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We grant the critics a point in noting the four names of the four canopics under the lion couch are not necessarily Egyptian names. But they are names that are found in the ancient world, namely Egyptian combined with ancient Syro-Canaanitish elements, and that is the point. This is not just gibberish. Abraham is pointing our the ancient Egyptian customs to a non-Egyptian audience of his in the Book of Abraham.

The hawk headed canopic, called Elkenah can and does correspond, however, with the Egyptian "qen" or "qeni" the sound of a hard "k". "In Palestine and Syria it is common to find such names combining Egyptian and West Semitic elements. (Nibley, "Facsimile No. 1 by the Figures," in "Improvement Era,", August 1969). The Egyptian element "qen" means mighty or powerful and is used in various names of the kings according to the Berlin Dictionary.

Robert Smith's commentary (a Cuneiform and Assyrian scholar) on the Book of Abraham (unpublished) mentions that this word correlates very well with the Biblical Hebrew word El-qanah, a name for 6 or more persons (often Levites,
cf. 1 Sam. 1:1-2, 1 Chron. 6:22, Exo. 6:23, 9:16) At Gen. 14:19 we read "El Elyon qoneh shamayim we'aretz," "El, the Exalted one, Creator of Heaven and Earth." It is a common hypocoristic form in the late Hittite story of Asherah and El-Qone-ersi - El-Creator-of-the-Earth (which is written El-ku-ni-ir-sa and pronounced Elkoners according to Albright YGC, pp. 46, 107, n. 32 and R. Clifford, CBQ, 33;222) The East was identified with the falcon headed canopic counterpart of Elkenah, Dw3-mwt-ef (Cf. Pyr texts 17, 27-8, 2078-79, Ezekiel 1:10, 10:14, Rev. 4:7).

The ah ending of the name is typical of Canaanite proper names written in their Egyptian form. The well known name Horan is written in Egyptian as Hwrwnana, a personal name, and as a place name it is Hrwn-ah. (Nibley - Aug. 1969, p. 141).

Bar Hebraeus noted that in the days of Terah, Abraham's father, the Egyptians learned Chaldaeism.

According to Father De Vaux, the land of Canaan is designated in the Amarna Letters as the land of Kinahni or Kinahhi. This is close the Elkenah, close enough philologically to know there really was such a place and name. A region of the earth as Joseph Smith designated it. A letter of Ranses II calls Canaan "Kinahhi", though the Egyptians preferred Kn'n. The point is that all over the Egyptian-Syro-Palestinian area Kinah was a common designation for Canaan, and the name El-kenah could certainly mean "God of Kenah" or Canaan. And this particular Canopic stood for the designation of the east, East of Heliopolis, since, to the Egyptians this was regarded as the exact center of the world. Everything to the east of this was Kenite country. These are the people who covenanted with Abraham no less. This is also the vast area that Abraham was promised as a promised land in the Dead Sea Scrolls Genesis Apocryphon. The Rabbis identified Kenite country with the deserts stretching all the way from the southern tip of Arabia to Asia Minor. In the prophecies of the last days, the Kenites are identified with the Ishmaelites and Nelson Glueck equated them with the Rachabites, the ancient sectaries of the Arabian deserts. Jethro was called the Kenite, and his Midianite countrymen called themselves the Kenim. Some have seen in these latter the beni Kain, or Sons of Cain, traveling smiths and metal casters, with their wandering habits and their blackened faces.

H. Seebass notes that the Kenites provide the link between the Patriarchal period and the desert period of Israel in their original home being the Negev. Whatever else they are, the Kenites, are form the Egyptian point of view, the people to the EAST, its name El-kenah might well refer to the god of an eastern region or people. (Nibley, p. 142) It is more than of passing interest that in one system of classification the EAST is the hawk-headed disc Re-Harahkte Lord of Heaven. And J. De Witt has noted in the "Chron. D' Egypte," at the purification of the king, the East is the Hawk. (Nibley, note 118).

