Book of Abraham Manuscript, circa July–circa November 1835–A [Abraham 1:4–2:6]
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Source Note
Book of Abraham, manuscript, [, Geauga Co., OH], [ca. early July–ca. Nov. 1835]; handwriting of ; four pages; Book of Abraham Manuscripts, CHL. Includes archival marking.Two leaves of different types of paper, the first measuring 12½ × 7⅝ inches (32 × 19 cm) and the second 12½ × 7¾ inches (32 × 20 cm). The first leaf is unlined; the second is ruled, bearing thirty-seven blue lines, now faded. The first three pages bear a hand-drawn margin line, separating hieratic characters from the English text of the Book of Abraham. The leaves were folded in half once, the fold line running horizontally. The first leaf bears staining that appears to have been caused by water, mold, or possibly ink from another document. The second leaf bears staining that appears to be caused by oil-based material. The top of each recto is labeled with a letter in blue ink; the first is labeled “J”, and the second, “L”. These letters, which resemble markings on other Book of Abraham and Egyptian-language documents, served as a way to organize the documents. The markings were apparently written by assistant church historian Andrew Jenson and therefore show early custody of this document by the Historian’s Office. This record was likely grouped with the records listed in early Historian’s Office inventories as “Egyptian Grammar”, which would also indicate continuous institutional custody.
Footnotes
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1
“Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1]; “Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th April 1855,” [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
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1
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Historical Introduction
In summer 1835, traveling exhibitor arrived in , Ohio, with a collection of Egyptian antiquities, including four mummies and an assortment of papyri inscribed with hieroglyphic and hieratic characters. After meeting Chandler and examining the papyri, JS identified some of the writings as accounts of the biblical patriarchs Abraham and Joseph, and JS and other investors purchased most or all of Chandler’s antiquities. Sometime between early July and late November 1835, JS produced a manuscript that became part of the Book of Abraham, a text considered by Latter-day Saints to be an inspired translation of portions of the papyri. The featured text, in the handwriting of , represents perhaps the earliest extant copy of the Book of Abraham.arrived in at a time when ancient Egyptian artifacts were generating tremendous excitement in Europe and . The mummies and papyri exhibited by Chandler survived millennia and crossed oceans before arriving in the United States in the early 1830s. Exhumed by antiquities dealer Antonio Lebolo in the late 1810s or early 1820s, likely from tombs near the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, the mummies and papyrus records became part of Lebolo’s estate after his death in Italy in 1830. Sometime before April 1833, Lebolo’s Egyptian collection was sent to the shipping firms of Maitland & Kennedy and McLeod & Gillespie in .Following their arrival in , the mummies and papyri once owned by Lebolo were exhibited in nearly a dozen cities across the . The collection was initially displayed at the Masonic Hall in , Pennsylvania, in early April and moved to the Baltimore Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, before 20 July 1833. From mid-August 1833 to February 1834, the artifacts were exhibited in museums and exhibition halls in Lancaster, Harrisburg, and , Pennsylvania; , Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; and , Louisiana. During the first year of the tour, as many as seven of the mummies were sold to museums or private collectors.The traveling exhibition reached the small township of , Ohio, by mid-February 1835, and in late March, four mummies were on display in , where they received significant coverage in local newspapers. In addition to reporting on the mummies, observers noted with curiosity the rolls or books of papyrus displayed along with the bodies. The Cleveland Whig, for example, observed, “There was found deposited in the arms of the old man . . . a book of ancient form and construction, which, to us, was by far the most interesting part of the exhibition.” On 26 March, the Cleveland Advertiser informed readers that “the collection is offered for sale by the proprietor.”Though was referred to as “proprietor” of the mummies, his relationship to the Egyptian collection is not fully understood. Born in Ireland around 1797, Chandler migrated with his family to the , likely in the late 1820s. Chandler’s profession and activities before 1835 are unknown. When he arrived in in late June or early July, he informed that he was Lebolo’s nephew and had acquired the antiquities in in 1833; however, there is no documentary evidence to support these claims. According to a letter written by disaffected church member in 1844, Chandler was acting as an agent for the collection’s proprietors when he exhibited the mummies and papyri in in 1835.Whether owner of the collection or an agent for the owners, had apparently been referred to JS, who he was told could translate the hieroglyphic characters written on the papyri. Shortly after JS’s first meeting with Chandler in late June or early July 1835, JS, , and an “S. Andrews” purchased Chandler’s four mummies and some, if not all, of his Egyptian papyri for the substantial sum of $2,400.According to an entry in a later