I know that this isn’t the Bible I’m blogging, but I’m also here to log some research. If you’ve been following this journey in recent months and years, you know I’ve been studying other faiths. It’s so good and has made me so much appreciate what we have in Christ.
One of those faiths is the Mormons. Or Latter Day Saints as they like to be called.
Something that has truly impacted the honest seeker within Mormonism is the Book of Abraham. The Book of Abraham was Joseph Smith’s supposed translation of some Egyptian papryii that he bought from a mummy exhibit. He claimed to be able to know “reformed Egyptian” and thus translated the text.
Fast forward years later and the original papyrii were rediscovered. Since then the Rosetta Stone had cracked Egyptian hieroglyphics and the skills of translating Egyptians texts become a scholarly work. Excited the LDS acquired the papyrii again and had Egyptologists translate the papyrii. Only to discover it had absolutely NOTHING to with Joseph Smith’s translations. At all. Joseph Smith made it all up. This is devastating for the LDS. Except they have been quit to come up with reasons.
Some of the reasons they say it’s still Ok.
- It wasn’t really a translation. But it was. Even Joseph Smith says so.
A) Joseph Smith himself calls it a translation. (Here in his own handwriting.)
Also he said: ”I commenced the translation of some of the characters or hieroglyphics, and much to our joy found that one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph of Egypt, etc.” (History of the Church, Vol 2:236)
”The remainder of this month, I was continually engaged in translating an alphabet to the Book of Abraham, and arranging a grammar of the Egyptian language as practiced by the ancients.” (DHC Vol. 2:238 for July 1835; written in the year 1843)
”This after noon labored on the Egyptian alphabet, in company with bro. O. Cowdery and W. W. Phelps: the System of astronomy was unfolded.” (DHC Vol. 2:286 for July 1835; written in the year 1843)
B) The LDS church calls it a translation (Here)
C) The Intro to the Book of Abraham reads this: “A translation of [emphasis added] 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, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus.”
D) There are so many more instances where Joseph Smith calls it a translation (Here)
Now the LDS site says yes, it didn’t represent what it says. But this is because is wasn’t a translation as we understand it but a divine revelation he got inspired by the hieroglyphics and papyrii pictures. That’s just crazy’ish. If that is the case, then the Book of Mormon isn’t really a translation either. And once again we have no evidence to compare it to. - They will tell you that Joseph Smith didn’t have all the papyrii. The LDS site says this: “It is likely futile to assess Joseph’s ability to translate papyri when we now have only a fraction of the papyri he had in his possession.”
So you can’t translate anything because they don’t have all of the text? There was certainly plenty to translate and what was available, he did say he translated. Even if he only had 1%, he is said to have translated it and it was so far off from what it meant. You can see for yourself.
Here is a copy of the papyrus – https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/fragment-of-book-of-breathing-for-horos-a-between-238-and-circa-153-bc/1
And here is a copy of Joseph Smith’s notes as he consecutively copied the papyri in order (right to left as ancient texts read). See here: https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/book-of-abraham-manuscript-circa-july-circa-november-1835-a-abraham-14-26/1
3) He also filled in the images and they not even close to what they should have depicted. You can see his drawing here on the right, but this is not the depictions that is represented historically. More on this here.
4) They say scholars disagree on the actual translation, so they can’t say for sure that Joseph Smith was off. This is nonsense as the scholars disagree only on small matters, not in the slightest on significant points of translation.
5) Joseph Smith took a singular hieroglyph and translated whole paragraphs from that translation. The true translations takes it as it is, only a word or two. But look at the pic above and he made every character a full parapgraph.
6) Why would Abraham write in “reformed Egyptian” when he never was in Egypt, and he was writing supposedly to his fellow Israelites? That the Egyptian is actual Egyptian and not a “reformed Egyptian” that no one to this day knows what that is?
(For more see this booklet here)
There are many other arguments that are startling that people believe them. Right here is evidence that he was not who he said he was. So why do people still believe? That with all the other evidence?
Mainly because they don’t want to believe anything else other than what they’re told. They love their friends and family who are LDS and it is not just a church but a tribe. The LDS are wonderful people and as long you tow the line, they will look after you (just like a gang).
They don’t want to admit they’ve been lied to even though it is evidence. And the biggest challenge is they can’t ask questions as the LDS church doesn’t permit that. “When the prophet speaks, the thinking is done.” Ask questions and you risk getting excommunicated not just from your church but from your family and friends.
My hearts breaks for the LDS. There are so many reasons why we can see that it just isn’t true. But only about 1/100 will ever seek the truth. The truth that truly could set them free from the burden of being “worthy.” The truth of Jesus Christ in the Bible.
So let’s pray for the Mormons. Pray that they will have the encourage to test and prove their Scriptures and what they believe. Pray for their courage to search the Scriptures in the Bible and understand it for what it says and not through Mormon eyes. Pray that God will draw them to Himself. They are wonderful, wonderful people. But they do need the Jesus of Scripture.
