The Book of Abraham
Dispelling Misconceptions and False Assumptions
Abraham is often called the "Father of the Faithful". The Old Testament, in its current state, teaches very little about him. Yet, Jesus himself points to Abraham's reality. While rebuking the Jews, he said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:56). Likewise, Paul, in his letter to the Galatians said, "And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29).
Clearly, Abraham was a real person and an important figure in God's covenant with His people. Yet, the Old Testament account of Abraham's life and God's covenant with him is pretty sparse. Surely, God would want His children to have more knowledge about the great patriarch of old who plays such an important part in His plan. He provided this knowledge through the Book of Abraham, which was revealed through the prophet Joseph Smith. In the Book of Abraham, we learn many more details about his life, his righteous desires, his trials, the revelations given to him, and a much clearer understanding of God's covenant to him - which ultimately includes each of us individually. As new ancient documents regarding Abrahamic tradition come forward, we are finding that they highly corroborate with the story details found in our own Book of Abraham. This book of scripture is truly a gem, and the fact that we have access to it today is nothing short of miraculous.
Unfortunately, critics of the Church love to tear down the Book of Abraham. They believe it's such an easy thing to do that it can be done in one sentence. Watch. "Joseph Smith's explanations of what the facsimiles mean do not match what egyptologists say they mean. Boom. Book of Abraham proven false." Not so fast! To truly understand the complexity of what the Book of Abraham is (and what it is not) requires a lot more thoughtful study than that. The problem with what the critics say is that they base their critiques on three main false assumptions:
1) That the Book of Abraham (BoA) was written and illustrated by Abraham himself on the actual papyri that Joseph Smith had.
2) That the text of the BoA came from the sparse text surrounding the illustrations included as the 3 facsimiles.
3) That Joseph's "translation" of the individual figures in the illustrations was supposed to be a literal Egyptian translation.
Answers:
1) The introduction to the BoA says that it is, "The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus". At face value, this looks like a big problem for the validity of the Book of Abraham because the papyri that Joseph had in his possession were from a time period about 2,000 years after Abraham's life. There is absolutely no way that Abraham could have produced these papyri which are dated to around 100 BC. However, the problem is how we are looking at the phrase "written by his own hand." To us, as modern English speakers, it sounds very obvious that Abraham put his pen to the same papyrus that Joseph translated. But, if you look at ancient documents found in the Middle East, very often the phrase, "written by his own hand" is used to denote who the original author was - not who penned that specific copy. Often, these ancient documents were created hundreds, even thousands, of years after the death of the original authors. Yet, they still contain the phrase "written by his own hand", or "written by the hand of So-and-So". What does this mean for the Book of Abraham? Abraham was the original author of his biography; his story was passed down through the ages either verbally or in various written forms; and someone living 2,000 years after Abraham wrote down his story "upon papyrus".
2) Critics look at the Egyptian text surrounding the illustrations found in the 3 facsimiles and notice that it does not match the text of the BoA. Joseph never said that he was translating the text of the BoA from these illustrations. There's no possible way to even get the amount of text needed for the BoA from the sparse text surrounding the illustrations. Those who were close to Joseph during the time of translation and who were eyewitnesses to the papyri said that, of the 5 scrolls in Joseph's possession, one of them was very long - recently estimated to be 41 feet long based on the curvature of the fragments we still have. The BoA text itself even refers to the illustrations as existing in a place separate from the text itself. Unfortunately for us, years after Joseph's martyrdom, Emma's second husband sold the papyrus scrolls (except 11 small fragments which were framed under glass) to a museum in Chicago. The scrolls were burned in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. Click here for more details on the length of the longest scroll.
