Athanasius Kircher and Egyptian Hieroglyphics
The name Athanasius Kircher might be familiar to those involved in Mormon historical scholarship because of his link to Joseph Smith and Joseph Smith’s description of the Liahona, though that’s a topic for another day.
It turns out Joseph Smith is also connected to Kircher through Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Athanasius Kircher was a Jesuit scholar active in the 1600s, long before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and our ability to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics.
When Joseph Smith was creating his supposed translation of hieroglyphics he used the fact scholarship couldn’t currently translate the characters to his advantage. It seemed as if we’d never be able to decipher the hieroglyphics, allowing Joseph Smith to claim they said whatever he wanted them to say without any way to verify his claims.
One of the things he claimed was that one character, one single hieroglyphic, was enough to tell a whole story, or at least provide a paragraph of information. But where did he get this idea? Did he just come up with it himself?
It turns out this idea started with Athanasius Kircher who claimed the same thing. This was the second idea Joseph took from Kircher, the first being the design of the Liahona, and the second being the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics. These two things together show Joseph Smith had a clear connection to Kircher, showing that Joseph not only had access to, and was familiar with, some scholarly and historical information, but it also further establishes the pattern of Joseph Smith taking ideas from other people and sources to build his religion.