To summarize:
A non Mormon scholar was asked to translate the
Book of Mormon into the language of Afrikaans, and while doing so
discovered that the original language, that the Book of Mormon was
written in was Ancient Egyptian. Which at the time of Joseph Smith
translating the Book of Mormon 1828-1829 was not actually a known
language able to be translated fluently into other languages. Thus
"proving" that Joseph Smith translated the book of Mormon from ancient
Egyptian with some type of "Divine" or unknown to exist help.
This story is available at many places online, and is not copywrited. it is called the story of "Die Book Van Mormon"
I was searching through my books in storage a few days ago and came
across a first edition of the Book of Mormon in Afrikaans. I served a
mission in South Africa from 1971 to 1973. It was an interesting and
challenging experience. I attended the Stake Conference in Johannesburg
on May 14, 1972 when the new translation of the Book of Mormon into
Afrikaans (Die Boek van Mormon) was presented. It was an electric
moment. People wept. Some had waited all of their lifetimes to read the
Book of Mormon in Afrikaans. Many people had learned English for the
sole purpose of reading this scripture. The Spirit was strong among us
as we rejoiced. Remembering back more than 50 years, I can still
remember Professor Felix Mynhardt [not a member of our church] as he
spoke of his experience in translating that sacred book. I will retell
it as best I can recall.
Professor Mynhardt was
invited to come to the stand and speak about his experience in
translating the Book of Mormon. He recounted how he had been given a
gift of languages from God from his youth. He said that he was fluent in
many languages, including English, Afrikaans, Hebrew and Egyptian, as
well as many others. He was presently employed as a language professor.
He said he had been praying that the Lord would give him some task, some
divinely important task, that would justify his having this gift of
language from God. He said in about 1970 that he had visited with a
group of Mormon leaders, who sought to commission him to translate the
Book of Mormon from English into Afrikaans. He said that he knew of the
Book of Mormon from his religions studies, and his initial reaction was
that he did not want to be involved in translating it. However, that
evening, as he prayed upon his knees, as was his habit, he said the
Spirit of the Lord convicted him. The message was something on the order
of, “You asked me for a great, divinely inspired task of translation, I
sent it to you in the form of translating the Book of Mormon, and you
declined.”
Professor Mynhardt said he could not
sleep through the night because he knew that translating the Book of
Mormon would get him into trouble with his university, which was owned
and operated by the Dutch Reformed Church. When morning came he
telephoned Elder Clark to inform him that he would begin the translation
immediately. He stood at the pulpit and described the experience. He
said, “I never begin translating a book at the beginning. Writing style
usually changes through a book, and becomes more consistent toward the
middle. Accordingly, I opened to a random place in the middle of the
Book of Mormon, and began translating.” He said, “I was startled by the
obvious fact that the Book of Mormon was not authored in English. He
said, “It became immediately apparent that what I was reading was a
translation into English from some other language. The sentence
structure was wrong for native English. The word choices were wrong, as
were many phrases.” He said, “How many times has an Englishman said or
written, “And it came to pass?” We all laughed, and knew he was right,
of course. He continued, “When I realized this, I knew that I had to
find the original language, and translate it back into the original
language, or a similar language to the original, and then proceed to
translate it into Afrikaans. He listed a half-dozen languages he tried,
all of which did not accommodate the strange sentence structure found in
the Book of Mormon. He said, “I finally tried Egyptian, and to my
complete surprise, I found that the Book of Mormon translated flawlessly
into Egyptian, not modern, but ancient Egyptian. I found that some
nouns were missing from Egyptian, so I added Hebrew nouns where Egyptian
did not provide the word or phrase. I chose Hebrew because both
languages existed in the same place anciently.” “I had no idea at that
time why the Book of Mormon was once written in Egyptian, but I can tell
you without any doubt, that this book was at one point written entirely
in Egyptian.” I heard him say this over and over. Then, he said,
“Imagine my utter astonishment when I turned to chapter one, verse one
and began my actual translation and came to verse two, where Nephi
describes that he was writing in the language of the Egyptians, with the
learning of the Jews!”
