Biblical Reasons Ministry
	Dr. Ritner Debunks Mormon Claim A Mormon on an Internet discussion board states that current-day understanding of Egyptian hieratic is accurately represented in uniquely LDS scripture, the Book of Abraham. Mormonism holds as scripture four standard works; the King James Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. In the Pearl of Great Price there is a book of 15 pages known as the Book of Abraham (BoA). The official website of the LDS Church describes the BoA in this one-paragraph introduction:  THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM TRANSLATED FROM THE PAPYRUS, BY JOSEPH SMITH "A Translation of some ancient Records, that have fallen into our hands from the catacombs of Egypt.—The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus. See History of the Church, vol. 2, pp. 235, 236, 348—351." The ancient records mentioned above are papyri sold to the early LDS church by Michael Chandler. In July of 1835, Chandler had for sale genuine Egyptian artifacts including four mummies and papyri scrolls with hieratic markings. Upon hearing of the scrolls, Smith examined them and stated to his young church that the scrolls were penned by the Biblical patriarch Abraham. Smith expressed interest in buying the scrolls but Chandler would sell only the mummies together with the scrolls for the price of $2,400, a hefty sum in 1835, estimated at approximately $47,000 by 2007 standards by this inflation calculator. Smith found two investors and the scrolls became the property of the LDS church. Smith states: "...with W. W. Phelps and Oliver Cowdery as scribes, I commence 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. - a more full account of which will appear in its place, as I proceed to examine or unfold them. Truly we can say, the Lord is beginning to reveal the abundance of peace and truth." (History of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 236) It was impossible at the time for anyone in the U.S. to accurately translate hieratic into English. But today, we can. Egyptologists now say that Smith's Book of Abraham is a common Egyptian funeral text giving a blessing to a dead priest. Mormons insist, however, that the translation Smith provided is accurate, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and the Book of Abraham remains in their canonized works. A Mormon writes: "Many of the prophet's explanations of the hypocephalus illustrated in Facsimile 2 are supported by our present understanding of ancient Egyptian religion, and are in fact especially typical of Late Egyptian religious writings. One or two could conceivably be dismissed as mere chance or lucky guessing, but the many correct interpretations taken together are impossible to ignore. It is clear that Joseph Smith knew what he was talking about." With the comment in mind that current-day understanding of Egyptian hieratic is in line with Mormon founder, Joseph Smith's interpretations, I decided to check with an expert on the issue. What I found is that the claim is erroneous. Egyptologist Dr. Robert K. Ritner has thoroughly examined Joseph Smith’s claim and presents his thoughts in the video, The Lost Book of Abraham - produced by the Institute for Religious Research.* The video can be viewed in its entirety here: http://www.irr.org/mit/book-of-abraham-page.html Pick up the video at 38:51 Narrator: We wanted to get an official explanation of how the {LDS} Church today understands the Book of Abraham. However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints declined our request for an interview. Michael Purdy of the Church’s public affairs department did refer us to this book by Mormon scholar John Gee. {Picture in video: A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri}. Dr. Gee puts forth the position that other than the original of facsimile no. 1, the papyrus fragments given to the Church in 1967 were not the portion of the Book of Abraham. He claims the scroll Joseph used was originally 10 feet long and that there was a large section that is now missing which may have contained the lost book. Robert K. Ritner Ph.D. presents on camera, "There’s certainly no reason to believe that this Book of Breathings scroll should be expanded much beyond the surviving length." "I’ve now read the entire document from beginning to end and I’ve made out what one can make out of the poor copy of the final vignette. The most that is missing from this text is simply two columns worth of Egyptian hieratic and possibly a small vignette. But other than that there would be nothing more that would inflate the scroll beyond its current size." "It is both unprecedented and unreasonable to assume that an intrusive text about a completely different matter; a narrative history of Abraham and his descendants would have been inserted into a document whose beginning, middle and end is devoted specifically to the resurrection of an Egyptian priest. It would disrupt the document and it would have nothing to do with its content; it would be unprecedented; no other document would have such a thing and the narrative style of the Book of Abraham does not correspond to Egyptian verbiage. It’s not the kind of thing Egyptians would say; they wouldn’t say it in that way and it certainly would never appear in a context such as this. It couldn’t possibly be more out of place." Narrator: Another Mormon scholar, Michael D. Rhodes of Brigham Young University, writing in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism argues that Joseph Smith may have received the Book of Abraham by direct revelation from God and only used the papyri to illustrate what he learned from revelation. Rhodes writes: "…when studying the Egyptian papyri purchased from Michael Chandler, Joseph Smith sought revelation from the Lord concerning them and received in that process the book of Abraham. He might then have searched through the papyri in his possession to find illustrations similar to those he had learned by revelation." Stop 41:16 Start 42:23 Narrator: Michael Rhodes Of Brigham Young University also claims in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism that Joseph Smith’s explanations of the facsimiles are accurate. Ritner continued: "I want to be absolutely clear on this." "There simply is no justification for the kind of interpretations that appear in facsimile no. 1 or facsimile no. 3. They are wrong with regard to the hieroglyphs, they are wrong with regard to the gender, they are wrong with regard to the understanding of what the scene actually represents and where they are used in the body of the text. They are wrong there as well." "In short, there is no historical validity for the interpretations in that book. None whatsoever." Editor's comment: "None whatsoever." The LDS claim that the Book of Abraham is based on current-day understanding of Egyptian language is erroneous. Russ Bales *Excerpts from IRR's video posted with permission.	Home Mormon Testimonies Turned to Christ Updated 4.10 Articles Did They Really Say That? Why Mormonism? Mormon Temples Secret or Sacred? What Happens In There? The Mormon Miracle Pageant An LDS Wedding Story Photo Album Christian Encouragement Four Spiritual Laws That’s my King! (S M Lockridge) – free video Lighter Side Statement of Faith Offsite Links Miscellaneous Contact Class Outlines Donate "Jesus' blood on the altar was the ultimate payment. He made us worthy permanently. When Jesus died on the cross the veil covering the Holy of Holies tore in half. The mercy seat lay exposed to mankind. There is no veil, anymore, between God and man. Jesus ripped it down. But Mormonism has hung up a new one." -Kathleen Baldwin To the questioning Mormon. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Visit Testimonies Turned to Christ at the top of this section to understand that you're not alone. "It wasn’t until one day that when I was flat on my back for days, and crying out to Him, that I realized how all along He had been trying to get my attention, and the only way to get it was to make me stop dead in my tracks, flat on my back, and focus on Him and what it was that He was trying to tell me all along. In James 4:8 (a) we read: 'Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.' In James 4:10 we read: 'Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.'" -Christine Bales - More... He Gave You Jesus - by Justjo "Counterfeit, fake, bogus, imitation, forgery, fraud, copy.... We all recognize these words, as well as understand their meaning. There are many counterfeits out there. If they were easy to detect, they would not be called counterfeits. God gave us these wonderful books in the Bible to test these counterfeits. This is where we find our markers to detect them. The Holy Spirit does not contradict Gods word...." More...

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