By His Own Hand upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri

by Charles M. Larson

A survey of the controversy surrounding Mormon founder Joseph Smith's claim that he translated the Book of Abraham from an ancient Egyptian papyrus.

Genres: Religion, History, Mormonism, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1992

Reviews

[Lon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book compiles and presents all available scholarship on the question of authenticity of The Book of Abraham. Joseph Smith claimed that some Egyptian papyri were sacred writings of Abraham (circa 1500 BCE) and Joseph (of Egypt). No one in the world could yet decipher the language, but, as a Seer, Joseph Smith claimed the ability to translate ancient records by the gift and power of God, as he had already done with the Book of Mormon. His forthcoming translation contained many of the unique doctrines he himself had recently begun teaching and was widely seen as proof, to his followers who had been in doubt, that he was indeed a prophet.

The papyri were lost for nearly a century. Even though scholars eventually mastered the Egyptian hieratic script, it was impossible to "prove" whether Joseph Smith was "duping" his follower--no one could compare his translation with the original. Everything changed in the 1960s. The papyri were found. Church members were thrilled that they would finally be able to answer a dubious public with proof that would vindicate the Prophet.

All experts (including Church experts) agreed that not only were the papyri not written BY Abraham (they date to a thousand years after Abraham lived) they weren't even ABOUT Abraham. The Church decided not to publish these translations, nor the conclusions of the experts. Hugh Nibley later admitted that his job was to stall for time. For a couple years he published articles about Egyptian culture, and then, as keen interest dulled, the subject was dropped entirely. After such a momentous occasion for collective breath-holding, I wonder what the general membership thought, if they thought at all, about the remarkable silence that followed.

Larson fairly addresses various ways critics and Church leaders have tried to explain the stark discrepancy. The theory holding the most currency among LDS apologists is that Joseph Smith only BELIEVED he was translating the records, when in truth the papyri acted as a sort of catalyst for the prophet to receive a direct revelation of Abraham's writings, which could be anywhere in the world, still buried under desert sands. There is precedence for this; Joseph Smith claimed to be dictating the Book of Mormon word for word while the plates were rarely even present in the same room he and his scribes labored; Also, when he needed to win an argument with Oliver Cowdery about the status of John the Beloved, Joseph Smith "translated" a parchment by that disciple even though that document was only envisioned. The Book of Moses, similarly, purports to be the actual writings of Moses, but no ancient document was deemed necessary for the prophet to dictate Moses' words.

Even though an objective reader might be tempted to pull out Occam's razor to explain all this, the author himself is interested only in presenting information, and responding to counter-arguments with more information.

(A similar challenge to Joseph Smith' credibility came in the 1980s as the Kinderhook plates, which Joseph Smith pronounced to be writings from an ancient civilization described in the Book of Mormon, were proven, by an active member of the Church doing metallurgical analysis, were proven to be a 19th century hoax.)

I can't help but wonder if, as top leaders of the LDS Church came to understand in the 1970s that the Book of Abraham wasn't authentic, some of them felt less bound to some of the doctrine it puts forth about blacks and the priesthood. These were ideas floating in the air during Joseph Smith's day, but by appearing in a canonized book of scripture, the ideas became deeply entrenched in LDS doctrine. Missionaries and leaders of a certain generation used passages from the Book of Abraham to justify their church's practice of not letting anyone with African ancestry receive the priesthood or to perform saving ordinances in the temple. Was Spencer W. Kimball more open to the idea of giving Blacks the priesthood because he felt less rigidly bound to accept the authority of The Book of Abraham's passage barring it?


Written in a somewhat dry style, and the depth of detail prevents a dramatic sweep of narrative. Not a pleasure to read, but definitely the most fair-handed treatment of a subject some would prefer were not ever examined.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deals exclusively with the Book of Abraham from the Pearl of Great Price and the Papyri that it came from. The original papri, along with two mummys, were purchased by the LDS church from a traveling Egyptian exhibit in Kirtland. It was from these scrolls that Joseph produced the Book of Abraham.

After the death of Joseph, the papyri were thought to have been destroyed in the great Chicago fire. In 1967, a researcher from the University of Utah discovered them in a New York museum collection, still bearing the authentication signature of Emma on the back. This book primarily deals with what modern document dating technology, as well as Egyptologists both in and out of the LDS church, have said about the scrolls relationship to The Book of Abraham text.

[Yibbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting.

Did you know that the LDS church's history is tied to two ancient Egyptian papyri? Sometimes I've wondered if studying ancient cultures is worthwhile. Is it really eternally important to be able to read Egyptian hieroglyphics? Now I know that the search for truth can be used of God no matter how obscure it looks at first glance.

