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Gospel Wiki Connections morm-reformed-egyptian

Mormon 9:32 · 1 Nephi 1:2

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Book of Mormon Mormon 9:32
"the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us"
Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 1:2
"the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians"

The record's language-colophon bookend: the first author (Nephi, 1 Nephi 1:2) opens writing 'in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians'; the last author (Moroni, Mormon 9:32) closes noting the characters are now 'the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us'. This link is thematic/interpretive because the only shared token is 'Egyptian' — the bookend reading (opening and closing colophons agree the record is written in an Egyptian script) is offered to weigh, not asserted. Textual facts shown as evidence: 'reformed Egyptian' is corpus-unique at Mormon 9:32; the record-language sense of 'Egyptian' occurs at exactly three verses — 1 Nephi 1:2, Mosiah 1:4 (Benjamin: Lehi 'having been taught in the language of the Egyptians'), and Mormon 9:32 (the remaining Egyptian/Egyptians hits are the Egyptian people, plus one geographic use -- 'the Egyptian sea', 2 Nephi 21:15, quoted Isaiah). Mormon 9:33 adds that they would have written in Hebrew had the plates been large enough.