PART I: The History

Good morning, class and Happy New Year!

The lesson manual says we are supposed to begin the class with a nice game of Hangman, where you will try to guess the 14-letter word that has to do with the lesson's title. Anyone, anyone? Bueller? That's right, the word is F-O-R-E-O-R-D-I-N-A-T-I-O-N.

This week's lesson is from the Book of Abraham, which is found in your Old Testament right between . . . what's that, Clarvid? You say Abraham is not found in the Old Testament? Why, sure he is--you can read all about him in Genesis. Oh, the Book of Abraham is not found in the Old Testament? Yes, it seems strange to be studying all these other non-Old Testament books in a class on the Old Testament, but perhaps we can use that to our advantage. It seems to me, if the correlation committee is OK with using non-Old Testament books in a class on the Old Testament, we can do the same. So stay tuned, we'll be reading stuff not only from the Book of Abraham but also from books by Richard Bushman and Michael White today.

Yes, Arthel? You say you think the reason we don't study the book of Abraham when we study church history is because the church wants us to focus on the content of the book rather than the history surrounding how it was produced? You may be on to something, which leads us to today's first tangent (from whence I fear no traveler may return). So, before we look at the words of Abraham, let's explore the question of whether Abraham really wrote them or whether they were, perhaps, the product of a frontiersman's fertile imagination. A professional historian and faithful stake patriarch will be our guide. According to Richard L. Bushman, in July 1835, Michael H. Chandler brought four mummies and some Egyptian papyrus to Kirtland.

Something of an opportunist and promoter, Chandler had exhibited the artifacts in Cleveland in March and come to Kirtland, he said, because of Joseph Smith's translating powers. . . On inspecting the papyri, Joseph announced that one roll contained the writings of Abraham of Ur and another the writings of Joseph of Egypt. Excited by this discovery, he encouraged some of the Kirtland Saints to purchase four mummies and the papyri for $2,400, a huge sum when money was desperately needed for other projects.
Richard L. Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling 286 (2005).

Joseph translated off and on for several months, completing the first two chapters by 1837 but not finishing the book until probably 1842. Joseph never did translate the Book of Joseph.

Latarla? Yes, it does seem odd that something as valuable as the only known extant writings of these two venerable patriarchs from the Old Testament would be treated in such a cavalier manner. If these scrolls really were written by Abraham and Joseph, why did Joseph Smith not have any sense of urgency about translating them? I had always heard that he did not translate the Book of Joseph because of his untimely death. But he had the scrolls for nine years, and put them on display, for which he charged a modest fee (a fact that Bushman curiously ignores). Oliver Cowdery speculated that the translation of the Book of Joseph would have filled volumes. Id. at 286 n.19.

Bushman explains the method Joseph Smith used to translate the Book of Abraham:

What was going on as he translated? For many years, Mormons assumed that he sat down with the scrolls, looked at each Egyptian word, and by inspiration understood its meaning in English. He must have been reading from a text, so Mormons thought, much as a conventional translator would do, except the words came by revelation rather than out of his own learning.
Id. at 291.

Silly Mormons. You thought that the papyrus had words written by Abraham in Egyptian that Joseph Smith translated into English. Wherever did you get that crazy idea?

Clarvid? Yes, it is true that the original title page of the Book of Abraham said that it was a translation of the words of Abraham, "written by his own hand, upon papyrus." But, as Bushman points out, when fragments of the papyri were discovered in 1967 and translated by Egyptologists:

[s]ome Mormons were crushed when the fragments turned out to be rather conventional funerary texts placed with mummified bodies, in this case Hor, to assure continuing life as an immortal god. According to Egyptologists, nothing on the fragments resembled Joseph's account of Abraham.
Id.

So if nothing on the fragments resembles the text of the Book of Abraham, and the consensus among Egyptologists is that the facsimiles also have nothing to do with the meanings ascribed to them by Joseph Smith in the Book of Abraham, then:

[w]hat was going on while Joseph "translated" the papyri and dictated text to a scribe? Obviously, he was not interpreting the hieroglyphics like an ordinary scholar. . . . {I}t seemed likely that the papyri had been an occasion for receiving a revelation rather than a word-for-word interpretation of the hieroglyphs as in ordinary translations. . . . When Chandler arrived with the scrolls, Joseph saw the papyri and inspiration struck. Not one to deny God's promptings, the Prophet said what he felt: the papyri were the writings of Abraham and Joseph. The whole thing was miraculous, and to reduce Joseph's translation to some quasi-natural process, some concluded, was folly.
Id. at 292.

So, while it appears highly unlikely that Abraham actually wrote the book of Abraham "with his own hand upon papyrus," the book of Abraham does have much in common with many of the books of the Bible. Any idea what that might be?

LaVernal? No, it's not that it was written in King James English, but that's a nice thought. No, what it shares with other books of the Bible (such as Daniel) is that it can be classified as pseudepigraphy.

No, LaDawna, it has nothing to do with someone pretending to be a pig. Pseudepigraphy, or "writing in the name of another from a past time, . . . was quite common in antiquity, but was not considered a form of forgery or deception." L. Michael White, From Jesus to Christianity 71 (2004). According to White, a key ingredient of pseudepigraphical writings is the apocalyptic worldview.

