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Faithful Study Resources for Come, Follow Me

Book of Abraham

FairMormon Conference Podcast #17 – John Gee, “Selling Our Birthright for a Mess of Pottage: The Historical Authenticity of the Book of Abraham”

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This podcast series features past FairMormon Conference presentations. In celebration of the release of the Facsimile Edition of the Joseph Smith Papers Revelations and Translations Vol. 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts, this episode is a presentation from our conference earlier this year. If you would like to watch all the presentations from the 2018 conference, you can still purchase video streaming. You can also buy John Gee’s latest book, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham, at a discount from our bookstore.

John Gee, Selling Our Birthright for a Mess of Pottage: The Historical Authenticity of the Book of Abraham

Transcript available here.

John Gee is a Senior Research Fellow, and the William (Bill) Gay Research Professor at the Maxwell Institute. He is the editor of eight books and has edited a peer-reviewed international Egyptological journal. He has published over eighty articles and one book. He has served on the board of trustees of national and international organizations.

Audio and Video Copyright © 2018 The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. Any reproduction or transcription of this material without prior express written permission is prohibited.

Book Review: 1,001 Facts About the Prophet Joseph Smith

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Available at a discount from the FairMormon bookstore

This is a short (151 pages) paperback book that contains 1,001 numbered paragraphs that chronologically narrate the life of Joseph Smith, essentially constituting a simple biography. “One of the main goals of this book is to tell the real story, while making it simple to read and understand. 1,001 Facts about the Prophet Joseph Smith is a history book for this generation. The entire book can be read in one sitting, or readers can jump around to different moments in the prophet’s life and learn about their favorite and the more fascinating events” (page 2). The author also intends the book to combat the anti-Mormon propaganda being spread on the Internet.

Here are several examples from the book that I thought were of interest: [Read more…] about Book Review: 1,001 Facts About the Prophet Joseph Smith

The 2018 FairMormon Conference in Review

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We had another great conference last week (it was our 20th!). This time it ran for 3 days. Some of the topics covered were lesser-known women’s stories in church history, the Gospel Topics Essays, stories of members of the church in India and Africa, the new Saints church history series coming out from the church, grace, the Book of Abraham, homosexuality, horses in the Book of Mormon, and how to help people having a faith crisis. We also had a general authority speak for the first time. Elder Kevin W. Pearson spoke about the good that FairMormon and other organizations are doing to help correct misunderstandings about the church, and that more voices are needed in the effort. Awards were given to Scott Gordon, Louis Midgley, and Michael Hickenbotham for their service, and a painting of “Mary Whitmer and Moroni” in honor of Lynne Hilton Wilson was unveiled.

Each day, one presentation was live-streamed free on Facebook, where you can still watch the recordings. You can also watch them here:

  • Jenny Reeder: “Fire In My Bones”: Women’s Stories on churchhistorianspress.org
  • John Gee: Selling Our Birthright for a Mess of Pottage: The Historical Authenticity of the Book of Abraham
  • Elder Kevin W. Pearson: A Sacred and Imperative Duty

It’s not too late to purchase the streaming and watch the videos of the entire conference. After purchase, they will be available to view on any device with a web browser, as well as on a Roku box. You can buy it here.

We have had several articles published about the conference (this section will be updated as more appear):

Mike Ash, one of our volunteers who is a great photographer, has posted photos from the conference on our Facebook page.

Transcriptions of the presentations will be posted on our website after they are prepared by our volunteers.

The full conference schedule can be reviewed here.

 

FairMormon Conference Podcast #11 – Michael Ash, “After the Manner of Their Language: The Key to Wisdom”

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This podcast series features past FairMormon Conference presentations. Please join us for the 2018 FairMormon Conference coming up August 1-3! You can attend in person or purchase the video streaming.

Michael Ash, After the Manner of Their Language: The Key to Wisdom

Transcript available here.

