Book of Abraham

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For other uses, see Book of Abraham (disambiguation).
An image copied by Joseph Smith, Jr. and included as Facsimile No. 1 in the Book of Abraham. Smith believed this image depicts an attempted human sacrifice of Abraham. Egyptologists interpret this as an embalming procedure.

The Book of Abraham is a text originally published by Joseph Smith, Jr., purporting to be a translation of the writings of Abraham. Some Latter Day Saint denominations, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, accept the book as scripture. Other denominations, such as the Community of Christ, and many individuals, consider it to be a work of inspired (or even non-inspired) fiction.

Origin

The work is based on a set of Egyptian papyri that Joseph Smith obtained in July of 1835, which he describes as "A Translation of some Ancient Records that have fallen into our hands, from the Catacombs of Egypt, purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt" (See History of the Church, vol. 2, pp. 235, 236, 348-351). An Irishman named Michael Chandler had brought a travelling exhibition of four Egyptian mummies and papyri to Kirtland, Ohio, then home of the Mormons. The papyri contained Egyptian hieroglyphics. As Prophet and Seer of the incipient Church of Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith was given permission to look at the scrolls in the exhibit and stated that "one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph of Egypt" (History of the Church, Vol. 2, Ch. 17, p. 236. July 1835).

During the remainder of July, Joseph Smith "was continually engaged in translating an alphabet to the Book of Abraham, and arranging a grammar of the Egyptian language as practiced by the ancients." (History of the Church, Vol. 2, Ch. 17, p. 238). He then proceeded to dictate a translation. The text gives an account of Abraham's life and is similar to the account given in the Book of Jasher (not to be confused with Book of Jasher (Pseudo-Jasher)) as it relates to Abraham's relationship with his father. Another interesting parallel is to be found by looking at the text of the Apocalypse of Abraham, both accounts containing records of the vision Abraham had while looking at the stars. The text of the book of Abraham provided justification for important Mormon doctrines, including the exaltation of man, plurality of gods (which some compare to polytheism), priesthood, and pre-mortal existence.

In addition to the text, at least two artists, including woodcutter Reuben Hedlock created facsimiles of three funerary vignettes which were part of the papyri collection found with the mummies. These facsimiles were originally published (as was the Book of Abraham) in serials in the Mormon newspaper Times and Seasons of Nauvoo, Illinois. These three woodcut facsimiles, which include hieroglyphics and hieratic writing, were also published in conjunction with the Book of Abraham, and often receive more attention than the book itself. For each of these facsimiles, Joseph Smith offered a detailed explanation or interpretation of various elements on the papyrus and fragments, and many believe that under his direction missing or destroyed portions of the fragments were restored by Joseph Smith in order to make the image complete and aesthetically pleasing. It should be noted, however, that non-LDS Egyptologists disagree with Smith's interpretations of the ancient Egyptian iconography and writings found on these facsimiles.

Of the four carvings of the Book of Abraham facsimiles that were printed, most Mormon scholars believe the earliest is the most accurate reproduction of the original vignette (the one used between 1928 and 1978 being the least accurate and likely based on fragments that were damaged after the church purchased the documents).

The book along with the facsimiles was published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as part of its Pearl of Great Price in Liverpool, England, in 1852; the denomination eventually canonized that book.

The papyrus scrolls

The papyri were thought to have been completely destroyed in a fire in Chicago in 1871. However, eleven fragments of the scroll Joseph Smith was handling were rediscovered in 1967 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City (The Deseret News, Salt Lake City, November 27, 1967). Dr. Aziz S. Atiya, a professor of Arabic Studies from the University of Utah, made the identification, which was quite secure, since the back of the papyrus fragments were pasted down to paper with "drawings of a temple and maps of the Kirtland, Ohio area." There was an affidavit from Emma Smith that these papyri had been in the possession of Joseph Smith. With the rediscovery of the papyri, not only were fragments of the original Egyptian text recovered, from which Joseph Smith was translating to create the Book of Abraham, but the original illustrations from which he reproduced his three "facsimiles" with his interpretations were now available to professional Egyptologists.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art de-accessioned the papyri, which were fragmentary, late (Ptolemaic period) and of very familiar Egyptian texts, thus of little value to a museum, and presented them to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Joseph Smith Papyri Project at Brigham Young University is currently producing an authoritative three-volume edition based on the Joseph Smith papyri, now recognized as a copy of the Egyptian Book of Breathings, an incantation to speed the journey of the deceased, and dated to the second or third century BC, which occupies volume 1. A second volume will set in context the contents from the Book of the Dead, also represented among the Smith papyri fragments. A third volume, written with Mormon Egyptologist John Gee, will look at the Smith papyri from an LDS perspective [1].

