View source for Book of Abraham facsimiles

{{FairMormon}}
{{Navigation Book of Abraham}}

<onlyinclude>
{{H2
|L=Book of Abraham facsimiles
|H=The facsimiles in the Book of Abraham
|S=In the Book of Abraham, Joseph included three facsimiles of illustrations from the papyri, along with commentary about what the images and their individual parts represented. Some of Joseph's interpretations are similar to those of trained Egyptologists, but most are not. A number of criticisms relate to the three facsimiles associated with the Book of Abraham. It is noted that Joseph Smith's translation of the facsimiles does not agree with that provided by Egyptologists, and that some missing portions of the facsimiles were incorrectly restored before they were published.
|L1=Book of Abraham Facsimile 1: The "lion couch" scene
|L2=An analysis of the Charles M. Larson restoration of Facsimile 1 compared against the original papyrus
|L3=Book of Abraham Facsimile 2: The hypocephalus
|L4=Book of Abraham Facsimile 3: The throne scene
|L5=Restoration of missing portions of the facsimiles
}}
</onlyinclude>

{{:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Facsimiles/Facsimile 1}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/By His Own Hand upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri/Larson "restoration" of Facsimile 1}}
{{:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Facsimiles/Facsimile 2}}
{{:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Facsimiles/Facsimile 3}}
{{:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Facsimiles/Missing portions}}

<embedvideo service="youtube">gCH529IgDrY</embedvideo>


Hugh Nibley notes the following,
<blockquote>
[I]t is important to emphasize what many Egyptologists are insisting on today as never before, namely, the folly of giving just one interpretation and one only to any Egyptian representation. This is the pit into which Joseph Smith's critics have always fallen: "This cannot possibly represent 'A' because it represents 'B'!" "The value of an Egyptian presentation," Eberhard Otto reminds us, "depended on seeing the greatest possible number of meanings in the briefest possible formulation."3 Heretofore, critics of the Joseph Smith explanations have insisted on the least possible number of meanings, namely one, to every item, and as a result have not only disagreed widely among themselves, but also exposed their efforts to drastic future revision. The Egyptians "considered it a particular nicety that symbols should possess multiple significance," wrote Henri Frankfort, "that one single interpretation should not be the only possible one."4 <ref>Hugh Nibley, [http://mi.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=48&chapid=294 "All the Court's a Stage: Facsimile 3, a Royal Mumming"], ''Abraham in Egypt'' {{NC}}</ref>
</blockquote>

There are at least two possibilities here:

*Kevin Barney hypothesizes that the Book of Abraham was written by Abraham himself, then passed from generation to generation until it fell into the hands of a hypothetical Jewish editor in the second century <small>B.C.</small> This editor attached it to a the Egyptian papyri because of the useful symbolism contained on the Egyptian funerary text.<ref>{{BarneyJ-red|start=107|end=130}}</ref>
{{Detail|Book of Abraham papyri (long)#A Jewish redactor|l1=A Jewish redactor}}

*Richard D. Draper, S. Kent Brown, and Michael D. Rhodes have similarly theorized that "the original illustration drawn by Abraham had been modified and adapted for use by Hor, the owner of the papyrus. What Joseph Smith did with the facsimiles is thus similar to the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible&mdash;he gave the original meaning of Abraham's illustrations, correcting for the changes and distortions that had taken place over nearly two millennia."<ref>Richard D. Draper, S. Kent Brown, Michael D. Rhodes, "Introduction to the Book of Abraham," in ''The Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary'' (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 243.</ref>

{{endnotes sources}}
<!-- PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->

[[es:El Libro de Abraham/Papiros de José Smith/Facsímiles]]
[[pt:O Livro de Abraão/Joseph Smith Papiros/Fac-símiles]]