DiscussMormonism.com

Between 1818 and 1822 Antonio lebolo worked as a superintendent of the archeological excavations in Upper Egypt for the french consul general, Bernardino Drovetti. During this period he discovered eleven mummies in a tomb in Thebes. In 1822 Lebolo returned to his native town of Castellamonte in Italy, taking these mummies with him. Sometime between then and his death on febuary 19, 1830, he arranged with Albano Oblasser Shipping Company in Trieste to sell the eleven mumies.

They were sent to New York City, where Michael H. Chandler purchased them in 1833 either for himself or acting as an agent for others. When he first obtained the mummies, Chandler, hoping to find something of value, unwrapped them and discovered several papyri. For the next two years he traveled throughout the northeastern United States displaying the mummies and selling one now and then as opportunity arose. In July of 1835 Chandler in Kirtland, Ohio, to display the mummies and papyri there. At this point he had only four of the original eleven mummies he had purchased in New York City. He met with Joseph Smith, who showed interest in the papyri, and Chandler decided to sell the remaining mummies and papyri to him for $2,400.

After Joseph Smith's death in 1844, the mummies and papyri remained in the possesion of his mother, Lucy Smith, until her death on May 14, 1856. On May 26, 1856, Emma Smith Bidamon, the remarried widow of Joseph Smith, sold them to Abel Combs. Soon thereafter Combs sold at least two of the mumies and several of the papyri to the St. Louis museum. In 1863 the museum was moved to Chicago, Illinois. The two mummies and some payri remained on display in the museum there until it was destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871.

For many years it was assumed that all of the payri were destroyed in this fire. However, in 1966 Dr. Aziz Atiya, a distinguished professor of History at the University of Utah, found eleven papyri fragments in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art that were clearly part of the papyri that Joseph Smith owned. The museum donated these papyri to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1967, and they are now kept in the Church archives. Abel Coombs had, in fact, not sold al of the payri to the St. Louis museum but had kept some pieces that had broken off the main rolls and were mounted in picture frames. When he died, he willed these papyri to Charlotte Benecke Weaver, who had nursed him during the final ilness before his death. When Charlotte died, her daughter, Alice Heusser, inherited the fragments, and after her death her husband, Edward heusser, sold the payri fragments to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1946.

These papyri fragments came from three seperate papyri rolls containing ancient Egyptian religious texts. One roll conatains a Book of Breathings, a sort of abbreviated Book of the Dead, that belonged to a man named Hor the son of Usirwer. There are two other rolls, each conataining Books of the Dead, one belonging to Tshemmin the daughter of Eskhons, and the other to a woman by the name of Neferinub. Joseph Smith also owned a third Book of the Dead belonging to Amenhotep son of Tanub, and a document that Egyptologists call a hypocephalus (Facsimile 2) that belonged to a man named Sheshonq, although these were not found among the Metropolitan Museum of Art fragments. On the basis of the handwriting, the historical period in which the religious writings on these papyri were in use in Egypt, and other historical references to at least one of the original owners of the papyri, these Egyptian documents can be reliably dated to somewhere between 220 and 150 B.C.

The Pearl of Great Price: a Verse-by-Verse Commentary, Draper/ Brown/ Rhodes, Deseret Book, 2005 pp.239-241

Revelation given to Joseph Smith the Prophet and Oliver Cowdery, at Harmony, Pennsylvania, April 1829, when they inquired through the Urim and Thummim as to whether John, the beloved disciple, tarried in the flesh or had died. The revelation is a translated version of the record made on parchment by John and hidden up by himself. HC 1: 35–36.

