I totally support D. Michael Quinn! However, why would anyone want to buy this book? Unless the buyer has a bent for things Egyptian and is interested in translations of heiroglyphs. The BofA was debunked right after the papyri were returned to the c. First came the announcement that the c had them and had hired an expert to translate them... then silence. Then recognized Egyptologists pronounce the true nature of the document. That should have been the end to JS's claims. It certainly ended any drive I would have to make this purchase.
I asked myself the same thing. Why would I buy this book? IMO Mr. Larson did a fantastic and thorough job of debunking the BOA in his “By his Own Hand…” So would I purchase to drive a point home for myself or would I purchase it to give to a questioning friend? One. I have already been convinced by Mr. Larson and I own multiple copies of his book. Two. I would not give this to a questioning friend because it would drown them with too much info to get the job done (IMO) and it costs too much.
However I was entertaining the thought of purchasing one for myself nonetheless. The BOA fraud is what blew my previous beliefs off the map so I have a soft spot here.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2012 07:17PM by AmIDarkNow?.
It looks interesting, but just about everything I could want is contained in Charles Larson's wonderful book. It has the full-color photos of the papyri and a full discussion of all the issues, including all the excuses that apologists like Hugh Nibley have made over the years. The actual translation of the Joseph Smith papyri isn't that important to me, except to show that Smith's translation is completely made up.
I guess it would help to know more about what's in the book, because I can't see just a translation of the papyri going for $80. Michael Rhodes of FARMS did that 20 years ago, and it was just a few pages stapled together.
Yes, I'm more interested in this book for the Egyptology aspects. I've been interested in Egyptology for years. (Anyone remember when the Ramses II egyptology exhibit was at BYU in the 1980s? I was a tour guide for that.) I've read Charles Larson's book, and even before that I knew that Book of Abraham was a bunch of BS.
So I'm an Egyptology geek and interested in what the papyri really say. I'm also interested in the commentary from the Eqyptologist. (What exactly will reputable scholars have to say about Joe Smith?)
And I don't know if the subject will ever come up with my TBM family and friends, but I like the idea of being able to show them pictures of the scrolls with the actual translations.
Otherwise, I love Larson's book. Read somewhere that he himself wasn't too keen on including the xian stuff but had to so as to be able to publish at all.
That's what I heard too. It's the last chapter in the book after the Ferguson letters, and it's only eight pages. It's co-written by someone named Floyd McElveen and called "The Alternative: Biblical Christianity." Boo, hiss. It's not a big deal though. The rest of the book is so good that it's worth a small advertisement from the evangelists.
...carries more weight (literally and figuratively) because it is written by a PHD-certified egyptologist. I know, it probably shouldn't make that much difference. Ferguson did good work, but I can always hear the apologists complain that he isn't 'educated' enought to put out a book that would be acceptable in the academic world.