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− | This is a shortened summary of a longer article on the Joseph Smith Papyri.<br>To read the longer version, click '''[[Book of Abraham papyri (long)|here]]'''.
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− | In July 1835, Joseph Smith purchased a collection of papyri and mummies that had been discovered in Egypt and brought to the United States. Believing that one of the rolls contained, "the writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt," and "purportedly written by his own hand, upon papyrus,"{{ref|hc1}} Joseph commenced a translation of the papyri.
| + | {{Epigraph|An example of what I am talking about is the recent discovery of the papyrus scrolls from which Joseph Smith was presumed to have translated the book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. Modern scholars, looking at the scrolls, found nothing they considered to be similar to that book. I remarked at the time that such a finding didn't bother me in the least. God doesn't need a crib sheet in the form of a papyrus scroll to reveal Abraham's thoughts and words to Joseph Smith, with any degree of precision He considers necessary for His purposes. If the only function of the scrolls was to awaken the Prophet to the idea of receiving such inspiration, they would have fulfilled their purpose.<br><br> |
| + | —Henry Eyring, ''Reflections of a Scientist'', p. 46}} |
| + | {{parabreak}} |
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− | The original papyri were thought to have been completely destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871. Fragments, however, including Facsimile number 1, were discovered in 1967 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, and given to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. | + | <onlyinclude> |
| + | {{T5 |
| + | |L=Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri |
| + | |H=The Joseph Smith Papyri |
| + | |V=<embedvideo service="youtube">pNBzMhJFGWo</embedvideo> |
| + | |S=Joseph Smith had in his possession three or four long scrolls, plus a hypocephalus (Facsimile 2). Of these original materials, only a handful of fragments were recovered at the Metropolitan Museum. The majority of the papyri remains lost, and has likely been destroyed. There are a number of criticisms related to the recovered fragments of the Joseph Smith papyri. These criticisms are addressed below. <ref>Criticisms regarding the Book of Abraham and Joseph Smith papyri are raised in the following publications: “Universalism in Ohio,” ''Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate'' (Utica, New York) (12 September 1835): 291. {{link|url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/BOMP&CISOPTR=1061&REC=8}}; {{CriticalWork:Ashment:Egyptian Magical Papyri|pages=1–}}; {{CriticalWork:Larson:By His Own Hand|pages=1–}}; Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Solving the Mystery of the Joseph Smith Papyri," ''Salt Lake City Messenger'' 82 (September 1992): 1–12.; {{CriticalWork:Tanner:Changing World|pages=Chapter 11}}; {{CriticalWork:Watchman Fellowship:Articles|pages=3}}</ref> |
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− | ==Criticism== | + | <small>Video published by the Church History Department.</small> |
| + | |L1=Online source documents |
| + | |L2=The Joseph Smith Papyri: Source Quotes |
| + | |L3=Identity and nature of the papyrus in the Church's possession |
| + | |L4=When did the Church disclose that the Joseph Smith Papyri were an Egyptian funerary text? |
| + | |L5=Why is the Book of Abraham text not on the papyri? |
| + | |L6=The facsimiles in the Book of Abraham |
| + | |L7=Antiquity of the Book of Abraham |
| + | }} |
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− | Critics have three major points of contention with the Book of Abraham:
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− | *The Joseph Smith papyri date to about the 2nd century, <small>B.C.</small> Latter-day Saints, however (including, perhaps, Joseph Smith), have claimed that the papyri were written by Abraham who lived about 2,000 years earlier.
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− | *The surviving Egyptian papyri appear to be the source for the Book of Abraham, but Egyptologists agree that these papyri are part of a collection of Egyptian funerary documents known as the ''Book of Breathings'' and do not deal with Abraham.
| + | {{SeeAlso|Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Kirtland Egyptian Papers}} |
| + | </onlyinclude> |
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− | *Parts of the vignettes on the papyri (from where we get the "facsimiles" in the Pearl of Great Price) have been destroyed. It appears that Joseph "restored" these missing parts, but non-LDS Egyptologists do not recognize these restorations as accurate. | + | {{Source documents label}} |
| + | *View high [http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/egyptian-papyri resolution images of the Joseph Smith Papyri online]. |
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− | ===Source(s) of the criticism=== <!--Books or web sites where the criticism originated-->
| + | {{:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Quotes}} |
| + | {{:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Identity and nature}} |
| + | {{:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Church disclosure of "Book of the Dead"}} |
| + | {{:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Text}} |
| + | {{:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Facsimiles}} |
| + | {{:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Preservation of Ancient Core}} |
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− | *Edward H. Ashment, ''The Use of Egyptian Magical Papyri to Authenticate the Book of Abraham: A Critical Review,'' Salt Lake City: Resource Communications, 1993.
