Book of Abraham Manuscript, circa July–circa November 1835–C [Abraham 1:1–2:18]
-
Source Note
Book of Abraham Manuscript, , OH, ca. July–ca. Nov. 1835; handwriting of and ; ten 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), 60–61; 112–147.
-
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, consisting of a draft of what is currently designated Abraham 1:1−2:18, was inscribed by William W. Phelps and Warren Parrish, apparently between mid-1835 and late-spring 1836.’s hand appears on the first twenty-one lines on the initial page, with ’s handwriting on the remainder of the document. Phelps evidently copied this text from an earlier Book of Abraham document that is no longer extant (Hauglid, Textual History of the Book of Abraham, 7, 58−59). His contribution, covering passages now associated with Abraham 1:1−3, is not paragraphed but is lightly edited and punctuated and has three hieratic characters appearing in the left margin.began copying a text he had worked on earlier (see Warren Parrish Copy of Abraham Manuscript, Fall 1835 [Abraham 1:4–2:2]) onto the first page sometime after ’s entry, probably between 29 October 1835, when he was called to be a scribe for JS, and spring 1836, when he left , Ohio, on a mission to Tennessee (Hauglid, Textual History of the Book of Abraham, 22, 110; JS, Journal, 29 Oct. 1835; Woodruff, Journal, 19 Apr. 1836). He began his portion of Abraham’s account where Phelps left off and produced a draft of the text of what is now referenced in Latter-day Saint scripture as Abraham 1:4−2:18. Parrish’s nine and one-third pages of transcription is paragraphed and punctuated, with twenty-five hieratic characters in the left margin.The / manuscript was probably available for reference when the Book of Abraham was prepared for publication in the Times and Seasons in , Illinois, beginning with the 1 March 1842 issue. It was in the possession of JS’s widow at the time of her death in 1879. The document was inherited by Emma’s second husband, Lewis Bidamon, and at his death by his son Charles, who sold it to collector Wilford Wood in summer 1937. Subsequently that same year, Wood donated the document to the Church Historian’s Office, now the Church History Library (Wilford Wood, Woods Cross, UT, to Heber J. Grant, Salt Lake City, UT, 24 Dec. 1837, microfilm, Wilford Wood, Collection of Church Historical Materials, CHL; Hauglid, Textual History of the Book of Abraham, 110−111; Peterson, Story of the Book of Abraham, 229).Note: The transcript of the Book of Abraham excerpt 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), 66–81.

x Character | Translation of the Book of Abraham written by his own hand upon papyrus and found in the CataCombs of Egypt |
✦1 | 1In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residince of my |
✦2 | fathers, I, 2Abraham, 1saw, that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence, and seeing there was greater happiness and peace and rest, for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same: Having been a follower of righteousness; |
✦ | desiring to be one who possessed great Knowledge; a greater follower of righteousness; a possessor of greater Knowledge; a father of many nations; a prince of peace; one who keeps the commandments of God; a righful heir; a high priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers, from the bebegining of time; even from the begining, or before the foundation of the earth, down to the present time; even the right of the first born, or the first man, who is Adam, or first father, through the fathers, unto me. |
✦ | 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 heathens. |
✦ | utterly refused to hearken to my voice for their hearts were set to do evil, and were wholly turned to the god of Elkkener and the god of Zibnah and the god of |
[p. 1]
View entire transcript |
Cite this page