Jewish adaptation of Egyptian sources Book of Abraham

[_George Miller]

This of course begs the question, why would Joseph Smith expect Egyptian documents to contain biblical stories in the first place?

Because he thought that Egyptian was akin to Adamic. It was a purer language from a primordial age. It contained the great secrets of the hierophants.

Wow Trevor. I think you are really getting at the heart of the matter here. During the early 1800s academic writers like George Stanley Faber, who wrote Dissertation on the Mysteries of the Cabiri and The Origin of Pagan Idolatry, discussed how the mystery traditions of Egypt were simply a corruption of truths of the Ancient patriarchs. Faber's work discusses how the Egyptians rewrote the stories of Adam, Enoch, Noah and his sons and transformed them into the pagan religion. This type of Egyptian adaptation of Jewish sources was a subject known to Joseph Smith. Because of academic ideas like this, Joseph probably looked at the Egyptian and figures and saw in them biblical figures from the patriarchal age. Of course these same authors discussed how Egyptian was the closest to the Adamic language as well :-)

[_dblagent007]

I thought the Egyptian connection came about when Joseph Smith let Martin Harris take the Book of Mormon characters to Charles Anthon. Harris reported back that Anthon said they were real ancient characters including Egyptian. Joseph Smith took that idea and incorporated it into the Book of Mormon via the "reformed Egyptian" explanation.

Later when Joseph Smith saw the papyri, his past experience with the Book of Mormon combined with Chandler's promotional tactics led him to the conclusion that the Egyptian writing had something to do with Biblical patriarchs. No one knew for sure what was on the Egyptian papyri so he couldn't be proven wrong.

[_George Miller]

I thought the Egyptian connection came about when Joseph Smith let Martin Harris take the Book of Mormon characters to Charles Anthon. Harris reported back that Anthon said they were real ancient characters including Egyptian. Joseph Smith took that idea and incorporated it into the Book of Mormon via the "reformed Egyptian" explanation.

Later when Joseph Smith saw the papyri, his past experience with the Book of Mormon combined with Chandler's promotional tactics led him to the conclusion that the Egyptian writing had something to do with Biblical patriarchs. No one knew for sure what was on the Egyptian papyri so he couldn't be proven wrong.

Bblagent007- Hmmm ... I always thought that Joseph had identified the characters as Egyptian before Anthon. I of course have no source for this supposition. Are you sure this is the case? If so it would change some of my thinking on the subject.

[_CaliforniaKid]

I thought the Egyptian connection came about when Joseph Smith let Martin Harris take the Book of Mormon characters to Charles Anthon. Harris reported back that Anthon said they were real ancient characters including Egyptian. Joseph Smith took that idea and incorporated it into the Book of Mormon via the "reformed Egyptian" explanation.

That's something I've speculated, but I can't prove it. Yet, anyway.

Later when Joseph Smith saw the papyri, his past experience with the Book of Mormon combined with Chandler's promotional tactics led him to the conclusion that the Egyptian writing had something to do with Biblical patriarchs. No one knew for sure what was on the Egyptian papyri so he couldn't be proven wrong.

Yes, that seems to be true.