Book of Abraham Fact or Fiction?

Book of Abraham Fact or Fiction?
Hi, I’m Danny. I was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 60 years. The Mormon Church has four books it considers scripture: Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. Within the Pearl of Great Price is the Book of Abraham. That is the topic for this video.
I want to ask those of you who are Latter-day Saints, if you’ve ever prayed to know the Book of Abraham is true? Unlike the Book of Mormon, there is no invite in the Book of Abraham to ask God if it is true. Perhaps that is why no one I know has ever tested the Book of Abraham in that way. They assume it is true because Joseph Smith claimed to have the gift to be the translator of the ancient record. Their trust is in Joseph Smith being a true prophet, who would never lie about such a thing. Would he?
What if you became aware that the Book of Abraham has been proven to be something other than a direct translation from ancient papyrus? From ancient Egyptian into 16th century King James English, no less? Are you aware that when Joseph Smith claimed it to be a direct translation of the ancient scrolls, it has since been proven to be a fraud?
Let me begin by sharing some LDS church history. In 1835, a traveling showman Michael Chandler, brought an exhibit of Egyptian artifacts to the Mormon town of Kirtland Ohio. Those artifacts consisted of four ancient Egyptian mummies and two papyrus scrolls. Because the Latter-day Saints believed their prophet Joseph Smith had the gift to translate the Book of Mormon gold plates that were inscribed in reformed Egyptian, those same Latter-day Saints believed Joseph might want to see if the papyri were of any religious value. Smith examined the hieroglyphics on the scrolls and declared them to be the writings of Abraham and the writings of Joseph who was sold into Egypt. Despite the severe financial problems, the church was suffering at the time, it purchased the scrolls for $2,400, a large sum of money in those days. Joseph immediately began the translation of the first scroll. He stated in JS, History of the Church, Vol. 2:235-236 “I commenced the translation of some of the characters or hieroglyphics, and much to our joy found that one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham” Question: Was he telling the truth or not?
The work began in Kirtland and abruptly ended in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1842. Consequently, he never got around to the translation of the supposed writings of Joseph of Egypt. But, in the eyes of church members this translation of Abraham’s record validated Joseph as a “prophet, seer, and revelator.” Contained within the book were unique and distinct doctrines such as the pre-existence of spirits, eternal progression, and the plurality of gods. It also, introduced the first and only scriptural basis for denying the priesthood to people of black skin. We can find the “curse of Cain” in Abraham 1:21-27.
The value and impact of the Book of Abraham was recognized at once by the faithful, and Joseph continued to expound upon its contents in lectures and sermons right up to the time of his death in 1844. Now let me tell you what became of the papyrus scrolls that the Book of Abraham was translated from.
Once Joseph Smith was killed, the papyri collection remained in the possession of his widow, Emma who refused to follow the leadership of Brigham Young and remained in Nauvoo with her children, while the Saints moved west to the Utah Territory.
In October of 1880, the Book of Abraham was included in The Pearl of Great Price which was officially canonized at the Church’s semi-annual General Conference in Salt Lake City. Maintaining the divine authority of the Book of Abraham remains every bit as vital to the doctrines and theology of the LDS Church today, as it did in the days of Joseph Smith.
The Introduction to the Book of Abraham reads, “The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own, hand upon papyrus.”
Nearly forty years passed from the time Joseph translated the Book of Abraham, until it was officially recognized as sacred Scripture of the LDS Church. However, during that period something occurred which neither Joseph nor any of his contemporaries could have foreseen.
After many years of dedicated work on the Rosetta Stone, scholars in Europe were finally able to decipher the ancient Egyptian language. It was now possible to accurately translate Egyptian texts without the mantle of a prophet.
Initially, it did not appear likely that this new development would impact the isolated Utah Mormon Church, now headquartered in the Rocky Mountains.
So, what happened to the papyrus scrolls that Emma had?
The papyri scrolls were eventually sold by Emma and made their way to the Museum of Chicago. They were presumed to be destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. But Smith’s papyri had not been destroyed, after all. Lost, yes – but not forever.
One day in 1966 (nearly a hundred years later), a professor of Arabic Studies from the University of Utah entered one of the vault rooms of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, seeking material for a book he was writing. Dr. Aziz Atiya came across a file that contained an apparently forgotten collection of Egyptian papyri, which had been glued to stiff backing paper in the 19th-century in an, effort to preserve them. The reverse sides of the paper contained such things as architectural drawings of a temple and maps of Kirtland, Ohio. Dr. Atiya, not a Mormon, himself, recognized the collection as having a connection with the history of the LDS Church. Dr. Atiya arranged for the LDS Church to acquire this collection from the museum.
On November 27, 1967, the Salt Lake Deseret Newspaper announced the discovery of the original papyrus from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Abraham. There was great excitement and anticipation among the Latter-day Saints.
Questions quickly rose – Would the arguments of critics be overcome and silenced at last? Would Joseph Smith’s work finally be justified before the eyes of a skeptical world? The Saints waited expectantly and held their breath.