3) Finally, critics love to point out that Joseph's translation of the figures in the fascimiles is inconsistent with what Egyptologists say they actually mean. However, they ignore the fact that ancient Semites (Jews and other Middle Eastern peoples) would sometimes use common Egyptian illustrations to tell Semitic stories involving well-known Biblical characters. In addition to Semites doing this, Egyptians also knew about Semitic stories and characters and would often include them in their writings. Whether it was an Egyptian who included Abraham's story on the papyrus or a Jew living in Egypt (fairly common at the time) who adapted the illustrations found in the burial "Book of Breathings" to the Abrahamic story, there is abundant evidence of Semitic influence in Egyptian texts. And why wouldn't there be? After Joseph of old (Abraham's great grandson) brought his family to live in Egypt, the Hebrews lived there for hundreds of years until delivered by Moses. Also, at one period of time, at least part of Egypt was ruled by Semites. For a critic to say that it's ludicrous for a Semitic story to show up in Egyptian papyrus, he must either be ignorant or blatantly ignoring the facts.
Clearly, Abraham was a real person and an important figure in God's covenant with His people. Yet, the Old Testament account of Abraham's life and God's covenant with him is pretty sparse. Surely, God would want His children to have more knowledge about the great patriarch of old who plays such an important part in His plan. He provided this knowledge through the Book of Abraham, which was revealed through the prophet Joseph Smith. In the Book of Abraham, we learn many more details about his life, his righteous desires, his trials, the revelations given to him, and a much clearer understanding of God's covenant to him - which ultimately includes each of us individually. As new ancient documents regarding Abrahamic tradition come forward, we are finding that they highly corroborate with the story details found in our own Book of Abraham. This book of scripture is truly a gem, and the fact that we have access to it today is nothing short of miraculous.
Unfortunately, critics of the Church love to tear down the Book of Abraham. They believe it's such an easy thing to do that it can be done in one sentence. Watch. "Joseph Smith's explanations of what the facsimiles mean do not match what egyptologists say they mean. Boom. Book of Abraham proven false." Not so fast! To truly understand the complexity of what the Book of Abraham is (and what it is not) requires a lot more thoughtful study than that. The problem with what the critics say is that they base their critiques on three main false assumptions:
1) That the Book of Abraham (BoA) was written and illustrated by Abraham himself on the actual papyri that Joseph Smith had.
2) That the text of the BoA came from the sparse text surrounding the illustrations included as the 3 facsimiles.
3) That Joseph's "translation" of the individual figures in the illustrations was supposed to be a literal Egyptian translation.
Answers:
1) The introduction to the BoA says that it is, "The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus". At face value, this looks like a big problem for the validity of the Book of Abraham because the papyri that Joseph had in his possession were from a time period about 2,000 years after Abraham's life. There is absolutely no way that Abraham could have produced these papyri which are dated to around 100 BC. However, the problem is how we are looking at the phrase "written by his own hand." To us, as modern English speakers, it sounds very obvious that Abraham put his pen to the same papyrus that Joseph translated. But, if you look at ancient documents found in the Middle East, very often the phrase, "written by his own hand" is used to denote who the original author was - not who penned that specific copy. Often, these ancient documents were created hundreds, even thousands, of years after the death of the original authors. Yet, they still contain the phrase "written by his own hand", or "written by the hand of So-and-So". What does this mean for the Book of Abraham? Abraham was the original author of his biography; his story was passed down through the ages either verbally or in various written forms; and someone living 2,000 years after Abraham wrote down his story "upon papyrus".
2) Critics look at the Egyptian text surrounding the illustrations found in the 3 facsimiles and notice that it does not match the text of the BoA. Joseph never said that he was translating the text of the BoA from these illustrations. There's no possible way to even get the amount of text needed for the BoA from the sparse text surrounding the illustrations. Those who were close to Joseph during the time of translation and who were eyewitnesses to the papyri said that, of the 5 scrolls in Joseph's possession, one of them was very long - recently estimated to be 41 feet long based on the curvature of the fragments we still have. The BoA text itself even refers to the illustrations as existing in a place separate from the text itself. Unfortunately for us, years after Joseph's martyrdom, Emma's second husband sold the papyrus scrolls (except 11 small fragments which were framed under glass) to a museum in Chicago. The scrolls were burned in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. Click here for more details on the length of the longest scroll.
