Documents related to translation of the Book of Abraham
An early drawing of one vignette in the Joseph Smith Papyrus which is included in the Kirtland Egyptian Papers. A print of this vignette without the lacuna was later published in the Book of Abraham.
The Kirtland Egyptian papers (KEP) are a collection of documents related to the Book of Abraham created in Kirtland between July and November 1835, and Nauvoo between March through May 1842.[1] Because some documents were created in Nauvoo, the collection is sometimes referred to as the Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts[2] and Joseph Smith Egyptian Papers.[3]
The papers have been a source of controversy, because the translations and interpretations within are not considered accurate by Egyptologists, and have thus stoked questions of whether the Book of Abraham is a literal translation of the Joseph Smith Papyri. Some apologists of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) have postulated that many of the papers may have been produced by Smith's scribes without his involvement, and that they may have been intended as a speculative or naturalistic effort rather than a product of revelation.
Content
The Kirtland Egyptian papers are housed in the Church History Library of the LDS Church. They comprise over a dozen other documents produced ca. 1835 and 1842 in Kirtland, Ohio, and Nauvoo, Illinois. All dates for production are estimates. Due to controversy about the order of production, there is no generally accepted manuscript numbering scheme. The manuscript numbers (MS #) reported below refer to the folder numbers under which the manuscripts are catalogued in the Church archives. These folder numbers were assigned by Hugh Nibley ca. 1971. The order given below mirrors the authoritative Joseph Smith Papers project.
Small 24-page notebook (21 blank pages) of copied Egyptian characters from a now non-extant version the Book of the Dead for Amenhotep.[5] The front cover says, "Valuable Discovery of hiden reccords that have been obtained from the ancient buring place of the Egiyptians", and is then signed by Joseph Smith Jr.
Oliver Cowdery (English text, likely Egyptian characters), Frederick G. Williams (redaction), Joseph Smith (signature)
Small 24-page notebook (21 blank pages) contains passage found in "Valuable Discovery", with characters and illustrations copied from various papyri.
William W. Phelps. Egyptian characters in unknown handwriting. Frederick G. Williams' name and initials are on the back cover
Early July 1835
7
When Michael Chandler arrived in Kirtland in 1835 with the Egyptian Papyri, he allowed Oliver Cowdery to copy "four or five different sentences" from the papyri. A translation of the lines by Joseph Smith were given to Michael Chandler to his satisfaction. Given that the "Valuable Discovery" notebook was written in Oliver Cowdery's hand, signed by Joseph Smith, with a translation of some of the characters, it is postulated that it is the same notebook.[2]
Characters with translations taken from the Valuable Discovery notebook. Some of the characters are mirror images of the Egyptian characters.
Most of the copied Egyptian characters in either notebook were untranslated by Smith or his associates.
Some of the characters are translated to read "Katumin, Princess, daughter of On-i-tas King of Egypt, who began to reign in the year of the world 2962. Katumin was born in the 30th year of the reign of her father and died when she was 28 years old which was in the year 3020." The Egyptian Hieratic characters have been translated by modern Egyptologists to read "Recitation by the Osiris".[8]
The name Onitas appears in other Kirtland Egyptian manuscripts, and Joseph Smith's mother would later state that the mummies were "King Onitus and his royal household."[9]
Known as the "Church Historian's Fragment" or fragment IX, it contains pasted papyri and copied characters. Unlike other papyri, it has been in continuous possession by the LDS church
Two leaves of paper with a base 10 counting system. While titled, "Egyptian Counting," the characters are not Egyptian, and it is unknown where the characters originated from.[17]
William W. Phelps
Early July–November 1835
2
Scrap
6cm–9cm ×20cm (2.4in–3.5in ×7.9in)
Small scrap of paper with the single word "Kolob"
Warren Parrish
July–November 1835
The three Egyptian alphabet documents created by Joseph Smith and his associates are an attempt to systematize the Egyptian language. Much like a dictionary, there are columns with the character, pronunciation and the definition of the character. The documents are incomplete, with many of the characters lacking definitions.
Some of the characters do not come from the Papyri, but from what Joseph Smith told William W. Phelps were Adamic language characters.[18]
Sample of pure language, in a letter from William W. Phelps to his wife Sally on May 26, 1835, written one month prior to the arrival of the Papyri[19]
Section of Egyptian Alphabet-A in Joseph Smith's handwriting, with pure language characters[20]
108 leaves, all but 36 are blank. A significant expansion of the alphabet documents, with descriptions of characters in all 5 degrees of translation.
