and updated, with additional supporting documentation. The number system found there is extensively analyzed and shows to preferentially use the Hebrew and Mesoamerican sacred numbers. Additional work shows that the time frame of the Egyptian hieratic identified there correlate to the correct time frame as the Book of Mormon. The author’s approach is meticulous and scientific. This book is a landmark event in Book of Mormon studies and is a book that must be read by every serious student of the Book of Mormon and of Mesoamerican studies.

Latin in Egyptian Documents between Caracalla and Diocletian

29th International Congress of Papyrology. Lecce, 28.07-03.08.2019

During the six centuries of Roman domination over Egypt, Latin language was employed in several documentary papyri written in that province. In the first two centuries one finds Latin both in Alexandria and in the chora, in documents referring to the military; in business documents such as acknowledgments of debts and emptiones; and documents crucial to Roman citizens in the province: testaments and related paperwork (agnitiones bonorum, cretiones hereditatis), enfranchisement of slaves (manumissiones), birth certificates (testationes and professiones), etc. On the other hand, in the last centuries of Byzantine Egypt, Latin has been confined, when concerning documents, to formulae and subscriptions to Greek documents, all produced within provincial bureaus. The critical period for the evolution of Latin in Egyptian documentary papyri is the third century, ideally contained between Caracalla’s Constitutio Antoniniana (AD 212) and Diocletian’s reforms (AD 285-305). This paper takes into accounts all surviving Latin documentary papyri produced in Egypt during the 3rd AD, collected and studied within the frame of project PLATINUM (ERC-StG 2014 no 636983) and unconnected with the military; it will point out which typologies of documents keep existing, and which ones are wiped out; it will investigate on how the historical events which marked the crisis of the century affected the use of Latin in documents from Egypt.

The Septuagint and Egyptian Translation Methods

Theories on the identity of the Septuagint translators have been built upon assumptions regarding the evidence from multilingual Egypt. While evidence of translation activity in Egypt is limited, there are a few surviving translations from Demotic into Greek that can shed much light on the Septuagint translation practice. Similar approaches to Greek register, lexical consistency, transliteration, inflection of noun phrases, polysemous prepositions, interpretive renderings and literary embellishment are found in both Egyptian translations and the Septuagint. From this conclusions can be inferred on the social position of the Jewish translators in Egypt.