In 1835, Joseph Smith claimed to have found the original autographs of two books of scripture. Written in 'reformed Egyptian' and legible only the 'Seer', Smith claimed they were the Books of Abraham and Joseph. At the time there was no way to verify or debunk his claims. Then scholars began reading Egyptian hieroglyphics. Suddenly Smith's claims were exposed as blatant charlatanry. Not that that was the end of the'Book of Abraham', for they original manuscripts were misplaced for over 100 years. Then the Lord say fit to bring them back to light. Scholar after scholar was now able to examine and translate Smith's manuscripts. They proved to be nothing more than ordinary funerary texts. Of which there are thousands of known copies. If it wasn't for some scholars search for knowledge in the 'useless' field of Egyptology it would be impossible to verify the honesty of the 'prophet' Joseph Smith.

The Lord doesn't ask us to suspend reason to believe in Him. Nor to resort to the types of mental gymnastics necessary to believe blatant lies. This book is an excellent expose of the Mormon unwillingness to deal with the Truth. It's an easy read. There are lots of very clear pictures of original documents. Then at the end Larson brings it all to the most important point. Will we believe the Truth or continue in what we want to be true? It is really our decision.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers ahead...

Charles Larson leads an assault against Joseph Smith and the Book of Abraham in his book "By his own hand upon papyrus" and he assembles the data in an organized fashion, presenting the arguments well. He makes some excellent arguments as the naturalistic origins of the Book of Abraham in chapter two. I do not know if priesthood was under fire in 1835 as Larson claims. He cites David Whitmer as his sole source for any discord over what Joseph taught the Saints in 1835 about priesthood on p. 19. He quotes Whitmer, "This manner of 'priesthood,' since the days of Sidney Rigdon, has been the great hobby and stumbling block of the Latter-Day Saints... This matter of the two orders of priesthood in the Church of Christ, and lineal priesthood of the old law being in the church, all originated in the mind of Sidney Ridgon." (An Address to All Believers in Christ, Richmond, Missouri: 1887, p. 59-65. See footnote 4, p. 228) This is all Larson cites, and from all of my reading about Church history, priesthood was understood by 1835, as several of the offices of the priesthood were outlined in Section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants in April 1830 - see: http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/pape...

That being said, Larson's arguments in chapter two were outstanding, one of the reasons I give this book 3 stars even though I disagree with Larson's conclusions from his arguments. A naturalist view of this text is a valid argument, with a couple of exceptions. His argument for the priesthood denial to those with African descent is not as simple as he makes it on page 22. For an analysis here, I would suggest one read "Neither White Nor Black" by Lester Bush. The argument simply is not as simple as Larson makes it out to be, due to the fact that free African Americans were ordained to the priesthood in this time period of church history and the denial of the priesthood came under the direction of Brigham Young after Joseph Smith had been killed in 1844.

For Larson's entire argument to hold, he must have the discovered papyri (found in 1967) be the same text Joseph used to give us the Book of Abraham in 1835. This is a difficult challenge, as we only have a small portion (about 13%) of the 1835 text in Joseph's possession.

It is likely futile to assess Joseph’s ability to translate papyri when we now have only a fraction of the papyri he had in his possession. Eyewitnesses spoke of “a long roll” or multiple “rolls” of papyrus. (Hauglid, Textual History of the Book of Abraham, 213–14, 222.) Since only fragments survive, it is likely that much of the papyri accessible to Joseph when he translated the book of Abraham is not among these fragments. The loss of a significant portion of the papyri means the relationship of the papyri to the published text cannot be settled conclusively by reference to the papyri.

At the 2007 FAIR apologetics conference, Egyptologist Dr. John Gee (PhD, Yale) presented new data on the scrolls from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Abraham. This material has since been published in John Gee, “Some Puzzles from the Joseph Smith Papyri,” FARMS Review 20/1 (2008): 113–138.

Dr. Gee demonstrated how a formula developed by Friedhelm Hoffmann can be used to determine the total length of a papyrus roll based upon measurements of the extant scroll, and from this formula, he has determined that the Joseph Smith Papyri (JSP) is missing at least 41 feet.

Could the works or record of Abraham be on some of this missing papyri?

Some of the papyri that Joseph Smith had in Kirtland were later burned in the Chicago fire and it’s possible that other fragments were lost or destroyed elsewhere. A Yale-trained Egyptologist, John Gee believes that Joseph Smith originally had five papyrus scrolls (one of which was the hypocephalus). (John Gee, “Research and Perspectives: Abraham in Ancient Egyptian Texts,” Ensign (July 1992), 60.; John Gee, “Abracadabra, Isaac and Jacob (Review of The Use of Egyptian Magical Papyri to Authenticate the Book of Abraham: A Critical Review by Edward H. Ashment),” FARMS Review of Books 7/1 (1995): 19–84.)

