Shout Out to Shulem!

[Shulem]

Wednesday <Tuesday> 8 Commenced Translating from the Book of Abraham, for the 10 No of the Times and seasons —and was engagd at his office day & evening,

Production was well underway at the Times and Seasons as Smith was getting everything ready for the next edition (No 10), which was set to be published in just one week. Smith was going over the finishing touches for the remainder of the text of the Book of Abraham to be published as well as Facsimile No. 2. Notice, curiously, Smith was still involved in "Translating from the Book of Abraham", even at this late date, Smith still considered himself in a translation mode. Despite the manuscripts set to be put to type on the press, Smith was always in revelatory mode concerning his professed ability to translate and he was more than willing to make changes or additions according to his inspiration. What's important to note is that Smith was ever ready to translate and could do so on the fly.

Wednesday 9 Examining copy for the Times & Seasons presented by, Taylor & Bennet.— and a variety of other business in the Presidents office in the morning. in the afternoon continud the Translation of the Book of Abraham. called Bishop Knights & Mr the Post office <Mr Davis’s> &c to with the Recorder. & continued translating & revising. & Reading letters in the evening Sister Emma being present in the office.

Again, Smith continued to operate in a translation mode whereby any additions or corrections were handled through his instrumentality. The following day, Smith met with the Twelve to have dinner and finished work at the printing office.

Thursday 10

. . . . the President retired to the Printing office with his Lady, & Supped with the twelve who had been at the office

The following week, on the 15th, the second installment of the Book of Abraham was published. The installation of the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge was also formerly established and on that evening, Smith was raised to the level of Master Mason. Smith would have access to all the Masonic books and materials available at the lodge.

[Shulem]

At this point, everything in the Book of Abraham had already been published in the first two installments of the Times and Seasons, except for one thing yet remained:

Facsimile No. 3

The 3rd Facsimile and the explanations of that cut was set to be published by itself in the 3rd installment which occurred on May 16. Leading up to that point, Smith was still, very much involved with the Book of Abraham publication and supervised the printing process acting as editor in chief. Smith was still heavily involved even though all that remained was the printing of Facsimile No. 3, which was less than a week from publication:

Tuesday 10 Transacted a variety of business at the Store. printing office &.

And now, finally, the day had arrived for publishing the 3rd Facsimile:

Monday 16 Transacting business at the store until 10. A.M.— Then at home & in the P.M. at the printing office withe Bro. Young, Kimball Richards &c in council

On the day of publication we learn that Smith spent the morning transacting business at the store and then went home. That night, Smith went to the printing office to council with Brigham Young, Heber C Kimball, and Willard Richards.

At this point, I really can't speculate when Smith had Hedlock scrape the nose off the face of Anubis on the lead plate. But we can be sure this was done by the craftsman (Hedlock) who possessed the knowledge, skills, and tools to perform the work. Facsimiles, No. 3, was mechanically autographed by Hedlock, at the bottom of the Facsimile lead plate and Facsimile No. 2 was autographed in like fashion on the upper right side:

ENG • BY R’ HEDLOCK

For some reason, the first lead plate for Facsimiles No. 1 was not mechanically autographed as was No. 2 & 3. It seems that Reuben Hedlock took special issue with the second and third lead plates in ensuring that they were autographed with his name.

I wonder why?

Nonetheless, something amazing is about to happen within this publication (No. 14.) of the Times and Seasons and I have to wonder if it's a coincidence or Smith pulling a fast one in a rather remarkably symbolic way.

Stay tuned. It's coming!

[Shulem]

Recall that on the day Facsimile No. 3, was published, Smith was in council with at least three members of the Twelve at the print office: Young, Kimball, and Richards. The first page of the new release of the Times and Seasons features the full sized print of Facsimile No. 3, and there following on the very next page includes the EXPLANATION OF THE CUT ON FIRST PAGE.


Thus ends the publication of the Book of Abraham wherein the last statement is:

6. Olimlah; a slave belonging to the prince.

Abraham is reasoning upon the principles of astronomy, in the kings Court.

