The Book of Abraham is a part of the Pearl of Great Price, one of the four sacred Scriptures of the LDS (Mormon) church. Here is the statement at the introduction of the Pearl of Great Price telling us portions (including the Book of Abraham) were translated and are “sacred scripture:”
“The Pearl of Great Price is a selection from the revelations, translations, and narrations of Joseph Smith, first prophet, seer, and revelator to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Portions of it were translated from ancient records and are considered sacred scripture by members of the Church.”
— Pearl of Great Price, Introduction (current LDS edition, 2013).
So, this is a sacred and inspired book to the LDS. But what exactly is the Book of Abraham (BOA)? I think we need to understand some foundational events first. Archaeology was in its infancy in the early 1800s but American interest was growing about Egyptian history in particular. The Rosetta Stone had only been discovered in 1799 enabling scholars to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics. Around 1820, some mummies and papyrus rolls (see image above) were discovered near Thebes in Egypt and found their way to the shores of America. These were sold to Michael H. Chandler who began touring America exhibiting the artifacts for profit.
In 1835, Chandler’s exhibit passed through Kirtland, Ohio, where the LDS church was headquartered at the time. The exhibit piqued the interest of Joseph Smith who, with the finances (about $88K today) of some friends, purchased some of the mummies and a few of the scrolls. Smith soon claimed the scrolls had been written by the very hand of the Bible’s Abraham some 4,000 years earlier and began to miraculously translate these scrolls into the Book of Abraham.
The “translation” describes Abraham’s life in Ur and Egypt and contained a supposed vision of the cosmos, including a teaching that the stars and planets are governed by great spirits.
The doctrine of the pre-existence of souls (that humans existed before this life) is also taken from the BOA. This is a controversial teaching historically used by LDS leaders regarding priesthood restrictions based on race (though the LDS church today rejects that application). These doctrines appear only in the BOA. If it isn’t what Joseph Smith claimed it to be, there is no other “sacred” source for these doctrines.
After the “translation” was completed, the original scrolls disappeared. For many years, they were thought to have been destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. However, in 1967, portions of the papyri were rediscovered in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and returned to the LDS Church.
“On November 27, 1967, the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented to the Church as a gift certain Egyptian papyri once owned and studied by the Prophet Joseph Smith. This was a far more momentous transaction than might appear on the surface, for it brought back into play for the first time since the angel Moroni took back the golden plates a tangible link between the worlds. What we have here is more than a few routine scribblings of ill-trained scribes of long ago; at least one of these very documents was presented to the world by Joseph Smith as offering a brief and privileged insight into the strange world of the Patriarchs. It was such a strange world that the Egyptologists who were asked to express their opinions of the Prophet’s teachings could only snort and sputter with disgust. And they will probably do the same again, for the Lord plainly does not intend to let the matter rest there.” (Prolegomena to Any Study of the Book of Abraham, BYU Studies Winter 1968, p.171)
The ecstatic church leaders ran to Egyptologists to examined the papyrus. What they found was the fragments are common Egyptian funerary texts (the Book of Breathings and Book of the Dead), written about 1,500 years after Abraham. The Book of Abraham was a fraud. The Egyptian texts do not mention Abraham at all. Joseph Smith’s “translation” of the hieroglyphs does not match what modern Egyptologists know the papyrus tells us. This is a major issue because Joseph Smith claimed a divine gift of translation. If his translation is not accurate, it challenges and disproves his claim to prophetic authority.
Why is this important?
The foundation of the LDS church is based firmly in thin air. There is absolutely no evidence at all of the claims of their faith. This is most plane when looking at the Book of Abraham. It is not at all what the LDS prophet claimed it to be. It does not say what the prophet said it said, and yet it is a part of “sacred scripture” of the LDS church.
By contrast, Christianity is founded on a real historical person, Jesus. His bodily resurrection is the best document event in ancient history. Dozens of characters mentioned in the Bible have been proven to exist through archaeological digs and by non-believing writers of the times.
The LDS church claims the Book of Mormon is an accurate description of great civilizations living in the Americas, of huge cities, and great battles fought over centuries of history. Yet there is not one shred of archaeological evidence to support their claims. The LDS church owns the very property where the golden plates were supposedly hidden centuries ago. Their archaeologists have examined that very land where the last and greatest battle took place. They have found nothing.
In the Broadway play The Book of Mormon, there is a song titled I Believe. That song lists some of the odd doctrines the LDS Church teaches without evidence. There is a repeated line in the song that well describes the LDS faith without facts: “A Mormon just believes.”
Believers Armed and Dangerous 