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− | *Charles M. Larson, ''By His Own Hand upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri,'' 2nd ed., Grand Rapids, MI: Institute for Religious Research, 1992.
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− | *Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Solving the Mystery of the Joseph Smith Papyri," ''Salt Lake City Messenger'' 82 (September 1992): 1–12.
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− | ==Responses==
| + | {{Critical sources box:Book of Abraham/Papyri/Long article/CriticalSources}} |
| + | {{endnotes sources}} |
| + | <!-- PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE --> |
| + | [[Category:Book of Abraham]] |
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− | ===The date of the Book of Abraham vs. the date of the papyrus===
| + | [[de:Buch Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri]] |
− | | + | [[es:El Libro de Abraham/Papiros de José Smith]] |
− | It seems reasonable to conclude that Joseph believed that Abraham himself, with pen in hand, wrote the very words that he was translating. Most modern scholars (including LDS scholars), however, date the papyri to a few centuries before Christ.
| + | [[pt:O Livro de Abraão/Joseph Smith Papiros]] |
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− | This issue is very similar to that of Book of Mormon geography. It is very likely that Joseph Smith believed in a hemispheric Book of Mormon geography—it made sense to his understanding of the world around him. Like anyone else, Joseph tried to understand new information by integrating it with his current knowledge. So, likewise, with the Abrahamic papyri: Joseph, by way of revelation, saw that the papyri contained scriptural teachings of Abraham. It would be natural, therefore, to assume that Abraham wrote the papyri.
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− | As Dr. John Gee explains, there is a major difference, he explains, "between the date of a text [the information contained on the papyri] and the date of a manuscript [the papyri itself]."{{ref|gee5}}
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− | :The date of a text is the date when the text was written by its author. A text can be copied into various manuscripts or translated into other languages, and these manuscripts or translations will have different, later dates than the date of the original text. When we refer to the date of a text, we refer to the date of the original text. For example, the text of the Gospel of Matthew was written in the first century <small>A.D.</small>, but the earliest manuscript that we have of Matthew was copied in the third century.{{ref|gee6}} | |
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− | It's possible that the original Book of Abraham "text" was written by Abraham and then "passed down through his descendants (the Jews), some of whom took a copy to Egypt where it was copied (after being translated) onto a later manuscript."{{ref|gee7}}
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− | ===The Kirtland Egyptian Papers===
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− | ''(Main article: [[Kirtland Egyptian Papers]])''
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− | Circa 1836 (while in Kirtland Ohio) Joseph and some of his scribes were involved in a project which indicates that: (a) either Joseph attempted to translate the Egyptian characters into English, or (b) that Joseph and his scribes were attempting to match the characters on the papyri with the already translated text. Several of the verses from the first chapter of Abraham are recorded on papyri next to Egyptian characters. The Egyptian characters on some of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers (KEP) were transcribed from the characters on the papyri immediately following Facsimile 1. In the Book of Abraham we read:
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− | :...that you may have a knowledge of this altar, I will refer you to the representation [Facsimile 1] at the commencement of this record." ([http://scriptures.lds.org/abr/1/12#12 Abraham 1:12]-- keeping in mind that the scroll would have been read from right to left to and Facsimile 1 is virtually the first item at the right end of the scroll.)
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− | While this would seem to suggest that the Book of Breathings was the source of the Book of Abraham, Egyptologists agree that the Book of Breathings doesn’t have anything to do with Abraham, and that Joseph’s supposed “translations” of those characters are not actual Egyptological translations. While critics see this as proof that Joseph was a false prophet, Latter-day Saints generally believe that Joseph translated the Book of Abraham prior to the creation of the KEP and then he, and other early LDS brethren, tried to match the translated text to what they believed were the characters that were used to illicit the translation.{{ref|nibley3}} But the question remains: Why would it appear that Joseph thought these Egyptian characters translated into Abrahamic scripture when they clearly do not?
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− | ====A Jewish Redactor====
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− | Yale-trained Egyptologist, Dr. John Gee, believes that Joseph Smith originally had five papyrus scrolls.{{ref|gee1}} Of these five scrolls, only eleven fragments of two scrolls have survived. Dr. Nibley writes:
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− | :We are told that papyri were in beautiful condition when Joseph Smith got them, and that one of them when unrolled on the floor extended through two rooms of the Mansion House.{{ref|nibley2}}
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− | Nothing like this has survived today. Dr. Gee estimates that the scroll containing Facsimile 1 may have been ten feet long{{ref|gee2}} and that in all, Joseph may have had eight times as much papyri as what is currently extant.{{ref|gee3}} It is very likely that the papyri from which Joseph translated the Book of Abraham, has been lost.
