Historical Authenticity of The Book of Mormon - Anthon Transcript

Anthon Transcript

The "Anthon Transcript" (also known as the "Caractors" document) is a small piece of paper on which Joseph Smith, Jr. wrote several lines of characters. According to Smith, these characters were from the golden plates (the ancient record from which Smith claims to have translated the Book of Mormon) and represent the reformed Egyptian writing that was on the plates. This paper was then delivered to professor Charles Anthon, a well-known classical scholar of Columbia College, Columbia University, for an expert opinion on the authenticity of the characters and the translation. 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. Critics claim that Anthon believed any idea of reformed Egyptian was a hoax all along and that Harris was being duped. However, Anthon never made any public claim.