Evidences for the Book of Abraham's Authenticity

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Evidences for the Book of Abraham's Authenticity

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Summary: This page is a summary of additional evidence for the Book of Abraham. We have already discussed on other pages evidences for the authenticity of Joseph Smith's explanations of the Facsimiles (Facsimile 1 | Facsimile 2 | Facsimile 3). This page, however, will list all the other evidence for the Book of Abraham's authenticity.

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Abraham's Astronomy

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that Chapter 3 of the Book of Abraham and Facsimile 2 include an ancient view of the stars and planets, which they call Abrahamic astronomy, and that different scholars have offered several ways to understand this section. One strong idea they describe is that the astronomy in the Book of Abraham fits an ancient geocentric view of the universe, meaning people long ago thought the sky and heavenly bodies revolved around the earth—similar to how ancient Egyptians pictured the heavens. They show that this ancient model helps make sense of the text and teaches gospel ideas in ways Abraham’s people could understand, even though it doesn’t match modern science. For Latter-day Saints, this article can be used to show that the Book of Abraham’s astronomy makes sense in the context of ancient Near Eastern thinking and isn’t just a modern invention, helping readers appreciate the text as something that could reflect an authentic ancient worldview rather than only a modern description.—(Click here to read more)

Abraham's Converts in Haran

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that when Abraham and his family left Haran in the Book of Abraham, the text says they took with them “the souls that we had won in Haran” (Abraham 2:15), which means they brought people they had helped join God’s covenant, not just servants or property. They compare this to the similar passage in Genesis 12:5 and show that ancient Jewish interpreters also read it as people Abraham converted rather than as slaves, so the Book of Abraham’s wording makes sense in that ancient context. The article presents Abraham as a missionary who taught and gathered people to follow God before he journeyed to Canaan. For Latter-day Saints, this article can be used to support the idea that the Book of Abraham’s account fits with ancient understandings of conversion and shows Abraham’s faith-filled efforts to share God’s message, which helps readers see the Book of Abraham as grounded in real ancient themes rather than only modern language.—(Click here to read more)

Abraham and Idrimi

An ancient inscription by a king named Idrimi from about 1500 BC shares some similarities with the Book of Abraham, because both texts are written in the first person and tell of the writer’s life, travels, connection to their ancestors, and relationship with God or divine promises. In the ancient Near East, people sometimes wrote about their own lives in this way, and the Idrimi inscription is one example of that kind of writing that archaeologists have found long after the Book of Abraham was published. Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson argue that because these kinds of autobiographical texts existed in the ancient world, this supports the idea that the Book of Abraham could also reflect an ancient literary tradition rather than being purely a modern creation. For Latter-day Saints, this article can be used to suggest that the style and form of the Book of Abraham fit with real ancient Near Eastern writings, helping readers see the Book of Abraham in a broader historical and cultural context.—(Click here to read more)

Abraham the Seer

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham repeatedly shows Abraham as a “seer”—someone who receives visions or sees divine things, often with the help of special instruments like the Urim and Thummim mentioned in Abraham 3:1, and that words like see and show appear again and again in the story to emphasize this idea. They argue that the way the book talks about Abraham seeing heavenly things is both one of its main themes and something readers might otherwise miss, because the text uses both clear and subtle language to paint Abraham as someone who interacts with the divine through visionary experience. For Latter-day Saints, this article can be used to help readers understand the Book of Abraham by showing that its style and focus on Abraham as a visionary figure make sense within ancient religious ideas about how prophets saw God’s will, reinforcing that the book presents Abraham in a way that fits ancient seer traditions rather than just being a modern story.—(Click here to read more)

Abrahamic Legends and Lore

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that many Jewish, Christian, and Islamic stories about Abraham—called extrabiblical traditions—contain details similar to the Book of Abraham, such as Abraham facing idolatry, living through a famine in the Chaldean lands, nearly being sacrificed, receiving visions of God and the stars, and engaging in astronomy with the Egyptians, which suggests these themes were part of ancient storytelling about Abraham, not just modern ideas. These legends come from sources most people in Joseph Smith’s time probably didn’t have access to and often differ in important ways, but when read alongside the Book of Abraham they show that many of its unique elements fit well with ancient traditions about Abraham rather than only nineteenth‑century writing styles. For Latter‑day Saints, this article can be used to show that the Book of Abraham shares core ideas with long‑standing ancient Abraham stories, helping readers see the book as part of a wider ancient tradition instead of something entirely new or invented.—(Click here to read more)