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− | In some ancient examples, Egyptian papyri contained more than one document. Some LDS scholars argue that the Book of Abraham material was appended to the end of the Book of Breathings text.{{ref|gee4}}
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− | We know of at three distinct instances wherein a Jewish redactor (editor) incorporated Egyptian symbolism into Jewish texts. LDS researcher, Kevin Barney, offers the example of an ancient Egyptian book—the Instructions of Amenemope—which may have been the source for parts of the biblical book of Proverbs.{{ref|barney1}}
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− | Instead of focusing on how Egyptians of the 2nd century <small>B.C.</small> or 2000 <small>B.C.</small> understood the motifs, Barney convincingly argues that Abraham did not draw the facsimiles (which date nearly two thousand years after Abraham lived) but that these Egyptian vignettes "were either adopted [copied wholesale as the Egyptians drew them] or adapted [altered to more accurately reflect the Semitic perspective] by an Egyptian-Jewish redactor as illustrations of the attempt on Abraham's life and Abraham's teaching astronomy to the Egyptians."{{ref|barney3}} If we accept a Jewish redactor adapting Egyptian motifs to a Hebrew understanding, we can easily appreciate the possibility that a Jewish redactor may have attached the Book of Abraham manuscript to the Book of Breathings in order to graphically convey the doctrines portrayed in the manuscript.
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− | When Joseph read that Abraham referred to Facsimile 1 ("the representation") at the beginning of "this record,” Joseph may have thought this indicated that the "record" of Abraham was part of the early portion of the scroll and thus they they believed that the first Egyptian characters were those that told the story of Abraham. In reality, however, "this record" probably referred to the beginning of the combined scrolls (that begins with Facsimile 1) but not the beginning of the Abrahamic text (which would have been appended to the Book of Breathings scroll).{{ref|barney7}}
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− | It must be remembered that Joseph could not read Egyptian. He did not "translate" in the normal sense. He translated by the power of God. It is possible that Joseph, at times, translated the Book of Mormon while the plates were covered, or perhaps even while the plates were removed from the room.
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− | ===Restoring gaps in the drawings===
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− | [[Image:BOAfacsimile1.jpg|frame|200px|right|Photograph of Facsimile 1 from the recovered Joseph Smith Papyri]]Examination of the extant papyri fragments reveals that portions of Facsimile 1 (the only facsimile that survived) are damaged. For a number of years, scholars have debated whether the facsimile was damaged before or after Joseph acquired the papyri. | |
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− | Since Facsimile 1 appears to be a fairly typical scene from Egyptian funerary texts, the critics note that other similar Egyptian motifs depict the priest (an embalmer) with the head of Anubis (an Egyptian god) rather than a bald, human head. Other comparable Egyptian embalming scenes do not show the priest holding a knife, they do not show any man pleading or praying, and they generally show two hawks. The critics claim that Joseph Smith drew in the missing parts by adding (incorrectly) those things which we find in the LDS version of this Egyptian scene. What Joseph saw as fingers of Abraham's outstretched hands, for instance, were actually (according to the critics) the wing-tips of the missing second hawk.
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− | Many LDS scholars believe that the scroll was damaged after Joseph translated the vignette and some evidence seems to support this view. One early Latter-day Saint who saw the papyri in 1841, for instance, described them as containing the scene of an altar with "'a man bound and laid thereon, and a Priest with a knife in his hand, standing at the foot, with a dove over the person bound on the Altar with several Idol gods standing around it.'"{{ref|appleby1}} Similarly, Reverend Henry Caswall, who visited Nauvoo in April 1842, had a chance to see some of the Egyptian papyri. Caswall, who was hostile to the Saints, described Facsimile 1 as having a "'man standing by him with a drawn knife.'"{{ref|caswall1}}
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− | Some considerations: there is at least some evidence that the LDS version has precedence in ancient Egyptian drawings. Some LDS researchers, for instance, have argued that the fingers/wing-tips look significantly more like fingers (according to Egyptian drawings) than hawk wing-tips. A number of scholars have noted that the Egyptians were very specific in how they drew wings and thumbs.{{ref|shirts1}}
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− | It's also interesting to note that although embalming priests are typically drawn with Anubis heads in Book of Breathings motifs, other Egyptian graphics show that Egyptian priests are represented as bald and that Anubis heads were worn as masks to emulate the gods.{{ref|shirts2}} When compared to other Egyptian drawings, some of the Book of Abraham restorations are plausible.
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− | Another consideration: We don't know that Joseph was the responsible party for sketching in the missing portions of Facsimile 1. It is possible that one of Joseph's contemporaries "restored" the missing parts, or it is possible that a Jewish redactor or some other Jewish copyist "restored" the parts in order to more closely approximate the details conveyed by the Abrahamic text. It is certainly also possible that Joseph "restored" the missing parts either because they were in the original papyri—as edited by the Jewish redactor—or because Joseph felt that such restorations more accurately reflected the Book of Abraham's intended use of the graphic as pertaining to the details discussed in the text.
