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Episode Description
A widely shared chart in an edition of an annotated Book of Mormon claims the characters Joseph Smith copied from the gold plates match an old Native American hieroglyphic script. But when one researcher traced every glyph back to its source, the trail led somewhere no one expected — to the most infamous forger in Latter-day Saint history.
In this episode, Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Jerry Grover: an independent Book of Mormon researcher, geologist, and author of a book on the "characters document”. They walk through his new paper, published by the Interpreter Foundation, examining the claimed match between the gold plates characters and Mi'kmaq (Micmac) hieroglyphs.
===Informed Saints Credits===
Produced by The Ancient America Foundation
Producer: Spencer Clark
Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye
In this episode:
• What the "characters document" actually is — and why it isn't the Anthon transcript
• John Whitmer's handwriting, an 1887 photograph, and a New York broadside
• The documented origin of Mi'kmaq hieroglyphics: a 17th-century Catholic priest, birch bark, and Catholic prayers
• Why 10–14 look-alikes out of roughly 4,000 glyphs isn't statistically meaningful
• Mark Hofmann's forged "Anthon transcript" — and how its glyphs ended up in a modern comparison chart
• The Brazil phone call: "Come authenticate our gold plates"
• Wayne May's This Land, the Annotated Book of Mormon, and why citations matter
• A hopeful precedent: the photo that was corrected in an earlier edition
Read Jerry Grover's new paper at interpreterfoundation.org : https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/mikmaq-meldrum-may-and-mark
Further Resources:
https://bmslr.org/translation-of-the-caractors-document/
ensignpeakfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/The-“Caractors”-Document.pdf
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===Content Disclaimer===
The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Chapters
- (00:00:00) - Is the Micmac Native American Language evidence for the Book of Mormon
- (00:04:51) - The Book of Mormon and the Mi' Kmaq Language
- (00:09:50) - The Fabricated Anthon Transcript
- (00:12:02) - The Authenticity of the Micmac glyphs
- (00:16:15) - Presumed Micmac in the Hoffman Forgery