Joe Sampson on the Alphabet and Grammar

[_Runtu]

It all goes back to the idea that Joseph was a man with a direct connection to the divine. The Book of Abraham is a reminder to us all that we couldn't know the mysteries of heaven without Joseph.

Hell's Bells! We don't know the mysteries of heaven even with Joseph! Joseph did a great job of making the plain complex, the precious profane, and the simple unbelievably convoluted.

Actually I think the whole thing says much more about Joseph's followers then and now than it does about the man himself. There's a certain mystical "awe" factor in these strange drawings and the explanation that they reveal deep Egyptian astronomy.

Kind of reminds me of the film "Being There."

Thomas: It's that gardener.
Johanna: Yes, Chauncey Gardiner.
Thomas: No, he's a real gardener.
Johanna: He does talk like one. I think he's brilliant.

[_Brackite]

The viciousness of the latter article, especially given that its conclusions are based on a misrepresentation of the historical evidence of Joseph Smith's involvement in the alphabet and grammar project, turns my face a bit red. The former article reminds me of Paul Osborne.

Huchel's review
Gee's review

-CK

I just finished reading the Gee review. His rather convoluted efforts at divorcing Joseph Smith from the KEP had me rolling my eyes. Color me unimpressed.

Hi Runtu,

Most of John Gee's Apologetics on the Book of Abraham is really a joke. John Gee argues, and strongly Maintains in 'the missing Papyrus text theory' for the Book of Abraham. John Gee argues and strongly Maintains that the Book of Breathings text had basically and virtually nothing to do with the translation of the Book of Abraham. John Gee argues and strongly Maintains that the Book of Breathings Papyrus scroll was really about 320 cm, instead of about 150-155 cm, like Dr. R. Ritner Believes and Maintains as well as other Egyptologists Believes and Maintain. (1) John Gee argues and maintains that Joseph Smith really had a Egyptian papyrus that really contained the Book of Abraham text on it in Egyptian, and that Joseph Smith really translated from that Egyptian papyrus text 'that is now missing' in a conventional manner into the Book of Abraham into English. However, All of the Evidence Points to the Book of Abraham having Not been Translated in a conventional translation manner. (2)

1. ( There is no justification for Gee's unsubstantiated attempt to more than double this figure to '320 cm (about 10 feet)' in Gee, A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri, pp. 10 and 12–13. Gee presumably wishes to allow space for a supposedly 'lost hieratic text' of The Book of Abraham; his figure derives from the average length of a manufactured (blank) Ptolemaic papyrus roll—not comparable, individual documents cut from such a roll.
[ R. Ritner, "Among the Joseph Smith Papyri," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 62.3 (July 2003): 166n33 ] http://www.utlm.org/other/robertritnerpapyriarticle.pdf )

2. ( E. G. Please Check Out And See: http://www.myegyptology.net/file/id622.htm )