QUESTION: Why did Joseph Smith say he
had translated the writings of Abraham even though the manuscripts do not date
from Abraham’s time?
ANSWER: The Prophet Joseph Smith never
claimed the papyri were indeed the writings of Abraham. He said the book of
Abraham was “a translation of some ancient Records that have fallen into our
hands, from the Catacombs of Egypt, purporting to be the writings of Abraham,
while he was in Egypt” (Times and Seasons, Mar. 1, 1842, 704). “In 1966 eleven
fragments of papyri once possessed by the Prophet Joseph Smith were discovered
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. They were given to the
Church and have been analyzed by scholars who date them between about 100 B.C.
and A.D. 100. A common objection to the authenticity of the book of Abraham is
that the manuscripts are not old enough to have been written by Abraham, who
lived almost two thousand years before Christ. Joseph Smith never claimed that
the papyri were autographic (written by Abraham himself), nor that they dated
from the time of Abraham. It is common to refer to an author’s works as ‘his’
writings, whether he penned them himself, dictated them to others, or others
copied his writings later” (The Pearl of Great Price Student Manual, 28).
QUESTION: What did Joseph Smith do
with his translation?
ANSWER: “The book of Abraham was
originally published a few excerpts at a time in Times and Seasons, a Church
publication, beginning in March 1842 at Nauvoo, Illinois (see [the
introduction] at the beginning of the Pearl of Great Price). The Prophet Joseph
Smith indicated that he would publish more of the book of Abraham later, but he
was martyred before he was able to do so. Concerning the potential length of
the completed translation, Oliver Cowdery once said that ‘volumes’ would be
necessary to contain it (see Messenger and Advocate, Dec. 1835, 236). “In addition
to hieroglyphic writings, the manuscript also contained Egyptian drawings. On
23 February 1842, the Prophet Joseph Smith asked Reuben Hedlock, a professional
wood engraver and member of the Church, to prepare woodcuts of three of those
drawings so they could be printed. Hedlock finished the engravings in one week,
and Joseph Smith published the copies (facsimiles) along with the book of
Abraham. Joseph Smith’s explanations of the drawings accompany the facsimiles”
(The Pearl of Great Price Student Manual, 28–29).
QUESTION: What happened to the mummies
and the papyri?
ANSWER: “After the death of the
Prophet Joseph Smith, the four mummies and the papyri became the property of
Joseph’s widowed mother, Lucy Mack Smith” (The Pearl of Great Price Student Manual,
29). After Lucy Mack Smith died, the collection was sold to a man named Abel
Combs. The collection may have been sold by Joseph Smith’s wife Emma, or it may
have been sold by his brother William. Mr. Combs sold some of the
collection to a museum in St. Louis, Missouri. He retained other portions
and later gave some of them away. (The Story of the Book of Abraham: Mummies,
Manuscripts, and Mormonism [1995], 204–9, 257.)
“Several theories have been offered
regarding what happened . . . to the mummies and the papyri. It
appears that at least two of the mummies were burned in the great Chicago fire
of 1871 (see B. H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God, 3 vols. [1909–11],
2:380–382).