Michael R. Ash is the author of Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, Of Faith Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith, as well as Bamboozled by the “CES Letter.” A former columnist for the Deseret News’ Mormon Times, he has also been a frequent contributor to the online blogs, Meridian Magazine, as well as the Mormon Hub. Mike has been published in the Ensign, Sunstone Magazine, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, in the FARMS Review, and most recently contributed a chapter to Kofford Book’s Perspectives in Mormon Theology: Apologetics. Joining FairMormon in the year 2000, Mike delivered a paper at the 2nd annual FairMormon conference and has contributed papers to seven additional conferences (including this one) since. Mike and his wife Chris live in Ogden and are the parents of three daughters and the grandparents of six grandchildren.

Audio and Video Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. Any reproduction or transcription of this material without prior express written permission is prohibited.

What Is the Meaning of the Samuel’s Reply: “Here Am I”? (Gospel Doctrine Lesson 21A)

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Eli and Samuel

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 21: “God Will Honor Those Who Honor Him” (1 Samuel 2-3; 8) (JBOTL21A)

Question: Within the short space of one chapter, the boy prophet Samuel speaks the phrase “Here am I” five times. Is there something more than meets the eye in his repeated reply?

Summary: Yes, when spoken in a spirit of meekness in response to a call from the Lord, it is not a simple assertion of availability but rather of humility and moral readiness. In this article, we will review a few instances of the phrase “Here am I” in scripture. With the these examples in mind, we will examine the story of Samuel’s call verse-by-verse — and its implications for our own responses to God’s invitations to serve. Modern photographs and descriptions of the ancient site of Shiloh, where the building housing the Tabernacle once stood, are included at the end of the article.

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL21A — What Is the Meaning of the Samuel’s Reply: “Here Am I”?

Why Was Joseph Smith Initially Prohibited from Publishing His Bible Translation? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine 5A)

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Liz Lemon Swindle, 1953-: Go with Me to Cumorah, 1997

An Old Testament KnoWhy for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 5: “If Thou Doest Well, Thou Shalt Be Accepted” (Moses 5-7) (JBOTL05A). See the link to video supplements for this lesson at the end of this article under “Further Reading.”

Question: For a while, the Lord prohibited Joseph Smith from sharing his Bible translation publicly. Also, Moses 1:42 explicitly says that the account of Moses’ vision should not be shown “unto any except them that believe.” Any guesses as to the reasons behind these restrictions?

Summary: I believe that these initial restrictions were due, at least in part, to the sacred content of many of the changes and additions in Joseph Smith’s Bible translation. This makes sense if we regard the knowledge that Joseph Smith received as he translated the Bible as part of a divine tutorial on priesthood and temple doctrines, authority, and ordinances. In fact, some parts of Genesis seem to contain echoes of what temple studies scholars would call a “temple text.” My study of the book of Moses and others of the initial revelations and teachings of Joseph Smith have convinced me that he knew early on much more about these matters than he taught publicly, contradicting the view of those who consider the fundamental doctrines, covenants, and teachings of the Nauvoo temple ordinances a late invention

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL05A — Why Was Joseph Smith Initially Prohibited from Publishing His Bible Translation?

For more discussion of evidence that Joseph Smith knew much about temple matters early on in his ministry, see the first video supplement to this lesson: “What Did Joseph Smith Know about Temple Ordinances by 1836?” (http://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2014-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/2014-temple-on-mount-zion-conference-videos/).

For a playlist of one-minute video clips discussing various aspects of Mormonism and Masonry in Nauvoo, see the second video supplement to this lesson at the FairMormon YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0zdSoYy_fg&list=PLw_Vkm1zYbIHW8n88zdpJuzK83caT7A2H).

What Was the Nature of Satan’s Premortal Proposal? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine 2A)

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William Blake, 1757-1827: Satan in His Original Glory, ca. 1805. To highlight Lucifer’s perversity, Blake has conspicuously reversed the hands in which the emblems of British monarchy are normally held. Satan’s stubborn nonconformity in this image symbolizes his intent to reverse the order of heaven.

