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

Hugh Nibley. Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), 2005. Hardbound, 9x11" 617 pgs. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Volume 16 What do the Joseph Smith Papyri actually say? Joseph Smith’s pronouncements on things Egyptian touched off a debate that for 170 years has flared up at intervals. It now promises to reach new dimensions as the result of a pronounced shift of attitude among eminent Egyptologists-not toward what the Prophet said about the papyri (which they have ignored), but to closely related matters of interpretation and reconstruction. 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—particularly the concerned Latter-day Saint—may decide for himself just how closely certain rites and ordinances of initiation from the early Egyptians to the early Christians follow a single pattern, and how close to these are present-day temple ordinances.