Moses Chapter 7: Enoch, a blossoming King Benjamin, lectures the people. The good are distinguished from the bad who ‘fear, in torment, for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God to be poured out upon them’. In v4 Enoch talks face to face with God with no problem: ‘even as a man talked one with another’. In v8 an angry racist God curses the land with much heat and the Canaanites are cursed with a black skin. At v10 God threatens further curses (so no agency then). In v13 lions are heard in the wilderness (in the Middle East?). At v17 the righteous flourish, a recurrent theme in the Book of Mormon. Enoch makes the claim in v30 that God is kind, just and merciful, despite God’s evident readiness to curse his children. God claims in v32 to have given man agency, but predicts further curses: by flood v34, and by torment v39. esias
Moses Chapter 8: Why would God need to resort to covenant with Enoch that Noah should come from his loins? In v4 God curses the land with a famine. v30 God resolves to destroy man (despite the agency). Perhaps a good anger management counsellor might help. esias
The text ambles with a grotesque, nineteenth-century charm and never strays from known, safe limits of the early Bible. We see in Enoch a nascent King Benjamin, although Benjamin gets higher and sounds further. People covenant for children, the daughters of the sons of men are seen as fair and sayings go forth from the land e.g. ‘Zion is fled’: all safe, predictable stuff. The Book of Moses is disappointing and seems a pointless exercise in rampant plagiarism. esias
And the giants of the land, also, stood afar off; and there went forth a curse upon all people that fought against God;
And the fire of mine indignation is kindled against them; and in my hot displeasure will I send in the floods upon them, for my fierce anger is kindled against them. Joseph Smith’s Book of Moses 7:15&34
And there came forth a great famine into the land, and the Lord cursed the earth with a sore curse, and many of the inhabitants thereof died.
And the Lord said unto Noah: The daughters of thy sons have sold themselves; for behold mine anger is kindled against the sons of men, for they will not hearken to my voice.
And in those days there were giants on the earth, and they sought Noah to take away his life; but the Lord was with Noah, and the power of the Lord was upon him.
And also, after that they had heard him, they came up before him, saying: Behold, we are the sons of God; have we not taken unto ourselves the daughters of men? And are we not eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage? And our wives bear unto us children, and the same are mighty men, which are like unto men of old, men of great renown. And they hearkened not unto the words of Noah.
And the Lord said: I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Noah that I have created them, and that I have made them; and he hath called upon me; for they have sought his life.
And God said unto Noah: The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence, and behold I will destroy all flesh from off the earth. Moses 8:4&15&18&21&26&30
JOSEPH SMITH’S BOOK of ABRAHAM: Matthew Brown - Richard J Mouw - The New York Times - The Improvement Era 1913 - Michael D Rhodes - William W Phelps - Robert K Ritner - Joseph Smith - Ensign July 1988 - Romulus - R Scott Lloyd - The Lost Book of Abraham documentary - Lanny D Bell - David P Wright - Book of Abraham introduction - Facsimiles - Dr A H Sayce - Dr W M Flinders Petrie - Dr Arthur C Mace - Kevin Graham - esias - Joseph Smith’s Book of Abraham 1:10 - 2:1&6&19 - 3:1&3&4&13&23 - 4:1 - 5:13 -
In this presentation I would like to focus on how anti-Mormons present a fragmentary, one-sided, and often distorted view of the Prophet Joseph Smith through the selective use of documents. Matthew Brown
Are those claims credible? Are they the kinds of things that we ought to bet our lives on? Dr Richard J Mouw, Fuller Theological Seminary, re Book of Abraham
Museum Walls Proclaim Fraud of Mormon Prophet. The New York Times 29th December 1912, headline to two-page exposé
cf.
