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 - Joseph Smith's Book of Moses inc esias: The Book of Moses: Plagiarism Gone Mad - Book of Moses 7:15&34 - Book of Moses 8:4&15&18&21&26&30 - Book of Abraham esias II - Joseph Smith's Book of Abraham 1:10 - Book of Abraham 2:1&6&19 - Book of Abraham 3:1&3&4&13&23 - Book of Abraham 4:1 - Book of Abraham 5:13 - Joseph Smith's translation of Matthew - Joseph Smith: Matthew Chapter 1:20&20&33&37 - Joseph Smith's History: esias IV - Articles of Faith - jacyn -
36,817. Are those claims credible? Are they the kinds of things that we ought to bet our lives on? (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Dr Richard J Mouw, Fuller Theological Seminary, of Book of Abraham
37,086. Museum Walls Proclaim Fraud of Mormon Prophet. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) The New York Times 29th December 1912, headline to two-page exposé
cf.
37,087. The hieroglyphics submitted to the scholars constitute less than one seventh of the Book of Abraham. And that only an accompaniment of the text. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) The Improvement Era article November 1913 Professor John Henry Evans
37,088. Moreover, the Prophet’s explanations of each of the facsimiles accord with present understanding of Egyptian religious practices. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Michael D Rhodes, Encyclopaedia of Mormonism
37,090. 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. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) William W Phelps, letter to wife July 1835
37,091. In the 1840s in the United States the ancient Egyptian language was virtually unknown. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Professor Robert K Ritner, Chicago Univesity
37,092. 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. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Joseph Smith, diary
37,093. 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. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Ensign July 1988 p51
37,094. 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. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Romulus, board post 3rd June 2004 ‘Report of Meeting with a Mormon General Authority Tuesday to Answer My Questions’
37,095. 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 6 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.’ (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) R Scott Lloyd, Church News online report 11th August 2009
37,096. 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. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) The Lost Book of Abraham documentary
37,097. 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. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) ibid.
37,098. 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. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) ibid.
37,099. 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. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) ibid.
37,100. 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. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) ibid.
37,101. 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? (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) ibid.
37,102. 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’. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Professor Lanny D Bell, Brown University
37,103. There is no correlation between his Book of Abraham and these ancient documents. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Professor David P Wright, Brandeis University
37,089. 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. (Mormons & MOrmons: Pearl of Great Price) Book of Abraham introduction
81,433. Facsimile 1: Recumbent on sacrificial alter: Abraham
Standing: the idolatrous priest of Elkenah
Bird = angel of the Lord
Below sacrificial alter separate idolatrous gods
Facsimile 2: Centre and top = Kolob
Top right: God sitting on throne
Lower third: Earth
Facsimile 3: Abraham sitting on throne
King Pharaoh standing behind
Prince of Pharaoh, Shulem & Olimlah before Abraham
81,509. It is difficult to deal seriously with Joseph Smith’s impudent fraud. His facsimile from the Book of Abraham No 2 is an ordinary hypocephalus, but the hieroglyphics upon it have been copied so ignorantly that hardly one of them is correct.
Number 3 is a representation of the Goddess Maat leading the Pharaoh before Osiris, behind whom stand the Goddess Isis. Smith has turned the Goddess into a king and Osiris into Abraham. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Dr A H Sayce, Oxford University
81,510. It may be safely said that there is not one single word that is true in these explanations. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Dr W M Flinders Petrie, London University
81,511. Joseph Smith’s interpretation of these cuts is a farrago of nonsense from beginning to end. Egyptian characters can now be read almost as easily as Greek, and five minutes’ study in an Egyptian gallery of any museum should be enough to convince any educated man of the clumsiness of the imposture. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Dr Arthur C Mace, Department of Egyptian Art assistant curator Metropolitan Museum of Art New York
81,512. So why don’t any of these numbers consist of real Egyptian characters ...? Obviously, Joseph Smith didn’t know real Egyptian! The only Egyptian characters Smith used that were genuine Egyptian characters were those he borrowed from the papyri. The papyri were quite obviously grammatical and not mathematical so there is no reason to suspect Joseph Smith would borrow characters from the papyri while ascertaining Egyptian numbers. This meant Joseph Smith had to rely on ‘revelation’ in order to divine the Egyptian numbers. That Masonic symbols were integrated therein is hardly surprising since these Masonic symbols represented numbers. (Mormons & Mormons: Pearl of Great Price) Kevin Graham, board post 10th August 2010 ‘Thoughts on Doomsday’s Aftermath’, of Kirtland Egyptian papers