Mormons, Is the book of Abraham really Egyptian funerary documents?

Question

The LDS claim the ancient papyri that Joseph Smith supposedly translated from Egyptian language to create the book of Abraham was burned in a fire when, later in 1967 these same papyri had been found in the New York Metropolitan Museum. (Some, even with notes in Joseph Smith's own handwriting on the back of them!) In 1967 this same museum donated these papyri to the Mormon Church, and the Church agrees these are the same papyri Joseph used to produce the Book of Abraham. Soon after the Church began its own translation of the papyri, as did at least 4 other well known Egyptologists not associated with the Church. When the Egyptologists finished, all their translations resulted in basically the same translation, which concluded that the book of Abraham had absolutely nothing to do with the papyri! In fact, the papyri did not even mention Abraham's name! Instead, the papyri turned out to be common Egyptian funerary documents known as "The Book of the Dead" and "The Book of Breathings"

Answer 1

I have an idea..
1. Get the Book of Abraham..
2. Read it yourself so you can be sure what it says for yourself..
3.Pray to God in the Name of Jesus Christ in sincerity for Guidance /answers to whatever questions..
4. Listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit..

By this means ye may know the truth of all things..or in other words go to the source instead of silly Ideologys and fruitless contests of opinions which get no where.

Answer 2

The images are what Joseph Smith translated most of the Book of Abraham from (by his own admission), and the images were more or less intact. The most prevalent theory (including Mormon scholars) is that the 18-20 inches that were found are the parts considered "relevant" by Joseph Smith, and that the rest was discarded, because it was "useless".

In any case, Joseph said nothing about Horus when he 'translated' the book.

Also, the papyri have been confirmed to date from about the 2nd century AD, more than 2000 years after the Abrahamic era. An analysis of the book of breathings shows egyptian customs of that time, and not from the time of Abraham.

Also, the parts of the papyri that Joseph copied to show other people "what he had translated" are found on these papyri. This further confirms the theory that these 18 inches of papyrus was what Joseph 'translated' the book from.

Answer 3

It's supposedly the "book of breathings" (funeral script) of a guy named Horus... the common Mormon Apologist view is that the papyri "inspired" Joseph Smith, and that by the power of God, he translated the Book of Abraham that had long been lost. In other words, since he was a prophet of God, he didn't need to have the "actual" book of Abraham in front of him to translate it... some people choose to believe it, and others don't, but it's really a trivial matter because either the doctrine is true or it isn't... it doesn't really matter where the papyri came from.

Mormon scholars, including Hugh Nibley, were the first to conclude that it was a book of breathings. They found Joseph's handwriting on the papyri along with city planning diagrams of Nauvoo, and Temple building plans. The papyri are indeed authentic.

Answer 4

The Book of Abraham was written/translated by Joseph Smith in the 1800s, centuries after the bible was published. That explains why it isn't in the Bible. It seems pretty clear why nobody would see the words as genuine except the LDS- obviously if someone believed the works were genuine then they would believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and they would convert to LDS. I don't think there is an official published reason, and I don't see the need for one- things like this are a matter of faith like any other belief about Mormonism. Either Joseph Smith was called by God or he wasn't. Obviously, if you belief he was a prophet of God than you will believe the Book of Abraham that he was inspired to write/translate. If you don't, you probably won't. A scientific proof that the book is what is claims to be would be a scientific proof that Joseph was a prophet; the believers' stance has long been that such proof is outside the domain of science- it's a matter of faith. If a teacher, or God, wanted to give people a test to help them learn and see if they were diligent/sincere about what they believed/knew, He wouldn't give them the answer key at the same time. Belief in the Book of Abraham, or the Book of Mormon, or the LDS church as a whole, all hinges on whether someone believes Joseph Smith was called by God to be a prophet. You can't really believe half of his story and not the other half, so it's no surprise that people who aren't LDS don't believe the Book of Abraham is authentic. That would be like believing Jesus was born of a virgin and healed the blind/deaf/lame/dead, but not believing that He was resurrected. Only Christians believe in Jesus' resurrection, because if you believe in the resurrection than you will believe in Christianity. For the second question, no, the Book of Abraham and the Book of Moses are not included in Joseph Smith's translation of the bible. His follows the same format as the King James, no extra books, and most LDS don't even own a Joseph Smith translation. They use the King James like everyone else. The Book of Abraham and Moses are published separately by the LDS and are known as the "Pearl of Great Price".

Answer 5

And thus we conclude????

Oh wait, I know..pick me! Jospeh was a fraud. He didn't know what he was doing. He looked in a hat for miracles. He rode across the plains on a white buffalo...blah blah blah.

So is there any point in saying that what Joseph Smith translated (or not) was more important to the world than the papyri? And what of the illustrations? I had a POGP teacher suggest that they were the most important part of receiving the revelation.

So how do YOU receive visions and revelation?

Have you read the works you cite here? Read them and then do the book report.

BTW...The Book of the Dead is very interesting. A good read! Not as good as the Pearl of Great Price, but a good read.

Answer 6

Good question, what is also known is that only a very small piece of the papyri was found, maybe a foot and a half of it. The rest of it which was over ten feet in length is still missing, take a look at the link I have provided in my source for a lot more information regarding some of the questions you have.

Answer 7

The papyri that the church has is what you describe, but, from how Joseph Smith and others who saw the papyri originally describe them, we don't have all the papyri that Joseph Smith had.

Answer 8

Yep, that's what I found out. It's all a big lie,one of many . Ol' Joe thought he was being real slick, thinking he could get away with it all. No one back then could read ancient Egyptian. The LDS are now having to answer for his lies. They have to come up with more lies and speculation to cover for him. FARMS and Jeff Lindsay are very good at spinning.

Answer 9

No, it is not. Rather, it is a fragment from a book that the prophet Abraham wrote. Joseph Smith could only translate scripture that was important.

Answer 10

i read something odd too. i have nothing against homosexuals, but most christians find it abhorent, i read that king james enjoyed the company of young boys, how many christians own and read a king james bible today.... and do they know this

and what did he change in the bible