Purpose of This Note: The LDS (Latter-day Saint) Book of Abraham - Joseph Smith’s 1835 “translation” of Egyptian papyri - is treated here not as theological truth or established history, but as an evidence exhibit illustrating how 19th-century restoration theology engaged the hypothesis of an Egyptian-Abrahamic connection. The Book of Abraham’s claims, the controversy surrounding them, and the evidence marshaled both for and against it illuminate the broader question this project investigates: the relationship between Egyptian religious tradition and the Biblical patriarchal tradition.
Table of Contents
- Overview
- The Book of Abraham - Historical Context
- Joseph Smith’s Claims
- The Facsimile Controversy
- What the Book of Abraham Claims Theologically
- The Egyptian Connection in LDS Theology
- Scholarly Assessment
- LDS Responses to the Evidence Problem
- Relevance to This Project
- Evidence Assessment
- Bibliography
- Related Notes
Overview
The Book of Abraham is a text in the LDS canon, contained in the Pearl of Great Price, presented as Joseph Smith’s translation of Egyptian papyri purchased in 1835. Joseph Smith claimed to translate the papyri as the autobiographical account of the patriarch Abraham written “by his own hand upon papyrus” - describing Abraham’s near-sacrifice by Chaldean priests, his astronomical knowledge, and his time in Egypt teaching astronomy and theology to Pharaoh.
After Smith’s death, the papyri were thought lost. In 1966, portions were rediscovered in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Egyptologists identified them as standard Egyptian funerary documents (portions of the Book of Breathings, a Late Period mortuary text). The correlation between Smith’s “translation” and the actual Egyptian content has been the subject of intense scholarly and theological controversy ever since.
For this project, the Book of Abraham is not evidence that Smith correctly translated the papyri, but rather an illustration of the cultural intuition - present across multiple traditions - that there is a deep connection between Egyptian priestly knowledge and the Biblical patriarchal tradition. That intuition, even if the specific vehicle (Smith’s translation) is historically inaccurate, may be pointing toward something real.
The Book of Abraham - Historical Context
Discovery and Publication
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1835 | Michael Chandler exhibits Egyptian mummies and papyri in Kirtland, Ohio; Joseph Smith purchases 4 mummies and papyri |
| 1835-1842 | Smith works on “translation” of the papyri |
| March 1842 | Book of Abraham first published in Times and Seasons newspaper |
| 1844 | Joseph Smith killed; papyri dispersed |
| 1966 | Portions of the papyri discovered in the Metropolitan Museum of Art |
| 1966-present | Ongoing scholarly and LDS community debate about the translation |
The Papyri
The recovered papyri include portions of:
- P. Joseph Smith I: Part of the Book of Breathings Made by Isis (Sensen Papyrus)
- P. Joseph Smith XI: Fragment of Book of the Dead chapter 125
Both are standard Egyptian funerary documents of the Late Period (~300 BCE - 100 CE). Neither contains anything about Abraham.
Joseph Smith’s Claims
The Book of Abraham’s Content
The Book of Abraham presents Abraham as:
- Nearly sacrificed by Chaldean priests on an altar dedicated to false gods (Elkenah, Libnah, Mahmackrah, Korash, Pharaoh)
- Saved by divine intervention - an angel appears and loosens his bonds
- Receiving astronomical revelation - God shows Abraham the cosmos: stars, the planet Kolob (nearest to God’s throne), the cosmic ordering of times and intelligences
- Teaching Egyptian Pharaoh - Abraham brings knowledge of astronomy and mathematics to Egypt; Pharaoh’s wife is taught by Abraham
The Facsimile Claims
The Book of Abraham includes three facsimiles (drawings of vignettes from the papyri) with Smith’s explanations of their content.
Facsimile 1: An Egyptian vignette showing the embalming god Anubis ministering to a mummy on a lion-couch, with a standing jackal-headed figure above. Smith identifies this as Abraham on an altar about to be sacrificed by an idolatrous priest.
Facsimile 2: A hypocephalus (a disk placed under the head of a mummy). Smith provides detailed identifications of each figure as astronomical, theological, or cosmological concepts.
