The Missing Pieces

[_Carton]

Fantastic stuff! Wish I could afford to buy a copy

I have to admit I bit the bullet. I can't wait for it to get here.

We'll look forward to some more juicy excerpts like Joe provided above.

[_Joe Geisner]

We'll look forward to some more juicy excerpts like Joe provided above.[/quote]

I am quite excited that Fence Sitter has bought the book. I feel that since I do not drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, do drugs, or pay tithing I deserve a vice. Buying Mormon books is my vice. I am a well seasoned buyer and don't throw money around. My family always comes first and then I save for the book every once in a while.

Since Carton has enjoyed the excerpt, I figured I would share a fun one. My good friend Rick Gunder pointed this jewel out to me. Maybe this one really belongs in the Telestial forum, but Joseph Smith said that this was the book of Joseph, so it must be scripture:

[Spell for not eating excrement or drinking urine in the necropolis. Recitation by the Osiris Ta-sherit-Min, the justified, born of Nes-Khonsu, the justified. “I am the bull with sharp horns, the guide of heaven, the lord of appearances of heav]en, (VII.1/x+3) the [great] ill(VII.1/ x+4)[uminator, who has gone forth as a scorching flame], who honors (VII.1/x+5) [expansiveness, 90 the lion who gave the earth, so that the] blessed spirits 91 [might walk.] Excrement is my abomination. I shall not drink (VII.1/x+6) [urine. I shall not go upside-]down. I am a possessor of bread in Heliopolis. My bread is in heaven with (VII.1/x+7) [Re. My bread is on earth with Geb. It is the solar evening barque] that brings it to me from the house of the great god in Heliopolis. May [I] rejoice over 92 (VII.1/x+8) [my bowels in joining the rowers as] I [cross over] to the east of heaven. May I eat of (VII.1/x+9) [that which they eat. May I live on that from which they live.] I have eaten bread specifically from the chamber of the lord of offerings.” (Ritner, p.167)

[_Fence Sitter]

Regarding the length of P. J,S, 1

This specific form of "permit" was used by (often interrelated) priestly families in Thebes and its vicinity from the middle Ptolemaic to early Roman eras, and the limited distribution probably accounts for their uniform pattern, which displays only minor modifications.
As a result of this uniformity, the original size of the papyrus is not in doubt. With textual restorations and the not lost Facsimile 3, the papyrus will have measured about 150-155 cm. At most, the papyrus might have been expanded by the inclusion of a further, middle vignette, as found in Papyrus Tubingen 2016, but on the basis of the known parallels there is no reasonable expectation of any further text. Gee has repeatedly insisted that the Breathing Permit was "followed by another text, the only portions of which have been preserved are the maddeningly elliptical opening words: Beginning of the Book of...'" No such words "have been preserved," and the statement derives from an early error in reading the text by Seyffarth and a guess, recast as a fact, by Gee. Serffarth was an early outcast from Egyptology, notable for being the last holdout against the decipherment of hieroglyphs by Champollion. In any case, his own statements do not support the existence of a second text on the Hor papyrus.

The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri Robert Ritner pg 87

[_Joe Geisner]

Fence Sitter,

As I have been pondering the Ritner book, I have wondered how FARMS, FAIR, Maxwell Institute, Mormon Defense League, and Mormon Voices will attack Ritner and the other authors.

Most likely they will attack the messenger. As Mike Quinn pointed out so well, this is the history of Mormonism. Smith did it with Nancy Rigdon and Sara Pratt, and many others. The "boys" have a long tradition of this approach.

But will they be honest or continue to use their old apologetic defense? Will they continue to say that we have missing papyri, Abraham really can be found in papyri like Smith's, Smith really did get a couple of things correct and/or the other two or three fantasies they have created? Or will they use Richard Bushman's method? Will they move to his side and say, we never said the papyri had anything to do with Abraham, they were like the seer stones? Maybe they were like the gold plates and he used seer stones with out ever looking at the papyri? Which means Smith really did not need the papyri to "translate" the Book of Abraham any more than he needed the gold plates to "translate" the Book of Mormon.

How will the "boys" defend the Book of Abraham? I would suggest they all follow in their real mentor's foot steps and be like Thomas Stuart Ferguson. Maybe they have already arrived?

[_Fence Sitter]

Fence Sitter,

As I have been pondering the Ritner book, I have wondered how FARMS, FAIR, Maxwell Institute, Mormon Defense League, and Mormon Voices will attack Ritner and the other authors.

Most likely they will attack the messenger. As Mike Quinn pointed out so well, this is the history of Mormonism. Smith did it with Nancy Rigdon and Sara Pratt, and many others. The "boys" have a long tradition of this approach.

But will they be honest or continue to use their old apologetic defense? Will they continue to say that we have missing papyri, Abraham really can be found in papyri like Smith's, Smith really did get a couple of things correct and/or the other two or three fantasies they have created? Or will they use Richard Bushman's method? Will they move to his side and say, we never said the papyri had anything to do with Abraham, they were like the seer stones? Maybe they were like the gold plates and he used seer stones with out ever looking at the papyri? Which means Smith really did not need the papyri to "translate" the Book of Abraham any more than he needed the gold plates to "translate" the Book of Mormon.

How will the "boys" defend the Book of Abraham? I would suggest they all follow in their real mentor's foot steps and be like Thomas Stuart Ferguson. Maybe they have already arrived?

I expect to see all of the above.