....Two special works, the Apocalypse of Abraham and the Testament of Abraham, are enormousley important works, the most important yet discovered. They are very old and very closely related to our book of Abraham. They give us a complete suprise. They are being gone over today. They come in in the apocalyptic writings, the Apocalypse of Abraham and the Testament of Abraham. There are many other things, but these are the most important ones. This writing comes out very early and it gives us this picture. The heggadah are extremely rich in stories of Abraham's childhood and what he suffered, how he protested with his family, how they did try to put him to death and why they did it. We go into all the stories about that here. There's no need repeating it now. They were up in the North there, and he protested with his family. He says here, "They utterly refused to listen to my voice." they were going to have the annual celebration when they have to make a sacrifice for the king, who doesent want to be sacrificed himself. They would always choose a proxy at this particular time and place. And all the details are very well set forth in the Book of Abraham. Notice this first chapter is greatly concerned with ritual (the whole thing is ritual ceemony and religion). This answers the historical question: could this really happen? You bet it happens. This is exactly what they did.

Gazelam wrote:The question now arises as to how we get our Book of Abraham.

Joseph Smith uses the term "translation in three different ways.

1. A direct translation as in the case of the Book of Mormon.

2. The Joseph Smith translation of the Bible is another example. He read the scripture and by way of revelation added and made changes to it as he deemed necessary. From this we received the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great price, the text concerning Enoch yet another proof of his being a Prophet.

3. This can be found in the introduction of D&C 7

Revelation given to Joseph Smith the Prophet and Oliver Cowdery, at Harmony, Pennsylvania, April 1829, when they inquired through the Urim and Thummim as to whether John, the beloved disciple, tarried in the flesh or had died. The revelation is a translated version of the record made on parchment by John and hidden up by himself. HC 1: 35–36.

So without he original text in front of him, Joseph delivers to us the translation of it.


Since we do not have the original payri we do not know if a direct translation was in Joseph Smiths possesion. Most likely he did, but if he did not, then we are left to believe that the record he did have inspired him to inquire of God concerning the subject matter and he received what we have by way of revelation.

Critics of the Book of Abraham state that the facimilies are common, and therefore Joseph must have made up his translation, ignoring the doctrines taught altogether. Becuase the source of the text is implauseable to a "scholar" who has no belief in deity, what was written was cast aside.

This is no longer possible to do by any real seeker of truth since from that time other books of Abraham have come forth, being found in lost libraries, and what is found is remarkably similar to the translation given to us by Joseph Smith, not only this, but in these new books of Abraham, the accounts given are very similar to what is taught in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

For reference: The Apocalypse of Abraham: http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/pseudepigrapha/Apocalypse_of_Abraham.html

The Testament of Abraham : http://reluctant-messenger.com/testament_of_abraham.htm

THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM
TRANSLATED FROM THE PAPYRUS, BY JOSEPH SMITH : http://scriptures.LDS.org/en/abr/contents

....Two special works, the Apocalypse of Abraham and the Testament of Abraham, are enormousley important works, the most important yet discovered. They are very old and very closely related to our book of Abraham. They give us a complete suprise. They are being gone over today. They come in in the apocalyptic writings, the Apocalypse of Abraham and the Testament of Abraham. There are many other things, but these are the most important ones. This writing comes out very early and it gives us this picture. The heggadah are extremely rich in stories of Abraham's childhood and what he suffered, how he protested with his family, how they did try to put him to death and why they did it. We go into all the stories about that here. There's no need repeating it now. They were up in the North there, and he protested with his family. He says here, "They utterly refused to listen to my voice." they were going to have the annual celebration when they have to make a sacrifice for the king, who doesent want to be sacrificed himself. They would always choose a proxy at this particular time and place. And all the details are very well set forth in the Book of Abraham. Notice this first chapter is greatly concerned with ritual (the whole thing is ritual ceemony and religion). This answers the historical question: could this really happen? You bet it happens. This is exactly what they did.

The above is from Hugh Nibley. Its late and I have to go to bed, more to come.

Since we do not have the original payri we do not know if a direct translation was in Joseph Smiths possesion

Critics of the Book of Abraham state that the facimilies are common, and therefore Joseph must have made up his translation, ignoring the doctrines taught altogether

Jersey Girl wrote:And Paul,

What do you think of the Prophet's re-drawing of the missing parts? Do you agree with what he drew and his interpretation?

Jersey Girl

Jersey Girl wrote:The missing parts of the figures that you posted above.