The Ancient Egyptian View of Abraham

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that ancient Egyptians knew about Abraham long before modern times, showing that stories about him circulated in Egypt from about the 300s BC through the early centuries AD, including in Jewish and Egyptian writings and magical papyri where Abraham appears alongside other important biblical names. These texts tell of things like Abraham living in Egypt, teaching astronomy to priests, being connected with the true God, and even being mentioned in Egyptian religious and magical traditions, which means Egyptians mixed their own beliefs with stories about Abraham that came from Israelite religion. Because these traditions existed at times and places connected to the ancient Joseph Smith papyri and reflect how Egyptians viewed Abraham in history and legend, the article argues that the Book of Abraham fits into a real Egyptian cultural context rather than being something completely new or out of place. For Latter-day Saints, this can be used to show that the Book of Abraham’s themes and details about Abraham would have made sense in ancient Egypt and that the figure of Abraham was known in Egyptian and Jewish tradition long before the modern era.—(Click here to read more)

Ancient Near Eastern Creation Myths

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the creation account in the Book of Abraham (chapters 4–5) is similar not just to the Bible’s story in Genesis but also to ancient creation myths from Egypt and Mesopotamia, where people described creation as organizing chaos rather than creation out of nothing, and often listed events in a similar order, like separating heaven from earth and forming humans and animals. For example, an Egyptian text called the Coffin Texts and some Mesopotamian myths begin with a dark, watery chaos and then talk about how the sky and earth were formed—parallels that are close enough that ancient Egyptians could recognize common ideas when hearing Abraham’s teachings. These similarities help place the Book of Abraham’s creation story in a real ancient Near Eastern context rather than making it seem completely foreign to the ancient world. For Latter-day Saints, this article can be used to show that the way creation is described in the Book of Abraham fits with how people in Abraham’s time and region thought about beginnings, and that these shared ideas make the text more understandable as part of ancient creation traditions.—(Click here to read more)

Authentic Names and Words in the Book of Abraham

John Tvedtnes explains that many of the names and words found in the Book of Abraham and the associated Kirtland Egyptian Papers have been studied by scholars like John Tvedtnes, Hugh Nibley, Robert F. Smith, John Gee, and others, and that some of these names are actually attested in ancient Near Eastern documents or can be traced to ancient Egyptian and Semitic roots used in Abraham’s time rather than being random English inventions. The article points out that these names were carefully compared with the original manuscripts and that researchers have been able to postulate ancient etymologies for names of deities, individuals, and celestial terms in the text based on known ancient languages, showing that they are consistent with what would have been familiar in ancient Egypt and the Near East. Because critics often claim such names are anachronistic or made up, the fact that many correspond to real or linguistically plausible ancient names can be used by Latter‑day Saints to argue that the Book of Abraham reflects genuine ancient material, supporting the idea that the text has roots in the ancient world rather than being only a 19th‑century creation.—(Click here to read more)

The Blood of the Canaanites

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that in Abraham 1:21–22, the Book of Abraham says the king of Egypt was “a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites,” and although that sounds unusual, Egyptian history shows a period when rulers of Egypt had names and ancestry from Canaan (Syria-Palestine), especially during the Fourteenth Dynasty after the Twelfth Dynasty, which makes the phrase “blood of the Canaanites” make historical sense in an ancient setting. They also suggest that if Abraham lived toward the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, there could have been Canaanite rulers in Egypt during his lifetime, which might explain why he was welcomed and given certain privileges such as teaching astronomy (Facsimile 3) at Pharaoh’s court. This article can be used by Latter-day Saints to show that small details in the Book of Abraham align with real ancient Egyptian history and names, helping support the idea that the text fits into a plausible ancient context rather than being only a modern story.—(Click here to read more)

Creation from Chaos

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham’s creation story teaches that God and heavenly beings organized the universe out of preexisting chaos rather than creating everything from nothing, which was also how Joseph Smith taught creation and how many ancient Near Eastern cultures like the Egyptians and Mesopotamians imagined the world beginning. In the Book of Abraham, important words like “organized” and “formed” show this idea clearly, and this mirrors other ancient stories where order comes out of chaos instead of creation out of nothing. The article reminds readers that many people in Joseph Smith’s time believed in creation ex nihilo, but ancient cultures did not, and so the Book of Abraham’s viewpoint fits with how people really thought about creation thousands of years ago. For Latter-day Saints, this article can be used to help show that the way the Book of Abraham describes creation makes sense in a real ancient worldview and is not just a modern idea.—(Click here to read more)

