Shulem wrote:I can only imagine that the missing roll theory is evaporating and no longer carries weight in LDS apologetic circles. The extant papyrus and the Facsimiles demonstrate that Joseph Smith used them to translate and produce his phony interpretations. The fantasized Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar is additional proof to show how Joseph Smith and his comrades pulled off their Egyptological caper.
Another straw to add to the already broken back of the missing scroll theory.
First off for those who do not know, there is a known missing section in the middle of the Hor/Book of Abraham scroll. No one disputes that, what is in dispute is the length of this section. Here is another tidbit from Ritner, backed up by Lanny Bell as to how long that missing section could have been based on textual analysis of other similar texts.
In your new thread about whether or not Joseph Smith had the face of Anubis altered I noted that the vignettes in books of breathing like the Hor permit were not standardized. As of 2005, thirty three examples of hieratic "Breathing Permits" had been identified. In all of these "Permits" the "text is fixed, with very little deviation" See
here on page 2-2.
This has led Ritner to declare in 2010 in his book
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 now lost Facsimile 3, the papyrus will have measured about 150-155 cm [about 5'-0"]....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.
See Ritner pg 87
We have the majority of Hor scroll from which Joseph Smith pretended to translate the Book of Abraham.
We know exactly which characters on the Hor scroll he used to produce the first chapter and a half of the Book of Abraham.
We even know that in one missing area next to where he was translating he just made up his own Egyptian characters.
We know what was on the missing portions of the Hor scroll.
We know how long the missing portion of the Hor scroll is.
There is no evidence at all that what is missing from the original Egyptian collection contains anything other than standard funerary documents. NONE.
And yet we keep hearing about the missing scroll.