Of these five scrolls, only eleven fragments of two scrolls have survived. The “Scroll of Hor” (the Egyptian Book of Breathings) from where we get Facsimile 1 (and almost certainly Facsimile 3—which didn’t survive) is incomplete.

Hugh Nibley writes:

We are told that papyri were in beautiful condition when Joseph Smith got them, and that one of them when unrolled on the floor extended through two rooms of the Mansion House. (Hugh W. Nibley, “Phase One,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 3 no. 2 (Summer 1968), 101.)

Nothing like this has survived today. Gee estimates that the Scroll of Hor (likely the putative [supposed] source for the Book of Abraham) may have been ten feet long (John Gee, A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2000), 12–13.) and that in all, Joseph may have had eight times as much papyri as what is currently extant! (John Gee, “Facsimile 3,” lecture given at the FARMS Book of Abraham Conference (16 October 1999); see also, John Gee, “The Ancient Owners of the Joseph Smith Papyri” (Provo: FARMS, 1999), 1.) A number of scholars contend that the reason that the extant papyrus fragments don’t have anything to do with the Book of Abraham is because we don’t have that portion of the papyrus that served as the text from whence Joseph translated the Book of Abraham. At the very least, the critics ought to be cautious if only 13% of the ancient scrolls are available for examination!

His chapter on the actual JSP (Joseph Smith Papyrus) that we have basically tells the story that everyone who has studied this subject already knows, that the JSP extant are funerary documents. To Larson, this is proof of fraud. However, there are multiple ways that this can be explained, probably the strongest explanation of course is that we are missing the actual text Joseph had, probably close to 40 feet of text, so there's that argument.

What are the other arguments for why the Book of Abraham text is not on the papyri? You can read my arguments here: https://ldsscriptureteachings.org/201...

Hopefully those that are searching for more information will find this useful.

Finally, Larson concludes that acceptance of "Biblical Christianity" is the solution to the problem, and that all Christian churches are true. If Larson applied his same arguments to the historicity of the Bible that he is applying to Joseph Smith and the claims of the Restoration, he would not be making this claim. He claims that any association with pagan or earth religions is foreign to the nature of truth, and for this reason alone, we must reject any connection between Egyptian religion and Christianity.

On pg. 138 Larson states, "the Catalyst theory is fatally flawed in requiring us to believe that God would associate His sacred truth with a document consisting of prayers to pagan Egyptian gods, and ripe with occultism... it is inconceivable, given God's holy character as revealed throughout the Bible, that He would associate Himself or His truth in any way with such pagan occultic documents."

This statement by Larson simply shows us that he doesn't recognize many of the origins of the Old Testament, as that is exactly what the Old Testament is, a document that came out of the culture of the Ancient Near East. I would say the same for many sections of the New Testament as well. Read, for example, Mark Smith's "The Origins of Biblical Monotheism" or "The Early History of God" for starters. Or Larson can read basically any introduction to the Bible and he can learn that this is happening all over the place in these texts. Of course paganism is part of the Bible. It is everywhere in the text, from Psalms to the Creation account to the stories contained in Exodus, to the law codes outlined in the Pentateuch. The Bible came out of culture, it came from the world that these authors, poets, priests, and prophets lived in. Cultural influence is throughout the text, and for Larson to say this isn't so is the height of ignorance.

I would conclude that much of Larson's naturalistic arguments were well made. But there were two critical things he missed: he didn't apply that same logic to the Biblical texts and he didn't cite any positive evidence for the Book of Abraham. There is so much evidence for this text, for example see: https://ldsscriptureteachings.org/201...

The Book of Abraham provides significant information that is not found in the Genesis account in the Bible (see Genesis 11 – 17, particularly Genesis 11:28-31 and Genesis 12). The additional or differing material in the Book of Abraham includes the following points:

1. The very existence of a record written by Abraham (the Bible provides no hint that a Book of Abraham ever existed);
2. Abraham’s obvious literacy, and his possession of ancient records (Abr. 1:28)
3. Abraham’s desire to be one who “possesses great knowledge” (Abr. 1:1);
4. His desire to be a High Priest, holding the priesthood, described as “the right belonging to the fathers” (Abr. 1:1-3);
5. His successful quest to find God (Abr. 1:1-3 and 2:12)
6. The rebellion of his fathers, who had once received the priesthood but turned to idol worship, according to Egyptian practices (Abr. 1:4-10);
7. The practice of human sacrifice, including the sacrifice of children, as part of the practice of local idolaters in Chaldea (Abr. 1:7-11);
8. The killing of people who refused to worship idols of wood or stone (Abr. 1:11);
9. The violent seizing of Abraham by the local priest to slay Abraham also as a human sacrifice (Abr. 1:12; Facs. 1);
10. The role of Terah, Abraham’s father, in seeking to have Abraham killed (Abr. 1:30);
11. The use of an altar fashioned like a lion couch (Facs. 1), described as a “bedstead” (Abr. 1:13), in the attempt to kill Abraham;
12. Description of canopic jars in front of the altar in Facsimile 1 as representing pagan gods (Abr. 1:13), and a reference to the “god of Pharaoh” (Abr. 1:6) depicted as a crocodile in Facs. 1;
13. The miraculous delivery of Abraham from death by the power of God, who sent an angel to free Abraham after Abraham cried to the Lord (Abr. 1:15; 2:13);
14. The destruction of the altar and idols by the Lord (Abr. 1:20);
15. Abraham’s possession of sacred records the past (Abr. 1:28, 31);
16. A famine in Chaldea, before Abraham went to Canaan (Abr. 1:29,30; 2:1)
17. The repentance of Terah, Abraham’s father, and his subsequent return to idolatry after the famine abated (Abr. 1:30; 2:5);
18. Abraham’s age of 62 years when he departed out of Haran (Abr. 2:14 – Gen. 12:4 gives 75 years);
19. The winning of souls in Haran, apparently by Abraham’s preaching, who followed Abraham into Canaan (Abr. 2:15);
20. Building an altar in the land of Jershon before entering Canaan, where Abraham prayed for relief from the famine for the benefit of his father’s family (Abr. 2:17) – two others altar would later be built (Abr. 2:18-20);
21. Abraham’s possession of the Urim and Thummim, given to him by God (Abr. 3:1);
22. Abraham’s knowledge of stars, planets, and astronomy obtained through revelation (Abr. 3:1-18);
23. Revelation to Abraham about the premortal existence of spirits or intelligences in the presence of God, including information on a great council in heaven where plans were established for this earth and our mortal trial here (Abr. 3:18-28).

Amazingly, these differences find support, to varying degrees, in ancient texts that Joseph Smith did not have available when he translated the Book of Abraham. The tremendous support for the “daring innovations” in the Book of Abraham suggests that more than lucky guesses is involved. The Book of Abraham is remarkably consistent with numerous ancient traditions about Abraham, as one might expect if in fact it is derived from the ancient writings of Abraham. One of many interesting examples is the ancient Jewish text, Jubilees, first published in Latin in 1861 but dating to the second century B.C. or earlier, and used by some of the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Portions of Jubilees are printed in Tvedtnes et al., pp. 14-20, taken from O.S. Wintermute’s English translation of the Ethiopic text, as printed in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth (New York: Doubleday, 1985), 2:78-84, 93-99, 129.

For more info on this see: https://ldsscriptureteachings.org/201...

So if you want to read a book that gives excellent arguments against the Book of Abraham that skips the evidence for its authenticity, Larson is your man. At the end of the day, there will always be evidence both for and against Christianity. I call this phenomenon "evidentiary equilibrium." I believe this is part of the opposition in all things that we experience here in mortality. There is evidence on both sides of the equation because God wants you to make a choice. If he stacked all the evidence on one side, essentially forcing all the evidence on one side, we wouldn't have to exercise faith.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really the closest thing to a smoking gun in the literature of Morminism.

Since you can't prove a negative, there really is no "proving" religion right or wrong but.... if you consider the story and history surrounding the LDS scriptures originating in the Egyptian papyrus obtained by Joseph Smith in the 1830's and resulting in the Book of Abraham, I think you'll come as close as possible to a real "smoking gun" leading to human rather than divine roots in mormon history.

Charles Larson does a great job of recounting the story around these topics and if it weren't for his "time share speech" in one of the closing chapters where he offers an alternate path to the true Jesus, this is a fabulous book. So, ignore that particular chapter (I'll bet he had to include it to satisfy some group who funded his work) and just look at his story, the information provided, and see if you don't come away with an expanded perspective on this part of Mormon history and doctrine.

After reading this book and considering the arguments made, I think it a ridiculous notion that The Book of Abraham was "translated" (in any meaningful definition of that word) from those papyrus scrolls as was claimed by Joseph Smith and the LDS church to this day. Wherever those writings came from, Charles Larson lays out the story and evidence in such a way as to make the odds impossibly high that this particular LDS scripture came from anywhere other than Joseph Smith's demonstrably fertile imagination - in my opinion.