Analysis and criticism

An image copied by Joseph Smith, Jr. and included as Facsimile No. 3 in the Book of Abraham. Smith believed this image represents Abraham sitting on the Pharaoh's throne teaching the principles of astronomy to the Egyptian court. Egyptologists interpret this as the judgment of the dead before the throne of Osiris.

Upon their rediscovery in 1967, the church asked Mormon scholar, Hugh Nibley to study them. He immediately identified the portions of the Joseph Smith Papyri as portions of a 1st Century A.D. Book of Breathings (or a manual for handling the "Book of Breathings" on a mummy) prepared for a deceased priest of the Egyptian god Amon, and accompanied by a portion of the Book of the Dead, which provides instructions on how the deceased should behave towards various gods to progress through the afterlife. Another section of the papyrus deals with farm life near the Nile.

Nibley shared his finding with three other non-LDS Egyptologists who confirmed his findings and stated that there was no obvious connection between the newly discovered fragments and the biblical Abraham. Nibley and the other three published some of their findings in two Mormon academic journals (Dialogue and BYU Studies) over the next several years.

This identification of texts is often used by some as evidence against the book's authenticity. Though not all of the papyrus Joseph Smith possessed was recovered, hundreds of different versions of the Book of Breathings exists in many more complete papyri. The Book of Breathings should not be confused with a similar book, the Book of Gates.

Mormon apologists have developed a number of theories in defense of the authenticity of the Book of Abraham. The most popular theories argue the following:

  1. The remaining papyrus fragments may not be the only ones Smith translated the Book of Abraham from
  2. Abraham's writings may be esoterically encoded within the Egyptian funerary scrolls
  3. The scrolls may have merely been a starting point for Smith's reconstruction of Abraham's original writings, which Smith did not have access to or had been destroyed
  4. Joseph Smith, contrary to his own account of the origin of the book of Abraham, may have received the account by revelation, rather than a standard "translation" of text from one language to another, in a process similar to his translation of the Bible.

Critics, however, point out that the recovered papyri bear no direct connection, either historical or textual, to Abraham. In addition to this, the main arguments against the Book of Abraham’s authenticity are:

  1. Numerous anachronisms exist in the Book of Abraham which indicate that it was not written in Abraham’s time. One example is the phrase "Ur of the Chaldees," which many scholars now believe was added in the Book of Genesis and Book of Jasher at a later date than when the original text was written (and that the error is perpetuated in the Book of Abraham).
  2. Joseph Smith’s translation of facsimiles, which are included in the Book of Abraham, do not bear any similarity to modern Egyptologist’s understanding of these figures.
  3. Joseph Smith kept in his personal diary an “Egyptian alphabet” which demonstrates his inability to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs.
  4. The Joseph Smith Papyri have been determined to be from after 500 B.C., which is at least 1000 years after Abraham’s lifetime. This fact contradicts the introduction to the Book of Abraham, which states that the book represents “The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus” (see History of the Church, vol. 2, pp. 235, 236, 348-351).

Modern Egyptologist’s ability to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs stems from the discovery in 1799 of the Rosetta Stone, a large granite tablet which contained a message written in two languages, Egyptian and Greek. Since Greek was well known, the stone made the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphs possible for the first time since antiquity. However, because this knowledge wasn’t well disseminated to the United States at the time Joseph Smith made his translation, his text couldn’t be checked by scholars for accuracy.

Interpretations and contributions to Mormonism

The Book of Abraham contains information not found in other texts published by Joseph Smith, Jr. concerning the pre-existence of spirits and the nature of deity.

Hypocephalus

The Hypocephalus copied by Joseph Smith, Jr. and included as Facsimile No. 2 in the Book of Abraham. Smith believed this image contained insights into astronomy.

Both Mormons and non-Mormons have expressed a large amount of interest in the large circular facsimile often printed with the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. This figure is a hypocephalus, and is believed by Egyptologists to have been placed under the head of the deceased in case he forgot some of the personalized detail needed to know what to say and how to behave in relation to 'gods' and trials after death (a sort of cheat sheet). These personalized instructions often accompany the Book of the Dead, but are either over-generalized in its text or passed over completely in highly individualized Books of the Dead.

External links:LDS

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