Next we have Libnah, which name has actually turned up in Egyptian records, and been translated into Canaanite as "Libnah." Robert Smith notes that the name Libnah is derived from the Semitic and Indo-European root meaning "light," or "shining", and even "white." The Hebrew root lbn gives us Hebrew terms such as lebonah and olibanum which is Frankincense (Lev. 2:1 which was "white" of color according to Pliny HN, 12:14, Greek libanos, libanwtos, Arabic, lub'anun). This was also applied to a town name El Lubban. Labanah is the moon. Lebanon, of course strikes us immediately, because it is connected with the snow covered Antilibanus and Mount Hermon, and with the Valley of Lebanon, which appears in the Greek form Libanos and includes the entire Mountain Range.

Nibley further notes that Smith identified the jackal headed as Libnah, the correct designation for the WEST. And the Egyptians connected it with the white land, which is the meaning of the name! (Nibley, "Fac. No. 1 By the Figures," "IE", Sept. 1969).And Anubis, is the God of the West, the White land of the Westerners, and is associated with the moon! The Egyptologist Hermann Kees noted that the epithet, "Lord of the White Land" (nb ta djesr) is derived from the idea of "Lord of the shining, sanctified (prachtigen, geheiligten) Land. That is a euphism for the necropolis itself, which everyone knows is in the WEST. That would make him Lord of the Westerners! This is Kees conclusion. (Nibley, Sept. 1969, p. 144). The Egyptologist Brusch noted that the four canonical colors of Egypt always has WHITE as the color of the WEST. Also the Libyans to the WEST of Egypt were noted for their white skin and blue eyes. The facts of this Canopic Jar are:
1. Libnah does mean White Land
2. The idolatrous god of Libnah does have the mask of Anubis
3. The jackal-headed canopic figure does stand for the West
4. Anubis is the Lord of the West
5. Anubis is also Lord of the White land
6. White is the ritual color of the west.

Libnah, then, appears to be a very appropriate name to use if you want to divide up the world into four regions or races according to the Egyptian practice.

The third canopic is most interesting! The apes headed Mahmackrah. What a weird name! However, that is not to discredit it, but to cause us to look closely at it. Critics all too often simply toss something off they don't understand. The crrect thing to do is look and read. The Egyptians always placed this ape or bulls head (sometimes they are interchangeable with canopic jars) in the north. When we are confronted with odd looking names in Joseph Smith's writings, it is to the SOUND of them that we call your attention to, not necessarily how they are spelled. For instance, Baurak El and Shaumahyeem are perfectly good Hebrew if you read them OUT LOUD, though they look simply outlandish. The names of the canopics are addressed to the EAR not to the eye. Mamackrah suggests all sorts of things to the ear, especially with syllables such as Mah, mack, and rah. These are full of meaning in any language.

What we hear is Mah-mackr-ah. The mackr element is very important in Canaanite names such as Mhr-Anat which means "champion, or upholder of the goddess Anat." Ramses II called himself Mahr-B'l meaning upholder of Ba'al, the Canaanite god. Mahr-Rah would be the champion or upholder of Rah, the Egyptian equivilant of Ba'al. We need to note that the h in the root must have a heavy sound in order not
to be swallowed up by the r which follows. The shift between the k and the h can be seen in our own name Mi-cha-el which the Jews wrote Mi-ka-el. Incidentally, the form of the name rather neatly parallels our Ma-mackr-rah. Mi-cha-el, like Mi-ca-iah (1 Kings 22). (Nibley, Sept. 1969).

The Canaanite name Maq'arah means a burning incidentally. Interesting that in the Abraham legends one of them indicates that Abraham's sacrifice was to be burned in the fire. The Jewish Encyclopedia notes this. The idolatrous god of Beth-shan is called "Mkl'a", the great god. The first element in his name, Mkl is Canaanite, while the ending 'a is Egyptian. Another interesting name form is the Egyptian Mai-m-hqa meaning the lion is ruler. Our canopic name would then be Mai-m-akr-ah which would mean The lion Akr is great! Akr being the earth god as lion, and Abraham is on the LION couch to be sure. The point is, this name is not just meaningless gibberish whatever.

