Book of Abraham

In 1835, Joseph Smith came into possession of a collection of Egyptian papyri. After examining the papyri, Joseph Smith recorded the Book of Abraham which detailed Abraham's early life, travels to Canaan and Egypt, and early vision of the cosmos and its creation. 

The Book of Abraham papyri were thought to have been lost in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire.  However, in 1966 several fragments of the papyri were discovered in the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Upon examination by scholars, the few existing papyrus fragments are excerpts from Egyptian funerary texts: Book of Breathings, and Book of the Dead.  Accordingly, some critics question the authenticity of the Book of Abraham. 

So what gives? Does the Joseph Smith papyri expose Smith as a phony?  Not at all.  First, we need to check our own assumptions about what we mean by translation.  Joseph Smith was a prophet, not an Egyptologist.  When Joseph claimed to translate something, like the Book of Mormon, or excerpts from the Bible. He produced a prophetic translation, and not a scholarly one.  

There is some debate whether the recovered papyrus fragments even contain the original source material for the Book of Abraham.  Regardless the source, because the Book of Abraham was a product of prophetic revelation, the source material is irrelevant. God didn't need papyri or a bunch of mummies to reveal the Book of Abraham to Joseph Smith.  All God needed was Joseph Smith to ask the right question-- "Ask and ye shall receive." The papyri served only as a catalyst for revelation in the same way masonry served as a catalyst for the temple.  Joseph simply asked "if there is some partial truth here, what should this look like if it were 100% true? "

How is a prophetic translation different from a scholarly translation? When a scholar conducts a scholarly translation, the scholar attempts to precisely convey the words and meaning of the text in another language. When a prophet translates something, God is not revealing what is written, but what should have been written. A scholar seeks to remain true to the text, a prophet strives to be true to the truth.

The Egyptians were a once great, but pagan, corrupt, and ultimately failed society.  God is not xenophobic, but religiocentric.  Accordingly, He is not interested in spreading the false religion of ancient Egypt.  Instead, God desires to teach His children about the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. God reveals truth and does not promulgate myths and fables. 

Therefore, what is going on with the Book of Abraham and its Facsimiles, is not that a certain figure depicted is Pharoah or the Goddess Hathor.  The deity depicted on the left in the enthronement scene is Hathor. However, had Egypt been faithful to the true God, the pagan idea of Hathor never would have existed at all. God is borrowing and sanctifying inspiring artwork to tell us His own true story.  Had ancient Egypt respected the true God of the universe, they would have remembered and commemorated Abraham's visit in their funerary texts and Hathor wouldn't have existed at all. 

The Egyptian religion, like all religions, had a few elements of truth.  I don't believe people would subscribe to any religion unless it conveyed some truth.  By borrowing these Egyptian vignettes to tell the true story of Abraham, our Heavenly Father preserves what is good and praiseworthy from Egypt and casts aside what isn't. Borrowing these vinettes from a false religion is not disrespectful.  It was originally disrespectful for false priests in Egypt to invent and spread false religion.  But God respects the millions of Egyptian people who had a righteous faith towards the afterlife. 

After realizing the prophetic origin of the Book of Abraham, God's intent is for His children to focus on the message and truth of the Book.  Critics will always try and distract us by shiftng our focus onto side-matter. However, the Book of Abraham is a beautiful story that reveals details about man's preexistence, the ordered hierarchy of the universe, and chronicles the life and devotion of the father of three world religions. 

(see also   https://ldsdoctrine.blogspot.com/2022/01/book-of-abraham-facsimile-3.html?m=1)

There is debate on Facimile 3 about whether a character in the vingette is Abraham or Hathor, etc.  We need to remember that these vingettes are like watching a movie.  Hathor doesnr actually exist, but in the case of a movie like "Star Wars" we have the fictional character Luke Skywalker as well as the actor Mark Hamill.