Egyptian Papyri and the Book of Abraham: Some Questions and Answers
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Egyptian Papyri And The Book Of Abraham
The similarities notwithstanding, Facsimile 1 is unique among lion couch
scenes in a number of ways. In this scene the figure is neither in mummified
form nor naked, as is the case in the supposed parallels. Also, in this scene the
figure on the couch has two hands raised in a position that a...
Egyptian Papyri and the Book of Abraham: Some Questions and
Answers
Kerry M. Muhlestein
kerry_muhlestein@byu.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub
Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Mormon Studies Commons, and the Other Religion Commons
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Muhlestein, Kerry M., "Egyptian Papyri and the Book of Abraham: Some Questions and Answers" (2010).
Faculty Publications. 823.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/823
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,Egyptian Papyri and the
Book of Abraham: Some
Questions and Answers
k e r rym u h l e st ein
Kerry Muhlestein (kerry_muhlestein@byu.edu) is an associate professor of ancient
scripture at BYU.
I n 1835 Joseph Smith began translating some ancient Egyptian papyri that
he had obtained from an exhibitor passing through Kirtland, Ohio. He
soon announced, “Much to our joy [we] found that one of the rolls contained
the writings of Abraham.”1 While we do not know how much the Prophet
translated, we do know that some of his translation was published in serial
form and eventually canonized as the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great
Price. For nearly one hundred years, it was thought that all these papyri had
eventually made their way to the Wood Museum in Chicago, where they were
destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
However, in 1967 New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art presented
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with portions of the papyri
Joseph Smith had owned, which the museum had purchased some twenty
years earlier. This small collection of eleven papyri fragments came to be
known as the Joseph Smith Papyri. Because these papyri contained the draw-
ing which became Facsimile 1 in the Book of Abraham, and because this
facsimile is the first page of the Book of Abraham, most people assumed that
91
, 92 Religious Educator ·vol.11no.1·2010
the text adjacent to this drawing (drawings on papyrus are known as vignettes
to Egyptologists) was the source for the Book of Abraham.
When the text that accompanied the vignette was translated, it turned
out to be a common late Egyptian funerary text known as the Book of
Breathings.2 It bore no resemblance to the Book of Abraham that Joseph
Smith had translated from his papyri. Furthermore, Egyptological studies of
the facsimiles drew conclusions about their meanings that were different than
those Joseph Smith had presented. For many, this seemed to prove that Joseph
Smith’s translation of the papyri and his interpretation of the vignettes were
a fabrication and that he did not possess the ability to translate ancient docu-
ments. If this is the case, then his ability to translate Egyptian characters from
the golden plates into the Book of Mormon is also put into question. If these
two books of scripture are fabrications, are any of his revelations or teachings
reliable? The credibility of all his revelations is thrown into question.
While these are reasonable questions, the scenario from which they stem
is based on assumptions that deserve closer scrutiny—assumptions about the
text of the Book of Abraham and about the facsimiles. We will find that in
many cases we do not understand exactly what is going on. The evidence we
have often does not allow for us to develop a clear picture, and scholars are in
the midst of an intensive process of trying to understand the story behind the
Book of Abraham. However, we will also see that while we do not necessarily
have a definitive answer, it is clear that the answers put forth by the critics
of the Prophet are problematic, for the evidence does not generally support
their assumptions.
The Source of the Book of Abraham
We should begin by asking what segment of the whole body of manuscripts
was the source of the Book of Abraham. As noted above, most critics have
assumed that the source of the text is the hieroglyphs adjacent to Facsimile 1
on the papyri,3 but a closer look at the ancient sources themselves and contem-
porary accounts of Joseph Smith’s translation process brings that assumption
into question.
To begin with, we must ask if vignettes are always associated with the
adjacent text in other Egyptian papyri from this time period. We know with
some degree of precision the dating of the Facsimile 1 papyrus (also known as
Joseph Smith Papyrus 1, or JSP 1), because we know exactly who the owner of
this papyrus was. He lived around 200 BC and was a fairly prominent priest
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