But wait! Hold on to your seat! It's the very next article to follow that reveals something very, very interesting! I believe it reveals what was on Joseph Smith's mind in relation to Fig. 6 of the Facsimile in which Smith knew the black person ANUBIS was really a representation of the Dog-star according to Masonic tradition as had by the Egyptians and passed down via. the Greeks. Yes, Smith knew that the character in whose nose he had hacked out was a symbolic representation of the Blazing Star of Freemasonry -- as discussed earlier in this thread! Perhaps Smith was feeling a keen sense of guilt for what he had done to Anubis and thought that the next article may pay a kind of tribute in secret proxy in setting things right in Smith's mind. Smith, the chief editor of the Times and Seasons copied an article from a New York publication about a meteor event that had recently occurred in New York. It's titled:

SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
From the Western (Chatauque co.) Messenger.
SPLENDID METEOR.

No need to read the whole article in the Times and Seasons, but I will present the relevant clips below to show how I suspect Smith was connecting the Facsimile No. 3 astronomy and Dog-star Anubis into his own prophecy that the "Signs of the Times" were among the people in his own day:

On Monday morning last, about three o'clock, we were awakened by a sudden and extremely brilliant light, which shone through the window of our sleeping apartment. On opening our eyes, we had a momentary glimpse of a vividly luminous body or trail which almost instantly passed out of sight, and was gone. We were convinced it was a large meteor, and expected an explosion.

The long fiery tail seemed to separate from the nucleus, or head, and the latter rushed on, emitting a dark blue flame; but there was no division of its body into fragments, or any thing else to indicate a fracture, unless indeed the very separation of the fiery and blue portions were the result of the explosion.

The light emitted was nearly as bright as day light at meridian. The shingles on distant houses were distinctly visible. Mr. Sexton, our postmaster, was at the time of its passage, assorting the mail, having two candles to furnish him light, but the light of the meteor was so great as to make them appear like burning candles in full daylight.

In copying the above account, the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser says: "At Erie and Rochester, places about 150 miles apart in a straight line, the light was nearly as vivid as that of day. This shows the immense magnitude and great height of the meteor."

[Shulem]

I've corrected a previous error in stating that only Facsimile No. 3, was mechanically autographed but so also was Facsimile No. 2, in the upper right side. I forgot about that! The posts above have been corrected to reflect that point.

Interestingly enough, you'd think that the woodcut/lead plate for Facsimile No. 1, would have shared the same signature. This indicates to me that perhaps the lead plate for Facsimile No. 1, was made much further in advance than the remaining two wherein Hedlock decided he wanted to autograph them from now on. That may have become a factor after the first publication wherein it was too late to autograph the lead plate for Facsimile No. 1.

March 1st Publication = Facsimile No. 1
March 15th Publication = Facsimile No. 2
May 16th Publication = Facsimile No. 3

Recall that Smith was very much involved late in the game in preparing the Large cut (Facsimile No. 2) wherein he was making corrections and supposedly adding hieroglyphs to registers that were missing on the papyrus due to lucanas. It seems at this point or juncture, Hedlock wanted his name on the Facsimiles.

Interesting.

[Shulem]

At this point, I really can't speculate when Smith had Hedlock scrape the nose off the face of Anubis on the lead plate. But we can be sure this was done by the craftsman (Hedlock) who possessed the knowledge, skills, and tools to perform the work. Facsimiles, No. 3, was mechanically autographed by Hedlock, at the bottom of the Facsimile lead plate and Facsimile No. 2 was autographed in like fashion on the upper right side:

ENG • BY R’ HEDLOCK

Indeed, HEDLOCK, was the engraver because the plate was "ENG" (engraved) by him, a sole artist who received instructions and corrections from Smith on how the plates were arranged and readied for the press. Nobody can ignorantly say that "we don't know who scraped the nose off" when all the evidence and the facts point to the one person who was qualified and capable of performing the delicate operation on the fragile lead face. It had to be Hedlock, period. There is nothing further to debate with regards to who did it.

The problem for apologists is they are stuck with trying to come up with a reason or some kind of relevant theory as to WHY the nose was scraped off. Why? That is the question. It's not a matter of who did it. We KNOW who did it and we know that the engraver was entirely committed to crafting the artwork in any manner Smith required. So, the problem for apologists is to come up with a coherent theory that provides a reason for scraping off the nose which undoubtedly was a finishing touch to the plate. We can logically assume that Hedlock crafted the very likeness of the persons on the papyrus but afterward a conscious decision was made to change the fundamental nature of the head from animal to human.

