Book of Abraham

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The first page of the book of Abraham in English
A portion of the papyrus used by Joseph Smith as the source of the book. The difference between the translations of the Egyptologists and Joseph Smiths is controversial.

The Book of Abraham (Engl. Book of Abraham) is one among the canonical Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints (commonly Mormons called) and forms a part of the book Pearl of Great Price . The book is arguably the most controversial of the Mormon scriptures.

The five-chapter text was written by Joseph Smith and given as a translation of ancient Egyptian texts. The canonical book of Abraham also includes three facsimiles of papyri with explanations added by Smith.

While Latter-day Saints' Church of Jesus Christ holds this book as scripture, it is no longer considered scriptural in the fellowship of Christ , the second largest Mormon church, today.

Emergence

Joseph Smith, the first prophet of this church, acquired two Egyptian mummies from a traveling showman in July 1835, which contained a number of papyrus scrolls. Smith stated that he used divine revelation to translate one of these scrolls, just as he translated the Book of Mormon from gold tablets. The text and facsimiles were first published in several editions of the Mormon Times and Seasons newspaper between March and May 1842 . Smith wrote that the contents of this papyrus were written by Abraham himself. In the introduction, Smith writes: "The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the book of Abraham, written by his own hand on papyrus."

evaluation

After the papyri from the Joseph Smith estate went missing for decades, a small portion of them reappeared in 1967. These fragments have been consistently identified by Egyptologists, both those who believed the testimony of Joseph Smith's book of Abraham and those who disapproved of it, as the "Book of Breath," an abridged version of the Egyptian Book of the Dead published in Egypt traditionally deceased was placed in the grave. This text has nothing in common with the Book of Abraham. In addition, the origin of this papyrus was dated to the late Egyptian, Hellenistic period, many centuries after Abraham. The opponents of the divine origin of the Book of Abraham see themselves confirmed by this. They also argue that a 34-page manuscript from Joseph Smith entitled Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar has survived, which, although it shows an intensive study of the papyri, is an imaginary product with a real grammar, an alphabet or a vocabulary list of Egyptian has nothing to do with it. They also point out that the illustrations in the Book of Abraham (Facsimiles No. 1 to 3) by Joseph Smith and / or his associates are forged Egyptian representations with his approval and have the greatest evidential value of the potential for fraud and charlatanry of Joseph Smith.

Proponents of the assumption that it was a divinely inspired translation of the book of Abraham, especially the representatives of FARMS , argue against it that Joseph Smith (actually his colleague Oliver Cowdery) spoke of a well-preserved papyrus that is partly clean with written in red ink. The rediscovered fragments, however, in no way correspond to this description. However, the illustration in the Book of Abraham, Facsimile No. 3, shows that Joseph Smith did use these rediscovered fragments for the "translation". The papyrus fragments were only found again because someone recognized the image in the museum archive as the image in the Book of Abraham. Joseph Smith's attempts to scientifically decipher Egyptian characters are considered by these scholars to be irrelevant, since they took place after the Book of Abraham was written and had nothing to do with a translation with the help of divine revelation. They assume that the papyri on which the Book of Abraham is based are still lost. With regard to the too young age, they argue that a text can be much older than the present edition. For example, Shakespeare's works in an edition from the 20th century were nevertheless written by Shakespeare in the 17th century. This principle also applies to the book of Abraham. For those in favor of the book, the statement that the book was written by Abraham "by his own hand" refers only to the text itself, not to the papyri available to Smith.

Proponents and opponents also interpret the content of the Book of Abraham very differently. The opponents are trying to prove that the book came from the imagination of Joseph Smith and was thus a product of the 19th century. Its proponents try to prove that the statements in it, including the description of the images attached to the text as a facsimile, correspond to the cosmological, religious and social views in ancient Egypt or in the Hebrew culture influenced by it. It is also explained in detail that Joseph Smith's explanations are entirely in accordance with Egyptian representations and that the additions of missing parts of the images, which critics criticized as arbitrary, have parallels in Egyptian representations found elsewhere. Joseph Smith's explanations of the facsimiles, in the opinion of critics, demonstrate Joseph Smith's absolute incompetence in Egyptology. Critics even conclude that Joseph Smith intended fraud. Those who consider the Book of Abraham to be genuine have replied in detail to this criticism and take the view that it has been conclusively refuted.

swell

  1. ↑ A detailed description of these "Kirtland Egyptian Papers" can be found here [1]
  2. ^ John Gee, A History of the Joseph Smith Papyri and the Book of Abraham (Provo: FARMS, 1999), 15
  3. ↑ Kevin L. Barney: The Facsimiles and Semitic Adaptation of Existing Sources, Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, pp. 115–116

Web links

Commons : Book of Abraham  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files