JS history, JS began “the translation of some of the characters or hieroglyphics” written on the ancient papyri in early July 1835. In the months that followed, JS and four associates—, , , and —spent significant time engaged in two related endeavors: the translation and preparation of what would later be referred to as the Book of Abraham and a language-study effort that produced a number of Egyptian alphabet and grammar manuscripts. While the unexpected acquisition of the papyri generated some excitement and curiosity in the community at large, it was not the sole catalyst for the interest that JS and other church members showed in language study and ancient texts; rather, the analysis and translation of those characters represented one part of a larger ongoing project to understand various ancient languages and texts during the early to mid-1830s.Seven brief entries in JS’s journal offer the only contemporary firsthand account of his language-study and translation endeavors in 1835. JS’s 1835–1836 journal was begun on 22 September, more than two months after he apparently began his work with the papyri, but the first mention of ancient languages comes on 1 October, when the journal indicates that JS “labored on the Egyptian alphabet, in company with brsr and .” Entries from 7 October through 26 November are similarly concise, using language such as “spent the day in translating, and made rapid progress”; “translated some of the Egyptian records”; and “spent the day in transcribing Egyptian characters from the papyrus.” No contemporary document describes the method by which JS translated the Book of Abraham, and there is likewise no documentation of how he and associates produced the alphabet. Several months after was excommunicated from the church in December 1837, he informed the editor of the Painesville Republican that he had “penned down the translation of the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks as he [JS] claimed to receive it by direct inspiration from Heaven.”Among the various Book of Abraham and Egyptian-related texts produced between circa early July and circa 26 November 1835 (the last date JS’s journal mentions his work with the papyri) are three versions of portions of the Book of Abraham. In the Joseph Smith Papers, these are labeled as Book of Abraham Manuscript–A (the version featured here), –B, and –C, to differentiate between them. Textual evidence suggests that these Book of Abraham texts were based on an earlier manuscript that is no longer extant. The copy presented here was inscribed by and comprises what is today Abraham 1:4−2:6 in the Latter-day Saint scripture known as the Pearl of Great Price. Written from Abraham’s point of view, this passage depicts the biblical patriarch’s calling to the priesthood, his escape from idolatrous priests in “the land of the Chaldeans,” and his journey toward Egypt with his wife, Sarah. Portions of the text parallel the account recorded in Genesis 11 and 12. Though not the most complete of the three extant versions, the featured text may be the earliest.Like the other two copies of the Book of Abraham manuscript, the featured document contains characters—many of which are hieratic characters, a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphs—in the left margin. Many of the characters were copied from a portion of the papyri referred to by modern Egyptologists as the “Breathing Permit of Hôr.” Though the juxtaposition of the characters and Book of Abraham text implies a relationship between the two, the exact nature of that relationship is not stated. Modern Egyptologists agree that the Book of Abraham text is not a translation of the characters.News that JS was translating portions of the Egyptian papyri spread quickly through the church and the local community, but there is no evidence that anyone beyond those working on the manuscripts in 1835 knew the details of the Abraham text. In late 1837, it appears that church leaders planned to publish some of the Egyptian-related materials, likely the Book of Abraham. In a 5 November meeting, the church voted to “sanction the appointment of the Presidents in authorizing & , to transact the business of the Church in procuring the means to translate & print those records taken from the chatacombs of Egypt, now in the temple.” It was not until March 1842, however, that the Book of Abraham was published in the church’s publication the Times and Seasons.
Footnotes
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1
Most contemporary accounts agree that four mummies were brought to Kirtland. However, observers described the form or number of Egyptian records variously as “some two or more rolls of papyrus,” “two rolls of papyrus . . . [and] two or three other small pieces of papyrus,” and “two papyrus rolls, besides some other ancient Egyptian writing.”a It is not clear whether some of the records were sold before Chandler arrived in Kirtland. Newspaper accounts of the exhibit described some of the records variously as a “roll or book, having a little resemblance to birch bark,” a “roll . . . filled with hieroglyphics,” and a “book of ancient form and construction. . . . Its leaves were of bark.”b
(aJS History, vol. B-1, 595–596; Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to William Frye, Calhoun Co., IL, 22 Dec. 1835, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 70; William W. Phelps to Sally Waterman Phelps, 20 July 1835, in Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 20 July 1835. b“Mummies,” Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 27 Mar. 1835, [3]; “A Rare Exhibition,” Cleveland Whig, 25 Mar. 1835, 1, italics in original.)
