The Book of Abraham Controversy | Translation or Fraud?
Channel: Ex Brother Bryce
Date: 14/09/2020

The Book of Abraham has been a product of controversy for a century for the LDS Church. Mormon and non-Mormon Egyptologists have fought for years over the translations made by Joseph Smith. 

Originally purchased from Micheal Chandler, Joseph Smith acquired mummies and scrolls and claimed that they were the bodies of Abraham and other patriarchal leaders of old biblical times. And that the scrolls contained writings from the hand of Abraham. 

The scrolls were all written in Egyptian Hieroglyphs and do not contain the name Abraham anywhere on them. Fully recognized by scholars and the Mormon church today, the scrolls only contain common funerary texts about the Egyptian afterlife for a man named “Hor”. 

Many members of the church do not know this simple fact that the church has now recognized in an essay published on the church’s website. This essay is not claimed to be written by the leaders of the LDS church. It is not signed or dated by anyone prominent in the lds church; only that a scholar has written it and that it is posted with their permission: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/translation-and-historicity-of-the-book-of-abraham?lang=eng

Sources:

The CES Letter: cesletter.org

Gospel Topics Essay “Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham”: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/translation-and-historicity-of-the-book-of-abraham?lang=eng

New York Times, “Mormons’ Book of Abraham Called Product of Imagination”: https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/03/archives/mormons-book-of-abraham-called-product-of-imagination.html

Joseph Smith Papers: https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/