![]() ![]() Another is that the papyrus fragment in question dates from long after Abraham’s time, much nearer, in fact, to the time of Christ. One is that the Egyptian characters cannot conceivably have enough information channels (component parts) to convey the amount of material translated from them. 1 appears to be the whole Book of Abraham! In other words, the small piece of papyrus pictured in illustration No. If Joseph Smith continued to translate the same number of English words from each Egyptian character, this one small fragment would complete the entire text of the Book of Abraham. The characters from fewer than four lines of the papyrus make up forty-nine verses of the Book of Abraham, containing more than two thousand words. ![]() Joseph Smith apparently translated many English words from each Egyptian character. 4 compares characters from this manuscript with those in the third line of the papyrus fragment. This manuscript begins with the statement, “Translation of the Book of Abraham written by his own hand upon papyrus and found in the catacomb of Egypt.” This manuscript is more extensive than that in the “Alphabet and Grammar.” Illustration No. The characters from which our present Book of Abraham was translated are down the left-hand column and Joseph Smith’s translation opposite, so we know approximately how much material was translated from each character. The original of this manuscript is in the Church Historian’s Office in Salt Lake City. This manuscript was bought by Wilford Wood in 1945 from Charles Bidamon, son of the man who married Emma after the death of the Prophet. I have in my possession a photostatic copy of the manuscript of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s translation of Abraham l: I to 2: 18. ![]() Clark’s Story of the Pearl of Great Price. 3 pro vides a comparison of characters from one of the handwritten manuscripts with the characters as they appear on the original papyrus.Ī photograph of the first page of the second manuscript of the Book of Abraham is found on page 179 of James R. 1 can be found attached to the portion of the Book of Abraham in Joseph Smith’s “Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar.” Illustration No. Īll of the characters in the first two rows on the papyrus fragment shown in illustration No. The second and separate of the two manuscripts contains none of the Alphabet and Grammar but is a manuscript of the text of the Book of Abraham as published in the first installment of the Times and Seasons, March 1, 1842. Within this Alphabet and Grammar there is a copy of the characters, together with their translation of Abraham 1:4-28 only. One manuscript is the Alphabet and Grammar. Clark of Brigham Young University provides this description of the manuscripts:Īs a matter of fact there are in existence today in the Church Historian’s office what seem to be two separate manuscripts of Joseph Smith’s translations from the papyrus rolls, presumably in the hand writing of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery neither manuscript contains the complete text of the Book of Abraham. These translations comprise the original manuscript version of the Book of Abraham. Then Joseph, or his scribes, copied down a character or two at a time and to the right of each character rendered a translation of its meaning. Small ‘Sensen’ text (unillustrated).” It would seem that Joseph Smith studied this fragment and concluded that it was written by Abraham. 1) was identified in the February, 1968, Improvement Era (bottom of p. The fragment in question (see illustration No. It now appears that the papyrus fragments recently recovered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints include the text used by Joseph Smith in his efforts to translate the Book of Abraham. Their work is followed by translation of the sensen text by Professor Richard Parker and finally by a discussion of the present state and best future direction of studies of Joseph Smith’s work with Egyptian by professor Hugh Nibley (scholarly defender of the Mormon faith whose continuing argument for the divine origin of the Book of Abraham based on external evidences in the Abrahamic tradition is appearing serially in the Improvement Era ). The following evidence that one specific fragment, the “sensen” text, was used by Joseph Smith in obtaining the Book of Abraham was submitted by Grant Heward (who has studied Egyptian on his own and reports that he was recently excommunicated for his views on Joseph Smith’s ability to translate Egyptian) and Jerald Tanner (who heads Modern Microfilm, Co., a, professedly antiMormon publishing house). ![]()
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