by Dan Wees | May 20, 2018 | Miscellaneous
The value of this hypocephalus (Book of Abraham, Facsimile #2) lies not in its condition or completeness, but in its authenticity. Joseph Smith had no justification for inserting content into the missing sections, as he lacked any real understanding of Egyptian. The...
by Dan Wees | May 20, 2018 | Miscellaneous
Scholars have offered interpretations of this artifact—like those of Facsimile #1—that differ significantly from those given by Joseph Smith. Facsimile #2, shown here, depicts a typical Egyptian hypocephalus, a funerary object of which over a hundred similar examples...
by Dan Wees | May 20, 2018 | Miscellaneous
The official header to the Book of Abraham asserts that Joseph Smith translated “the writings of Abraham… written by his own hand, upon papyrus,” a claim that immediately invites historical scrutiny. If Abraham lived in the early second millennium BCE, as traditional...
by Dan Wees | May 20, 2018 | Miscellaneous
“Outside of a few associates, Dr. [James R.] Clark [of Brigham Young University] had kept the [Book of Abraham papyrus] fragment a matter of confidence, under instructions from the Historian’s Office, for over 30 years.” Jay M. Todd, Mormon scholar, The Saga of the...
by Dan Wees | May 20, 2018 | Miscellaneous
“The Mormon church has an actual piece of papyrus from Joseph Smith’s collection which they suppressed for 130 years. In 1966 we printed Joseph Smith’s Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar, which included a photograph of this fragment. Grant Heward identified it...
by Dan Wees | May 20, 2018 | Miscellaneous
“A collection of pa[p]yrus manuscripts, long believed to have been destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871, was presented to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here Monday by the Metropolitan Museum of Art … Included in the papyri is a manuscript identified...
