![FairMormon Logo](https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021_fair_logo_primary.png)
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
< Criticism of Mormonism | Websites | FutureMissionary.com
The Prophet Joseph Smith | A FAIR Analysis of: FutureMissionary.com A work by author: Anonymous
|
Polygamy & Polyandry |
The positions that the FutureMissionary article "The Book of Abraham" appears to take are the following:
The website states that "Joseph Smith was the only person alive who could translate Egyptian."
The website poses the question "Do Egyptologists confirm Joseph’s translation?" The answer given is that "Every Egyptologist who has inspected the facsimiles or the actual papyrus claim that it is funeral papyri."
The website claims that "John Gee is the only LDS Egyptologist who confirms Joseph Smith’s translation." and that "Other LDS Egyptologists and archeologist, like Stuart Ferguson and Edward H. Ashment disagree with Gee’s findings.
|quote= Here is what John Gee actually said about the papyri (John Gee, "Book of Abraham, I Presume", FAIR Conference, August 2012):
The relationship of the papyri to the Book of Abraham.
- Book of Abraham was translated from the papyri. Almost no knowledgeable people in the Church believe this. This is a straw man.
- Book of Abraham was translated from papyri that we no longer have. This seems to be the most likely.
- Book of Abraham was translated using revelation only. This has less evidence.
The contents of the current fragments are irrelevant to the debate because of point 1.
|link= |subject= |summary= }}
The website poses the question "Does the church still have the papyri?"
|quote= |link=Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri |subject=Joseph Smith Papyri |summary=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. }}
The website poses the question "What’s the Egyptian Book of Alphabet & Grammar?" The response is that it is Joseph's attempt to translate Egyptian characters into English.
|quote= |link=Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Kirtland Egyptian Papers |subject=The Kirtland Egyptian Papers |summary=Among the early Book-of-Abraham-related-manuscripts that have survived from the days of Joseph Smith are a number of papers collectively referred to as the "Kirtland Egyptian Papers" (KEP). These pages were written while the Saints lived in Kirtland, Ohio, and were recorded in the general time frame that Joseph was translating the Book of Abraham. They are in the same handwriting of several of Joseph's scribes. Critics charge that the KEP represent Joseph's attempt to translate the hieroglyphics from those portions that are still extant, noting that Egyptologists tell us that the alleged "translations" do not accurately reflect the meanings of the hieroglyphics. In some cases, several paragraphs of the English translation of the Book of Abraham are associated with Egyptian characters from the Joseph Smith papyri. In some instances, one Egyptian character seems to yield several sentences of English text. From what may be surmised from the "Kirtland Egyptian Papers" the surviving Egyptian papyri are claimed by critics to be the source for the Book of Abraham. Critics point out that 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. }}
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.
Donate Now