Modern Reading of the Book of Abraham
Ii years ago Kevin Barney and I gave a Fair presentation entitled The ABCs of the Volume of Abraham1 or the "Volume of Abraham for Dummies." In that presentation nosotros talked about the history of the papyri, how they got to Joseph and what happened to them after Joseph died. Kevin besides provided a bibliography of the scholarly approaches to the Book of Abraham, the sources for farther written report and some of the criticisms against the book. Today I'k going to focus on some of those disquisitional arguments and some possible solutions.
As a cursory epitomize, among the scrolls owned by Joseph Smith, the virtually closely associated with the Book of Abraham is a scroll owned by an Egyptian named Horus, or Hor. This scroll independent at least a couple of drawings or vignettes. An early on LDS woodcutter, Reuben Hedlock, created woodcut Facsimiles of the vignettes so that copies could be reprinted in the Times & Seasons and later in the Pearl of Neat Cost. Facsimile i and iii are from the scroll of Horus; the original vignette for Facsimile 3 has never been institute.
Later translation some of the scrolls were cutting into pieces, glued to a backing paper and mounted under glass so they could be viewed past others; some of the scrolls of Horus and parts of the other scrolls from Joseph Smith's collection were eventually lost or destroyed in the Chicago fire in 1871 while they resided in a museum. In 1967, several roll fragments including some important pieces of the scroll of Horus were rediscovered and given to the Church. At around the same time Gerald and Sandra Tanner, 2 critics of the Church, published an underground copy of parts of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers–or the KEP equally it is abbreviated. These papers, which will exist dealt with in much greater particular tomorrow past Brian Hauglid, have been in the Church's possession since the days of Joseph merely had been virtually unnoticed until the early on 19th century. The Kirtland Egyptian Papers are not aboriginal papyri but are instead papers from Joseph and his contemporaries that have a relationship to the study and translation of the papyri.
Early, even before the fragments were discovered, some scholars suspected that at least some portions of the Facsimiles had parts missing and had been inaccurately restored when they were printed. Afterwards, other non-LDS scholars agreed and at that place was a full general consensus that not only were these Facsimiles restored incorrectly but likewise that Joseph's interpretation of the Facsimiles did not accurately reverberate the understanding of Egyptologists.
Among the Kirtland Egyptian Papers is a hand drawn copy of Facsimile ii. Facsimile two comes from a hypocephalus, which is a small funerary amulet, a disk that was placed under the head of the deceased Egyptian. They believed information technology would magically crusade the head and body to be enveloped in flames or radiance thus making the deceased divine. You can encounter in this drawing that Facsimile 2 owned past Joseph did indeed have pieces missing; the missing parts (the whole is also called a lacuna) was restored for publication and well-nigh non-LDS scholars concord that these restorations are inaccurate and we'll come up back to the restorations later.
Facsimile 1 also had a lacuna and nosotros'll hash out the restorations in that later too.
Of the eleven extant or surviving papyri fragments several pieces belong to the curlicue of Horus; when pieced together we find that at that place is a gap between Facsimile 1 and Facsimile 3, which probably came well-nigh the end of the ringlet and the rest of the papyri, at least the stop of what is chosen the 'Sensen' text, there are parts missing. So the part to the correct at that place in the color is what we have and then nosotros don't have everything to the left but we're pretty sure that Facsimile 3 was at the afterwards part.
The text of the gyre tells us that it is a somewhat common Egyptian funerary text known the Book of Breathings; and I've got a part there in ruby-red that yous tin run across over here and of course yous can see in the round (and I'k showing on one side here) but this is Facsimile 1, you can meet Abraham on the lion couch–this part here we're going to exist talking about a little fleck but this is called the small 'Sensen' text and these are instructions for the deceased in the afterlife. Such a scroll was commonly included in Egyptian burials.
In the scholarly world this type of scroll is too referred to every bit the Document of Breathings Made by Isis or the Breathings Allow or the Sensen Text. The word 'animate' is supposedly translated from the Egyptian 'Sensen.' I talked to Dr. John Gee as I was preparing this and he said that he has recently argued that that is a mistranslation–that it'south not 'breathings,' that 'sensen' doesn't mean that.
I would similar to examine the three most common arguments relating to the Joseph Smith papyri and Joseph Smith's translation in the Book of Abraham. First the age of the "text" vs. the historic period of the papyri; secondly, the "restorations" of the facsimiles; and then tertiary, the relationship betwixt the Sensen text and the Book of Abraham.
Date of the Book of Abraham vs. the Date of the Papyri
When Joseph obtained the papyri in 1835 he reportedly said that "one of the scrolls contained the writings of Abraham . . . ." Co-ordinate to Joseph's scribes this whorl was "purportedly written by his ain hand, upon papyrus."ii
Information technology seems reasonable to conclude that Joseph may have believed that Abraham himself, with pen in hand, wrote the very words that he was translating. The problem is that modern scholars (including LDS scholars) date the papyri to a few centuries before Christ whereas Abraham lived about two millennia before Christ. Evidently Abraham could non have penned the papyri himself.