William W. Phelps and Warren Parrish
July–November 1835
1
Authorship controversy
Egyptologist I. E. S. Edwards stated that the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar was "largely a piece of imagination and lacking in any kind of scientific value."[22] Hugh Nibley commented that the Grammar was "of no practical value whatever."[23]
In 1968, Jay Todd suggested that the Grammar may have been reverse-engineered from an inspired Book of Abraham translation.[24] In 1971, Hugh Nibley expanded on Todd's argument, explaining that the Alphabet and Grammar materials were largely an uninspired production of Joseph Smith's scribes, who had turned against him and were working independently of him at the time.[25] This view is also accepted by John Gee.[26] Samuel M. Brown has argued for a slightly more nuanced version of this view, attributing to W. W. Phelps a "major" role in authoring the Alphabet and Grammar, while at the same time conceding that the project was carried on under Smith's direction. Brown asserts that it is "unlikely, though not impossible, that the Grammar was actively used in producing the Book of Abraham."[27]
In 1970, Richard P. Howard proposed the opposite view: that the Alphabet and Grammar was the modus operandi of the Book of Abraham's translation.[28] Edward H. Ashment has also adopted this view, arguing against Nibley that the scribes of the KEP were all loyal to and in good standing with Joseph Smith at the time the manuscripts were produced.[29] More recently, Christopher C. Smith has argued at some length that Joseph Smith was the primary author of the Alphabet and Grammar documents, and that those documents served as the source or modus operandi for the translation of at least the first three verses of the Book of Abraham. According to Smith, "This undoubtedly accounts for the choppiness and redundancy of these three verses, which stylistically are very different from the remainder of the Book of Abraham. Verse 3, for example, reads as though it has been cobbled together from a series of dictionary entries."[30]
Book of Abraham manuscripts circa July-circa November 1835
Contains the explanation Joseph Smith gave of the hypocephalus known as Facsimile 2. Text only, no accompanying drawing. "Some of the entries in this document borrow heavily from the Grammar and Alphabet Volume"[36]
1 leaf, 2 sides, containing Abraham 3:18–26 is the only extant portion of what was probably a larger manuscript.
Willard Richards
8–15 March 1842
Publication
The LDS Church has been accused of suppressing the Kirtland Egyptian Papers because they were considered potentially damaging to the credibility of Joseph Smith, Jr. as a prophet. The Papers have been in the Church Historian and Recorder's vault in Salt Lake City since 1855, and there are indications that the Church Historians have been aware of the documents' whereabouts since 1908. Their existence was denied until 1935, when James R. Clark and Sidney B. Sperry were informed that they were in the vault. Even then, Clark and Sperry were not permitted to inform the public about the discovery until some time thereafter. When the documents' existence was finally revealed, Clark stated that he did not believe the Alphabet and Grammar should be submitted to scholars. He preferred to "depend on our testimonies of the gospel."[38]
Jerald and Sandra Tanner, critics of the Church, obtained an unauthorized copy of a microfilm strip containing images of the documents in 1966, and published them as Joseph Smith's Egyptian Alphabet & Grammar. This publication was criticized in a BYU Studies article by Hugh Nibley in 1971 because it did not contain all of the manuscripts, and included no critical apparatus to aid readers in distinguishing one manuscript from another. Nibley's article included images of ten of the manuscript pages.[25] The Tanner publication was revised and updated by H. Michael Marquardt in 1981. Marquardt added a critical apparatus and some interpretive material.[3] A new critical edition of the Book of Abraham manuscripts by Brian M. Hauglid appeared in 2011, with a second volume planned to publish the remainder of the KEP.[39]
On October 29, 2018, the Joseph Smith Papers project released all existing documents relating to the creation of the Book of Abraham, including high resolution images of all the Egyptian Papyri, KEPs, and Nauvoo papers.[40][41]
↑ Brian M. Hauglid, A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions, Studies in the Book of Abraham, Vol. 5 (Provo, Utah: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2010). page 6
1 2 Jensen, Robin Scott, and Brian M. Hauglid, eds. Revelations and Translations, Volume 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts. Facsimile edition. Vol. 4 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Ronald K. Esplin, Matthew J. Grow, Matthew C. Godfrey, and R. Eric Smith. Salt Lake City: Church Historian's Press, 2018. page 25
1 2 H. Michael Marquardt, The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papers, (Cullman, Ala.: Printing Service, 1981).
