Difference between revisions of "Criticism of Mormonism/Video/Search for the Truth DVD/Book of Abraham"

The Church has always been frank and open about what is on the papyri in its possession. When the papyri were rediscovered in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and donated to the Church on 27 November, 1967, the Church immediately published an article in their official magazine less than two months later. A follow-up article on an additional papyrus fragment was published the following month, complete with photos:

• Jay M. Todd, "Egyptian Papyri Rediscovered," Improvement Era (January 1968), 12–16.
• Jay M. Todd, "New Light on Joseph Smith's Egyptian Papyri: Additional Fragment Disclosed," Improvement Era (February 1968), 40.
• Jay M. Todd, "Background of the Church Historian's Fragment," Improvement Era (February 1968), 40A–40I.

The issues surrounding the translation of the Egyptian papyri that resulted in the Book of Abraham are much more complex than critics would like us to believe. Foremost, it is significant to realize that we don't have all the papyri that was originally owned by Joseph. Of the five scrolls originally owned by Joseph, only eleven fragments of two scrolls have survived—one of which is an Egyptian Sensen text containing the vignette for Facsimile 1 from the LDS Book of Abraham. Basically, we don't know exactly what was missing, so we can't say for certain that Joseph Smith's papyri collection didn't contain a document that could translate into the Book of Abraham.

But why, some might ask, would a Book of Abraham be present among ancient Eygptian funerary scrolls? We know from other ancient documents that sometimes scrolls with different material were attached together. Some ancient copies of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, for example, have been found to contain a variety of other non-funerary texts including stories similar to the sacrifice of Abraham (involving different personalities), temple rituals, and more. Yale-trained, professional Egyptologist John Gee estimates that about 40% of known Sensen texts have other texts attached to them.

Some Egyptian papyri, for example, contain Egyptian instructions on one side and Semitic writings on the back side—in one case Psalms chapters 20–55. One Egyptian temple archive (with an extensive collection of Egyptian rituals), provides an early copy of the “Prayer of Jacob” and two copies of the “Eight Book of Moses” with a discussion of the initiation into the temple at Jerusalem. Both Moses and Abraham are mentioned in this collection and the most commonly invoked deity is Jehovah.

Finally we know that ancient Israelites sometimes used Egyptian symbology to convey religious teachings. Many Biblical scholars, for instance, believe that an ancient Egyptian book—the Instructions of Amenemope—may have been the source for portions of the biblical book of Proverbs. An acient Testament of Abraham also seems to have a connection to the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

It is not unlikely—in fact it seems plausible in light of other documentary discoveries—that an ancient Book of Abraham was attached to the Egyptian papyri owned by Joseph Smith. Properly interpreting the Egyptian elements in the Facsimilies may well require that we understand how Jewish authors understood and adapted such elements.

• Daniel C. Peterson, "News from Antiquity [‘Evidence supporting the book of Abraham continues to turn up in a wide variety of sources’]," Ensign 24/1 (January 1994): 16.off-site
• Kevin L. Barney, "The Facsimiles and Semitic Adaptation of Existing Sources," off-site

There are two issues in the above accusation. (1) The Sensen text (from where we get Facsimile 1 showing the near-sacrifice of Abraham) is supposedly a "common" Egyptian "funeral text", and (2) this text dates "many centuries after Abraham's time." Both issues are examined below:

(1) The late Klaus Baer, a non-LDS renowned Egyptologist from the University of Chicago claimed that the Book of Abraham's Facsimile 1 is not typical of similar vignettes found among Egyptian papyri. Dr. Gee knows of no other instance where it is included in a Sensen text or in a copy of the Book of the Dead.

(2) While the date of the actually papyri and style of the vignette date to many centuries after Abraham's time, we find the same thing among most ancient manuscripts-- even biblical manuscripts. The earliest manuscript we have of Matthew, for instance, is a third century copy. This doesn't negate the fact that Matthew's original copy was penned in centuries earlier (probably in the first century A.D.). It seems only reasonable that followers of Abraham continued to preserve copies of the Book of Abraham for centuries after the original account was recorded (we find the same thing among nearly all Old Testament manuscripts)

Since the papyrii that came to Joseph Smith were later copies, the Egyptian