The Divine Council in the Book of Abraham

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham talks about a group of heavenly beings working together during creation, which they call the divine council, and that this idea appears clearly in Abraham chapters 3–5 when God and other “gods” take counsel together about how to organize the world (Abraham 4:1; 4:26). This is different from how most people in Joseph Smith’s day understood creation, but many ancient Near Eastern texts discovered later show similar stories of a council of gods who meet and work together during creation, and scholars now see traces of a divine council idea even in the Hebrew Bible. Because the Book of Abraham’s language matches this ancient concept and similar imagery in other ancient texts, the article suggests that the way the Book of Abraham depicts heavenly beings fits with real ancient ideas about a heavenly council, not just modern views, and so Latter-day Saints can use it to understand the book in a broader ancient context and see its portrayal of premortal life and divine cooperation as consistent with ancient thought rather than something only invented in the nineteenth century.—(Click here to read more)

Egyptianisms in the Book of Abraham

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham’s English text contains some features that look like they come from the Egyptian language, called Egyptianisms, and they argue that finding these in the Book of Abraham could mean the text reflects an ancient Egyptian source rather than being written only in English by someone who did not know Egyptian. For example, they point to a passage where two slightly different English versions of a sentence would have been the same in Egyptian grammar, and to wordplay in Abraham 3 where words for “spirit” and ideas about stars match how Egyptians connected spirits with celestial light in their language and thought. Because people in Joseph Smith’s time did not really understand Egyptian, the presence of these Egyptian-style features is consistent with the idea that the Book of Abraham came from ancient Egyptian material rather than being purely modern. For Latter-day Saints, this article can be used to support the belief that the Book of Abraham reflects authentic ancient perspectives and linguistic patterns familiar to Egyptians, which helps place the book in a real ancient cultural and literary context.—(Click here to read more)

The Foreordination of Abraham

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham teaches that Abraham lived as a spirit before his birth and was chosen by God ahead of time for an important mission, a teaching called foreordination that appears clearly in Abraham 3:22–23. They show that this idea was not unique or modern, but fits with ancient Near Eastern beliefs in which gods selected certain people in advance, assigned them destinies, and revealed these choices through councils or heavenly assemblies. Ancient texts from Mesopotamia and Egypt often describe divine plans made before a person’s birth and kings or prophets being chosen by the gods for special roles, which closely matches how the Book of Abraham describes God choosing Abraham among the “noble and great ones.” For Latter-day Saints, the article can be used to show that the Book of Abraham’s teaching about foreordination fits well within ancient religious worldviews, helping place its doctrines about premortal life and divine purpose in a believable ancient context rather than seeing them as purely modern ideas.—(Click here to read more)

Hebraisms in the Book of Abraham

Julie M. Smith explains that Abraham 3:22‑23 is written in a chiastic structure, which is a way of organizing ideas so they mirror each other around a central point. In this passage, ideas about the premortal “intelligences,” the “noble and great ones,” God’s approval of them, and Abraham’s placement among them are arranged in a pattern that goes forward and then backward. This structure makes the passage easier to remember and highlights its main message. Chiastic patterns were commonly used in ancient Semitic and Egyptian writing to show emphasis and organize important ideas. Because the Book of Abraham uses this same ancient literary style, Latter‑day Saints can see it as evidence that the text reflects real ancient writing techniques rather than being made up in modern times, supporting the idea that it has authentic ancient origins. —(Click here to read more)

Human Sacrifice in Egypt

The authors Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the beginning of the Book of Abraham tells how Abraham’s own family tried to offer him up to their “strange gods” in a ritual that looked like human sacrifice or ritual killing, and that the text says this practice was done “after the manner of the Egyptians,” with a priest involved (Abraham 1:7–11). They then look at ancient Egyptian history and archaeology and show that, although scholars use terms like ritual slaying, sanctioned killing, or sacred violence instead of simply “human sacrifice,” there is evidence that ancient Egyptians sometimes killed people in ritual or religious contexts, especially for offenses against sacred space or religious norms, and that this kind of sanctioned killing happened during the time Abraham is thought to have lived. This ancient evidence matches many details of the Book of Abraham’s story about Abraham nearly being killed, suggesting that the narrative fits with what we know about ancient Near Eastern practices rather than being just a modern invention. For Latter-day Saints, the article can be used to show that the Book of Abraham’s dramatic opening accounts of ritual killing are connected to real ancient religious beliefs and rituals, helping readers understand the story in a historical and cultural context instead of seeing it as only a symbolic or made-up scene.—(Click here to read more)