Honestly folks, if the LDS church had any kind of evidence at all that they possessed ancient papyrus scrolls that were written on by the personal hand of father Abraham, the father of 3 great world religions, they would build a magnificent edifice to house these relics and the world would truly beat a path to SLC, UT to see what would possibly be the most important archeological relic in all of religious history! Consider the claim - Abraham wrote with his own hand, Joseph obtained some of that writing and translated it, and the church now owns some of the related fragments!!! Breathtaking isn't it?! If they really believed it, it would be astounding on a global level and I've no doubt that they would be using it to maximum benefit for PR and missionary purposes. In fact, the LDS church knows that those fragments are common Eqyptian pagan burial texts with nothing to do with the time period or personage of father Abraham. But the fragments containing Abraham's writing have never been recovered! Perhaps, but you really should familiarize yourself with the story (by reading this book) and you'll find that the fragments they do have are indeed related to the "translation" work and whatever explanation you decide makes sense to you, it's pretty much impossible to call it "translation" of any real text, from any actual papyrus fragments.

Read it, you're sure to be entertained and informed if nothing else.

[Evan Þ. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the early days of the Mormon (LDS) Church, Joseph Smith (upon being urged) tried his spiritually-aided translation skills on some hieroglyphic papyruses that'd been brought to town... and announced that they were written by Abraham and Joseph! Subsequently, he published an English translation of part of the "Book of Abraham," revealing a lot of LDS doctrines not found in the traditional canonical Bible. And then, after his death, the papyruses went missing.

Later on, secular scholars learned to translate hieroglyphics... and then, in the 1960's, the papyruses were rediscovered! It turns out that they contain normal pagan funeral texts, with no references at all to Abraham or Joseph.

The LDS response has been mixed and confused, including a lot of denials and scramblings after "could there be a spiritual interpretation as well as a literal translation?" Larson steps through all this stirred-up controversy, arguing that these responses run contrary to Smith's actual claims. And therefore, he argues, Smith could not be an actual prophet and the LDS church falls.

I haven't read any Mormon defenses yet, but if Larson represents them at all honestly, he does seem to prove his case. What's more, the discovery of the "Book of Abraham" seems improbably convenient for Smith's claims. Though I suppose, from the LDS view, this convenience could be attributed to God's providence. But still, that attribution would depend its being a true translation.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes a look historically at one of the most controversial issues that faces the Mormon organization related to the Book of Abraham.
This book is an excellent resource if you desire to have a conversation about this with a Mormon as it can lead to the doubting of the Book of Mormon and then Mormonism as a whole.
Larson does a great job dealing with the apologists who defended the work by exposing the flaws in their own reasoning. He also shows how their claims to the “anti-Mormons” tactics are really what the other side is in fact doing, thus allowing them to fall on their own swords. Make sense? Go read it!

[Darrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a book my LDS friends will like.

[Leslie Fanchon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly documented.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is focused on one thing, translation, and I enjoyed it but not as much as others which is more comprehensive on Mormon history so 4 stars. Since most Mormons are not aware of the many problems associated with Joseph's claimed ability to translate and his many translation attempts, it is a good read for those who are not already aware of this. If a Mormon does not know why the RLDS does not accept the Book of Abraham, and why they rejected the Book of Mormon as real history, then they need to read this book to understand. This book covers the well documented failed translation attempt of papyrus to the Book of Abraham and explains its significance to understanding Mormonism. Interesting read but only a small part of the Mormon story.

[Tyler Leary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still the best book out there on the subject of the Book of Abraham. There's a weird pitch for mainstream Christianity at the very end which has nothing to do with the subject at hand, but was apparently a concession to the group that funded its publication.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be read with the "Book of Abraham" in the other hand for text by text, character by character comparison.

[Marty · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative eye-opener, but the last chapter is presumptuous.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this after graduation...

[Dad]

False doctrine included

[Taliesin Lothlorien Gaia · Rating 5 out of 5]

a MUST READ for every mormon or anyone considering joining the lds church.

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. A page turner. Details the true history of Joseph Smith's so-called "Lost Book of Abraham". A must read for anyone involved with Mormonism.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this book had the potential to be really good, it seemed to lack supporting footnotes and references.

[Vintah Montoya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read and well documented.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good explanation of the history of the Book of Abraham and a comparison of the papyrii and the content of the book.

[Lachlan Krautz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes a great case for the problems surrounding the Book of Abraham. With a raunchy centerfold included =p.

[Markii · Rating 5 out of 5]

the best book on joseph smith's translation of the book of abraham.