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Do not fill this in! ===Scriptures=== {{see also|Criticism of the Book of Mormon|Historicity of the Book of Mormon|Origin of the Book of Mormon|Archaeology and the Book of Mormon|Genetics and the Book of Mormon|Book of Mormon anachronisms|Criticism of the Book of Abraham}} In the late 1820s, criticism centered on the claim by Joseph Smith to have been led to a set of gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was reputedly translated.<ref name=RoughStone/>{{rp|116–118}}<ref name=Brodie/>{{rp|80–82, 87}} Mainstream archaeological, historical, and scientific communities have discovered little to support the existence of the civilizations described in the Book of Mormon, and do not consider it to be an actual record of historical events.{{r|Lost|p=xv|q=. "Anthropologists and archaeologists, including some Mormons and former Mormons, have discovered little to support the existence of [Book of Mormon] civilizations. Over a period of 150 years, as scholars have seriously studied Native American cultures and prehistory, evidence of a Christian civilization in the Americas has eluded the specialists... These [Mesoamerican] cultures lack any trace of Hebrew or Egyptian writing, metallurgy, or the Old World domesticated animals and plants described in the Book of Mormon."}} Scholars have pointed out a number of [[Anachronisms in the Book of Mormon|anachronisms within the text]]. They argue that no evidence of a reformed Egyptian language has ever been discovered;<ref name=Shadow/>{{rp|91}}{{efn|Standard language references such as Peter T. Daniels and William Bright, eds., ''The World's Writing Systems'' (New York: [[Oxford University Press]], 1996) (990 pages); David Crystal, ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language'' ([[Cambridge University Press]], 1997); and Roger D. Woodard, ed., ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages'' ([[Cambridge University Press]], 2004) (1162 pages) contain no reference to "reformed Egyptian." "Reformed Egyptian" is also ignored in Andrew Robinson, ''Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts'' (New York: [[McGraw Hill]], 2002). Smith's discussion of it is mentioned in ''Fantastic Archaeology''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ekybHamEW8C |title=Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory |date=1991 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |isbn=978-0-8122-8238-2 |pages=161–163}}</ref>}} the Book of Mormon explicitly says it was written in [[Reformed Egyptian]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shields |first=Steven L. |date=2021 |title=The Quest for 'Reformed Egyptian' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27112676 |journal=The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal |publisher=[[John Whitmer Historical Association]] |volume=41 |issue=2 |page=101 |jstor=27112676 |issn=0739-7852}}</ref> and so the non-existence of this language would challenge the book's claims about its own origin. Also, general archaeological and genetic evidence has not supported the book's statements about any known indigenous peoples of the Americas.<ref>{{Cite magazine | last=Duffy | first=John-Charles | title=Defending the Kingdom, Rethinking the Faith: How Apologetics is Reshaping Mormon Orthodoxy | magazine=[[Sunstone (magazine)|Sunstone]] | volume=132 | issue=May | year=2004 | page=37 | url=https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/132%2022-55.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716163827/https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/132%2022-55.pdf |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |url-status=live |via=[[Internet Archive]] |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last= Abanes | first= Richard | year= 2003 | title= One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church | publisher= [[Perseus Books Group|Thunder's Mouth Press]] | isbn= 1-56858-283-8 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jYVItAEACAAJ |pages= 74–77}}</ref> Since its publication in 1842, the Book of Abraham (currently published as part of the canonical Pearl of Great Price) has also been a major source of controversy. Numerous non-Mormon Egyptologists, beginning in the late 19th century,<ref name=Papyri>{{cite book | last=Ritner | first=Robert K. | title=The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri: A Complete Edition| isbn=978-1-56085-220-9| publisher=[[Signature Books]] | date=2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=08hVtwAACAAJ}}</ref>{{rp|61}} have disagreed with Joseph Smith's explanations of the book's facsimiles. Translations of the original papyri—by both Mormon and non-Mormon Egyptologists—do not match the text of the Book of Abraham as purportedly translated by Joseph Smith.<ref name=OwnHand>{{cite book | last=Larson | first=Charles M. | title=By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus | publisher=[[Institute of Religious Research]] | year=1992 | edition=2nd | isbn=978-0-9620963-2-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/ByHisOwnHandUponPapyrusByCharlesB.Larson/mode/1up |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>{{rp|61}} Indeed, the transliterated text from the recovered papyri and facsimiles published in the Book of Abraham contain no direct references to Abraham.<ref>{{cite book|editor2-link=Ardis E. Parshall|editor1-link=W. Paul Reeve| editor1-last=Reeve | editor1-first=W. Paul | editor2-last=Parshall | editor2-first= Ardis |date= 2010 |title=Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |location=[[Santa Barbara, CA]] |chapter=Mormon Scripture |isbn= 978-1-59884-108-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qLji9wwnaoUC | via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>{{rp|269}}<ref>{{cite journal| last=Ashment | first=Edward H. | title=Joseph Smith's Identification of 'Abraham' in Papyrus JS1, the 'Breathing Permit of Hor' | journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought]] |volume=33 | issue=4 | date=December 2000 | doi=10.2307/45226744 | jstor=45226744 | s2cid=254298749 | url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/issues/V33N04.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110119070137/https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/issues/V33N04.pdf |archive-date=January 19, 2011| page=126}}</ref><ref name=Papyri/>{{rp|66}} Scholars have also asserted that damaged portions of the papyri were reconstructed incorrectly by Smith or his associates.<ref name=OwnHand/>{{rp|25}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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