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Footnotes
The book that later became the Kirtland elders quorum “Record” was originally labeled “Second Comeing of Christ | No 3.” The book that later became JS’s second Ohio journal was originally labeled “Repentence” on one side, with a corresponding “No 8” on the spine and “Sabbath Day | No 9” on the other side. (See Source Note for Classification of Scriptures, not before 17 July 1833; and Source Note for JS, Journal, 1835–1836.)
Pages 1–7 are inscribed, followed by twenty-six blank pages. Pages 8–11 are then inscribed and followed by six blank pages. Pages 12–14 are inscribed and followed by six blank pages. Pages 15–18 are inscribed and followed by eleven blank pages. Pages 19–22 are inscribed and followed by fifteen blank pages. Pages 23–26 are inscribed and followed by twelve blank pages. Pages 27–28 are inscribed and followed by twenty-two blank pages. Pages 29–30 are inscribed and followed by twenty-two blank pages. Pages 31–32 are inscribed and followed by twenty-two blank pages. Pages 33–34 are inscribed and followed by thirty-eight blank pages.
The first pair of wafers is on the third blank page following page 14, the second pair is on the fifth blank page following page 26, the third pair is on the seventeenth blank page following page 30, and the fourth pair is on the fifteenth blank page following page 34.
Another of the volumes used for the scripture classification project contains similar adhesive wafers.
Evidence of water damage and mold indicate that at least some of the wear is due to damage and not use.
“Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
“Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th. April 1855,” [1]; “Historian’s Office Inventory, G. S. L. City March 19, 1858,” [1]; “Historian’s Office Catalogue Book March 1858,” [7], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL; see also Historian’s Office, Journal, 17 Oct. 1855.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.
Footnotes
Some of the first characters in each degree of the first part of the Grammar and Alphabet volume are among the final characters in the Egyptian Alphabet documents. (See characters 5.27 and 5.28 in Egyptian Alphabet, ca. Early July–ca. Nov. 1835–A, –B, and –C.)
JS’s journal records, “This after noon labored on the Egyptian alphabet, in company with brsr O. Cowdery and W.W. Phelps: The system of astronomy was unfolded.” This may refer to the significant material in the Grammar and Alphabet volume that discusses a planetary system—for instance, characters 2.37–2.40 in the fifth degree of the second part. (JS, Journal, 1 Oct. 1835.)
JS and others began a “Hebrew School” on 4 January 1836 and studied under Joshua Seixas, a Jewish educator associated with several educational institutions, between 26 January and 29 March. In their Nauvoo-era work on the Book of Abraham, JS and his scribes incorporated transliterations of Hebrew words. That those transliterations are absent from the Grammar and Alphabet volume suggests that work on the Grammar and Alphabet was completed before church leaders began studying Hebrew in early 1836. (JS, Journal, 4 and 26 Jan. 1836; 29 Mar. 1836; see also Book of Abraham Manuscript and Explanation of Facsimile 1, ca. Feb. 1842 [Abraham 1:1–2:18]; Explanation of Facsimile 2, ca. 15 Mar. 1842; and Grey, “Joseph Smith’s Use of Hebrew in the Book of Abraham,” 12–20, 25.)
Grey, Matthew J. “Joseph Smith’s Use of Hebrew in the Book of Abraham.” Unpublished paper. Copy in editors’ possession.
While the Grammar and Alphabet volume is divided into two parts with five degrees in each part, each of the Egyptian Alphabet documents is divided into five different “parts” all coming from the “first degree.”
For instance, character 1.14 was inscribed in each degree of part 1. Beginning with the fifth degree, Phelps drew the character and wrote the character’s transliteration (“Iota”) and definition. When he got to the fourth degree, he inscribed a definition, then canceled that definition, wrote a new one, and copied the original definition (from the fourth degree) into the third degree. This nature of cancellation hints that Phelps recorded the definition in the fourth degree, moved to the third degree, and only then realized his mistake in the fourth degree. This whole process suggests that Phelps had in mind or on paper the five distinct definitions of each character, since the Egyptian Alphabet documents had only one definition per character.
Character 1.16 remains consistent throughout the degrees.
One source claims that JS misidentified a Greek psalter as a dictionary of Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1842. In spring 1842, a minister named Henry Caswall arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois, incognito, “in order to test the scholarship of the prophet.” Caswall, who published an account in a popular anti-Mormon pamphlet that year, wrote that he brought a Greek psalter from roughly the thirteenth century to JS and pretended ignorance of its content and age. According to Caswall, JS called it “a dictionary of Egyptian Hieroglyphics.” The Latter-day Saints published a rebuttal to Caswall’s pamphlet, stating that JS had not examined the psalter and observing that Caswall’s words and actions did not become his position as a minister. (Caswall, City of the Mormons, 5, 35–36, italics in original; “Reward of Merit,” Times and Seasons, 15 Oct. 1843, 4:364–365.)
Caswall, Henry. The City of the Mormons; or, Three Days at Nauvoo, in 1842. London: J. G. F. and J. Rivington, 1842.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
See Historical Introduction to Explanation of Facsimile 2, ca. 15 Mar. 1842.
“Late and Interesting from the Mormon Empire on the Upper Mississippi,” New York Herald, 30 May 1843, [2]; see also Bradley and Ashurst-McGee, “Joseph Smith and the Kinderhook Plates,” 93–109. The first through fourth degrees of the first part of the Grammar and Alphabet volume begin with the title “Egyptian Alphabet”, perhaps indicating that members referred to the volume that way.
New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.
Bradley, Don, and Mark Ashurst-McGee. “Joseph Smith and the Kinderhook Plates.” In A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History, edited by Laura Harris Hales, 93–115. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2016.
JS, Nauvoo, IL, to James Arlington Bennet, Arlington House, Long Island, NY, 13 Nov. 1843, JS Collection, CHL; see also characters 2.37, 2.38, and 2.39 in the fifth degree of the second part of the Grammar and Alphabet. A similar rhetorical approach was used in a pamphlet published a month later by JS. Instead of the three characters used in the letter, however, a single transliteration, “Su-e-eh-ni”, was incorporated into the pamphlet with the definition “(What other persons are those?).” This transliteration and a similar definition appear in the Grammar and Alphabet at character 1.16 in the first degree of the first part. (Smith, General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 4; see also Brown, “Translator and the Ghostwriter,” 43–44.)
Brown, Samuel. “The Translator and the Ghostwriter: Joseph Smith and W. W. Phelps.” Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 1 (Winter 2008): 26–62.
JS to J. Bennet, 13 Nov. 1843, in Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1843, 4:373; see also characters 2.37, 2.38, and 2.39 in the fifth degree of the second part of the Grammar and Alphabet; and Brown, “Translator and the Ghostwriter,” 43–44.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Brown, Samuel. “The Translator and the Ghostwriter: Joseph Smith and W. W. Phelps.” Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 1 (Winter 2008): 26–62.
For a more detailed comparison, see Comparison of Characters.
| <1> | ✦ [2.16] | Beth ka— A large garden, a large valey or a large plain, This aught <to> have been inserted between Iota and Zub Zool aon on the opposite page. |