At present this result is very similar to that of Book of Mormon geography. It is very likely that Joseph Smith believed in a hemispheric Book of Mormon geography–information technology made sense to his agreement of the earth around him. Such a misinformed belief or most likely misinformed belief, according to modern scholarship, makes him no less a prophet. It but provides us with an example of how Joseph, like any other human being, tried to understand new information according to his current knowledge. So, likewise, with the Abrahamic papyri: Joseph, past way of revelation, saw that the papyri contained scriptural teachings of Abraham and it would have been natural, therefore, to assume that Abraham wrote the papyri.
But how could the teachings of Abraham be present on a document written two,000 years after Abraham lived? As Dr. Gee notes, nosotros find the aforementioned thing with biblical manuscripts. At that place is a major difference, he explains, "betwixt the date of a text [the information contained on the papyri] and the date of a manuscript [the papyri itself]."3
"The date of a text is the date when the text was written by its writer. A text tin be copied into various manuscripts or translated into other languages, and these manuscripts or translations volition accept unlike, later dates than the engagement of the original text. When nosotros refer to the date of a text, we refer to the engagement of the original text. For case, the text of the Gospel of Matthew was written in the first century A.D., but the earliest manuscript that nosotros take of Matthew was copied in the third century A.D."4 –a couple of hundred years later on.
Some scholars advise that the original Book of Abraham "text" was written by Abraham and and so "passed down through his descendants (the Jews), some of whom took a copy to Egypt where it was copied (after being translated) onto a later manuscript"5 and of class the manuscript then would have a later date.
Restorations of the Facsimiles
It seems obvious in at least some instances that when the drawings were "restored" and printed for LDS publications that the restorations of the lacunae were done without inspiration. When we look at the restorations of Facsimile two, for instance, we see that at least some of the restorations were obviously taken from the text of the Sensen text or another i of Joseph's scrolls, the Book of the Dead–the dissimilar parts. And then we can see hither that this part is here. That information technology was filled in in some of the missing pieces. So he merely kind of took some of the Egyptian parts.
When we wait at the restorations of Facsimile 1 nosotros see that missing portions were penciled on the backing newspaper to which they were glued before existence mounted. This is how Facsimile i looks in restored LDS scripture.6 Run across the king of beasts couch in both to kind of get your bearings. According to some LDS scholars, this is more than likely how Facsimile 1 would accept looked.
Co-ordinate to the critics, Facsimile 1 appears to exist a fairly typical scene from Egyptian funerary texts; the critics note that other similar Egyptian motifs depict Osiris (on the lion couch) and the priest (an embalmer) with the caput of a jackal, Anubis (an Egyptian god) rather than a bald, human head. Other comparable Egyptian embalming scenes do not show the priest property a knife, they do non show any man pleading or praying, and they mostly prove ii hawks. The critics claim that Joseph Smith drew in the missing parts by adding (incorrectly) those things which we notice in the LDS version of this Egyptian scene. What Joseph saw as the fingers of Abraham'south outstretched hands, for example, were actually (co-ordinate to the critics) the wingtips of the missing second militarist equally redrawn by the critics.
At present some of you lot may have noticed the blueish dot on the anti-Mormon reconstruction. This is to cover the obscene ithyphallic that they claim would take been in the original vignette. Ed Ashment who is more informed on Egyptology than most critics did not include this in his reconstruction.
Now all anti-Mormon sites that I was able to detect on the Net who had a reconstruction of Facsimile i seemed to follow Charles Larson'south (the upper one) reconstruction with ithyphallic figure and it's possible that Larson may have followed non-LDS Richard Parker'due south 1968 merits that the Osiris effigy, which is the- what we take every bit Abraham here, the Egyptians say that's Osiris, and in 1968 Richard Parker idea the figure would have been ithyphallic but Ed Ashment didn't follow that; he didn't concord with that, and John Gee says he knows of no other papyrus lion couch scene with an ithyphallic figure or any Egyptian drawing where someone, wearing breeches as seen in Facsimile ane, is ithyphallic.
Now why do most anti-Mormons follow Larson instead of Ashment? Now some critics may exist unaware of Ashment'due south reconstruction and information technology'south possible that they follow this because it is more shocking if they're trying to diss Mormonism.
There are at to the lowest degree three responses to the arguments regarding the restorations. Some scholars such as Kevin Barney and Michael Rhodes take noted the possibility that Joseph Smith, Reuben Hedlock (the engraver who made the facsimiles), or someone else may have filled in the lacunae in the papyri the best they could for purposes of publication. Nineteenth century printers didn't take the same standards that we take today. They wouldn't have wanted to publish incomplete facsimiles then they repaired them for publication purposes non necessary from inspiration. It's too possible that either Joseph repaired some of the parts which may not have been in the original in order to more than closely approximate the details or intent conveyed by the Abrahamic text in relation to the vignettes.