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− | Joseph's amendments to later editions of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine & Covenants, and even the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, are all instructive when we compare the graphical alterations in Facsimile 1. In each case, Joseph Smith—by way of revelation, inspiration, or prophetic analysis—"restored" or amended scripture to more closely approximate the additional insights he had gleaned by divine revelation.
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− | ==Conclusion==
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− | Despite the claims of the critics, there is plenty of room for belief in Joseph’s prophetic abilities. Newer research into ancient Abrahamic lore provides intriguing support for the antiquity of the LDS Book of Abraham. Some of this evidence includes authentic ancient names, traditions, Egyptological interpretations as well as ancient cosmologies—all harmonious with what we find in the Book of Abraham, and generally out of place in Joseph’s milieu. When we critically examine the charges against the Book of Abraham in light of what we now know about ancient Jewish traditions and the adaptation of Egyptian iconography, we find that an ancient Book of Abraham is not only plausible, but believable.
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− | ==Endnotes==
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− | #{{note|hc1}}''History of the Church'' 2:235, 236, 348–351.
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− | #{{note|gee5}}John Gee, "A History of the Joseph Smith Papyri and the Book of Abraham" (Provo: FARMS, 1999), 15.
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− | #{{note|gee6}}Gee, ''A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri,'' 23–24.
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− | #{{note|gee7}}''Ibid''., 28.
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− | #{{note|nibley3}}{{BYUS|author=Hugh W. Nibley|article=The Meaning of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers|vol=11|num=1|date=Summer 1971|start=350|end=399}}[http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=transcripts&id=121 *]
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− | #{{note|gee1}}{{Ensign|author=John Gee|article=Research and Perspectives: Abraham in Ancient Egyptian Texts|date=July 1992|start=60|end=?}}; {{FARMSReview|author=John Gee|article=Abracadabra, Isaac and Jacob|vol=7|num=1|date=1995|start=19|end=84}}
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− | #{{note|nibley2}}{{Dialogue1|author=Hugh W. Nibley|article=Phase One|vol=3|num=2|date=Summer 1968|start=101}}
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− | #{{note|gee2}}Gee, ''A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri,'' 12–13.
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− | #{{note|gee3}}John Gee, "Facsimile 3," lecture given at the FARMS Book of Abraham Conference (16 October 1999), personal notes of conference talks by Michael Ash; see also, John Gee, "The Ancient Owners of the Joseph Smith Papyri" (Provo: FARMS, 1999), 1.
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− | #{{note|gee4}}John Gee, "Eyewitness, Hearsay, and Physical Evidence of the Joseph Smith Papyri," ''The Disciple As Witness: Essays on Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson,'' eds., Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry, and Andrew H. Hedges (Provo: FARMS, 2000), 192.
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− | #{{note|barney1}}Kevin L. Barney, "The Facsimiles and Semitic Adaptation of Existing Sources," ''Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant,'' 115–116.
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− | #{{note|barney3}}Barney, "The Facsimiles," 114.
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− | #{{note|barney7}}Barney, "The Facsimiles," 127.
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− | #{{note|appleby1}}William I. Appleby Journal, 5 May 1841, ms. 1401 1, pp. 71–72, LDS Church Archives; as quoted in Gee, "Eyewitness, Hearsay, and Physical Evidence," 184.
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− | #{{note|caswall1}}Henry Caswall, ''The City of the Mormons; or, Three Days at Nauvoo, in 1842'' (London: Rivington, 1842), 23; quoted in Gee, "Eyewitness, Hearsay, and Physical Evidence," 186.
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− | #{{note|shirts1}}Kerry A. Shirts, "[http://www2.ida.net/graphics/shirtail/charles.htm On Wings & Thumbs & Other Things]"; Gee, ''A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri,'' 38.
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− | #{{note|shirts2}}Kerry A. Shirts, "[http://www2.ida.net/graphics/shirtail/rename.htm On Anubis, Masks, and Uniqueness of Facsimile #1 in the Book of Abraham]."
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− | ==Further reading==
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− | ===FAIR wiki articles===
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− | *[[Kirtland Egyptian Papers]]
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− | ===FAIR web site===
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− | *FAIR Topical Guide: [http://fairlds.org/apol/ai125.html Book of Abraham]
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− | ===External links=== <!--Links to external web pages-->
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− | *John Gee, [http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=171 "Abracadabra, Isaac and Jacob"], ''FARMS Review of Books'' 7/1 (1995): 19–84
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− | *Kerry Shirts, [http://www2.ida.net/graphics/shirtail/abraham.htm "Abraham, Father of the Faithful, Or Osiris, Pagan Egyptian God?"], ''Mormonism Researched'' (accessed 6 October 2005).
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