Jews in Ancient Egypt

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that Jewish people lived in Egypt for many centuries before and after the time when the Joseph Smith papyri were written, especially during the Greco‑Roman period (about 300 BC to AD 30), with large Jewish communities in cities like Alexandria, Thebes, and Oxyrhynchus, and that these communities not only brought Jewish religious texts into Egypt but also wrote new Jewish works and interacted with Egyptian culture and religion.⁴⁾ They show that Jews lived in Egypt from at least the time of the Babylonian exile and continued to grow in number, often maintaining their identity while also exchanging ideas with Egyptians, including religious ideas, languages, and customs.⁴⁾ This helps explain how a copy of Abraham’s writings might have ended up in Egypt centuries after his lifetime—for example, an Egyptian priest could have acquired or copied it in a multicultural city where Jews and Egyptians shared texts and beliefs.⁴⁁ For Latter‑day Saints, the article can be used to provide a plausible historical background for how the Book of Abraham could have been transmitted into Egypt and preserved on papyri, showing that ancient Egypt was home to Jewish communities that participated in literary and religious exchange rather than being isolated from Israelite religion.—(Click here to read more)

Kolob, the Governing One

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham describes Kolob as the star or planet closest to God’s throne, the greatest and governing one over other stars, and a measure of time for the cosmos (Abraham 3, Facsimile 2). They explore the possible meanings of the name Kolob, suggesting it may come from ancient Egyptian or Semitic roots meaning “first,” “near,” or “chief,” which fits its role as the preeminent celestial body. The authors also propose Sirius as a likely candidate for Kolob, noting its brightness, prominence in the night sky, and importance in Egyptian astronomy and religious symbolism. By connecting the name, its meaning, and its identification with Sirius to ancient Egyptian cosmology, the article shows that the Book of Abraham’s depiction of Kolob aligns with ancient ways of understanding the heavens. For Latter‑day Saints, this can be used to understand that the Book of Abraham contains astronomical and linguistic details consistent with ancient traditions, supporting the idea that its descriptions of the cosmos are grounded in real ancient knowledge rather than being purely modern inventions.—(Click here to read more)

The Name of the Lord

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham records God revealing His true name, Jehovah, to Abraham on two separate occasions (in Abraham 1 and 2), and they show that this focus on divine names fits ancient Near Eastern and especially ancient Egyptian beliefs about the power and importance of names, where knowing a name was thought to connect a person with the essence and authority of what was named. Because ancient Egyptians and other Near Eastern cultures treated names as crucial in religious and ritual life, the fact that the Book of Abraham highlights God’s name and Abraham’s use of it in covenant rituals can be seen as consistent with ancient ways of thinking rather than a modern literary invention. For Latter‑day Saints, this article can be used to argue that the Book of Abraham’s detailed treatment of names makes sense in a real ancient cultural and religious setting, supporting the idea that the text reflects authentic ancient themes rather than only 19th‑century theology.—(Click here to read more)

The Plain of Olishem

In an article for BYU Studies Quarterly, Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerru Muhlestein, and Thompson discuss “The Plain of Olishem.” They explain that the Book of Abraham mentions a place called Olishem (Abraham 1:10) and explore whether this name matches an ancient place called Ulisum found in old Akkadian records from about 4,000 years ago. These records place Ulisum west of the Euphrates River, in an area that fits well with where Abraham is said to have lived. The article notes that the names Olishem and Ulisum sound similar and come from the same time period, even though the place name does not appear in the Bible. While the authors admit there is no final proof, they argue the match is reasonable and worth taking seriously. For Latter-day Saints, the article can be used to demonstrate that the Book of Abraham contains realistic ancient place names, thereby supporting the idea that the text fits an authentic ancient setting.—(Click here to read more)