The apologists have their work cut out for them. Crickets are chirping!

[Shulem]

Apologists are left to grapple with the question of why Anubis's animal face was changed to human form. Deductive reasoning for the removal of the snout is based on a reduction of rank as opposed to elevating the status of the person in question, a slave by the name of Olimlah. One only need be reminded that the animal heads in Facsimile No. 2, were left perfectly intact and reflected the personages copied from the papyrus. Fig. 3, is made to represent God, sitting upon his throne, clothed with power and authority; with a crown of eternal light upon his head; wherewith Smith had no problem with GOD having an animal head, that of a falcon -- the representation was just fine. Why would Smith need to chop off the falcon's nose? That would serve no purpose other than to lower his status. Smith was well aware of St. Paul's teachings in the Bible about how animal headed figures were perceived as deities in their own right: "And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things"; so, Smith had no problem with Abraham depicting the Hebrew God in Egyptian form. If Smith had a problem with that he would have altered the face and made it human too -- but he did not do that! He let God remain in falcon (bird headed) form. Same goes for the Holy Ghost in Fig. 7.

Apologists are going to have to come to terms that Smith chiseled out the snout of Anubis in order to remove his power in being perceived as a deity (Dog-star) and reduce him in rank -- thus make him a slave, in order to make it fit his original revelation that the black figure was a slave. There was no going back. You know what they say, "Once you go black, you never go back!"

A little humor thrown in there as a pun, folks. Is anyone here? Is anyone listening?

Does anyone give a crap?

[Moksha]

So, the problem for apologists is to come up with a coherent theory that provides a reason for scraping off the nose which undoubtedly was a finishing touch to the plate.

The apologists have their work cut out for them. Crickets are chirping!

Because the LDS Council of Gods could not abide Anubis snouting around in the pages of the Book of Abraham. It was a clear message to return to his own pantheon.

[Shulem]

Because the LDS Council of Gods could not abide Anubis snouting around in the pages of the Book of Abraham. It was a clear message to return to his own pantheon.

Smith was quite happy to borrow intact hieroglyphic or hieratic characters and vignettes from an unrelated papyrus roll and apply them (using Elmer's glue if need be) to another fragment in order to fill in missing writing or pictures. I think everyone here is aware of that fact. LDS apologists attribute that as a sincere effort (although in ignorance) to decorate and restore various lacunas for aesthetic purposes only. Smith manhandled the Egyptian god (Re) by snatching his image from one of the rolls in his possession and affixed it to a lacuna on the Hypocephalus which would become Facsimile No. 2. The point I'm trying to make is that Smith knew full well that the person seated on the boat was considered divine by Egyptian standards and that his head was in the form of a falcon. Smith and his companions had a basic understanding that the Egyptian pantheon included images of men, women, animals, and a combination of both through an expression of religious syncretism in portraying their gods.

Here is the example of Smith snatching Re from one papyrus and inserting him into the Hypocephalus in order to fill in the lacuna. You can be sure that Smith was well aware that this person he revealed as Jehovah, had a bird head. But the bird head remained intact and was drawn or copied into Facsimile No. 2, exactly as it was in the Ta-Sherit-Min scroll!


Vignette from the Ta-Sherit-Min scroll, where Figure No. 3 probably came from.


Smith was more than happy to paste the image into the Hypocephalus leaving the animal head intact as an honorable expression and representation of the Hebrew God, Jehovah.


Facsimile No. 2, Fig. 3


QUESTION FOR JOHN GEE:

Why did Smith hack off the nose of Anubis in Facsimile No. 3?

[Moksha]

Was Anubis's eye also altered?

[Moksha]

"Stay in the Facsimile O Anubis, and I Daryl, God of Home Canning shall cause Reuben Hedlock to strike off thy snout forthwith. We will name you Olimlah and perhaps seal you to Jane Manning James. Try working your canine powers here in Kirkland and see how far that gets you O Son of the Nile! This is the age of the cotton gin and health science that uses leaches and worries about hot drinks that warm the belly."