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Historical Department. Journal History of the Church, 1896–. CHL. CR 100 137.
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
Cleveland Whig. Cleveland. 1834–1836.
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Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to William Frye, Lebanon, IL, 22 Dec. 1835, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 69–74; William W. Phelps to Sally Waterman Phelps, 20 July 1835, in Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 20 July 1835; Corrill, Brief History, 45; JS History, vol. B-1, 595–596.
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Historical Department. Journal History of the Church, 1896–. CHL. CR 100 137.
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3
JS did not translate in the conventional sense of the word. For more on JS’s use of the word translation as it applied to various projects, see “Joseph Smith Documents Dating through June 1831;” and “Joseph Smith as Revelator and Translator.”
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4
During the early nineteenth century, Europeans and Americans demonstrated a revived enthusiasm for Egyptian antiquities, an interest British architect and museum proprietor John Soane once referred to as “Egyptian mania.” Several events contributed to this enthusiasm, including Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1798 invasion of Egypt; a massive multivolume study of Egypt’s ancient history and culture, known as Description de l’Egypte, published by French scholars from 1809 to 1829; news that Thomas Young and Jean-Francois Champollion had independently deciphered some Egyptian hieroglyphs; and Egyptian antiquities that were exported to and exhibited in Europe and America from the 1800s through the 1830s and beyond. (Watkin, Sir John Soane, 36–37; Nina Burleigh, Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt [New York: Harper, 2007]; Description de l’Égypte [Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1809–1829]; Robinson, Cracking the Egyptian Code, 80–91, 127–150; Hume, Belzoni, 204–220; Wolfe, Mummies in Nineteenth Century America, 7–54.)
Watkin, David. Sir John Soane: The Royal Academy Lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Burleigh, Nina. Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt. New York: Harper, 2007.
Description de l’Égypte, ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l’expédition de l’armée française, publié par les ordres de Sa Majesté l’Empereur Napoléon le Grand. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1809–1829.
Robinson, Andrew. Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Hume, Ivor Noël. Belzoni: The Giant Archaeologists Love to Hate. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011.
Wolfe, S. J. With Robert Singerman. Mummies in Nineteenth Century America: Ancient Egyptians as Artifacts. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009.
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Born in the Piedmont region of Italy in 1781, Lebolo made his way to Egypt in his mid-thirties to work for Bernardino Drovetti, a French consul to Egypt and trusted adviser to the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali. Employed by Drovetti through the mid-1820s, Lebolo was allowed to excavate and sell some objects on his own, which, according to one contemporary observer, brought him “a moderate fortune.” Though the location of the tombs from which the mummies and records were exhumed is unclear, Lebolo spent time excavating artifacts on the west bank of the modern Egyptian city of Luxor. (Tyldesley, Egypt, 72–74; Count Carlo Vidua to Count Pio Vidua, 20 June 1820, in Pomba, Letters of Count Caro Vidua, 177; Peterson, Story of the Book of Abraham, 45–67.)
Tyldesley, Joyce. Egypt: How a Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered. London: BBC Books, 2005.
Pomba, Giuseppe, ed. Letters of Count Carlo Vidua. trans. Cinzia Noble and Murray R. Low. Turin: Cesare Balbo, 1834.
Peterson, H. Donl. The Story of the Book of Abraham: Mummies, Manuscripts, and Mormonism. Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 2008.
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In November 1829, Lebolo prepared a will that included a lengthy inventory of his possessions. Attached to the will was a legal document, drawn up after Lebolo’s death, listing additional assets held in Trieste, Italy; among these assets were eleven mummies entrusted to Albano Oblasser, who was authorized to sell them on behalf of Lebolo’s four sons. Another legal document, written in 1833 on behalf of Lebolo’s oldest son, Pietro, notes that the collection was sent to Maitland & Kennedy and McLeod & Gillespie. (“My Last Will, Antonio Lebolo” and “Special Power of Attorney from Pietro Lebolo to Bertola Francesco,” photocopies, in Peterson, Research Collection on the Book of Abraham Papyri, BYU; Peterson, Story of the Book of Abraham, 76–80.)
