The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Volume 16: The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, An Egyptian Endowment

What do the Joseph Smith Papyri actually say? This is the first—and still the only—book-length commentary on the Joseph Smith Papyri. In this long-awaited new edition, with expanded text and numerous illustrations, Professor Nibley shows that the papyri are not the source of the Book of Abraham, and that they have a distinctly temple-oriented message that is of particular interest to Latter-day Saints. 

In the second edition of this milestone publication, Dr. Nibley places the Book of Breathings text beside a number of other Egyptian ritual writings as well as beside several early Christian and Jewish documents. On the basis of these, the reader may decide for themself just how closely certain rites and ordinances of initiation from the early Egyptians to the early Christians follow a single pattern, and how close they are to present-day temple ordinances.