According to John Tvedtnes, in 1967, Israeli archaeologists discovered at the ancient site of Arad an ostracon (pottery fragment) from shortly before 600 B.C., the time of Lehi. The text on the ostracon is written in a combination of Egyptian hieratic and Hebrew characters, but can be read entirely as Egyptian. Of the seventeen words in the text, ten are written in hieratic and seven in Hebrew. This discovery suggests that when Lehi's son Nephi spoke of writing in a language consisting of "the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians" (1 Nephi 1:2) he may have used such a combination script. Two more examples of combination Egyptian-Hebrew scripts from the same time period were discovered in the northern Sinai peninsula during the late 1970's. [John A. Tvedtnes, "Reformed Egyptian," in The Most Correct Book, p. 24]
“The Reformed Egyptian”
In Mormon 9:32, Moroni notes that "we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech." According to Daniel Ludlow, Moroni's statement in Mormon 9:32-34 pertains to the Plates of Mormon and does not necessarily pertain to the Small Plates of Nephi from which we get the first 132 pages in our present Book of Mormon. [Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, p. 177]
According to Tvedtnes and Ricks, non-Latter-day Saint scholars and others have long scoffed at the idea that an Israelite group from Jerusalem should have written in Egyptian and mocked the term "reformed Egyptian" as non-sense. Since Joseph Smith's time, we have learned a great deal about Egyptian and Israelite records and realize that the Book of Mormon was correct in all respects.
The ancient Egyptians used three types of writing systems. The most well known, the hieroglyphs (Greek for "sacred symbols"), comprised nearly 400 picture characters depicting things found in real life. A cursive script called hieratic (Greek for "sacred") was also used, principally on papyrus. Around 700 B.C., the Egyptians developed an even more cursive script that we call demotic (Greek for "popular"), which bore little resemblance to the hieroglyphs. Both hieratic and demotic were in use in Lehi's time and can properly be termed "reformed Egyptian." From the account in Mormon 9:32, it seems likely that the Nephites further reformed the characters. [John A. Tvedtnes and Stephen D. Ricks, "Jewish and Other Semitic Texts Written in Egyptian Characters," in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 5/2 (1996), pp. 157-158]
“Reformed Egyptian Metal Plates”
According to John Gee and John Tvedtnes, in early anti-Mormon literature, critics derided the Book of Mormon because of the claim that it had been:
(1) written in the "reformed Egyptian" (Mormon 9:32);
(2) "engraved" on metal plates (1 Nephi 9:2-3; Moroni 9:33). (They called it the "gold Bible."); and
(3) concealed ("sealed") or buried in the earth with the intention of coming forth in a later time period (see Moroni 10:2). (Critics associated it with Joseph's supposed seeking for buried treasure.)
Ironically, scholars have now found that the earliest extant manuscripts containing biblical text have the same three features that were stumbling blocks for early detractors of the Book of Mormon. One of these manuscripts was written on metal plates, one manuscript was written in reformed Egyptian scripts, and a set of manuscripts was concealed for future recovery:
(1) The earliest of all known manuscripts displaying biblical text was found in 1980 when archaeologists opened an ancient tomb adjacent to the Scottish Presbyterian church of St. Andrew in Jerusalem. They discovered two small rolled-up strips of silver with a Hebrew inscription of the priestly blessing found in Numbers 6:24-26. From paleographic evidence (handwriting analysis), the scrolls have been dated to the end of the seventh century B.C. or the beginning of the sixth century B.C.--about the time Lehi left Jerusalem.
(2) The second-oldest-known manuscript citing a Bible text is written in Egyptian demotic script and dates to the fourth century B.C. Its date of discovery is unknown, but it was purchased in Egypt as part of a collection about 1875 by Lord Amherst of Hackney, England. Known as Papyrus Amherst 63, it includes a quote of Psalm 20:2-6. Though the language of the text is Aramaic, the language spoken by the Jews of that time, it is not written using the Aramaic alphabet. Instead it is written in Egyptian demotic, an ancient cursive script that can properly be called "reformed" Egyptian.
(3) Ranking third in age among known Bible manuscripts are the Dead Sea Scrolls. The oldest of these documents, discovered in 1948, is a copy of the book of Exodus (4Q17) written in the middle of the third century B.C. Like the Book of Mormon, the Dead Sea Scrolls were concealed in the earth to come forth at a later time.
Time has a way of vindicating the prophets. [John Gee and John A. Tvedtnes, "Ancient Manuscripts Fit Book of Mormon Pattern," in Insights, February 1999, pp. 3-4]
“Reformed Egyptian”
The Book of Mormon proclaimed that it was written in "reformed Egyptian" because it was more efficient (taking up less space) than Hebrew (1 Nephi 1:2; Mosiah 1:4; Mormon 9:31-33; Ether 12:23-28, 35). Richardson, Richardson and Bentley write that when the Book of Mormon was first published, the idea of Hebrews writing in Egyptian must have sounded quite ludicrous. However, one hundred years after the Book of Mormon was first published, scholars found evidence of hieratic (shortened ) Egyptian and demotic (a shorthand, even more brief than hieratic). Thus, the Book of Mormon is substantiated again. Hubert Grimme, Professor of Semitic Language at Munster University has published his findings of ancient engravings on the Sinai Peninsula from 1500 B.C. in pure Hebrew language but the script was hieratic Egyptian "somewhat changed." In the same source, Grimme proves that the Incas and Mayas used Egyptian hieratic script by slightly altering it. (Nibley, Since Cumorah, p. 149)
Modern studies been conducted to determine if the characters copied from the plates by Joseph Smith are indeed authentic. It was concluded that each character has at least one counterpart with ancient writing samples from the Middle East. For example, one character form showing a horizontal line with eight perpendicular strokes above it (see the illustration below) has been recognized as a glyph called the "sign of the chessboard."
Another character form that has drawn much criticism is the one resembling a cursive capital "H" (see illustration below). This, too appears authentic--representing the meaning "to write" or "writing." Joseph Smith could not have gained access to a demotic (reformed) Egyptian alphabet or a dictionary of this ancient language during the translation of the Book of Mormon. Such resources would not be available for another century until the works of Brugsch, Spiegelberg, Erman, Grapow, Budge, Petrie, Young, Tatam, Lepsius, Birch, Gardiner, etc., were all published years after the first publication of the Book of Mormon. (See Ariel Crowley, About the Book of Mormon, pp. 20-38) [Allen H. Richardson, David E. Richardson and Anthony E. Bentley, 1000 Evidences for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Part Two-A Voice from the Dust: 500 Evidences in Support of the Book of Mormon, pp. 254-256]
Mormon 9:31-33 Reformed Egyptian [Illustration]: Reformed Egyptian characters from the Book of Mormon (left side of each column) and the Middle East (right side of each column). [Allen H. Richardson, David E. Richardson and Anthony E. Bentley, 1000 Evidences for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Part Two-A Voice from the Dust: 500 Evidences in Support of the Book of Mormon, p. 256]