Peterson, H. Donl. Research Collection on the Book of Abraham Papyri, 1964–1994. BYU.
Peterson, H. Donl. The Story of the Book of Abraham: Mummies, Manuscripts, and Mormonism. Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 2008.
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Daily Chronicle (Philadelphia), 3–22 Apr. 1833; “Egyptian Mummies,” Daily Intelligencer (Philadelphia), 9 Apr. 1833, [2]; Baltimore (MD) Gazette, 20 July–16 Aug. 1833; “Six Egyptian Mummies,” Lancaster (PA) Journal, 30 Aug. 1833, [2]; “Six Egyptian Mummies,” Harrisburg (PA) Chronicle, 9 Sept. 1833, [3]; Daily Pittsburgh (PA) Gazette, 21 Oct.–18 Nov. 1833; “Six Egyptian Mummies!,” Cincinnati Advertiser, and Ohio Phoenix, 25 Dec. 1833, [2]; “Egyptian Mummies,” Daily Louisville (KY) Public Advertiser, 10 Jan. 1834; Webb, “Mystery of the Mummies,” 1–5.
Daily Chronicle. Philadelphia. 1828–1834.
Daily Intelligencer. Philadelphia. 1832–1833.
Baltimore Gazette and Daily Advertiser. Baltimore. 1825–1838.
Lancaster Journal. Lancaster, PA. 1794–1839.
Harrisburg Chronicle. Harrisburg, PA. 1820–1842.
Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. Pittsburgh. 1833–1841.
Cincinnati Advertiser, and Ohio Phoenix. Cincinnati. 1823–1841.
Daily Louisville Public Advertiser. Louisville, KY. 1830–1834.
Webb, Philip R. “Mystery of the Mummies: An Update on the Joseph Smith Collection.” Religious Studies Center Newsletter 20, no. 2 (205): 1–5.
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Webb, “Mystery of the Mummies,” 1–5; Wolfe, Mummies in Nineteenth Century America, 101–105.
Webb, Philip R. “Mystery of the Mummies: An Update on the Joseph Smith Collection.” Religious Studies Center Newsletter 20, no. 2 (205): 1–5.
Wolfe, S. J. With Robert Singerman. Mummies in Nineteenth Century America: Ancient Egyptians as Artifacts. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009.
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Hudson, Journal, 19 Feb. 1835, David Hudson, Papers, Hudson Library and Historical Society, Hudson, Ohio; “A Rare Exhibition,” Cleveland Whig, 25 Mar. 1835, [1]; “Egyptian Mummies,” Cleveland Daily Advertiser, 26 Mar. 1835; “Mummies,” Painesville (OH) Telegraph, 27 Mar. 1835, [3].
Hudson, David. Papers. Hudson Library and Historical Society, Hudson, OH.
Cleveland Whig. Cleveland. 1834–1836.
Cleveland Advertiser. Cleveland. 1831–1838.
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
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10
“A Rare Exhibition,” Cleveland Whig, 25 Mar. 1835, [1], italics in original. A detailed description of the mummies published in the Painesville Telegraph noted that three of Chandler’s mummies had with them a “roll . . . filled with hieroglyphics.” (“Mummies,” Painesville (OH) Telegraph, 27 Mar. 1835, [3].)
Cleveland Whig. Cleveland. 1834–1836.
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
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“Egyptian Mummies,” Cleveland Daily Advertiser, 26 Mar. 1835. This is the earliest source to directly associate Chandler with the traveling exhibit.
Cleveland Advertiser. Cleveland. 1831–1838.
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Tinney, Michael H. Chandler and the Pearl of Great Price, 1–2.
Tinney, Thomas Milton. Michael H. Chandler and the Pearl of Great Price. n.p.: By the author, [1975].
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Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to William Frye, Lebanon, IL, 22 Dec. 1835, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 70.
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
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Joseph Coe, Kirtland, OH, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 1 Jan. 1844, JS Collection, CHL.
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According to a certificate issued to JS and copied into Cowdery’s letter to William Frye, Chandler had shown the hieroglyphics to scholars in other cities he had visited. (Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to William Frye, Lebanon, IL, 22 Dec. 1835, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 71.)