The hieroglyphics submitted to the scholars constitute less than one seventh of the Book of Abraham. And that only an accompaniment of the text. Improvement Era article November 1913 Professor John Henry Evans
Apologism: Moreover, the Prophet’s explanations of each of the facsimiles accord with present understanding of Egyptian religious practices. Michael D Rhodes, Encyclopaedia of Mormonism
Four Egyptian mummies were brought here. There were two papyrus rolls besides some other ancient Egyptian writings with them. As no-one could translate these writings, they were presented to President Smith. He soon knew what they were, and said they, the rolls of papyrus, contained the sacred record of Joseph in Pharaoh’s court in Egypt. And the teachings of Father Abraham. William W Phelps, letter to wife July 1835
In the 1840s in the United States the ancient Egyptian language was virtually unknown. Professor Robert K Ritner, Chicago Univesity
This afternoon I labored on the Egyptian alphabet in company with brothers Oliver Cowdery and W W Phelps, and doing the research the principles of astronomy as understood by father Abraham and the ancients unfolded to our understanding. Joseph Smith, diary
The papyri in question are a part of the collection of Egyptian mummies and papyri that the Prophet Joseph Smith bought from Michael Chandler in 1835. After the Prophet’s death, the papyri were lost to the Church. But in 1966, Dr Aziz S Atiya, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Utah, discovered some twenty-two separate papyri fragments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which were clearly part of Joseph Smith's original collection.
[F]rom palaeographic and historical considerations, the Book of Breathings papyrus can reliably be dated to around A.D. 60 – much too late for Abraham to have written it. Ensign July 1988 p51
I had the pleasure of being in the company of a member of one of the Quorums of the Seventy this past Tuesday ...
I asked about the Book of Abraham and how modern Egyptologists have disproved the translation found on the Book of Abraham as having nothing to do with the characters and markings on the official papyrus found therein. He said that Joseph Smith translated the writings with his ‘spiritual eyes’ and not his ‘mortal eyes’. He said that there are hidden meanings in the hieroglyphics that Joseph was able to understand and comprehend. He said that modern scientists lack the understanding and knowledge that Joseph Smith had in regards to translating spiritual matters because they look at things through scientific glasses and not through spiritual glasses. Romulus, board post 3rd June 2004, ‘Report of Meeting with a Mormon General Authority Tuesday to Answer My Questions’
While critics of the Church often challenge the authenticity of the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price, they attach more importance to it than Church members do themselves, a Latter-day Saint Egyptologist said August 6th at the annual conference of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR).
Such critics lose sight of ‘the larger issue’, said John Gee, an associate research professor of Egyptology at the Neal A Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU ...
‘Now where is the Book of Abraham in this?’ he asked. ‘It isn’t. The Book of Abraham is not central to the restored gospel of Christ.’ R Scott Lloyd, Church News online report 11th August 2009
A travelling antiquities dealer named Michael H Chandler has come to town peddling his wares. An exhibit of, of all things, four Egyptian mummies ... When Michael Chandler arrived in Kirkland with ancient papyrus scrolls covered with mysterious unknown writings the Saints wondered if their Prophet could decipher these records. The Lost Book of Abraham documentary
Translation of the papyri began almost at once. With Joseph focusing his attention on one of the papyrus scrolls which he identified as an ancient record of Abraham. ibid.
Two of the mummies sold to Abel Combs were later acquired by a Chicago museum that was destroyed in the great Chicago fire of 1871. It was assumed that the Joseph Smith’ papyri were also destroyed. ibid.
In the year 1912 Franklin S Spalding, the Episcopal Bishop of Utah, brought a new round of scrutiny to the Book of Abraham when he asked eight noted scholars of Egyptology to evaluate the three facsimiles. To a man they agreed that Joseph’s explanations were erroneous. ibid.
In the Spring of 1966 a dramatic discovery was made right here in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art ... The museum had in its archives eleven papyrus fragments that had once belonged to Joseph Smith. ibid.
The evidence against the authenticity of the Book of Abraham cannot help but raise questions about Joseph Smith’s other translations, such as the more foundational Book of Mormon. For some since Joseph’s translation of the Book of Abraham which can be tested has been found to lack credibility, then how can we accept his translation of the Book of Mormon which cannot be tested? ibid.
From the evidence that we have today it’s quite safe to say that Joseph Smith did not have the Book of Abraham or the Book of Joseph in front of him in the form of these papyri because they bear no relationship to the contents of those stories or to his ‘translation’. Professor Lanny D Bell, Brown University
There is no correlation between his Book of Abraham and these ancient documents. Professor David P Wright, Brandeis University
Of some ancient Records that have fallen into our hands, from the Catacombs of Egypt, purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written in his own hand, on papyrus. Book of Abraham introduction