KnoWhy for Personal Study of Gospel Doctrine Lesson 2: “Thou Wast Chosen Before Thou Wast Born” (Abraham 3; Moses 4:1-4) (JBOTL02A), 6 January 2018

Question: What was the nature of Satan’s proposal to “redeem all mankind”? How did he intend to “destroy the agency of man”? Was his proposal feasible?

Summary: It is often assumed that the gist of Satan’s premortal proposal was that he would “‘save’ all of the Father’s children by forcing each to obey the Father’s law in all things.” In light of what the Book of Mormon teaches and Joseph Smith’s statements on the subject, these assumptions should not be taken for granted. Closer study offers a more likely alternative: namely that Satan put forth a proposal to “save … people in their sins,” notably including the sons of perdition. Moreover, in the Book of Mormon, Satan’s proposal to “destroy the agency of man” is not described as an impossible attempt to force people to obey but rather as a scheme to prevent humankind from experiencing a mortal probation after the Fall.

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL02A — What Was the Nature of Satan’s Premortal Proposal?

Book Review: An Introduction to the Book of Abraham

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10% off at the FairMormon Bookstore

Click to purchase the book.

[Another FairMormon member, Rene Krywult, has contributed a second review of this book.]

“The goal with the Introduction to the Book of Abraham is to make reliable information about the Book of Abraham accessible to the general reader.” With these words, John Gee begins his new book.

And it is a high goal the well-known Egyptologist, professor of Egyptology at Brigham Young University and the William (Bill) Gay Research Chair, author of over a hundred academic papers on Egyptology and ancient scripture, and researcher of the Book of Abraham for more than 25 years, sets for himself. How to do justice to a topic that is specialized enough that only a few experts in the world can speak about it with authority, and how to do it in a language that the interested lay man can understand? How to do it, with a topic that has been controversially debated for the last 105 years, often with far more zeal than knowledge? How to do it, when there is so very much to discuss and to know on one hand, and yet the “common knowledge” is almost nonexistent?

So, the good thing here: This is an introduction. Gee is not only an expert on the Egyptian but also masters the English language. The book is very easy to read. Nevertheless, there is much information to impart, and Gee does so by introducing us to the topics, all with the well researched and documented footnotes one expect from a scholar of such caliber, only to follow up with an extensive “Further Reading” section at the end of each chapter, a bibliography with explanations. This way, he who wants to know more knows what books to buy and what articles to read.

To do this work justice, I decided to go through the chapters one by one. [Read more…] about Book Review: An Introduction to the Book of Abraham

Book Review: An Introduction to the Book of Abraham

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10% off at the FairMormon Bookstore

Publisher: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University and Deseret Book
Author: John Gee
Number of Pages: 197
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-1-9443-9406-6
Price: $19.99
Click to purchase the book.

The Book of Abraham is my favorite book of scripture. Mostly it is because of chapter 3, which contains information that is not found anywhere else in LDS scripture. I also remember discovering the facsimiles as a child and thinking that they were really neat. Unfortunately, the Book of Abraham has also become a favorite for critics to attack, as it is the only book of scripture that Joseph Smith translated for which there appears to be any extant source material, and that material does not seem to match what is in the Book of Abraham. But it’s really much more complicated than that.

This book explains what is currently known about the Book of Abraham and its associated artifacts and documents, and why the critics are wrong. It is written by John Gee, who is a professor of Egyptology at BYU. He got his PhD in Egyptology at Yale and has written many research publications for professional journals as well as writing for LDS audiences. The book is written to be understandable by any reader (although an LDS background is very helpful) in a straightforward manner that actually makes for a fairly quick read.