Facsimile 3: A scene from the Book of Breathings showing the deceased before Osiris. Smith identifies the figures as Abraham and the pharaoh, with various attendants.
The Facsimile Controversy
Egyptological Assessment
Multiple Egyptologists have assessed Smith’s facsimile explanations:
| Feature | Smith’s Identification | Egyptological Reading | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facsimile 1, central figure | ”Abraham, bound upon an altar" | "The deceased (Hor) on an embalming couch” | No correspondence |
| Facsimile 1, standing figure | ”Idolatrous priest of Elkenah attempting to offer Abraham" | "Anubis, god of embalming” | No correspondence |
| Facsimile 2, figure at center | ”Kolob, signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial" | "Khnum-Ra, ram-headed creator god” | Partial theological resonance; no textual correspondence |
| Facsimile 3, seated figure | ”Abraham sitting upon Pharaoh’s throne" | "Osiris enthroned as judge of the dead” | No correspondence |
The consensus Egyptological assessment: Joseph Smith’s explanations of the facsimiles do not correspond to what Egyptologists read in these standard Egyptian funerary documents.
What the Book of Abraham Claims Theologically
Despite the translation controversy, the Book of Abraham’s theological content is relevant to this project because of its claims about the relationship between Egyptian and Abrahamic religion:
Key Theological Claims
-
Abraham as the source of Egyptian astronomical knowledge: The text claims Abraham taught Egyptian priests astronomy and mathematics - reversing the standard “Egypt taught Israel” model and claiming Abrahamic tradition was the source of Egyptian learning.
-
Kolob and the cosmic ordering: The Book of Abraham presents a complex astronomical cosmology with the concept of “Kolob” (the star nearest to God’s throne), a cosmic hierarchy of stars corresponding to cosmic time, and a theology of “intelligences” ordered by God from eternity.
-
The Egyptian connection is explicit: Unlike the Hebrew Bible, which never directly narrates what Abraham learned in Egypt or what he taught, the Book of Abraham makes the Egyptian-Abrahamic connection the center of the narrative.
-
Egyptian idolatry as a corruption: The text presents Egyptian religion as a corruption of the original Abrahamic knowledge - Pharaoh “claimed” the priesthood and adapted Abrahamic theology into the Egyptian royal cult.
Theological Resonance with This Project’s Hypothesis
The Book of Abraham’s theological structure - Abrahamic knowledge precedes and underlies Egyptian religion, but Egyptian religion corrupted and institutionalized it - is structurally similar to the Primordial Priestly Tradition hypothesis, except:
| Book of Abraham | This Project’s Hypothesis |
|---|---|
| Abraham = source; Egypt = corruption | Common pre-dynastic source → both Egypt and Israel |
| Abrahamic priesthood = original tradition | Primordial priestly guild = original tradition |
| Egyptian pharaoh “claimed” the priesthood | Egyptian Per-Ankh institutionalized the tradition |
| Moses restores the original | Moses transmits a parallel branch |
The structural intuition is the same (original priestly knowledge → Egypt → Biblical tradition), even though the specific claims differ.
The Egyptian Connection in LDS Theology
The Broader LDS Claim
LDS theology (from Joseph Smith onward) has consistently claimed that:
- The Biblical patriarchs held a universal “Melchizedek Priesthood” predating all national religions
- This priesthood was transmitted through Noah, Abraham, and ultimately Moses
- Egypt’s religion was a derivative and corruption of this original priesthood
- The Restoration (through Joseph Smith) recovers this original tradition
This is a 19th-century restoration theology that parallels Renaissance Hermeticism’s claim to a prisca theologia (ancient theology underlying all religion). Whether or not Smith’s specific claims are historically accurate, they represent a persistent intuition - appearing across multiple cultural contexts - that there is a deep connection between Egyptian priestly knowledge and Biblical religion.
The Abrahamic-Egyptian Intersection in Genesis
Genesis 12:10-20 narrates Abraham’s descent into Egypt during a famine - and the curious incident in which Pharaoh takes Sarah into his household, apparently impressed by her beauty, before divine plagues force him to return her. The narrative is brief and somewhat obscure.
