Elkenah, Libnah, Mahmackrah and Korash ...Really?
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 6:43 am
In every copy of the so-called "Book of Abraham" there are several “facsimiles” of hieroglyphics copied directly from the images on the original papyrus, including images of some of Egypt’s mythical gods. This is the same papyrus collection so prized by the LDS church today. Let us ignore for the moment that these papyri are invariably identified by all qualified Egyptologists (including BOTH Mormon Egyptologists) as a common, ~1st century AD "breathing permit" - the documentation of a ritual embalming required by the mythological religion of Egypt. Such breathing permits are among the most common documentary artifacts surviving from the post-dynastic period of Egyptian history. Instead, let's look to see if the alleged "divine revelation" of Joseph Smith's "translation" were actually correct. After all, if God Himself really did reveal this "translation", as Mormons are taught to think, should we not expect it to be at least minimally correct?
In Facsimile #1, Smith identifies the idol figures he numbers as 5, 6, 7 and 8. (These are the four figures that appear beneath the alleged “alter” upon which the claimed figure of “Abraham” is supposedly being sacrificed). The “prophet” Smith, claiming to use his alleged "gift and power of God" to translate languages he could not even read tells us explicitly that these figures represent the idolatrous gods of (his exact words): “Elkenah”, “ Libnah”, “Mahmackrah” and “Korash”.
Now, the simple irrefutable FACT is, these exact same figures appear all over ancient Egyptian documents and artifacts. So for Smith’s claim to be true, we would have to accept that the same images appearing in all those other ancient documents represent the same “gods”. So the question is ...do they? Are these same images appearing here and elsewhere representative of Egyptian gods named, “Elkenah”, “ Libnah”, “Mahmackrah” and “Korash”.
The answer is no, of course.
First of all there are NO Egyptian gods named “Elkenah”, “ Libnah”, “Mahmackrah” and “Korash”. Those names appear NOWHERE in the vast archives of Egyptian literature, mythology, lore, religion or even in Egypt's oral traditions. Nor do any of those names appear on any monument or on any other archaeological artifact. They simply do not exist anywhere in any Egyptian sources. In fact, they appear NOWHERE in any ancient lore and do not appear in any literature in the world before the "Book of Abraham" was supposedly rendered.
Second, to believe Smith you have to accept that that the Egyptians did not know the names of their own gods because these figures consistently correspond throughout all of the ancient Egyptian literature where they appear with the mythical “sons of Horus” known as “Qebehseneuf” (fig. #5 on the papyrus and duplicated in Facsimile #1), “Duamutef” (fig. #6), “Hapy” (fig. #7) and “Imsety” (fig. #8). Even an elementary familiarity with Egyptian lore will quickly inform any student of Egyptian mythology, religion, lore or history that these mythical figures are, in fact, very common. As the sons of one of the most important Egyptian deities (Horus) they are very important figures. For example, Hapy (a.k.a. “Hapi”) is the god of the Nile – that all important source of all life for the entire Egyptian civilization. The name has a distinct etymological history that weaves it deeply into the fabric of Egyptian language and lore. It means “running one” and refers to the flow of the river. In fact, Hapy was thought to control the annual flooding of the Nile - an event that ruled the routine rhythms of the very life of Egypt itself. This name corresponds to other uses of the same word to describe a “running one”. Thus the entire body of Egyptian literature which includes this important deity is cohesive, and meaningful. By contrast, Smith's supposedly divine gift for translation lead him to identify "Hapy" as "Mahmackrah" a word that has no Egyptian meaning and in fact, is not even an Egyptian name (nor even a name of anyone in ANY language). Furthermore, being non-existent in any known Egyptian language, it has no more etymological history or significance to Egyptology than does the word, "humbug".
So here’s the problem. There simply is no Egyptian deity known as “Mahmackrah”. That name appears exactly NOWHERE in any Egyptian literature or lore. There IS, however, an Egyptian deity known as “Hapy”, and he was even a pretty important dude to the Egyptians. So his REAL name is very common and his image is easily recognized and well-known among Egyptologists and other antiquarians. But Smith's name for this figure is totally unknown outside the claims of the obscure LDS organization and its so-called "prophets".
The same is true for the other named idol-deities listed above. For that matter it is true for literally ALL of the other figures throught the Facsimiles found in every copy of the Book of Abraham as published by the LDS church. The fact is, Smith did not identify any of them correctly. But let's confine our discussion to these four examples.
The LDS religion stands or falls on the truth of its "scriptures" supposedly revealed by the very "God of Truth", according to the Bible. Thus, the veracity of the LDS religion hinges on this issue. Either the Mormon “prophet” translated the Sensen papyrus correctly by his alleged divine gift for translating ancient languages he could not even read, or else he was simply lying ...or possibly just delusional.
If Smith was right, all Egyptian literature needs to be corrected and these idol-gods need to be re-identified to redeem all of Egyptian literature from the gibberish to which it is reduced by the error of 100% of all qualified Egyptologists, linguists, archaeologists, historians to have ever studied ancient Egypt and made the error of mistranslating the names of the Egyptian gods. If Smith was right, we need to simply ignore the violence we need to do to Egyptian language, history, religions and mythology and just re-write all of that to accommodate Smith's alleged "revelations". But, we will have established that Smith did indeed have a divine gift for translating languages he could not read.