↑ Ritner, R. K. (2013). The Joseph Smith Egyptian papyri: A complete edition; P. JS 1-4 and the hypocephalus of Sheshonq. Salt Lake City: The Smith Pettit Foundation. page 260
↑ Charlotte Haven, Nauvoo, IL, to "My dear Mother," 19 Feb. 1843, in Haven, "Girl's Letters from Nauvoo," 623
↑ The Joseph Smith Papers Revelations and Translations Volume 4 Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts page 95
↑ The Joseph Smith Papers Revelations and Translations Volume 4 Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts page 54
↑ Brian M. Hauglid, "The Book of Abraham and the Egyptian Project: 'A Knowledge of Hidden Languages'," in Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, edited by Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey, and Andrew H. Hedges (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015), 474–511
↑ Letter of I. E. Edwards, Keeper of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities, dated June 9, 1966, as quoted in Charles M. Larson, By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Institute for Religious Research, 1992), 43.
↑ Nibley, "Meaning of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers," 357.
↑ Jay M. Todd, The Saga of the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1969), 253.
1 2 Nibley, "Meaning of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers."
↑ John Gee, A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2000), 24.
↑ Samuel M. Brown, "The Translator and the Ghostwriter: Joseph Smith and W. W. Phelps," Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 1 (2008): 62.
↑ Richard P. Howard, "The 'Book of Abraham' in the Light of History and Egyptology," Courage: A Journal of History, Thought, and Action (1970): 38.
↑ Edward H. Ashment, "Reducing Dissonance: The Book of Abraham as a Case Study," in The Word of God, ed. Dan Vogel (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1990), 227-228.
↑ Christopher C. Smith, "The Dependence of Abraham 1:1-3 on the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar," John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 29 (2009): 38-54.
↑ Jensen, Robin Scott, and Brian M. Hauglid, eds. Revelations and Translations, Volume 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts. Facsimile edition. Vol. 4 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Ronald K. Esplin, Matthew J. Grow, Matthew C. Godfrey, and R. Eric Smith. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2018. Page 276
↑ Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? (Salt Lake City, Utah: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987), 355-365.
↑ Brian M. Hauglid, A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions, Studies in the Book of Abraham, Vol. 5 (Provo, Utah: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2010).
The Book of Mormon, a work of scripture of the Latter Day Saint movement, describes itself as having a portion originally written in reformed Egyptian characters on plates of metal or "ore" by prophets living in the Western Hemisphere from perhaps as early as the 6th century BC until as late as the 5th century AD. Joseph Smith, the movement's founder, published the Book of Mormon in 1830 as a translation of these golden plates. Smith said that after he finished the translation, he returned the golden plates to the angel Moroni.
The Book of Abraham is a collection of writings claimed to be from several Egyptian scrolls discovered in the early 19th century during an archeological expedition by Antonio Lebolo. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased the scrolls from a traveling mummy exhibition on July 3, 1835, to be translated into English by Joseph Smith. According to Smith, the book was "a translation of some ancient records... purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus". Smith said the papyri described Abraham's early life, his travels to Canaan and Egypt, and his vision of the cosmos and its creation.
Kolob is a star or planet described in the Book of Abraham, a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement. Several Latter Day Saint denominations hold the Book of Abraham to have been translated from an Egyptian papyrus scroll by Joseph Smith, the founder of the movement. According to this work, Kolob is the heavenly body nearest to the throne of God. While the Book of Abraham calls Kolob a "star", it also calls planets "stars", and therefore some Latter Day Saint commentators consider Kolob a planet. The body also appears in Latter Day Saint culture, including a reference to Kolob in an LDS hymn.
In Latter-day Saint theology, Egyptus is the name of two women in the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. One is the wife of Ham, son of Noah, who bears his children. The other is their daughter, who discovered Egypt while "it was under water" (1:23-24). Three 1835 pre-publication manuscripts of the Book of Abraham, in place of "Egyptus", read Zeptah for the elder Egyptus and Egyptes for the younger Egyptus.
The Kinderhook plates are a set of six small, bell-shaped pieces of brass with unusual engravings, created as a hoax in 1843, surreptitiously buried and then dug up at an Indian mound near Kinderhook, Illinois, United States.
William Wines Phelps was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement. He printed the first edition of the Book of Commandments that became a standard work of the church and wrote numerous hymns, some of which are included in the current version of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' hymnal. He was at times both close to and at odds with church leadership. He testified against Joseph Smith, providing evidence that helped persuade authorities to arrest Smith. He was excommunicated three times and rejoined the church each time. He was a ghostwriter for Smith. Phelps was called by Smith to serve as assistant president of the church in Missouri and as a member of the Council of Fifty. After Smith's death, Phelps supported Brigham Young, who was the church's new president.
