"Joseph Smith also studied EGYPTIAN, which at the time was seen as a language of mystery. “It was the home of the esoteric,” Bushman said." (emphasis added)
and
"“Instead,” he said, “he seems to have been driven by a quest for spiritual knowledge, and Hebrew and EGYPTIAN offered the spiritual wisdom for which he hungered." (emphasis added)
I guarantee you that the Mormons don't want to start a rock-fight about this topic, given the glass house that they live in regarding the BOA.
Mr. Bushman, Chief Executive Turd Polisher for LDS, Inc., works the room:
> But “Joseph seems to have done little to promote classical language study among his followers,” Bushman said. Instead, Joseph stressed Hebrew, which was the language of the Old Testament prophets rather than Latin or Greek, which was the language of the New Testament prophets.
> “Joseph Smith ignored Hellenism and embraced Hebraism more than any religious thinker of his generation,” Bushman observed. Joseph Smith also studied Egyptian, which at the time was seen as a language of mystery. “It was the home of the esoteric,” Bushman said.
Hebrew had been considered by Protestants as essential for biblical study since the Reformation. The King James Version of the Old Testament was translated directly from Hebrew by English scholars of the language. Harvard College required Hebrew for all students but freshmen from its founding in 1636. And even today most Protestant churches maintain the requirement for clergy to have studied Hebrew as well as Greek to be ordained as ministers. Mr. Bushman obviously depends upon the historical ignorance of his audience when he tries to depict Joseph Smith as a trailblazer in the study of Hebrew, even though he never learned the language, unlike thousands of American scholars and pastors in his own time, and for the prior 200 years of American history.
DUDE! I was at citycreek for a fieldtrip for school, and there were a bunch of BYU kids walking around, talking about strange things. Haha, I totally get that now, because it was just recently. I remember hearing some of the kids talking about that and thinking "What the freak are they smoking?" Sorry, that was totally random, and that makes a lot more sense now.