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Joseph Smith Papyri

Faith and Reason 66: More Book of Abraham Evidences

March 17, 2016 by FAIR Staff

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/More-BOA-Evidences.mp3

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From the book: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith

By Michael R. Ash

Non-LDS Near Eastern scholar David Noel Freedman said that he had never encountered an Abraham account where the patriarch himself was threatened with sacrifice until he saw the claim in the Book of Abraham. Upon further reflection he acknowledged that a similar tradition existed in an ancient Abrahamic document, but an English translation was not available until the 1890’s.  What are the chances that Joseph Smith could have gotten so many things right by mere guesswork?

Michael R. Ash is the author of: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting The Prophet Joseph Smith. He is the owner and operator of MormonFortress.com and is on the management team for FairMormon. He has been published in Sunstone, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, the Maxwell Institute’s FARMS Review, and is the author of Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt. He and his wife live in Ogden, Utah, and have three daughters.

Julianne Dehlin Hatton has worked as a News Director at an NPR affiliate, Television Host, News Anchor, and Airborne Traffic Reporter. She graduated with an MSSc from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 2008. Julianne and her husband Thomas are the parents of four children.

Music for Faith and Reason is provided by Arthur Hatton.

Filed Under: Book of Abraham, Faith and Reason, Julianne Dehlin Hatton, Podcast Tagged With: Abraham, Faith and Reason, Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith Papyri, Julianne Dehlin Hatton, Michael R. Ash, Pearl of Great Price

“By His Own Hand, Upon Papyrus”: Another Look

November 17, 2013 by Stephen Smoot

Copy_of_Il_Guernico_hagar_ismael
Detail from “Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael” (1657) by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri.

 When the Book of Abraham was first published in March 1842, the title of the work, as it appeared in the Times and Seasons, read thusly: “A TRANSLATION Of some ancient Records that have fallen into our hands, from the Catecombs of Egypt, purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the BOOK OF ABRAHAM, written by his own hand, upon papyrus.”[1] A look at the manuscripts of the Book of Abraham shows that this explanatory “title,” as it were, for the Book of Abraham dates to the earliest stages of the book’s production. Our earliest (surviving) manuscript for the Book of Abraham, which Brian Hauglid designates Ab1, and which the scholars at the Joseph Smith Papers Project date to “Summer–Fall 1835,” reads: “Translation of the Book of Abraham written by his own hand upon papyrus and found in the CataCombs of Egypt.”[2] [Read more…] about “By His Own Hand, Upon Papyrus”: Another Look

Filed Under: Book of Abraham, LDS Scriptures Tagged With: Abraham, Book of Abraham, Joseph Smith Papyri

Egyptology and the Book of Abraham: An Interview with Egyptologist Kerry Muhlestein

November 14, 2013 by Stephen Smoot

photo1
Kerry Muhlestein, associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University.

Mormon fascination with the ancient world stems largely from an exotic corpus of writings found in the canon of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One book in the Church’s canon, the Book of Abraham, which Joseph Smith claimed to be an inspired translation of some ancient Egyptian papyri, has captured Mormon imagination with a vibrant narrative involving the eponymous biblical patriarch, human sacrifice, far-off lands, divine encounters and a grand cosmology.

One BYU professor, Kerry Muhlestein, has devoted a good portion of his academic career (over a decade) investigating the saga of the Book of Abraham. Muhlestein, who holds a PhD in Egyptology from UCLA, is an associate professor of ancient scripture at BYU. According to his faculty bio on the BYU Religious Education website, Muhlestein “is the director of the BYU Egypt Excavation Project,” which has led successful archaeological digs in Egypt, and has academic expertise in fields including “Ancient Egypt, Hebrew Bible, [and the] Pearl of Great Price.” [Read more…] about Egyptology and the Book of Abraham: An Interview with Egyptologist Kerry Muhlestein

Filed Under: Book of Abraham, LDS History, LDS Scriptures Tagged With: Book of Abraham, Joseph Smith Papyri, Kerry Muhlestein

New Research on the Book of Abraham

August 8, 2013 by Stephen Smoot

Fascinating new research regarding the Book of Abraham has been published in the most recent edition of the Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture, published by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. The two articles are by Egyptologists Kerry Muhlestein (PhD, UCLA) and John Gee (PhD, Yale).  [Read more…] about New Research on the Book of Abraham

Filed Under: Book of Abraham, LDS Scriptures Tagged With: Book of Abraham, critics, Joseph Smith Papyri, Pearl of Great Price

The Book of Abraham and Continuing Scholarship: Ask the Right Questions and Keep Looking

August 21, 2012 by Stephen Smoot

The Book of Abraham continues to be a hotly debated book. Critics of and apologists for the Book of Abraham continue to sound forth their judgments on the fraudulence or authenticity of this controversial scriptural work. There does not seem to be any end in sight for this controversy. With the survival of some of Joseph Smith’s Egyptian papyri – ostensibly the source of the Book of Abraham – critics have, in the words of Hugh Nibley, been “endlessly dinning into the ears of the public that what was written on that small and battered strip of papyrus prove[s] beyond a doubt that Joseph Smith [is] a fraud because he thought it contained the Book of Abraham, whereas it contains nothing of the sort.”[1] The most recent salvo aimed at thrashing Joseph Smith’s interpretation of these documents comes in the form of a respected Egyptologist publishing his highly critical material with a press known for being, at times, extremely hostile towards Mormon orthodoxy. This Egyptologist’s conclusion? “Except for those willfully blind… the case is closed.”[2]

That seems to be it for the poor Mormons.

Well, maybe not.

[Read more…] about The Book of Abraham and Continuing Scholarship: Ask the Right Questions and Keep Looking

Filed Under: Apologetics, Book of Abraham, LDS Scriptures, Science Tagged With: Book of Abraham, criticisms, critics, evidence, Joseph Smith Papyri

“A Most Remarkable Book”: Supplementary Reading

October 7, 2011 by Stephen Smoot

A Most Remarkable Book – Trailer

This week FAIR has released a new DVD exploring the issues surrounding the Book of Abraham. “A Most Remarkable Book: Evidence for the Divine Authenticity of the Book of Abraham” puts forth answers to various criticisms directed against the Book of Abraham, as well as provides evidence favorable to the Book of Abraham’s ancient authenticity.
[Read more…] about “A Most Remarkable Book”: Supplementary Reading

Filed Under: Anti-Mormon critics, Apologetics, Book of Abraham Tagged With: bibliography, Book of Abraham, critics, DVD, Joseph Smith Papyri, Pearl of Great Price

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