Joseph's corrections to the later editions of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine & Covenants, and even the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, are all instructive on this issue. In each case, Joseph–past way of revelation, inspiration, or analysis–"restored" or amended scripture to more closely guess the additional insights he had gleaned by divine revelation.
Thirdly, since the actual papyri was non written by Abraham himself it's possible that the scribe who composed the particular Sensen text altered the traditional ways of creating the funerary scene in order to convey an illustration that more than closely coincided with the teachings of Abraham.
Information technology is significant to betoken out that the placement of the illustration of Facsimile ane within a Sensen text appears to be highly unusual. According to Dr. Gee this is the only case of which he knows wherein the illustration of Facsimile ane has been found in a Sensen text. He too says that this embalming lion couch scene is significantly different than the lion couch scenes with which he is familiar. This suggests the possibility that i) it is not a typical embalming scene; and 2) that there may exist something highly unusual well-nigh this Sensen text as compared to other Sensen text. (I'll get to more than of that afterward too.)
There seems to exist at least some bear witness that the vignette for Facsimile ane was damaged after Joseph had already translated information technology. Maybe this was in the original that we run into in the Pearl of Great Price. I early on Latter-day Saint who saw the papyri in 1841, for instance, described them as containing the scene of an altar with "'a man bound and laid thereon, and a Priest with a knife in his mitt, standing at the human foot, with a pigeon over the person leap on the Altar with several Idol gods standing around it.'"seven Reverend Henry Caswall, who visited Nauvoo in Apr 1842, had a hazard to see some of the Egyptian papyri. Caswall, who was hostile to the Saints, described Facsimile 1 as having a "'man standing past him with a drawn knife.'"8
Some LDS researchers have also argued that the fingers which critics merits are the wingtips of a second hawk look more significantly more like fingers (co-ordinate to Egyptian drawings) than hawk wingtips. Here we see on the left these are the thumbs and these are the wings from the drawing. And then if we await at the wings from other Egyptian drawings we see that that generally the feathers are together and that they are non always spread out. They are downwardly in this one but they become downwardly rather than up and this creative person here obviously kept these wingtips together rather than separated which makes it look similar they're mayhap thumbs. And we likewise see how some of these Egyptian artists drew thumbs. Here is a magnification of the thumbs and then once more we look at the thumb lines in other Egyptian drawings.
It's likewise interesting to notation that although embalming priests are typically drawn with Anubis heads, other Egyptian graphics show that Egyptian priests are represented every bit baldheaded. In fact, shaving one'due south head was a mutual practise for those who entered the Egyptian priesthood during the Ptolemaic catamenia which is when the Joseph Smith papyri was produced. Anubis heads were worn as masks to emulate the gods.ix Joseph got it right past representing the man with the knife as a priest and so whether he has Anubis head or bald he is still represented as a priest, which is accurate.
Kerry Shirts has shown that some of the restorations of Facsimile 2 appear to exist correct from an Egyptian standpoint and for the terminal decade and a one-half the late Dr. Hugh Nibley was working on his magnum opus, "One Eternal Round" which deals in role directly with Facsimile 2 and hopefully someday we'll se that published by FARMS and I'k sure we'll have boosted insights to add to our list.
The Sensen Text and the Book of Abraham
When scholars examined the rediscovered Joseph Smith papyri and compared them to some of the pages of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers an interesting discovery was made; some of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers have Egyptian characters on the left of a vertical line and what appears to be an English translation to the right of that line–and once more Dr. Hauglid will speak more about this tomorrow.
What was discovered with a return of the Joseph Smith fragments was that the Egyptian characters to the left of the line lined up with the Egyptian to the left there's Facsimile one and these characters right hither and that's what is to the left of the line and this really hadn't been earlier because they noticed then that these 2 pieces were separate pieces and they bring together together.
Some take presumed that the then-called Kirtland Egyptian papers demonstrate Joseph'southward attempt to translate the hieroglyphics. Co-ordinate to nearly Egyptologists the translations do non accurately reflect the meaning of the hieroglyphics. In some cases several paragraphs of English language text appear to be an English translation of a single Egyptian character. On the surface, this appears that Joseph put the characters on the left and then translated these characters on the right. As the critics correctly point out the translations do not friction match. Egyptologists clinch us that there is no relationship betwixt the characters and the text. To the critics this is proof that Joseph was a false prophet.
Most LDS scholars believe that the Kirtland Egyptian Papers are an example of backwards translation and so that Joseph already had the translated Book of Abraham and that he and his associates were trying to match the already translated English language text to plausible Egyptian characters. Joseph had learned already by at present, from the Book of Mormon, that the aboriginal text can be written in compact script like reformed Egyptian and he may have idea that a single Egyptian character could yield several sentences of English translation–I'll leave again the arguments to Dr. Hauglid'due south talk–for the purpose of this presentation information technology'due south important simply to note the apparent relationship.