3) Finally, critics love to point out that Joseph's translation of the figures in the fascimiles is inconsistent with what Egyptologists say they actually mean. However, they ignore the fact that ancient Semites (Jews and other Middle Eastern peoples) would sometimes use common Egyptian illustrations to tell Semitic stories involving well-known Biblical characters. In addition to Semites doing this, Egyptians also knew about Semitic stories and characters and would often include them in their writings. Whether it was an Egyptian who included Abraham's story on the papyrus or a Jew living in Egypt (fairly common at the time) who adapted the illustrations found in the burial "Book of Breathings" to the Abrahamic story, there is abundant evidence of Semitic influence in Egyptian texts. And why wouldn't there be? After Joseph of old (Abraham's great grandson) brought his family to live in Egypt, the Hebrews lived there for hundreds of years until delivered by Moses. Also, at one period of time, at least part of Egypt was ruled by Semites. For a critic to say that it's ludicrous for a Semitic story to show up in Egyptian papyrus, he must either be ignorant or blatantly ignoring the facts.
Evidences in Favor of the Book of Abraham
So, it's clear that the false assumptions are exactly that. So now what? Is there evidence in favor of the historicity of the Book of Abraham? Yes! And it is growing every year. Below, I have provided some links to some of the articles that best demonstrate this for me:
***Here's an article describing six different instances (of dozens) of where Abraham is mentioned in Egyptian religious texts written during the same time period that the BoA papyri were produced. Even though Egyptian religion is skewed from the truth via the inclusion of many gods, this at least shows that Abraham and other biblical characters (Isaac, Jacob, Jehovah and Elohim) were known to the Egyptians. Click Here
***Here's an article that shows instances of ancient Semitic people using Egyptian illustrations to tell Semitic stories. This article is invaluable to a better understanding of the BoA. It's a lengthy, detailed article, but I suggest reading this one in full if you are willing to devote the time needed to truly understand the Book of Abraham on a deeper level. Click Here
***What about the text of the book itself? It's actually the strongest evidence for the veracity of the Book of Abraham yet! It highly correlates with many facts about Abraham's life found in recently discovered ancient texts that were unavailable to Joseph Smith. Click Here
Be careful. Remember, you can't go through this journey of faith alone. No matter how much evidence archeologists and egyptologists find, the die-hard critics will never be swayed. Pride has always been the biggest stumbling block for God's children. As covenant children of Christ, we need to be humble and prayerful as we read the Book of Abraham. Religion is much more than just chasing evidence and coming to logical conclusions. The Lord says that He will reveal the truth to the mind and the heart. Both parts of the equation are important. Scholarship can help with the "mind" part, but we should not underestimate the role of the Holy Ghost in revealing the truth to the heart.
******
Additional links that provide useful details and answers if you have more specific questions regarding the Book of Abraham.
Part 1
Part 2
***Here's an article describing six different instances (of dozens) of where Abraham is mentioned in Egyptian religious texts written during the same time period that the BoA papyri were produced. Even though Egyptian religion is skewed from the truth via the inclusion of many gods, this at least shows that Abraham and other biblical characters (Isaac, Jacob, Jehovah and Elohim) were known to the Egyptians. Click Here
***Here's an article that shows instances of ancient Semitic people using Egyptian illustrations to tell Semitic stories. This article is invaluable to a better understanding of the BoA. It's a lengthy, detailed article, but I suggest reading this one in full if you are willing to devote the time needed to truly understand the Book of Abraham on a deeper level. Click Here
***What about the text of the book itself? It's actually the strongest evidence for the veracity of the Book of Abraham yet! It highly correlates with many facts about Abraham's life found in recently discovered ancient texts that were unavailable to Joseph Smith. Click Here
Be careful. Remember, you can't go through this journey of faith alone. No matter how much evidence archeologists and egyptologists find, the die-hard critics will never be swayed. Pride has always been the biggest stumbling block for God's children. As covenant children of Christ, we need to be humble and prayerful as we read the Book of Abraham. Religion is much more than just chasing evidence and coming to logical conclusions. The Lord says that He will reveal the truth to the mind and the heart. Both parts of the equation are important. Scholarship can help with the "mind" part, but we should not underestimate the role of the Holy Ghost in revealing the truth to the heart.
******
Additional links that provide useful details and answers if you have more specific questions regarding the Book of Abraham.
Part 1
Part 2
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