This may be completely obvious to everyone else here, but I just realised something about the whole Joseph Smith / Book of Abraham debacle.

Recognising that JS never really had any gold plates with reformed Egyptian to translate from, but he'd nevertheless managed to dupe so many people and get this religion going, just how keen must he have been to get his hands on some real bonafied Egyptian scroll when it rolled into town via Mr. Chandler?

Probably enough to call on believers to raise a significant amount of money to make the purchase. If he'd managed to do what he had with a pretend book, just think what he could do with a physical scroll that actually did exist and could be paraded for all to see and marvel at.

In a sense, his obvious desperation to purchase the scroll and own the physical evidence, undermines his whole BoM story and how the evidence there wasn't so important (as it didn't really exist of course). Now he would have some real old world document to translate and show off and there's no doubt that he would never have let some angel dude bearing his open bosom come down and take it off him.

Shame for him (and good fortune for us) that the Rosetta stone was found and Egyptian could them be translated!

radically different than the way the BOM source was handled.

You could buy a ticket to view the scrolls. You'd be struck dead if you saw the plates.

Huh?

Oh yeah sure, we got them. But only authorized priests get to see them....anyone else will get struck dead if they touch the Ark.

Now, how about a little I pull some rabbits out of my headdress?

Excellent point. I've also thought it odd that when the papyri scraps were being vetted in the 1960's they could be easily connected with Joseph Smith since they had sketches/plans for the Nauvoo(?) temple drawn on the back.

So....this amazing and rare artifact, sent by God and fortune to JS to lay out many of the LDS core beliefs...was used as scratch paper???

Excellent points.

And, further, the golden plates, which were man-made artifacts containing history & scripture, were snatched away by angels for safekeeping in heaven. On the other hand, the papyri scrolls, also man-made artifacts of scripture, were handled & viewed by many, and lost for many decades thru carelessness. Why didn't the mormon god see fit to send a gaggle of angels to whisk the papyri off to heaven, too?

--Golden plates: only the 3 and 8 witnesses were allowed to see them.

--Papyri: framed and shown off to anyone and everyone, including specific explanations about what different things on the papyri meant

--Golden plates: did not publicly show off other artifacts like the sword of Laban (except for things like Joseph and Oliver going in the secret room in the Hill Cumorah) and Urim and Thummim.

--Papyri: charged admission to see the mummies that were with the papyri

--Golden plates: an angel showed where they were

--Papyri: a showman sold them to Joseph

--Golden plates: unknown farmboy

--Papyrus: prophet and town leader who had established a church

--Golden plates: offer to sell copyright was rejected; had to raise money to print the book

--Papyrus: printed in church-owned newspaper

--Golden plates: no illustrations

--Papyrus: three exotic and mysterious pictures, which is better showmanship

--Golden plates: Anthon would not publicly state that the characters were ancient

--Papyrus: Chandler certified that Joseph knew how to read Egyptian characters, even though Chandler would have no way of knowing this

--Golden plates: simple, basic New Testament-based [cough] Christianity

--Papyrus: multiple gods, gnosticism, hints of Freemasonry

when he said the prophet could read the papyri as well as anyone else, (or something to that effect). NOBODY could read egyptian at the time, so perhaps that was a true, but misleading statement. Chandler was looking for a BUYER at the time. How clever of him to seek out JS and flatter his ability to interpret so he could make the sale.

If I recall correctly, JS did not buy the papryi, but some church members rounded up the money, bought them, and presented them to him. My impression from reading the account was that he was pretty much hemmed into a corner. He had to come up with something after the sacrifice had been made.

It's been many years since I read "The Story of the Book of Abraham" by H Donl Peterson, but the book was well-researched and had many first-hand accounts and facsimiles.


I loved the contrast in your post between the way he treated the B of M vs. the B of A. I never thought of it that way before. That was very telling.

And ironically, what JS so desperately sought to obtain--legitimate ancient documents--actually ended up undermining his claims to divinely-inspired translation ability. If he'd stuck with the method he used with the BoM (create a prop and let no one outside of his inner circle ever examine it), he could have maintained the illusion of prophetic knowledge with regard to the PoGP without ever being so completely contradicted by those pesky Egyptologists!

This is so weird. I am reading (for the 3rd time) "leaving the Saints" by Martha Beck. I just now reading about the BofA debacle. Some church members did buy the papryi-for over $2,000. Quite a lot in those days. They bought Chandlers entire exhibit.

If you haven't read Martha Becks book,I highly recommend it. Not only is it her story of the abuse she endured at the hands of her "famous" Mormon father,but it has a lot of church history. Very well written.