[quote="Paul Osborne
Quantumwave,
I have no doubt that Abraham was fluent in more than one language, including Egyptian. Abraham was said to be a wise man of great intelligence. Heck, even the pope can speak several languages, so why not Abraham?
The Genesis Apocryphon tells us that after Abraham had lived in Egypt for 5 years, the pharaoh sent three of his sons to inquire about Abraham and his business. Imagine that! Even the pharaoh of Egypt, one of the most learned men on earth, wants to know what Abraham is up to! The account goes on to tell us that Abraham left Egypt two years later a wealthy man. These are clues to indicate that Abraham was a smart man within his crafts.
Now, it may enlighten you to know that Josephus not only credited Abraham with knowledge of arithmetic and astronomy but also said that Abraham was permitted by the king to "enter into conversation with the most learned among the Egyptians" and had a great reputation among them!
But the clincher is when Josephus said that Abraham went to Egypt to partake of the "plenty" and to "become an auditor of their priests". Book 1; 8:1
It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that Abraham could speak and write Egyptian. Josephus believed it and so do I. Do you? Furthermore, the Biblical account has shown us that Abraham’s great grandson (Joseph) had a supreme knowledge of all things Egyptian – he being next to the pharaoh himself. I can't think of one reason why Abraham couldn't have written on papyrus in his day. The evidence certainly leans in the direction that he did just that. You, on the other hand, have no evidence that he didn't or couldn't write on papyrus.
Paul O
PS Where did you ever come to the conclusion that prophets can't be scribes?
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Paul, the difficult problem with your argument is the total lack of direct source materials. It is well documented that the Genesis epic of Abraham, including apocrypha and all, was written on the order of 1000 years after the purported Abraham lived. You can cite these sources all you like, but the sad fact is, there are no direct source materials to back up what was written. And more to the point, these writers give absolutely no reference to source materials with direct links to Abraham, either written by his own hand or written by an eyewitness . If there had been original source materials with direct links to Abraham, wouldn’t you think they would be cited in the writings of the Hebrew scribes? Any writer would cite source materials to provide credibility to their stories. The fact that there is no direct source material mentioned, strengthens the conclusion that there was no source material for the scribes to draw from for the simple reason that Abraham was their own creation.
Even good old Joseph Smith cited direct source materials for his controversial renditions of the Book of Abraham and the Book of Mormon. His testimony says that both of these sagas were translated from original materials that were recorded by the principle actors in his books. Unfortunately the Book of Abraham source material now in existence was obviously not written by
the hand of Abraham as you have admitted, and the gold plates have mysteriously disappeared.
Your reference to Josephus as an authority on Abraham is laughable! Josephus wrote his stuff after the advent of Jesus, which disconnects him by another thousand years in addition to the time of the Hebrew scribes.
The apocryphal material was not included in the canon for the simple reason it was obviously considered by the authority at the time to be lacking in credibility, and the same reason applies today.