The book contains 17 chapters, most of them fairly short, that build on each other. At the end is a series of questions and answers that basically provides a summary of the book. It also has photos of the extant papyri, maps, charts, diagrams, and other helpful or interesting illustrations scattered throughout. At the end of most chapters is a list of “Further Reading” with notes about each item. Unfortunately, there are not many footnotes in the book; they only exist to provide sources for quotes. So you have to refer to the notes in the “Further Reading” section to deduce where some of the information came from. This did lead me to find one inconsistency – on page 97, it says “The Book of Abraham begins much like other autobiographies from Abraham’s time and place.” However, on page 103 in “Further Reading,” there is an entry that says, “This essay is a comparison of the Book of Abraham with the only other autobiographical inscription to survive from the approximate time and place of Abraham.”

After the introduction, the book begins with a historical overview which explains how Joseph Smith got the papyri and then what happened to them after his death, with the church finally receiving surviving fragments in 1967 (most of what Joseph had in his possession ended up burning in the Chicago Fire of 1871). “To the disappointment of many, although these remaining fragments contained the illustration that served as the basis for Facsimile 1, they were not the portion of the papyri that contained the text of the Book of Abraham” (page 9).
The next chapter is about the translation. Some have thought that Joseph may have used a seer stone (see my review of Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones), but Gee says that “Some thirdhand accounts claim he did, but those accounts do not come from anyone who actually observed the translation” and that “By the time that Joseph finished translating the Book of Mormon in 1829, he no longer needed to use the Urim and Thummim to receive revelation” (page 20.) What is known is that much more was translated than what ended up being published (the rest has been lost), and that it was done without using a dictionary or grammar as a conventional translation normally would. It does appear that W. W. Phelps attempted to compile an Egyptian grammar after the translation, but the extent of Joseph’s involvement in that is unknown. [Read more…] about Book Review: An Introduction to the Book of Abraham

Book Review: The Joseph Smith Papers: Documents Volume 5: October 1835 – January 1838

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Publisher: The Church Historian’s Press
Date Available: May 15, 2017
Number of Pages: 768
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-1629723129
Price: $54.95

(Page numbers are from an Advance Review Copy, and may be different in the published version.)

This volume covers an interesting period of Joseph Smith’s life that includes the finishing and dedication of the Kirtland Temple and the associated visions, work on the Book of Abraham, the Kirtland Safety Society, and persecution and apostasy. Some of the documents included are from Joseph Smith’s journals, and so have already been published in Journals, Volume 1:1832-1839. Others are from Minute Book 1, archival collections, periodicals, other peoples’ diaries, legal records, etc. There are no journals available covering April 1836 to January 1838, so some of the best contemporary sources were chosen to try to fill things in.

The book starts with the usual material for this series, including a timeline of Joseph Smith’s life, maps, an explanation of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, a volume introduction, and an explanation of the editorial method. The book is then divided into seven parts, based on time periods. There is an appendix with blessings to Don Carlos Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Frederick G. Williams, and Sidney Rigdon. And then there is the usual reference material with source notes, a chronology, geographical directory and maps, pedigree chart, biographical directory, organizational charts, essay on sources, works cited, a cross-reference with the Doctrine and Covenants, index, etc. At the very back is a note about resources available on the Joseph Smith Papers website that relate to the series as well as this particular book.

Most of the first and second chapters of the Book of Abraham are included as “Book of Abraham Manuscript, circa Early June – circa November 1835-A [Abraham 1:4-2:6].” There is a historical introduction that explains how the papyri were obtained and what is known about the translation, as well as the publication in Times and Seasons. A footnote points out that “Though a notice printed in the 1 February 1843 issue of the Times and Seasons suggested that JS would publish ‘further extracts’ from the Book of Abraham, there is no documentary evidence that other extracts were produced. All extant manuscripts generated by JS and his associates during their study of the Egyptian papyri, dated circa 1835 to circa 1842, are available at the Joseph Smith Papers website, josephsmithpapers.org.” (page 77) [Read more…] about Book Review: The Joseph Smith Papers: Documents Volume 5: October 1835 – January 1838