But did Joseph believe, or mayhap believe, that the Egyptian characters on the Sensen text translated equally the Book of Abraham when Egyptologists tell us they practice not? The answer lies in the Book of Abraham itself.
In more one verse we read that Facsimile 1, this representation, is institute at the beginning of this tape:
And it came to pass that the priests laid violence upon me, that they might slay me besides, equally they did those virgins upon this altar; and that you may have a knowledge of this chantry, I will refer you to the representation at the start of this record . (Ab. i:12)
That you may have an agreement of these gods, I take given yous the mode of them in the figures at the showtime , which manner of figures is chosen by the Chaldeans Rahleenos, which signifies hieroglyphics. (Ab. 1:xiv)
To the early Saints and most of usa today this would accept seemed to signal that the record of Abraham began with the text post-obit Facsimile 1.
Dr. Gee believes that Joseph Smith originally had five papyrus scrolls. Of these five scrolls, only eleven fragments of 2 scrolls accept survived. And part of the reason why he believes there was 5 different scrolls is that he had one scroll per person and hither's the names of them and that includes the hypocephalus down here–then there's 5 different scrolls and the colored portions are what we had left so there's a lot missing.
He says of the five scrolls simply 11 fragments of two scrolls take survived. Hugh Nibley claimed that according to tradition i of the scrolls was then long that when information technology was unrolled it extended through 2 rooms of the Mansion Firm.
Not all of the Sensen text are of equal length and Dr. Gee estimates that the Joseph Smith Sensen text may take been longer than some or most of comparable Sensen texts; and keep in mind that the presence of Facsimile ane in the Joseph Smith Sensen text suggests that this Sensen text may have been very different than other similar Sensen texts. Dr. Gee suggests that Joseph may take had viii times every bit much papyri as what is currently extant.
A number of scholars contend that the reason that the extant papyrus fragments don't take anything to do with the Volume of Abraham is because nosotros no longer accept the portion of papyrus which would accept contained the Book of Abraham text.
In rebuttal, the critics claim that since the scroll of Horus is a fairly typical Sensen gyre that the entire gyre would non be much longer than those portions that we take and then they say basically there couldn't take been anything else and furthermore they debate nosotros know that this particular whorl is the source considering Abraham claimed that Facsimile one was at the commencement of this tape. Now in that location are problems with this merits.
To quote Dr. Gee, "Some people presume that if the documents [Joseph Smith Papyri] are funerary they cannot contain annihilation else. Some Book of the Expressionless papyri, however, practise comprise other texts."10 He notes in fact that virtually 40 percent of Sensen text accept other documents attached to them. Almost 40 percent–that'southward a lot of other texts that take something fastened to them. So when Abraham said that Facsimile ane began at the commencement of this record, he–or more probable the scribe that composed the roll (equally nosotros'll hash out momentarily) was referring to the commencement of this roll. So if the Book of Abraham was attached on here but the Abraham text said at the offset of this gyre right hither, it would've seemed natural to retrieve that perhaps this was the Book of Abraham text only more than probable he was referring to the outset of the scroll when he said beginning of the scroll–scroll and record beingness interchangeable.
The question so arises why would an of import Semitic document–the Book of Abraham–exist fastened to a heathen Egyptian funerary text? First information technology's important to understand that despite the claims of the critics, some Egyptians had a detailed cognition of Abraham.
In more than one known instance, Egyptian papyri which contain Egyptian instructions on ane side also included Semitic writings on the backside. In one case, Psalms 20 through 55. Ane Egyptian temple annal with an extensive collection of Egyptian rituals provides the but manuscript for the prayer of Jacob that is included in the Charlesworth Pseudepigrapha volume as well every bit two copies of the eighth volume of Moses which discusses the initiation into the Temple at Jerusalem. The most commonly invoked deity in the collection is Jehovah. Moses and Abraham are too mentioned in the collection.
Kevin Barney posits that the Volume of Abraham material was passed on through generations from Abraham to Jews of the tertiary century B.C.–or the Ptolemaic period–just as Quondam Attestation scriptures were passed on to later generations. Old in the Ptolemaic period, a hypothetical Jewish redactor (which is an editor), whom Barney labels "J-ruby" attached the Book of Abraham to the Egyptian papyri. Why? Because of the useful symbolism contained on the vignettes of the Egyptian funerary text. Numerous studies testify that all people recontextualize images according to their current environments and specific needs and beliefs. Early Mormons, for example, recontextualized Masonic symbols for Temple apply; early Christians adapted common Infidel symbols to convey Christian truths. This phenomena is institute throughout the earth; it seems very likely that the Egyptian vignettes–equally reproduced in the Joseph Smith Papyri–provided the rich symbolism that could graphically convey ancient Jewish beliefs about Abraham.
