BYU Studies

From BYU Studies Quarterly, volume 61, number 4. The Book of Abraham begins with an account of Abraham nearly being sacrificed to the idolatrous gods of his kinsfolk. The form of sacrifice was said to be "after the manner of the Egyptians" (Abraham 1:11). This episode talks about archaeological evidence for human sacrifice in Egypt.

From BYU Studies Quarterly, volume 61, number 4. Abraham was not the only author of an autobiographical text in the ancient Near East. A first-person narrative about a ruler named Idrimi shares similar features to the text of the Book of Abraham. In this episode, the authors compare the Book of Abraham with Idrimi's autobiography and other ancient biographical texts.

From BYU Studies Quarterly, volume 61, number 4. This episode discusses how additional information from the Book of Abraham gives us a potentially more accurate idea of where the city of Ur (Abraham’s homeland) was located.

From BYU Studies Quarterly, volume 61, number 4. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ, including prominent members, have attempted to justify the former policy preventing Black Latter-day Saints from receiving the priesthood or temple ordinances by appealing to the scriptures, including the Book of Abraham. There is, however, no known evidence that suggests that Joseph Smith or Brigham Young used the Book of Abraham to justify their beliefs about race. Today’s podcast episode explores this topic further. In 2013 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints explicitly disavowed “the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form."

From BYU Studies Quarterly, volume 61, number 4. It is clear that Joseph Smith’s inspired translation of the Book of Abraham was connected to the Egyptian papyri he acquired in summer 1835. However, less clear is the precise relationship between the Book of Abraham text and the papyri. There are three main theories, which are summarized in this episode: (1) Joseph Smith used the papyri fragments which survive today, (2) he used papyri that we no longer have, or (3) he worked without the aid of any of the Joseph Smith papyri.

From BYU Studies Quarterly, volume 61, number 4. Historically, skeptics have alluded to documents known as the Kirtland Egyptian Papers to cast doubt on the authenticity of the Book of Abraham. These documents fall into two categories: Book of Abraham manuscripts and Egyptian-language manuscripts. This episode clarifies the differences between the two groups of manuscripts, including their content, authorship, and relationship to the Book of Abraham.

From volume 61, number 4 of BYU Studies Quarterly: In early July 1835, Joseph Smith acquired some Egyptian papyri from which he claimed to translate the Book of Abraham. From historical evidence and the papyrus fragments that were returned to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-­day Saints in November 1967, we can piece together a profile of what papyri the Prophet is known to have possessed.

From volume 61, number 4 of BYU Studies Quarterly: This episode describes how Joseph Smith's methods of translating ancient scripture expand the meaning of "translation" beyond its strictly academic definition to encompass divine revelation. No first-person account exists to describe exactly how Joseph Smith produced the translation of the Book of Abraham, but we can find clues in the context of how he translated other books of scripture.

The Book of Abraham is considered holy scripture by Latter-day Saints. Scholars have explored the book from various perspectives and have made compelling arguments for its authenticity. This issue of BYU Studies is designed to introduce Latter-day Saints to the Book of Abraham from an academic perspective and provide a reliable guide that can be used to understand it better. 

BYU Studies editor Tina Hawley describes Joseph W. Geisner's Writing Mormon History: Historians and Their Books.