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The Detroit Manuscript


inquiringmind

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Has anyone heard of "The Detroit Manuscript"?

I could post some links here, but the only ones I've seen are anti-Mormon.

I'm looking for a good Mormon apologetic response to the allegation that the characters on the Anthon transcript were copied from the Detroit Manuscript. (they're said to be 60% identical, and it's claimed that there was some connection between the discoverer, and Joseph Smith's family.)

Can anyone help?

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Has anyone heard of "The Detroit Manuscript"?

I could post some links here, but the only ones I've seen are anti-Mormon.

I'm looking for a good Mormon apologetic response to the allegation that the characters on the Anthon transcript were copied from the Detroit Manuscript. (they're said to be 60% identical, and it's claimed that there was some connection between the discoverer, and Joseph Smith's family.)

Can anyone help?

If they are specific to the issue and the site does not contain temple content, it should be okay.
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Has anyone heard of "The Detroit Manuscript"?

I could post some links here, but the only ones I've seen are anti-Mormon.

I'm looking for a good Mormon apologetic response to the allegation that the characters on the Anthon transcript were copied from the Detroit Manuscript. (they're said to be 60% identical, and it's claimed that there was some connection between the discoverer, and Joseph Smith's family.)

Can anyone help?

Since the Anthon Transcript letters were found to be 96% identical to two Meso-American artifacts with Ancient American writing, I don't think 60% cuts it.

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Here is a start:

http://www.google.co...earchBox&ie==

Especillay these two:

http://maxwellinstit...=6&num=3&id=757

CHARACTERS ON TWO ANCIENT AMERICAN CYLINDER STAMPS AND ON THE ANTHON TRANSCRIPT COMPARE FAVORABLY

One of the few systematic studies of the "caractors" of the "Anthon Transcript," as it was known a decade ago, was published by Carl Hugh Jones in 1970 as "The 'Anthon Transcript' and Two Mesoamerican Cylinder Seals." His paper appeared in the Newsletter of the Society for Early Historical Archaeology and is now available as a F.A.R.M.S. Reprint. The author is a museum professional with the Nebraska State Historical Society.

This paper tabulates the recurring marks on the Anthon Transcript according to a numbering system keyed to numbered lines and characters. For example, one learns immediately that the mark that looks something like a large numeral "two" occurs six times on four different lines. Repeated occurrences of series of marks are also tabulated. Serious decipherment attempts will benefit from this systematic labeling and counting.

In addition, the author shows that many similar marks or signs are found on a roller stamp discovered at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico, and another found at Tlatilco, Mexico. Both stamps date to before the time of Christ and had already been published in the professional literature. Ten signs on the first roller and 28 on the second are compared with the Anthon document. Although the general style of these sets of markings varies, the conclusion reached by Jones is that individual equivalents to all the La Venta signs are visible in the Transcript and that the Tlatilco stamp can even be said to be "an archaeological example of the type of script represented in the Anthon Transcript."

http://www.cometozar...edegyptian.html

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CHARACTERS ON TWO ANCIENT AMERICAN CYLINDER STAMPS AND ON THE ANTHON TRANSCRIPT COMPARE FAVORABLY

One of the few systematic studies of the "caractors" of the "Anthon Transcript," as it was known a decade ago, was published by Carl Hugh Jones in 1970 as "The 'Anthon Transcript' and Two Mesoamerican Cylinder Seals." His paper appeared in the Newsletter of the Society for Early Historical Archaeology and is now available as a F.A.R.M.S. Reprint. The author is a museum professional with the Nebraska State Historical Society.

This paper tabulates the recurring marks on the Anthon Transcript according to a numbering system keyed to numbered lines and characters. For example, one learns immediately that the mark that looks something like a large numeral "two" occurs six times on four different lines. Repeated occurrences of series of marks are also tabulated. Serious decipherment attempts will benefit from this systematic labeling and counting.

In addition, the author shows that many similar marks or signs are found on a roller stamp discovered at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico, and another found at Tlatilco, Mexico. Both stamps date to before the time of Christ and had already been published in the professional literature. Ten signs on the first roller and 28 on the second are compared with the Anthon document. Although the general style of these sets of markings varies, the conclusion reached by Jones is that individual equivalents to all the La Venta signs are visible in the Transcript and that the Tlatilco stamp can even be said to be "an archaeological example of the type of script represented in the Anthon Transcript."

If this annalysis is correct, wouldn't it be extreemly unlikely that the caractors on the Anthon Transcript were simply made up or copied from the Detroit Manuscript?

In fact, wouldn't it be almost a statistical impossibility (or is that going too far)?

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If the Anthon manuscript characters match up to some extent with real known characters from some other language(s) as FARMS suggests, then why can't someone do some sort of translation of the Anthon document? I realize it wouldn't be perfect, but they should be able to come up with something?

And if the translation had phrases and such from the BofM, then that would seem to be evidence in its favor, right?

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If the Anthon manuscript characters match up to some extent with real known characters from some other language(s) as FARMS suggests, then why can't someone do some sort of translation of the Anthon document? I realize it wouldn't be perfect, but they should be able to come up with something?

And if the translation had phrases and such from the BofM, then that would seem to be evidence in its favor, right?

The problem is in having known characters for the comparison. The two cylinder seals are from an unknown script. They make a case that the script fits and ancient Mesoamerican context, but provide not clues for actually reading.

Wade Brown published an interesting book eight or nine years ago (The First Page of the Book of Mormon) in which he observes two chiastic patterns in the Anthon transcript. The first is complete, the second is partial, indicating that the one who copied the characters on the Anthon transcript stopped before completing the second chiastic pattern. Brown tried the match up the pattern with chiastic passages in the current Book of Mormon, but concluded that the Anthon characters are from the lost pages. Hence, we have no direct template for translation. He does suggest a few things, like the use of dash as "and it came to pass" and noticed some other patterns that fit with Mormon's language use, but he could not narrow down the options.

The patterns do suggest that the characters are not random, but that there is a message there.

Kevin Christensen

Pittsburgh, PA

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As if....CRF pal--

You are a riot Tango. Why don't you deal with the evidence presented? CFR already answered. Since this thread is so short I am willing to bet you can find the posts that contain the reference.

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Nice try pal, but this has already been proven a forgery. Wow..talk about a gulable bunch of mormons..

Rob isn't a mormon, just so you know... he's actually a critic. And I'm pretty sure he'd verify his sources first, he's one of the people who does that naturally. I'd kinda doubt it is a forge.

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Rob Bowman, a "gulable" mormon. Sweet!

What really makes me laugh out loud (or was it loud laughter), is how the Mormon religion can be oh so twisted...so to end this thread I will leave our beloved words of Mormon 9:34

But the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof

Oh poor Anthon..lmao-

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Nice try pal, but this has already been proven a forgery. Wow..talk about a gulable bunch of mormons.

I'm not a Mormon (yet), and I'm skeptical by nature, but please give us some info (don't just hit and run here.)

What was proven a forgery (the copy of the Anthon Transcript in the possesion of the RLDS, or the cylinder seals)?

How, when, and by whom was it proven a forgery?

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I'm not a Mormon (yet), and I'm skeptical by nature, but please give us some info (don't just hit and run here.)

What was proven a forgery (the copy of the Anthon Transcript in the possesion of the RLDS, or the cylinder seals)?

How, when, and by whom was it proven a forgery?

Mark Hofmann faked a version of the Anthon transcript. The one referred to in the article on the Cylinder seals is not the forgery. Nor are the cylinder seals forgeries.

Kevin Christensen

Bethel Park, PA

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