This claim is supported by several known aboriginal Jewish texts. Equally an illustration of Semitic recontextualization of Egyptian material, Barney notes that many Biblical scholars believe that an ancient book–the Instructions of Amenemope–may accept been the source for parts of the biblical book of Proverbs.11
The ancient and recently discovered "Testament of Abraham" has several similarities to the LDS Volume of Abraham. The book also has strong similarities to an aboriginal papyrus related to the Book of the Expressionless. For instance, notes Barney, it is widely recognized that a judgment scene described in the Testament of Abraham was "influenced by an Egyptian psychostasy ("soul weighing") papyrus…. Information technology may even be that the author [of the Testament of Abraham] was gazing on such a psychostasy papyrus when he penned his business relationship. Only while there is a articulate relationship between the Egyptian psychostasy scene and the judgment scene of the Testament of Abraham, the scene has been transformed to accord with Semitic needs and sensibilities. Osiris [Egyptian god] has go Abel; the Egyptian gods have become angels. Our author looks at the Egyptian illustration, notwithstanding sees a state of affairs peopled with Semitic characters.12
Notation the Osiris-Abel connexion, because we're going to come to that in a second.
Some other case comes from the book of Luke story of the rich man and Lazarus. In this tale, the beggar Lazarus ate the crumbs that fell from a rich man's tabular array. When Lazarus died, angels carried him to Abraham's bosom. When the rich homo died, he awoke in Hell but could see–far away–Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham. The rich homo begged Abraham to ship the dead Lazarus to his brothers then that they would repent and not befall the same terrible fate. (Encounter Luke 16:nineteen-31).
Scholars have shown that this story is based on a popular Jewish tale, written in Hebrew, but is ultimately dependent on an Egyptian legend. In the original Egyptian story, the names are different (every bit are some of the general details of the story) just the basic account and moral is the aforementioned. In the Egyptian version, however (the version upon which the Hebrew tradition depends), Osiris plays the part afterwards adapted (by Jews) to Abraham.thirteen Information technology seems that the early on Jews had no trouble adapting the heathen god Osiris to important Judaic figures such every bit Abel or Abraham.
Not only practise nosotros see, in the Book of Luke, a Jewish adaptation of an Egyptian judgment scene, but we also find some interesting parallels to Facsimile one from the Volume of Abraham. In this vignette, Joseph identified the figure lying on the lion couch as Abraham. Egyptologists, however, place the effigy as Osiris.14 Based on an early Judaic adaptation of Facsimile 1, Joseph got it exactly correct if we view this vignette from within a context of a Ptolemaic period Jewish understanding.
Instead of focusing on how Egyptians of the 2nd century B.C. or 2000 B.C. understood the motifs, Barney argues that Abraham did not draw the vignettes (which date well-nigh ii thousand years afterwards Abraham lived) but that these Egyptian vignettes "were either adopted [copied wholesale as the Egyptians drew them] or adapted [contradistinct to more accurately reverberate the Semitic perspective] by an Egyptian-Jewish redactor as illustrations of the attempt on Abraham's life and Abraham's teaching astronomy to the Egyptians."15 Barney argues that nosotros should focus our attending on understanding how Jews of the 2nd century B.C. understood the Egyptian graphics.
In Facsimile one (the lion burrow scene), for instance, under the floor at that place is a crocodile. Nether the crocodile are numerous vertical lines. Joseph interpreted these lines as representing the "pillars of heaven." Egyptologists, still, tell u.s.a. that this is wrong. These lines really signify the palace faÁade. The etched lines around the crocodile signify, according to Joseph, "Raukeeyang" or "the expanse or firmament over our heads," or the high "heavens." Egyptologists, all the same, tell us that the lines are simply waters in which the crocodile swims. And then according to an Egyptian interpretation, Joseph got it all wrong.
What if we compare Joseph's estimation to how 2d century B.C. Jews might have understood the scene? Firstly, Joseph's "Raukeeyang" is very similar to the Hebrew discussion for "surface area."16 "In Hebrew cosmology," writes Barney, "the Hebrew 'empyrean' was believed to be a solid dome, supported by pillars." Recall the vertical lines in the vignette. This, "in turn was closely associated with the celestial ocean, which it supported." And remember that in Facsimile 1 it appears that the pillars are nether the h2o in which the crocodile swims.