He said, “I knew by the
second verse, that this was no ordinary book, that it was not the
writings of Joseph Smith, but that it was of ancient origin and was in
fact scripture. I could have saved myself months of work if I had just
begun at the beginning. Nobody but God, working through a prophet of
God, in this case Nephi, would have included a statement of the language
he was writing in. Consider, how many documents written in English,
include the phrase, “we are writing in English!” It is unthinkable and
absolute proof of the inspired origins of this book. He paused, then
noted, “I am one of the few people in the world that is fluent in
ancient Egyptian. I am perhaps the only person fluent in ancient
Egyptian who is also fluent in Afrikaans and English. And I know for a
fact, that I am the only person alive who could have translated this
book first into Egyptian, and then into Afrikaans. If your church ever
needs an Egyptian translation of the Book of Mormon, it is sitting in my
office as we speak.” We all laughed.
Professor Mynhardt spoke of many other things regarding the translation of this book, and then said,
“I do not know what Joseph Smith was before he translated this book,
and I do not know what he was afterward, but while he translated this
book, he was a prophet of God! I know he was a prophet! I testify to you
that he was a prophet while he brought forth this book! He could have
been nothing else! No person in 1827 could have done what he did. The
science did not exist. The knowledge of ancient Egyptian did not exist.
The knowledge of these ancient times and ancient peoples did not exist.
The Book of Mormon is scripture. I hope you realize this. “I will keep
promoting this book as scripture for the remainder of my life – simply
because it is scripture, and I know it. I haven’t studied your doctrine
or your history since Joseph Smith. The only thing I know about the
Mormon religion is that you have authentic, ancient scripture in the
Book of Mormon, that your church was begun by a living and true prophet
of God, and that all of the world should embrace the Book of Mormon as
scripture. It simply can’t be denied.”
——-
This was
written by John Pontius, (member), about Prof. Mynhardt, not a member,
who translated the Book of Mormon into Afrikaans. He was quoting some
things that Mynhardt said at the conference in 1972. The words in quotes
are Mynhardt’s.
THIS BLOG ATTEMPTS TO SHOW HOW SCIENCE IS CATCHING UP WITH REVEALED RELIGION
THIS BLOG IS AN ATTEMPT TO PUT ALL THE COOL STUFF THAT I BUMP INTO ABOUT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST AND EVENTS THAT LEAD UP TO IT INTO ONE LOCATION.
THE CONTENTS WILL BE FROM AN LDS PERSPECTIVE. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANYTHING IN HERE, I DO NOT PARTICULARLY CARE TO ARGUE, UNLESS YOU CAN ADD TO THIS BODY OF WORK. I HAVE AN OPEN MIND, THAT IS WHY I READ STUFF FROM ALL DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND SEEK LEARNING FROM THE BEST BOOKS. I JUST AM NOT HERE TO ARGUE ABOUT IT - BUT TO PUT IT OUT THERE WHERE OTHERS CAN PERUSE/PURSUE IT. I TAKE PARTICULAR INTEREST IN HONEST SEEKERS OF TRUTH AND BELIEVE THAT SCIENCE IS REVEALED RELIGION'S BEST ALLY. YOU WILL SEE ALOT OF TOPICS IN THIS BLOG THAT SHOW SCIENCE BACKING - AND SLOWLY CATCHING UP WITH - REVEALED RELIGION.
ENJOY!!
THE CONTENTS WILL BE FROM AN LDS PERSPECTIVE. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANYTHING IN HERE, I DO NOT PARTICULARLY CARE TO ARGUE, UNLESS YOU CAN ADD TO THIS BODY OF WORK. I HAVE AN OPEN MIND, THAT IS WHY I READ STUFF FROM ALL DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND SEEK LEARNING FROM THE BEST BOOKS. I JUST AM NOT HERE TO ARGUE ABOUT IT - BUT TO PUT IT OUT THERE WHERE OTHERS CAN PERUSE/PURSUE IT. I TAKE PARTICULAR INTEREST IN HONEST SEEKERS OF TRUTH AND BELIEVE THAT SCIENCE IS REVEALED RELIGION'S BEST ALLY. YOU WILL SEE ALOT OF TOPICS IN THIS BLOG THAT SHOW SCIENCE BACKING - AND SLOWLY CATCHING UP WITH - REVEALED RELIGION.
ENJOY!!
Check out the article at by common consent to see what really happened. Before you post items like this, do a basic Google on the topic.
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