I can't believe some of the replies on that one - it seems as though there is quite a bit of mental and verbal gymnastics going on trying to support the position that the phrase could, indeed, be Egyptian. I'm not buying it.
If it was any other religion other than LDS those apologists would be ripping all over the Book of Abraham and the prophet Joseph Smith. Their critical thinking would kick into high gear and they would blast away at the Book of Abraham just like their critics blast them.
Pacman has to be the worst of all. The guy is like a frenzied man with a machine gun who will simply shoot down anyone with any intelligence who opposes his denying mind. Some of the things he says suggest to me that he is emotionally suffering. He acts like the whole thing doesn’t bother him but I think he is faking it. Pacman must be at his wits end. I think the guy will crack pretty soon.
Honestly, Pacman is loosing touch with reality when it comes to the Book of Abraham saga. He is in an utter state of denial. I worry about him.
I can't believe some of the replies on that one - it seems as though there is quite a bit of mental and verbal gymnastics going on trying to support the position that the phrase could, indeed, be Egyptian. I'm not buying it.
They aren't buying it either. They are simply trying to defend Nibley at all cost until something comes along to save them. But nothing is going to come along and save their precious Nibley paradigm. Frankly, the Nibley paradigm is built upon deceit and the twisting of truth in order to lead less informed minds astray. How can they be saved in such a condition as that? They must dump Nibley and confess that there is more to the Book of Abraham saga them they want to accept.
The KEP is Adamic. The words given in his statement are Adamic. The Egyptian priests who knew Abraham were given the Adamic words that pertain to astronomy. Abraham delivered Adamic words to Egypt in effort to bring them back to their original roots. Joseph Smith just didn't explain things as good as he could and he misunderstood things that he later would have fully understood had he survived. It wasn't needful that the prophet know all things and be perfectly correct in all of his reasoning’s. He had a message to deliver and he delivered it - the Book of Abraham.
So, if the apologists will admit that Nibley lead them astray, then, their minds will begin to find comfort and they will come to understanding. But if they continue to hang on to Nibley as if he was the prophet's successor, then they will find disappointment by and by. Who the hell am I to say all this? I'm just a little voice in a big wilderness. Take it or leave it. Just don't say I didn't tell you so.
By coincidence, I saw John Gee today (that is, assuming he is the fellow who hangs out in the BYU library religion section who looks just like Gee's photo at FARMS). He was walking with Gary Gillum, the bibliographer of Mormonism. I'd never seen the guy in person before. He was rather more slight than I'd have imagined, and had an innocuous look about him (not that this point bears on the thread topic--it's just a visual impression).