In the lower one-half of Facsimile one, we accept [the empyrean]…(1) connected with the waters, as with the angelic ocean, (2) appearing to be supported by pillars, and (iii) being solid and therefore capable of serving itself as a support, in this example for the lion couch. The lesser one-half of Facsimile 1 would have looked to J-ruby-red very much similar a microcosm of the universe (in much the same manner that the divine throne chariot of Ezekiel 1-two, which associates the iv four-faced fiery living creatures with the [firmament]…above their heads on which God sits enthroned, is a microcosm of the universe).17
If we accept a Jewish redactor adapting Egyptian motifs to a Hebrew understanding, we can easily appreciate the possibility that "J-red" fastened the Book of Abraham manuscript to the Book of Breathings (the Sensen text) in order to graphically convey the doctrines portrayed in the Book of Abraham document. Barney gives this useful comparison to the Book of Mormon:
"The gold plates were untouched past human easily from the fourth dimension Moroni deposited them in a stone box in the fifth century A.D. until Joseph's retrieval of the enshroud in 1827. Prior to that time, however, the records of the Book of Mormon peoples underwent an express redaction [abridgement or editing] process at the easily of Mormon and Moroni. Similarly, the papyrus source for the Book of Abraham sat untouched from the time it was deposited in the tomb during Greco-Roman age until Lebolo retrieved it [about 1820]. Before that time, though, it circulated amidst people and was subject to normal manual processes. My hypothetical redactor, J-cherry-red, was in essentially the aforementioned position with respect to the Book of Abraham every bit Mormon was with respect to the Book of Mormon.18
So coming back to the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, to the relationship betwixt the Sensen text and the commencement of this record we realize that "this record" probably referred to the beginning of the combined scrolls (that begins with Facsimile 1) but not the beginning of the Abrahamic text.
It must exist remembered that Joseph could not read Egyptian. He could non "interpret" in the normal sense. He translated by the ability of God. Information technology's possible that Joseph, at times, translated the Book of Mormon while the plates were covered, or perhaps even while the plates were removed from the room.
While I believe that an actual Book of Abraham manuscript was present and probably appended to the Sensen text, information technology is significant to recognize that revelation was the method past which the text was translated. This realization allows for other possibilities. If, for example, the appended Abrahamic scroll was damaged, Joseph would still have been able to "translate" the text. If the appended gyre was partially missing, the "translation" might not have suffered. It'southward also possible that Joseph, in the process of creating the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, looked at the Egyptian characters and–thinking that they were the Egyptian symbols equanimous by Abraham–proceeded to "interpret" from these characters. In such a scenario the actual Book of Abraham translation could still exist based on a real manuscript, simply not on what Joseph thought was the manuscript. Whichever scenario, we demand not reject Joseph's prophetic calling.
Evidences Supporting an Authentically Ancient Book of Abraham
In Facsimile ii are four mummy-like figures known–to Egyptologists–as the Sons of Horus. Their images were besides on the canopic jars (the jars that stored the internal organs of the deceased) that we see under the lion couch scene in Facsimile 1. Joseph revealed that these four figures represented "this globe in its iv quarters." Co-ordinate to modernistic Egyptologists, Joseph Smith is correct. The Sons of Horus "were the gods of the four quarters of the earth and subsequently came to be regarded equally presiding over the four cardinal points."19
Years ago, Dr. Nibley pointed out that the critics more often than not focus on the Egyptian vignettes in the Volume of Abraham and the papyri merely neglect the much richer Abrahamic traditions establish in the Ancient Well-nigh East. This is really where Joseph shines. Recent studies into ancient Abrahamic lore and Jewish traditions preserved in ancient texts, evidence some surprising parallels to what we detect in the text of the Book of Abraham. Some of these parallels are very convincing and imply that Joseph (who likely could non have had access to many of these traditions) really restored authentic ancient Abrahamic lore. Some of these parallels include early Jewish traditions nigh Abraham'due south life–details not found in the Bible.20 2 such ancient documents that show some surprising parallels to our Book of Abraham are the Apocalypse of Abraham21 and the Testament of Abraham22 (the Apocalypse of Abraham dates to nearly the same time as the Volume of Abraham papyri).
Other interesting parallels include ancient names, for example, that would have been unknown to Joseph Smith. These names are accurately represented in the Volume of Abraham both phonetically as well equally in meaning.23 Those of you who attended terminal twelvemonth'southward conference would take heard John Tvedtnes speak on this. He pointed out that many of the names were authentic.
Some other interesting parallel is ancient astronomy. In Joseph Smith's mean solar day "heliocentricity" (as proposed by Copernicus and Newton) was the accepted astronomical view. Nineteenth-century people (including the most brilliant minds of the twenty-four hour period) believed that everything revolved around the Sun–therefore the term "heliocentric" (Greek helios=lord's day + centered). (In the twentieth-first century we mostly take an Einsteinian view of the cosmos.) The Book of Abraham, even so, clearly delineates a geocentric view of the universe–or a conventionalities that the Earth (Greek geo) stood at the centre of the universe, and all things moved around our planet.
