Book of Abraham Manuscript, circa July–circa November 1835–B [Abraham 1:4–2:2]
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Source Note
Book of Abraham Manuscript, , OH, ca. July–ca. Nov. 1835; handwriting of ; six pages; Book of Abraham Manuscripts, ca. 1837–1841, CHL.Note: The transcript of the Book of Abraham manuscript presented here is used with permission of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. It was published earlier, with some differences in style, in Brian M. Hauglid, A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2010), 86–107.
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Historical Introduction
As discussed in the general introduction to the Book of Abraham manuscripts on this website, JS and his scribes , , , and spent considerable time in the second half of 1835 engaged in two separate yet related endeavors: the translation of the Book of Abraham, which yielded several Abraham manuscripts; and a language-study effort that produced a number of Egyptian alphabet and grammar manuscripts. Both types of manuscripts exhibit connections to the papyri in JS’s possession and, according to the historical record, both projects occurred roughly concurrently. However, there is presently not enough information to definitively ascertain how these two projects are related to each other or to the revelatory process. The particular text featured here, containing a draft of the current Abraham 1:4−2:2, is in the handwriting of Warren Parrish, who served as JS’s scribe in , Ohio, from 29 October 1835 until spring 1836.likely produced this document between 29 October and 25 November 1835, the period of time during which JS and his scribes were most actively engaged in studying the Egyptian materials in their possession. He may have copied it from an earlier draft, or from another intermediate source. The manuscript is both paragraphed and punctuated, suggesting that it was produced after an initial dictation phase in the development of the Book of Abraham text. Nineteen Egyptian hieratic characters appear in the left margin.Later, apparently recopied this transcript, prefacing it with an earlier twenty-one-line manuscript containing a draft of passages now designated Abraham 1:1−1:3, thereby creating a document which combined the two manuscripts into one running consecutively through today’s Abraham 1:1–2:18.’s document was likely part of the “Egyptian Grammar” that was listed on a manifest compiled by and as they prepared to transport church documents westward in 1846 (“Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1]; “Historian’s Office Catalogue 1858,” 1, Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL). For more information on this document, see Hauglid, Textual History of the Book of Abraham, 22, 84–85.Note: The transcript of the Book of Abraham manuscript presented here is used with permission of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. It was published earlier, with some differences in style, in Brian M. Hauglid, A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2010), 86–107.

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of Chaldea for the offering unto these strang 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 Shagreel, even after the manner of the Egyptians. | |
(Now the god of Shagreel was the sun) even a thank offering of a child did the preist of Pharaoh offer upon the altar which stood by the hill called Potiphers hill, at the head of the plain of Olishem | |
✦ | now this priest had offered upon this altar three virgins at one time who were the daughters of Onitah, one of the royal descent 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 altar |
✦ | 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 altar, and that you might have a knowledge of this altar, I will refer you to the representation, at the commencement of this record. |
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