The last is Koash or Korash, variant spellings of the same name, and correlating to the South. This could very easily be the land of Cush. This
is the region SOUTH of Egypt, according to the Standard Jewish Encyclopedia. The name (Nubia or Ethiopia) in Hebrew and other ancient languages which expanded south of Elephantine and Syene (aswan). It has also been identified as southern Arabia and even India as far as that goes.The names of the four brothers, Mizraim, Punt, Canaan, and Cush certainly remind us of the division of the world into four regions. The Queen of Punt certainly lived in the South. The natives of Saba, way down there at the south end of Arabia worshipped a goddess Iagouth, who came from, of course, Heliopolis!

She was simply a local form of the Goddess Hathor, the regent of Heliopolis, worshipped at Punt and Saba. Her people were known as the Koraish! They were also called the Beni Qananee, or sons of Canaan. Back home at Heliopolis, the lady went by the name of Wadjit which was Semiticized into Ozza, under which title she turns up as one of the principle idols of the Qoreish in Mekkah. This Qoreish is the diminutive of the name Koraish.

All in all, the names correlate to the exact correct regional directions of which are depicted on the HEADS of the four canopics in the Facsimile No.1. This is amazing to no living end as far as I am concerned.

Kerry A. Shirts

The Book of Abraham gets deeper and more facinating the more you study it. Far from being some sort of embarassment for Joseph Smith, it actually serves as further proof of his Prophethood.

The last is Koash or Korash, variant spellings of the same name, and correlating to the South. This could very easily be the land of Cush. This
is the region SOUTH of Egypt, according to the Standard Jewish Encyclopedia.

Are the articles of Barney and Shirts in agreement regarding the Canopic Jar symbolism?

Gazelam wrote:

Are the articles of Barney and Shirts in agreement regarding the Canopic Jar symbolism?

The Barney article mainly deals with the translation of the word kenah, the El part of the name generaly being understood to mean God.

Does Barney agree with Shirts on the translation of that name?

Jersey Girl

Arabic kana’a has several usages, including (a) “to fold wings and descend to earth” (said of a large bird), and (b) “to bow, to incline toward the horizon” (said of a star). As applied to the sun, the word would be exactly equivalent to Latin occidere.28 Therefore, Astour takes the derived form Kina’u as signifying the “Occident,” the “Land of Sunset” or “Westland.”29 This is the West Semitic equivalent of Akkadian Amurru “West.” In Amarna era texts and in the Bible, the terms Canaan and Amurru are largely synonymous.30 It is interesting in this connection that the Sons of Horus stood for the four cardinal directions,31 and that Qebehsenuf, which represents “the idolatrous god of Elkenah” on Facsimile 1, was indeed the god of the west.32

The hawk headed canopic, called Elkenah can and does correspond, however, with the Egyptian "qen" or "qeni" the sound of a hard "k". "In Palestine and Syria it is common to find such names combining Egyptian and West Semitic elements. (Nibley, "Facsimile No. 1 by the Figures," in "Improvement Era,", August 1969). The Egyptian element "qen" means mighty or powerful and is used in various names of the kings according to the Berlin Dictionary.

Robert Smith's commentary (a Cuneiform and Assyrian scholar) on the Book of Abraham (unpublished) mentions that this word correlates very well with the Biblical Hebrew word El-qanah, a name for 6 or more persons (often Levites,
cf. 1 Sam. 1:1-2, 1 Chron. 6:22, Exo. 6:23, 9:16) At Gen. 14:19 we read "El Elyon qoneh shamayim we'aretz," "El, the Exalted one, Creator of Heaven and Earth." It is a common hypocoristic form in the late Hittite story of Asherah and El-Qone-ersi - El-Creator-of-the-Earth (which is written El-ku-ni-ir-sa and pronounced Elkoners according to Albright YGC, pp. 46, 107, n. 32 and R. Clifford, CBQ, 33;222) The East was identified with the falcon headed canopic counterpart of Elkenah, Dw3-mwt-ef (Cf. Pyr texts 17, 27-8, 2078-79, Ezekiel 1:10, 10:14, Rev. 4:7).

The ah ending of the name is typical of Canaanite proper names written in their Egyptian form. The well known name Horan is written in Egyptian as Hwrwnana, a personal name, and as a place name it is Hrwn-ah. (Nibley - Aug. 1969, p. 141).

Abraham is pointing our the ancient Egyptian customs to a non-Egyptian audience of his in the Book of Abraham.