According to ancient geocentric cosmologies and what we read in the Book of Abraham, the heavens (which is defined as the area in a higher place the earth–no angelic object is mentioned to exist below the world) was composed of multiple layers or tiers–each tier higher than the previous. Therefore the Sun is in a higher tier than the moon, and the stars are in college tiers yet (compare Abraham 3:v, 9, 17).24 According to geocentric astronomy, celestial objects take longer fourth dimension spans (or lengths of "reckoning") based upon their relative altitude from the globe. "Thus, the length of reckoning of a planet is based on its revolution [time to orbit around the center, in this case the earth](and not rotation [time to spin on its axis, as the earth does every 24 hours])."25 The college the celestial object, the greater its length of reckoning (compare Abraham 3:5). Likewise, in Abraham 3:eight-9, nosotros read that "at that place shall be some other planet whose reckoning of time shall be longer still; And thus in that location shall be the reckoning of the time of one planet higher up another, until thou come nigh unto Kolob."
Ancient geocentric astronomers believed that the stars were "the outer-most angelic sphere, furthest from the globe and nearest to God."26 We find in the Book of Abraham that the star Kolob was the star nearest "the throne of God" (Abraham three:9). In the aboriginal, yet recently discovered, Apocalypse of Abraham (which dates from about the same time period every bit the Joseph Smith papyri but wasn't discovered until afterward Joseph Smith translated the Book of Abraham), we notice that God'due south throne is said to reside in the 8th firmament (the firmaments, being another term for the varying tiers in the heavens above the Earth).27
The Volume of Abraham as well reveals that those celestial objects that are highest higher up the earth, "govern" the objects beneath them (encounter Abraham three:3, nine and Facsimile two, fig. 5). This sounds like to the behavior of those who accepted an aboriginal geocentric cosmology:
Throughout the ancient world the governing role of celestial bodies was conceived in like terms. God sits on his throne in the highest heaven giving commands, which are passed down by angels through the various regions of sky, with each region governing or commanding the regions below information technology.28
We find this governing gild described in the Apocalypse of Abraham and other aboriginal sources. All of this makes sense just from an ancient geocentric perspective (such as that believed in Abraham's day) and makes no sense from a heliocentric perspective (which is what Joseph would have known in his twenty-four hour period and everybody else around him believed).
A different interesting parallel comes from Facsimile 1 (Abraham on the king of beasts burrow). Co-ordinate to Egyptologists, this is a typical Egyptian embalming scene and has zippo to do with Abraham or sacrifice. In fact, the critics assure united states of america, Abraham is not a topic of give-and-take in Egyptian papyri, and at that place is no connection with Abraham and the embalming panthera leo couch.
Recent discoveries, however, suggests that the Biblical Abraham does announced in some Egyptian papyri that date to the same menstruation as the Joseph Smith papyri. In one instance Abraham'south name appears to have a connection to an Egyptian lion burrow scene.29
The stories and worldviews nosotros discover in the translated text of our Book of Abraham coincide nicely with what nosotros find from ancient Abrahamic lore.
In Facsimile ii the hypocephalus–and I just inserted this a few minutes before the briefing started–we read that in some aboriginal text that Abraham is referred to as the student (or iris) of the of the wedjat-center.thirty This is a graphic of information technology here in Facsimile 2. And what's interesting most that is that the wedjat-middle also refers to hypocephalus–to this blazon of graphic–and the god of the hypocephalus would have been the pupil (or iris) of the wedjat-heart. Well some of the text refers to Abraham beingness that educatee of the wedjat-eye so we see an obvious relationship that some saw from Abraham to hypocephali.
The other thing is that Christians in Egypt would have referred to the underworld as "the bosom of Abraham."31 Well the hypocephalus was placed under the caput basically to go on the body warm during the long night until the morning of the resurrection and besides it enveloped them with the divine power of the god of the hypocephalus–well the (inaudible) Christians referred to the underworld as "the bosom of Abraham" so nosotros run across over again a connection there with Jewish and Christian thought and the Book of Abraham equally Joseph Smith translated information technology and in aboriginal idea on this.
Recent discoveries basically seem to bear out that Joseph Smith not as wrong the critics claim and in many instances is correct. In fact in instances that are pretty hard to guess how he would accept come up with some of these interesting parallels.
I'd like to thank y'all for the time and I think that Joseph Smith warrants further study and his translation procedure.
Cheers.
Questions and Answers
Q: On the question of thumbs vs wings in Facsimile 1, fig. 4, it seems that Reuben Hedlock's rendition of the bird in Facsimile 2, fig. 4 shows precisely the aforementioned time of extended fly position by Egyptologists for a bird hovering over Osiris in Facsimile i. Don't you think this lends support to Egyptologists' claim?
