I don’t know what it means, but it occurs to me that the Book of Mormon’s discussion of Isaiah 29 was apparently translated with Oliver Cowdrey–after Harris’s visit to Anthon.

it is very improbable that harris and smith were unaware of Isaiah 29 before the event.

I don’t remember hearing about Dr. Mitchell before. With the first certificate torn up, he most likely would have requested the sanction from Mitchell in writing. Has Dr. Mitchell’s endorsement ever shown up?

I remember telling her matter of factly, “Oh, I agree with your mother.” I also recall the look of total shock on both her face and that of the WML. I don’t recall the details of what I said after that (I’m sure I waxed pedantic!), but I probably talked all about Champollion and the timing and Anthon and his classical encyclopedia and on and on. The upshot was that the failure of a common Mormon argument for the BoM–that Anthon had somehow authenticated the translation–does not constitute an argument against the authenticity of the BoM.

I don’t think she cared a whit about the specific arguments, she was just relieved that this wasn’t somehow new information that was a death knell to the truthfulness of the Church, that someone who just happened to be walking down the hall would know all about it.

After talking for just a few minutes, this young woman sat there smiling, beaming in fact, through her still tear-stained eyes. It was the most beautiful smile you could ever imagine.

(And that, my friends, is why I’m involved in apologetics.)

Im more addressing the statement that Anthon said the translation was correct which while he may have said it, I hardly believe he had any idea whether it was correct or not.

He could have been looking over the glyphs and the translation and been noting some obvious structural consistencies, as well as some glyphs that were similar enough to known symbols. In other words, he could have been making a very educated guess as to whether ir not the translation was correct.

Im more addressing the statement that Anthon said the translation was correct which while he may have said it, I hardly believe he had any idea whether it was correct or not. he obviously could recognize glyphs whether they appeared like standard glyphs, heiratic, or demotic. I am just skeptical that he had any knowledge more than yes these look Egyptian.

JS was pasting in Martin Harris’ account.

Yes, but at the time he was using MSWord95 and Windows ME, which was a notorious combination for bugs.