LDS tradition expands this into a full account of Abraham’s priestly knowledge transfer to Egypt. The Book of Abraham narrative - whatever its historical accuracy - engages a real gap in the Biblical text: what happened when Abraham was in Egypt? What did he and Pharaoh discuss? The Book of Abraham fills that gap with priestly-cosmological content.
Scholarly Assessment
The Translation Question
The fundamental scholarly problem with the Book of Abraham is straightforward: the recovered papyri are standard Late Period Egyptian funerary documents, not accounts of Abraham. Joseph Smith’s “translation” does not correspond to the Egyptian text.
Possible LDS responses (surveyed here for completeness; not endorsed):
| Response | Argument | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Missing original | The “Abraham papyrus” was a different, lost papyrus | Unfalsifiable; no evidence |
| Catalyst theory | Smith used the papyri as a catalyst for revelation, not as a text to translate | Revises Smith’s own claims; accepted by some LDS scholars |
| Inspired transmission | Smith received true Abraham content through an inspired, non-literal process | Theological claim; outside scholarly evaluation |
| Egyptology is wrong | Egyptian scholarship misidentifies the papyri | No credible scholarly support |
The catalyst theory (Smith used the papyri as a starting point for revealed content, not as a text to translate literally) has gained some traction among LDS scholars who accept the Egyptological evidence. Under this model, the Book of Abraham is revealed content about Abraham’s experience, not a translation of the specific papyri.
What This Means for This Project
Even under the catalyst theory, the Book of Abraham illustrates that:
- The cultural intuition of an Egyptian-Abrahamic knowledge connection is persistent and cross-cultural
- The specific claims of Egyptian-Biblical connection can generate elaborate theological systems
- The gap in the Biblical text (what happened in Egypt?) is a real hermeneutical problem that multiple traditions have tried to fill
Relevance to This Project
The Book of Abraham as Evidence Exhibit
The Book of Abraham is included in this project as an evidence exhibit - a case study in how the Egyptian-Biblical connection has been claimed and contested - rather than as independent evidence for the Primordial Priestly Tradition hypothesis.
What it illustrates:
- The persistent intuition of an Egyptian-Abrahamic knowledge connection
- The structural possibility (if not the historical accuracy) of the Abraham-Egypt transmission narrative
- The 19th-century encounter between Egyptian archaeology (Champollion deciphered hieroglyphics in 1822; the Book of Abraham dates to 1835) and restoration theology
- The gap in the Biblical narrative that all these traditions attempt to fill
What it does not demonstrate:
- Historical connection between Abraham and Egypt
- Egyptian priestly knowledge transmission to the patriarchs
- The Primordial Priestly Tradition hypothesis
See Book of Abraham for additional context on the LDS textual tradition.
Evidence Assessment
| Evidence Type | Rating | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Book of Abraham as translation | Not credible evidence | Egyptological consensus clear |
| LDS theological claim of Egyptian-Abrahamic connection | Tier D | Illustrative; shares structural intuition with hypothesis |
| The “catalyst theory” response | Tier D | Theologically motivated; unfalsifiable |
| The Abraham-in-Egypt gap in Genesis | Tier C | Real textual gap; relevant to hypothesis |
| Cultural persistence of the Egyptian connection intuition | Tier C | Cross-cultural; multiple traditions pointing same direction |
Bibliography
Gee, John. An Introduction to the Book of Abraham. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book / BYU Religious Studies Center, 2017. (LDS sympathetic)
Larson, Charles M. By His Own Hand upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri. Grand Rapids: Institute for Religious Research, 1992. (Critical)
Muhlstein, Kerry, and John Gee. “An Egyptian Context for the Sacrifice of Abraham.” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 20, no. 2 (2011): 70-77. (LDS apologetic)
Ritner, Robert K. “The ‘Breathing Permit of Hor’ Thirty-Four Years Later.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 33, no. 4 (2000): 97-119. (Critical; Egyptological)
Vogel, Dan, ed. The Joseph Smith Papers: Histories and Other Documents. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2009.