Kirtland Egyptian Papers

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An early facsimile of one vignette in the Joseph Smith Papyrus which is included in the Kirtland Egyptian Papers. This facsimile was later published without the lacuna in the Book of Abraham.
An early facsimile of one vignette in the Joseph Smith Papyrus which is included in the Kirtland Egyptian Papers. This facsimile was later published without the lacuna in the Book of Abraham.

The Kirtland Egyptian Papers (KEP) are a collection of documents written by early Mormon leaders including Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, W.W. Phelps, Warren Parish, Willard Richards, and Frederick G. Williams, during the the Kirtland period of early Mormonism (early to mid 1830s).

The papers are a source of controversy, since they contain material related to the Book of Abraham, including the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar, and portions of text found in the Book of Abraham. Joseph Smith claimed to have translated the Book of Abraham from Egyptian papyri. Critics argue his translations bear little resemblance to the transliteration of the characters from the papyri fragments.

Contents

[edit] Content

The Kirtland Egyptian papers are housed in the archives of the Church Historian's Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, along with over a dozen other documents produced ca. 1837 & 1841 in Kirtland, Ohio. Two manuscripts, #4 and #6, contain the handwriting of Joseph Smith.[1]

  • Egyptian Mss. #1, 1 volume, 31 x 20 cm. entitled; "Grammar and aphabet [sic] of the Egyptian language", in the handwriting of W. W. Phelps and Warren Parrish.
  • Egyptian Mss. #2, 21 x 20 cm. entitled; "Egyptian Counting" in the handwriting of W. W. Phelps. Containing characters with English interpretations
  • Egyptian Mss. #3, 32 x 30 cm. entitled; "Egyptian Alphabet" in the handwriting of W. W. Phelps.
  • Egyptian Mss. #4, 33 x 20 cm entitled; "Egyptian Alphabet" in the handwriting of Joseph Smith.
  • Egyptian Mss. #5, various sizes, probably entitled "Egyptian Alphabet" in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery.
  • Egyptian Mss. #6, 1 volume, 20 x 13 cm, entitled; "Valuable Discovery of hiden [sic] records... in the handwriting of Joseph Smith. English contents in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery.
  • Egyptian Mss. #7, 1 volume, 20 x 16 cm. English contents in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery. Back cover has "F.G.W. and William on it.
  • Egyptian Mss. #8, 32 x 40 cm. Egyptian Characters and hieroglyphics.
  • Egyptian Mss. #9, 39 x 19 cm. Characters by an unknown author.
  • Egyptian Mss. #10, 33 x 20 cm. Egyptian papyrus attached to a sheet of paper.
  • Manuscript #1, 10 pages, 32 x 20 cm. Translation of Abraham 1:1 to 2:18 in the handwriting of W. W. Phelps and Warren Parrish, obtained from Wilfred Wood.
  • Manuscript #2, 4 pages, 33 x 19 cm. Book of Abraham 1:4 to 2:6 in the handwriting of W. W. Phelps
  • Manuscript #3, 6 pages, 32 x 19 cm. Book of Abraham 1:4 to 2:2 in the handwriting of Warren Parrish.
  • Manuscript #4, ca. 1841, 29 x 20 cm. Book of Abraham 1:1 to 3:26 in the handwriting of Williard Richards
  • Facsimile No. 2, ca. 1841, various sizes, Includes explanations in the handwriting of Williard Richards.
  • A Fac-simile from the Book of Abraham No. 2 ca. 1843. 32 x 19 cm. Engraved by Ruben Headlock. On the back is a letter dated August 1, 1843 to Clyde Williams & Co. of Harrisburg, Pa. signed by Joseph Smith & W. W, Phelps.

[edit] Publishing and controversy

Jerald and Sandra Tanner, critics of the LDS church, obtained an unauthorized copy of a microfilm strip containing images of the documents in 1966, and published them as Joseph Smith's Egyptian Alphabet & Grammar. Critics of the LDS church often cite the Kirtland Egyptian Papers as evidence that Joseph Smith, Jr. was a fraud, since it contains what they claim is a character by character translation of the Egyptian from the papyri that is associated with the text of the Book of Abraham.

In 1971, images of ten of the documents were published in BYU Studies in an article by Hugh Nibley entitled; "The Meaning of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers"[2] [1]

Egyptologist I. E. Edwards, stated that the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar was "largely a piece of imagination and lacking in any kind of scientific value."[3]

Hugh Nibley commented that the only grammar in the Kirtland Egyptian Papers was "only a page-and-a-half long, of no practical value whatever and never employed in any translation."[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Meaning of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, reprinted from BYU Studies 11/4 (Summer 1971): 350-99.
  2. ^ The Meaning of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, reprinted from BYU Studies 11/4 (Summer 1971): 350-99. Citation from page 351.
  3. ^ Letter of I. E. Edwards, Keeper of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities, dated June 9, 1966 - as quoted in Charles M. Larson, By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus, Grand Rapids, MI, p.43
  4. ^ The Meaning of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, reprinted from BYU Studies 11/4 (Summer 1971): 350-99. Citation from page 357.
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