The Greek Psalter Incident

Henry Caswall authored a book titled Three Days in Nauvoo (also called The City of the Mormons) in which he gives an account of presenting Joseph Smith, the founder of the nascent Latter Day Saint movement, with an old Greek psalter to translate. Caswall was aware of Smith's previous claims regarding the translation of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham from reformed Egyptian, and wanted to test the truthfulness of these claims. The Greek psalter's contents were well-established prior to the meeting and contained a common Greek translation of the Psalms.

After looking the manuscript over, Smith identified the manuscript as being a dictionary of Egyptian hieroglyphics, pointing to the capitalized letters saying that they were hieroglyphics followed by their meanings in reformed Egyptian. Caswall went on to claim that this was evidence of Smith's position as a fraud.[1][2][3] A local newspaper, the Warsaw Message, also mentioned the event and stated that multiple supporters of Smith were also present during the event.

Smith was originally reluctant to look over the manuscript, but after he claimed its connection to Egyptian hieroglyphics the room was in "great astonish". After the excitement in the room began to cool down, Caswall revealed that the contents of the manuscript were nothing more than a common Greek psalter. Smith then "stepped out" of the room.[4]

On November 20, 1835, Oliver Cowdery gifted Smith a Hebrew and Greek Lexicon.[5] Smith also reported that he spent time studying the Greek language at home which would have been prior to his encounter with Henry Caswall.[6]

• The City of the Mormons; or, Three Days at Nauvoo, in 1842 at the Internet Archive
• The Prophet of the Nineteenth Century; or, The Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Mormons, or Latter-day Saints, To Which is Appended an Analysis of the Book of Mormon at the Internet Archive