Understanding the Book of Abraham

In 1835, after beginning the translation of some ancient Egyptian papyri that he had obtained from an exhibitor passing through Kirtland, Ohio, Joseph Smith announced, “Much to our joy [we] found that one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham.” Some of his translation was eventually canonized as the book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. For nearly one hundred years, it was thought that all these papyri had been destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. However, in 1967, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art presented the Church with portions of the papyri Joseph Smith had owned, which the museum had purchased some twenty years earlier. This small collection of eleven papyri fragments came to be known as the Joseph Smith Papyri.In this fascinating discussion on three CDs, respected scholar and Egyptologist Kerry Muhlestein takes his listeners on a guided tour through the book of Abraham. He first looks at how the book of Abraham came to exist and how the papyri ended up with Joseph Smith. Next, he discusses what we know about the translation process and the publication of this ancient book of scripture. Finally, he examines each of the facsimiles and discusses what Egyptology says about the kinds of things found in the Joseph Smith Papyri and in the book of Abraham. This talk set combines the latest research with faithful scholarship for those seeking to better understand the book of Abraham.Talk on 3 cd