We can only imagine the anticipation since the LDS Church had been criticized all those years for not having the Gold Plates to validate the Book of Mormon, and the ancient Egyptian papyri to validate the Book of Abraham. Finally, there were highly educated Egyptologists who could translate the writings on the papyrus to let everyone know if it was truly what Joseph claimed it to be – the Book of Abraham.
Now that the papyrus scrolls which were back in the custody of the Mormon Church – it allowed photographs of the papyrus to be published in the February 1968 edition of the Improvement Era magazine, along with an article explaining them. Now that over a hundred years had passed since the book’s translation, there were many educated people both in and out of the LDS faith who understood the Egyptian language.
During this time, many articles ran in the Improvement Era from 1968 through 1970 regarding the translation. However, the LDS expert’s completed work revealed – that not only did the papyri NOT contain the writings of Abraham – there was not even the remotest connection between their contents and Abraham. They were simply ordinary Egyptian funeral texts – prayers to pagan Egyptian gods – that had been buried with the mummies.
Unsatisfied with the outcome, LDS leaders extended the opportunity to several non-LDS Egyptologists to examine and comment on the papyri. Each one of them arrived at the same conclusion: the papyri were common funerary texts, all clearly dating 1500 years later than Abraham’s time – having no connection whatever with the biblical patriarch Abraham. What Joseph Smith claimed to be the Book of Abraham was in reality the Book of Breathings. And what was supposed to be the Book of Joseph of Egypt, was the Book of the Dead, written by a very superstitious people, and quite different from the religion of Christianity and theologically contradicted the Bible.
If you are LDS and haven’t fully considered this before, you might decide that despite these problems with the Book of Abraham – you still have a testimony that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. I don’t question your testimony is sincere. I wonder if it is based on subjective feelings of the heart, instead of proven reliable facts. God doesn’t usually create faith by first offering evidence, but at some point, He does provide the evidence necessary to support truth faith. To be objective, you must be willing to examine the evidence both for and against any religious claims. It is a painful fact of life that sincerity is not a guarantee against being wrong. Faith must have its basis in fact. For a testimony to be valid, there must be something to support it, to serve as a witness for it. Conversely, there must be nothing that legitimately discredits it. A willingness to accept facts as they exist, and to learn to use them to test the views one holds rather than falling back on subjective experiences or rationalizations, is the first step towards discovering genuine truth.
Virtually every Mormon belief about the Book of Abraham once considered essential to its support has been shattered by the true facts. Not one trace of reliable evidence has appeared that would support the LDS view of the book as an authentic scripture. While an enormous amount of evidence is available to show that it is a man-made production of the 19th-century, created by Joseph Smith to support his claims to be a “prophet, seer, and revelator”. If the book is man-made and not from God – what does that say about the doctrines it teaches, or the religious system to which it belongs?
You need to know, since the original papyrus contains nothing about Abraham – some Mormon apologists have suggested that Joseph Smith may have obtained the content of the Book of Abraham by way of direct revelation. In other words, from inspiration not translation of the papyrus. These defenders of Mormonism suggest that perhaps he was inspired to write the Book of Abraham as, he was looking at the unrelated hieroglyphics on the scrolls.
Those who try to use this escape – find themselves trapped by the words of Joseph Smith himself. You know why? Because Joseph not only claimed he translated it from the papyrus but affirmed that it was “a correct translation” – Joseph Smith, History of the Church, vol. 2:351.
Because the LDS Church rarely announces changes they make – you might not have noticed that in 2013 changes were made to the Mormon scriptures. And at that time, the description of the Book of Abraham was changed? The introduction used to say the Book of Abraham was “a translation from some Egyptian papyri”. Now it states that it is “an inspired translation of the writings of Abraham”. This seems to be an effort by the LDS Church to distance the text from the actual writings on the papyri.
If Joseph Smith fails as a translator of the Book of Abraham – where his translation can be checked against the papyrus – why would anyone believe his “translation” of the Book of Mormon, when there is no evidence the gold plates ever existed?
Honestly, my friends – this was a major factor in my deciding that Mormonism was not true. The founder of the LDS Church who was a self-claimed prophet of God, was at least deceitful if not an out-right liar about his gift to translate ancient scripture. And the LDS Church has finally come forth to address this sticky issue. The Church finally confronted the problem by releasing a Gospel Topic Essay around 2013, titled “Translation and the Historicity of the Book of Abraham.” You can find it on the LDS Church website. The essay justifies its existence by concluding that, “Joseph’s translation was not a literal rendering of the papyri as a conventional translation would be. Rather, the physical artifacts provided an occasion for meditation, reflection, and revelation. They catalyzed a process whereby God gave to Joseph Smith a revelation about the life of Abraham, even if that revelation did not directly correlate to the characters on the papyri.” This is now commonly known among LDS apologists as the “catalyst theory” or “catalyst method,” where a person can look at an unrelated document and be inspired to write about something entirely different. In this case, it’s a desperate attempt to justify the Book of Abraham.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only time Smith’s claim to translate got him into trouble. I will release in my next video, the account of the “Kinderhook Plates” -which was an intentional trap to catch Joseph in a lie about his gift as a translator. Stay tuned!
Again, thank you for watching! Please share, like, and subscribe for more videos like this one on You Tube and at talking to Mormons.com
God Bless!