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
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Joseph Coe, Kirtland, OH, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 1 Jan. 1844, JS Collection, CHL. According to a sermon delivered by Orson Pratt in 1878, Chandler told JS that “he would not sell the writings unless he could sell the mummies.” (Orson Pratt, in Journal of Discourses, 25 Aug. 1878, 20:65.)
Journal of Discourses. 26 vols. Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855–1886.
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JS History, vol. B-1, 596. This entry in the history was penned by Willard Richards on 15 September 1843. (Richards, Journal, 15 Sept. 1843.)
Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.
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Additionally, Willard Richards entered three July 1835 entries into JS’s history in about September 1843. (JS History, vol. B-1, 595–596.)
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JS, Journal, 1 and 7 Oct. 1835; 19, 20, and 24–26 Nov. 1835. After 26 November, there are no references to the translation of the Egyptian papyri in JS’s journal until early 1842, when JS began preparing to publish the Book of Abraham. (JS, Journal, 23 Feb. and 8 Mar. 1842.)
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Warren Parrish, Letter to the Editor, 5 Feb. 1838, in Painesville (OH) Republican, 15 Feb. 1838, [3]. Two other reminiscent accounts noted various features of the translation process, but it is not always clear to which period they refer. As he helped set the type for the publication of the Book of Abraham in February 1842, Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal, “The Lord is Blessing Joseph with Power to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of God; to translate through the urim & Thummim Ancient records & Hyeroglyphics as old as Abraham or Adam.” In a secondhand account recorded in the October 1846 issue of the Friends’ Weekly Intelligencer, Lucy Mack Smith was quoted as saying that “when Joseph was reading the papyrus, he closed his eyes, and held a hat over his face, and that the revelation came to him; and where the papyrus was torn, he could read the parts that were destroyed equally as well as those that were there; and that scribes sat by him writing, as he expounded.” (Woodruff, Journal, 19 Feb. 1842; “Correspondence of Friends’ Weekly Intelligencer,” Friends’ Weekly Intelligencer, 3 Oct. 1846, 211.)
Painesville Republican. Painesville, OH. 1836–1841.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Friends’ Weekly Intelligencer. Philadelphia. 1844–1853.
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Documents directly dictated by JS typically had few paragraph breaks, punctuation marks, or contemporaneous alterations to the text. All the extant copies, including the featured text, have regular paragraphing and punctuation included at the time of transcription, as well as several cancellations and insertions. (See Hauglid, Textual History of the Book of Abraham, 58–59, 64–65, 84–85, 110–111.)
Hauglid, Brian M. A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions. Studies in the Book of Abraham, edited by John Gee and Brian M. Hauglid. Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2010.
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Williams served as a scribe for JS from early 1832 until the Hebrew School began in early January 1836. During fall 1835, Williams penned entries in JS’s journal for 3–7 October, 16 November, and 23–26 December 1835. (Frederick G. Williams, Statement, no date, Frederick G. Williams, Papers, CHL; JS, Journal, 3–7 Oct., 16 Nov., and 23–26 Dec. 1835; see also Historical Introduction to Revelation, 15 Mar. 1832 [D&C 81].)
Williams, Frederick G. Papers, 1834–1842. CHL. MS 782.
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“The Book of Abraham,” Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842, 3:704 [Abraham 1:1].
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Williams’s copy of the Book of Abraham exhibits a less refined orthography and more textual mistakes than the other two copies. Besides Williams’s version, two other copies of the Book of Abraham manuscript were produced in 1835. One is in the handwriting of Warren Parrish and contains the text of what is today referred to as Abraham 1:4–2:2; the other, in the handwriting of both William W. Phelps and Warren Parrish, includes Abraham 1:1–2:18. (Hauglid, Textual History of the Book of Abraham, 6–9, 64–65; Book of Abraham Manuscript–B; Book of Abraham Manuscript–C, Book of Abraham Manuscripts, CHL.)
Hauglid, Brian M. A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions. Studies in the Book of Abraham, edited by John Gee and Brian M. Hauglid. Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2010.
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Two additional Book of Abraham manuscripts, produced in late 1841 or early 1842 by Willard Richards, do not contain hieratic characters. (Book of Abraham Manuscripts, CHL; see also Historical Introduction to Egyptian Alphabet, ca. Early July–ca. Nov. 1835–A.)
Book of Abraham Manuscripts, ca. 1835–1838, ca. 1841–1843. CHL.