Yes, Ervil, I remember that quote from Robert Duval about the smell of napalm in the morning, but when White says apocalyptic worldview he is not talking about helicopters and Wagnerian opera, he's referring to the idea that life on earth is part of a cosmic play with a scripted beginning, middle, and definite ending. In this way, as both pseudepigraphical and apocalyptic writing, the Book of Abraham has striking similarities to other ancient texts at one time or another considered scripture by various groups (including the Essenes, of whom some scholars believe Jesus may have been a member). One such apocalyptic work was the pseudepigraphical book of I Enoch:

The main message of I Enoch revolves around understanding the order that God created in the universe and living according to that order. It calls for both deeper commitment to the laws of God and deeper trust that God will prevail over the alien forces of evil. What sets apocalyptic thinking apart is how it casts these theological ideas in the form of a new mythological drama stretching from creation and emphasizing the ultimate power of the One God of Israel. Yet in the process it creates a new cast of heavenly characters for this cosmic drama. These include angels (as the heavenly luminaries), who then divide into good and bad (in later terms angels and demons), the Satan figure as the rebellious angel who wars against God, and the realms of heaven and hell.
Id. at 72.

Yuwinta? Yes, it does seem as though White could be talking about the Book of Abraham, doesn't it? So, although the Book of Abraham seems to be quite different from other familiar scriptures canonized in the Bible, the cosmological drama stretching back before the foundation of the world is neither unique nor original to Joseph Smith's book. It's all right there in the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical works.

Anyone care to venture an opinion as to whether Joseph Smith had access to these noncanonical works, or to people who were familiar with them?

PART II: The Doctrine

Whether or not the Book of Abraham was literally written by the hand of Abraham and translated by Joseph Smith by revelation, there is no question that it contains some interesting concepts that are ingrained in the Mormon consciousness, stemming no doubt from one of the scriptures referenced in the manual, Abraham 3:22-23:

Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

Who do we suppose these great and noble spirits were? The manual says President Joseph F. Smith had a vision of them in 1918, found in D&C 138: 53-57:

The Prophet Joseph Smith, and my father, Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and other choice spirits who were reserved to come forth in the fulness of times to take part in laying the foundations of the great latter-day work, Including the building of the temples and the performance of ordinances therein for the redemption of the dead, were also in the spirit world. I observed that they were also among the noble and great ones who were chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God. Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men. I beheld that the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead.

What's that, Nordel? Yes, I noticed also that in Joseph F. Smith's vision it appears that the noble and great ones consist exclusively of white male polygamists. Good point. Anything else we know about the premortal existence from the Book of Abraham?

Shamberlee? Yes, some people believe we chose our parents and other family members to be with here on earth. Some people believe we chose our spouse before we were born and need to find that person in mortality. While you look for that particular reference in the scriptures, I'll ask Arvid what he thinks.

Arvid? You say that the best spirits were reserved for the last days and that we are now living in the Saturday evening of time and the final inning? Nice mixed metaphor. Hmmm, reminds me of a quote from Ezra Taft Benson:

     God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the second coming of the Lord. Some individuals will fall away; but the kingdom of God will remain intact to welcome the return of its head?even Jesus Christ. While our generation will be comparable in wickedness to the days of Noah, when the Lord cleansed the earth by flood, there is a major difference this time. It is that God has saved for the final inning some of His strongest children, who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly. ...
     ... Make no mistake about it--you are a marked generation. There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time than there is of us
The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson 104-5 (1988).

Ezra Taft Benson spoke these words back in 1987. Of course, that quote comes directly from the teacher's manual. I looked up the full quote and was surprised to find that it had been edited. Here is the complete first sentence, with the edited portion emphasized:

For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the second coming of the Lord.

As the quote appears in the manual, it appears that the sentence begins with the word "God." No ellipsis was used to indicate the omission of the phrase "For nearly six thousand years." I wonder why the manual writers edited that part out? If we lived before the world was and participated in heavenly councils and have been reserved for this time, wouldn't a prophetic statement that fixes the time for the preexistence be relevant to the discussion? Here we have the Prophet making an official address to a church audience in which he tells us in no uncertain terms that mankind has only been on the earth for six thousand years. I can't imagine why a revelation on a topic that has been a matter of much debate among people everywhere would be quietly edited out.

And here is another nifty editing trick. Where you see the ellipses in the original quote indicating missing material, this is what President Benson had said, with emphasis added:

That is where you come in, for you are a generation that must be prepared to meet your God.

Now, that sounds very similar to statements made by Wilford Woodruff over a century ago. I can't imagine why that sentence would be edited out.

Arthel? Oh, that's a good point--if it was the final inning 19 years ago, how long can this final inning last anyway? How many more reserves can possibly be waiting on the celestial bench to come into the game? And what purpose do statements like these serve anyway?

Yes, LaDawna, I agree that such comments are probably designed to make the audience feel even more special and righteous than normal. How flattering it is to hear that God held you back for thousands of years to let you come to earth at this time and be blessed with the gospel. Out of billions and billions, surely you are numbered among the noble and great ones from the preexistence, else you would have been born a long time ago or in some backwater village somewhere. That seems to be the implication. Not only can we feel superior to all the non-Latter-day Saints in the world today, but we can now feel superior to everyone who ever lived before us. Isn't it marvelous?

Shamberlee, have you found those scriptural references to the ideas so prevalent in Mormon culture yet? No? Hmmm, maybe when Saturday's Warrior and My Turn on Earth are officially canonized, we will have our reference.

Well, unfortunately we are running out of time. There are a number of interesting things in Abraham chapter 3 that were not in the lesson manual. Unusual astronomical concepts involving Kolob, the governing of the stars and planets, information about this Elkanah character, and such. Of course, even though these things are still in this book of scripture (which presumably we are to believe was given by revelation straight from God), if we don't put it in our lesson manual or mention it here in our class, I guess President Hinckley can honestly say if asked, "We don't teach that."

Arvid, can you say the closing prayer so we can dismiss to our gender-specific church meetings and activities. Thanks.