Ash: Facsimile 4 here. At that place is a separation on this; and in some cases in drawings of hawks there is separation and they are usually pointed down whereas in Facsimile i (if nosotros can back the slide a little bit more than here) we see how these are pointed upwards which is not typically how we would have seen this. Generally they are joined together, in some cases they are separated. Hither they are pointing up and nosotros already know how this creative person draws wingtips–he draws them like this–then while it'due south certainly possible that the wingtips were drawn here and equally I noted at that place are several arguments on this. It could be that there seems to be show that some people have seen the lacuna portion earlier it was destroyed and had noted a priest with a knife and and so along and hadn't mentioned the two hawks simply it'southward also possible that the Jewish redactor drew this in or that Joseph Smith afterwards had drawn that in. And then there are several possibilities all of them would even so work from a logical point of view that don't claim fraud from Joseph Smith. So personally looking at these I don't encounter how these wingtips, or these fingers, could exist wingtips pointing up especially since that's how the artist already draws the wingtips.
Notes
1 See http://world wide web.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2004_ABCs_of_the_Book_of_Abraham.html
2 Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, ed. by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), ii:235, 236, 348ñ351.
3 John Gee, "A History of the Joseph Smith Papyri and the Book of Abraham" (Provo: FARMS, 1999), 15.
four Gee, A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri, 23ñ24.
five Ibid., 28.
6 See http://scriptures.lds.org/en/abr/fac_1
7 William I. Appleby Periodical, 5 May 1841, ms. 1401 one, pp. 71ñ72, LDS Church Athenaeum; as quoted in Gee, "Eyewitness, Hearsay, and Physical Evidence," 184.
8 Henry Caswall, The Urban center of the Mormons; or, 3 Days at Nauvoo, in 1842 (London: Rivington, 1842), 23; quoted in Gee, "Eyewitness, Hearsay, and Physical Testify," 186.
9 Kerry A. Shirts, "On Anubis, Masks, and Uniqueness of Facsimile #1 in the Book of Abraham."
10 John Gee, "Bystander, Hearsay, and Physical Testify of the Joseph Smith Papyri," in The Disciple As Witness: Essays on Latter-Day Saint History and Doctrine in Laurels of Richard Lloyd Anderson, edited by Richard Lloyd Anderson, Stephen D. Ricks, Donald West. Parry, and Andrew H. Hedges, (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2000), 192.
11 Kevin L. Barney, "The Facsimiles and Semitic Adaptation of Existing Sources," in John Gee and Brian G. Hauglind (editors), Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 2006), 115ñ116.
12 Ibid., 117ñ118.
13 Barney, "The Facsimiles," 119ñ21; Blake T. Ostler, "Abraham: An Egyptian Connexion" (FARMS paper, 1981).
fourteen Charles M. Larson, Past His Own Mitt Upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri (Yard Rapids, MI: Institute for Religious Research, 1992), 102.
15 Barney, "The Facsimiles," 114.
16 Ibid., 123; see also Tvedtnes, "Authentic Ancient Names."
17 Ibid., 123.
18 Ibid., 126.
19 Michael D. Rhodes, "The Joseph Smith Hypocephalus…Twenty Years Later."
twenty Run into John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid, and John Gee (editors), Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham (Provo: FARMS, 2001).
21 For some of the parallels see Hugh W. Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, 2nd edition, (Vol. xiv of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by Gary P. Gillum, Illustrated by Michael P. Lyon, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2000), 8ñ40; John Gee, William J. Hamblin, and Daniel C. Peterson, "'And I Saw the Stars': The Volume of Abraham and Ancient Geocentric Astronomy," in John Gee and Brian Grand. Hauglind (editors), Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant (Provo, Utah: Brigham Immature University, 2006), 1ñ16.
22 Encounter Jeff Lindsay, "Could there have been a real Egyptian whorl that really, literally discussed Abraham?" (accessed 23 September 2005); Michael D. Rhodes, "The Book of Abraham: Divinely Inspired Scripture (Review of By His Own Paw upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri by Charles M. Larson)," FARMS Review of Books 4/1 (1992): 120ñ126; Hugh Nibley, "The Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham," Sunstone {{{num}}} (Dec 1979): 49ñ51; Hugh W. Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, 2nd edition, (Vol. 14 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited past Gary P. Gillum, Illustrated by Michael P. Lyon, (Table salt Lake Urban center, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Aboriginal Research and Mormon Studies, 2000), 1.
23 Encounter John A. Tvedtnes, "Authentic Ancient Names and Words in the Book of Abraham and Related Kirtland Egyptian Papers," presentation at the 2005 Off-white Conference.
24 Gee, Hamblin, and Peterson, "'And I Saw the Stars'", 5.
25 Ibid., 8.
26 Ibid., 9.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid., 10.
29 John Gee, A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2000), 12ñ13.
30 John Gee, "Inquiry and Perspectives: Abraham in Aboriginal Egyptian Texts."
31 John Gee, "Abracadabra, Isaac and Jacob (Review of The Utilise of Egyptian Magical Papyri to Authenticate the Book of Abraham: A Critical Review by Edward H. Ashment)," FARMS Review of Books seven/i (1995): 80.
Source: https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/conference/august-2006/book-of-abraham-201-papyri-revelation-and-modern-egyptology
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