Posted by:
RPackham
(
)
Date: August 09, 2014 10:22AM
politicaljunkie Wrote:
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> Well worth reading the entire essay. Here is my
> favorite paragraph...
>
> "The problems are by no means limited to the Facsimiles, since the text itself includes
> anachronistic and impossible expressions (including a “Potiphar’s Hill” located in Ur
> of the Chaldees, Abraham 1:10) and situations (supposed Egyptian rites of human sacrifice in Ur conducted by a priest of Pharaoh “after the manner of the Egyptians,” Abraham 1: 11-12).
> Wherever one locates Ur of the Chaldees, human sacrifice dictated there by “priests of
> Pharaoh” is unbelievable to credible scholars of the Ancient Near East.4 Nor was there any “Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham” (Abraham 1:25). As previously noted, “Pharaoh” is a title, not a name. Neither is “Egyptus” (“Egypt”) an ancient Egyptian personal name, but the name for the primary temple in Memphis that became generalized outside of Egypt as a designation for the country.
I pointed out these problems several years ago in my article on Mormon linguistic problems (
http://packham.n4m.org/linguist.htm#BOA ), as well as the Greek origin of the name Egyptus, as mentioned by Randyj.
I also included these topics in my talk at the Exmormon Foundation conference in 2009, based on my earlier article. (audio:
http://www.exmormonfoundation.org/audio2009_low.html - video:
http://youtu.be/O_LBzEsTlbk )
I found these linguistic anachronisms by my own careful reading of the text of the BoA and by researching the words in standard reference works. After I had completed my research I discovered that Stephen E. Thompson had already covered the same ground in his article "Egyptology and the Book of Abraham" in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 28:1:143, Spring 1995. I was gratified to see that my conclusions were confirmed by Thompson, who is a professional Egyptologist. And now by Ritner.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2014 12:36PM by RPackham.