Potiphar's Hill

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham mentions a location called Potiphar’s Hill “at the head of the plain of Olishem” where a priest of Pharaoh made offerings to gods and performed rituals (Abraham 1:9–12), and they show that this fits ancient Near Eastern religious sites called cult centers, which were common places of worship and offerings across Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt in ancient times. They point out that the name Potiphar itself comes from an Egyptian naming formula linking a person to a god (like Re), and that Egyptian influence and solar worship were present in northern Syria and surrounding regions in the second millennium BC, making it plausible that Abraham’s relatives could have adopted mixed Egyptian‑Canaanite religious practices before his conversion. The article also shows that sacred hills and high places were important in ancient religion as places where heaven and earth met and where people sought encounters with the divine, so the Book of Abraham’s setting of revelation and threat of sacrifice on a hill matches real ancient religious geography and ritual practice. Because the Book of Abraham’s details about a specific cult site, a named priest, and religious behavior align with what scholars know about ancient Near Eastern cult centers and names, Latter‑day Saints can use this article to argue that the narrative contains authentic ancient cultural and geographical elements rather than being purely a modern creation.—(Click here to read more)

Shinehah, the Sun

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham uses the word Shinehah to mean “the sun” in Abraham 3:13, and they show that this term closely matches an actual ancient Egyptian word from texts used in Abraham’s time for the sun’s celestial path or sky canal, which was part of Egyptian astronomy and religion; this Egyptian word š‑n‑ḫꜣ appears in the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, religious writings from around and before Abraham’s day, and its consonants line up well with Shinehah in the Book of Abraham. Because Shinehah is not just a made‑up word but corresponds to an ancient Egyptian astronomical term that would have been known in the broader ancient Near Eastern world, the article can be used by Latter‑day Saints to argue that the Book of Abraham contains authentic ancient linguistic and cultural details, which supports the idea that the book reflects real ancient context rather than being purely a modern 19th‑century invention.—(Click here to read more)

The Son of Man

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that in the premortal council scene in Abraham 3:25–27, the Book of Abraham describes God asking which premortal spirit should be sent as the redeemer, and the one who answers first is called “one … like unto the Son of Man,” a title later associated with Jesus Christ in scripture, even though he is not explicitly named in this passage. They show that the phrase “Son of Man” has ancient roots in Jewish and apocalyptic literature (such as Daniel and later Jewish works) where it refers to a divine or exalted figure given authority and rule, and that this usage reflects ancient ways of thinking about divine messengers and heavenly figures rather than being a modern invention. For Latter‑day Saints, this article can be used to support the idea that the Book of Abraham’s language about premortal figures and divine roles aligns with ancient religious concepts about the Son of Man and Christ’s role, which helps argue that the book’s wording and themes reflect genuine ancient theological ideas rather than only 19th‑century expressions.—(Click here to read more)

Ur of the Chaldees

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham repeatedly names Ur of the Chaldees as Abraham’s homeland and gives extra details about it that aren’t in Genesis, such as connections with Egyptian cultural and religious influence and nearby places like the plain of Olishem that match ancient sites in northern Mesopotamia or Syria. The article shows that while many scholars traditionally identify Abraham’s Ur with the Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq, there is no firm archaeological evidence for Egyptian influence there in Abraham’s day, and the Book of Abraham’s own geographic and cultural hints fit better in the north, where Egyptian contact, relevant place‑names, and sites like Ulisum make more sense. Because these added details in the Book of Abraham line up with ancient Near Eastern history and geography in ways that the biblical text alone does not, Latter‑day Saints can use this article to argue that the Book of Abraham reflects genuine ancient geographic and cultural knowledge rather than being simply a modern story.—(Click here to read more)

Zeptah and Egyptus

Smoot, Gee, Muhlestein, and Thompson explain that the Book of Abraham’s opening genealogy—where Egypt was first discovered by a woman who is the daughter of Ham and “Egyptes”—actually appears in the earliest 1835 manuscript with the names “Zeptah” (for Ham’s wife) and “Egyptes” (for their daughter), rather than the later published form Egyptus found in the 1842 edition of the Book of Abraham. They show that Zeptah is very similar to the known ancient Egyptian name Siptah (sꜣ Ptḥ), meaning “son of Ptah,” and that names with Ptah were attested in ancient Egyptian records from Abraham’s time, which suggests the Book of Abraham preserves a name that could reflect genuine Egyptian linguistic material rather than a random English invention. Because this points to Egyptian‑style names appearing in the earliest manuscript form before publication, the article can be used by Latter‑day Saints to argue that the Book of Abraham contains authentic ancient Egyptian details in its original form, supporting the view that the text reflects something rooted in the ancient world rather than purely 19th‑century composition.—(Click here to read more)