The Joseph Smith Papyri (JSP) are Egyptian funerary papyrus fragments from ancient Thebes dated between 300 and 100 BC which, along with four mummies, were once owned by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Smith purchased the mummies and papyrus documents from a traveling exhibitor in Kirtland, Ohio in 1835. Smith said that the papyrus contained the records of the ancient patriarchs Abraham and Joseph.
The Book of Abraham is a work produced between 1835 and 1842 by the Latter Day Saints (LDS) movement founder Joseph Smith that he said was based on Egyptian papyri purchased from a traveling mummy exhibition. According to Smith, the book was "a translation of some ancient records ... purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus". The work was first published in 1842 and today is a canonical part of the Pearl of Great Price. Since its printing, the Book of Abraham has been a source of controversy. Numerous non-LDS Egyptologists, beginning in the mid-19th century, have heavily criticized Joseph Smith's translation and explanations of the facsimiles, unanimously concluding that his interpretations are inaccurate. They have also asserted that missing portions of the facsimiles were reconstructed incorrectly by Smith.
The Joseph Smith Papers is a project researching, collecting, and publishing all manuscripts and documents created by, or under the direction of, Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The documents, which include transcriptions and annotations, have appeared both online and in printed form. The Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sponsors the project; the department's imprint, the Church Historian's Press, publishes the website and the printed volumes.
Oliblish is the name given to a star or planet described in the Book of Abraham, a text considered sacred to many denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(LDS Church). Several Latter Day Saint denominations hold the Book of Abraham to have been translated from an Egyptian papyrus scroll by Joseph Smith, the founder of the movement. According to this work, the term Oliblish was given as the meaning of the main symbols in one of the images of Smith's hypocephalus. Smith stated that the image is meant to represent a heavenly body located nearest to the central Kolob, the planet or star closest to the throne of God.
John Laurence Gee is an American Latter-day Saint scholar, apologist and an Egyptologist. He currently teaches at Brigham Young University (BYU) and serves in the Department of Near Eastern Languages. He is known for his writings in support of the Book of Abraham.
The Joseph Smith Hypocephalus was a papyrus fragment, part of a larger collection of papyri known as the Joseph Smith Papyri, found in the Gurneh area of Thebes, Egypt, around the year 1818. The owner's name, Sheshonq, is written in the hieroglyphic text on the same hypocephalus. Multiple hypocephali in the British Museum are very similar to the Joseph Smith hypocephalus in layout and text, and were also uncovered in Thebes, Egypt. Other hypocephali also bear a strong resemblance.
The standard works of Mormonism—the largest denomination of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints —have been the subject of various criticisms. Latter-day Saints believe the Book of Mormon is a sacred text with the same divine authority as the Bible; both are considered complementary to each other. Other Mormon sacred texts include the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants, which are also recognized as scripture. Religious and scholarly critics outside Mormonism have disputed Mormonism's unique scriptures, questioning the traditional narrative of how these books came to light and the extent to which they describe actual events. Critics cite research in history, archeology, and other disciplines to support their contentions.
The origins, authenticity, and historicity of the Book of Mormon have been subject to considerable criticism from scholars and skeptics since it was first published in 1830. The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi, who said that it had been written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "reformed Egyptian" engraved on golden plates that he personally transcribed. Contemporary followers of the Latter Day Saint movement typically regard the text primarily as scripture, but also as a historical record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.
Joseph Smith Jr. was an American religious leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thousands of followers by the time of his death fourteen years later. The religion he founded is followed to the present day by millions of global adherents and several churches, the largest of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Brian M. Hauglid is an emeritus professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University (BYU). From 2014 to 2017, he was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, and he was the director of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies, a part of BYU's Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.
The Breathing Permit of Hôr or Hor Book of Breathing is a Ptolemaic era funerary text written for a Theban priest named Hôr. The breathing permit or Book of Breathing assisted its owner in navigating through the afterlife, being judged worthy and living forever.
The Book of Joseph is an untranslated text identified by Joseph Smith after analyzing Egyptian papyri that came into his possession in 1835. Joseph Smith taught that the text contains the writings of the ancient biblical patriarch Joseph. From the same papyri collection, Smith produced the first part of the Book of Abraham, but was killed before any known part of the Book of Joseph was translated.
Eyewitness accounts associated with the Joseph Smith Papyri have been analyzed extensively to understanding the content, purpose and meaning of the Book of Abraham, a canonized text of the Latter Day Saint movement. In 1835, Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, came into possession of four mummies, two papyrus rolls, and various papyrus fragments, which Smith said contained the writings of the ancient biblical patriarchs Abraham and Joseph.
H. Michael Marquardt is an independent researcher of the Latter Day Saint movement.
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