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Among the papyri purchased from Michael Chandler was a funerary text, derived from the Book of the Dead, for an Egyptian priest named Hôr. Fragments of this scroll were reacquired by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1967 and are today housed in the Church History Library. Portions of the extant papyri are missing, likely due to deterioration. (Todd, “Egyptian Papyri Rediscovered,” 12–16; Kirtland Egyptian Papers, CHL. For a brief history of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Breathing Permit of Hôr, see Ritner, Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri, 86–89; for images of the papyri fragments, see the Joseph Smith Papers website.)
Todd, Jay M. “Egyptian Papyri Rediscovered.” Improvement Era 71, no. 1 (January 1968): 12–16.
Kirtland Egyptian Papers, ca. 1835–1836. CHL.
Ritner, Robert K. The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri: A Complete Edition, P. JS 1–4 and the Hypocephalus of Sheshonq. Salt Lake City: Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2011.
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For modern translations of the Breathing Permit of Hôr, see Ritner, Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri, 81–149; Nibley, Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, xix–xxiii, 33–50; and Rhodes, Hor Book of Breathings, 27–32.)
Ritner, Robert K. The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri: A Complete Edition, P. JS 1–4 and the Hypocephalus of Sheshonq. Salt Lake City: Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2011.
Nibley, Hugh. The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Document. Vol. 16 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, edited by John Gee and Michael D. Rhodes. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University, 2005.
Rhodes, Michael D. The Hor Book of Breathings: A Translation and Commentary. Studies in the Book of Abraham, edited by John Gee. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University, 2002.
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William W. Phelps to Sally Waterman Phelps, 20 July 1835, in Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 20 July 1835; Amasa Lyman, Journal, 11 July 1835; “Another Humbug,” Cleveland Whig, 5 Aug. 1835, [1].
Historical Department. Journal History of the Church, 1896–. CHL. CR 100 137.
Lyman, Amasa. Journals, 1832–1877. Amasa Lyman Collection, 1832–1877. CHL. MS 829, boxes 1–3.
Cleveland Whig. Cleveland. 1834–1836.
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30
Minute Book 1, 5 Nov. 1837.
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“The Book of Abraham,” Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842, 3:704–706 [Abraham 1–2:18]; “The Book of Abraham,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:718–722 [Abraham 2:18–5:21]. 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 on the Joseph Smith Papers website. (“Notice,” Times and Seasons, 1 Feb. 1843, 4:95.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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| ✦ | sign of the fifth degree of the Second part |
| ✦ | I sought for mine appointment unto the priesthood according to the appointment of God unto the fathers concerning the seed |
| ✦ | my fathers having turned from their righteousness and from the holy commandments which the Lord their God had given unto them unto the worshiping of the Gods of the hethens |
| ✦ | utterly refused to harken to my voice for their hearts were set to do evil and were wholly turned to the God of Elk=Kener and the God of Zibnah and the God of Mah-mackrah and the God of Pharoah King of Egypt therefore they turned their hearts to the sacrafice of the heathens in offering up their children unto these dumb Idols and harkened not unto my voice but indeovered to take away my life by the hand of the priest of Elk=Kener |
| ✦ | The priest of Elk=Keenah was also the priest of Pharoah, now at this time it was the custom of the priest of Pharaoh the King of Egypt to offer up upon the Alter which was built in the land of Chaldea for the offering unto these strange gods both men, women, and children— and it came to pass that the priest made an offering unto the god of Pharaoh and also unto the god of Shag=reel even after the manner of the Egyptians now the god of Shag-reel was the Sun— even a thank offering of a child did the priest of Pharaoh offer upon the Alter which stood by the hill called Potiphers hill at the head of the plain of Olishem |
| ✦ | Now this priest had offered upon this alter three virgins at one time who were the daughters of Onitah— one of the royal discent directly from the loins of Ham these virgins were offered up because of their virtue they would not bow down to worship Gods of wood, or of stone therefore they were Killed upon this alter |
| ✦ | And it was done after the manner of the Egyptians and it came to pass that the priests laid violence upon me that they might slay me also, as they did those virgins upon this alter, and that you might have a knowledge of this alter I will refer you to the representation that is at the commencement of this record |
| ✦ | It was made after, the form of a bedsted such as was had among the Chaldeans and it stood before the Gods of Elk-keenah Zibnah Mah-Mach-rah—and also a God like unto that of pharaoh King of Egypt |
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