FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Approaching the Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham
Home > Book of Abraham Sandbox > Joseph Smith's "Incorrect" Translation of the Book of Abraham Papyri > The Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham > Approaching the Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham
Approaching the Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham
| This page is still under construction. We welcome any suggestions for improving the content of this FAIR Answers Wiki page. |
Summary: The Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham pose a conundrum for faithful students of the Book of Abraham: there is no agreed upon method for interpreting them by scholars of the Book of Abraham. This page presents the reasons for that disagreement and some starting assumptions and procedures for those that want to learn more about the Facsimiles.
The illustrations were original to Abraham
To interpret them we should look to how Egyptians in Abraham’s day, or Abraham himself, would have understood them.
The illustrations were original to Abraham but were modified over time for use by the ancient Egyptians
The illustrations we have as preserved in the facsimiles are much later and altered copies of Abraham’s originals. To interpret them we should consider the underlying Abrahamic elements and compare them with how the Egyptians understood these images.
The illustrations were connected to the Book of Abraham when the Joseph Smith Papyri were created in the Ptolemaic period (circa 300–30 BC)
To interpret them we should look to what Egyptians of that time thought these drawings represent.
The illustrations were connected to the Book of Abraham for the first time in the Ptolemaic period, but to interpret them we should look specifically to what Egyptian priests who were integrating Jewish, Greek, and Mesopotamian religious practices into native Egyptian practices would have thought about them
The illustrations were connected to the Book of Abraham in the Ptolemaic period, but to interpret them we should look to how Jews of that era would have understood of them
The illustrations were never part of the ancient text of the Book of Abraham, but instead were adapted by Joseph Smith to artistically depict the ancient text he revealed/translated
We can make sense of Joseph’s interpretations by expanding our understanding of his role as a “translator.”