On the other hand, if Smith was just making stuff up to fool his hapless, uninformed, unquestioning and incurious victims, then the whole field of Egyptology can continue to make sense in its own terms and it is Mormons who must account for the demonstrated fact that they have believed the lies of a not-so-clever occult con artist.
The challenge to Mormons here is this: please SHOW US why we should think that 100% of all qualified Egyptologists and scholars from all related fields are all WRONG to identify these figures as “Qebehseneuf”, “Duamutef”, “Hapy” and “Imsety” and correct the entire academy of Egyptologists by showing us (and them) why those deities are REALLY to be identified as “Elkenah”, “ Libnah”, “Mahmackrah” and “Korash” . After all, that is who the Mormon "God" said they were. If the Mormon "God" is right, this challenge should be pretty easy, given the vast archives of Egyptian literature and archaeology available to us all.
To those who wish to meet this challenge, you may begin by showing us that the names listed by Joseph Smith AT LEAST existed somewhere in Egyptian lore BEFORE your "prophet" showed up in the early 1800s and claimed that these idols bore the names he (or actually "God") gave them. Next, you can prove the truthfulness of your scriptures and demonstrat the “inspiration” of your so-called “prophet” by simply showing us that the names he used are indeed correctly associated with the idols to which he attached them.
To those who wish to just ignore reality and continue to "think" what the LDS organization tells them to "think", just pass over this challenge and enjoy your life as best you can. And please ...don’t try to change the subject by making ME (or anyone or anything else) the issue here. Such behaviors will be quickly identified and exposed and will only prove that you yourself know you cannot meet the challenge I have presented here.
Thank you
-BH
.
In Facsimile #1, Smith identifies the idol figures he numbers as 5, 6, 7 and 8. (These are the four figures that appear beneath the alleged “alter” upon which the claimed figure of “Abraham” is supposedly being sacrificed). The “prophet” Smith, claiming to use his alleged "gift and power of God" to translate languages he could not even read tells us explicitly that these figures represent the idolatrous gods of (his exact words): “Elkenah”, “ Libnah”, “Mahmackrah” and “Korash”.
Now, the simple irrefutable FACT is, these exact same figures appear all over ancient Egyptian documents and artifacts. So for Smith’s claim to be true, we would have to accept that the same images appearing in all those other ancient documents represent the same “gods”. So the question is ...do they? Are these same images appearing here and elsewhere representative of Egyptian gods named, “Elkenah”, “ Libnah”, “Mahmackrah” and “Korash”.
The answer is no, of course.
First of all there are NO Egyptian gods named “Elkenah”, “ Libnah”, “Mahmackrah” and “Korash”. Those names appear NOWHERE in the vast archives of Egyptian literature, mythology, lore, religion or even in Egypt's oral traditions. Nor do any of those names appear on any monument or on any other archaeological artifact. They simply do not exist anywhere in any Egyptian sources. In fact, they appear NOWHERE in any ancient lore and do not appear in any literature in the world before the "Book of Abraham" was supposedly rendered.
Second, to believe Smith you have to accept that that the Egyptians did not know the names of their own gods because these figures consistently correspond throughout all of the ancient Egyptian literature where they appear with the mythical “sons of Horus” known as “Qebehseneuf” (fig. #5 on the papyrus and duplicated in Facsimile #1), “Duamutef” (fig. #6), “Hapy” (fig. #7) and “Imsety” (fig. #8). Even an elementary familiarity with Egyptian lore will quickly inform any student of Egyptian mythology, religion, lore or history that these mythical figures are, in fact, very common. As the sons of one of the most important Egyptian deities (Horus) they are very important figures. For example, Hapy (a.k.a. “Hapi”) is the god of the Nile – that all important source of all life for the entire Egyptian civilization. The name has a distinct etymological history that weaves it deeply into the fabric of Egyptian language and lore. It means “running one” and refers to the flow of the river. In fact, Hapy was thought to control the annual flooding of the Nile - an event that ruled the routine rhythms of the very life of Egypt itself. This name corresponds to other uses of the same word to describe a “running one”. Thus the entire body of Egyptian literature which includes this important deity is cohesive, and meaningful. By contrast, Smith's supposedly divine gift for translation lead him to identify "Hapy" as "Mahmackrah" a word that has no Egyptian meaning and in fact, is not even an Egyptian name (nor even a name of anyone in ANY language). Furthermore, being non-existent in any known Egyptian language, it has no more etymological history or significance to Egyptology than does the word, "humbug".
So here’s the problem. There simply is no Egyptian deity known as “Mahmackrah”. That name appears exactly NOWHERE in any Egyptian literature or lore. There IS, however, an Egyptian deity known as “Hapy”, and he was even a pretty important dude to the Egyptians. So his REAL name is very common and his image is easily recognized and well-known among Egyptologists and other antiquarians. But Smith's name for this figure is totally unknown outside the claims of the obscure LDS organization and its so-called "prophets".
The same is true for the other named idol-deities listed above. For that matter it is true for literally ALL of the other figures throught the Facsimiles found in every copy of the Book of Abraham as published by the LDS church. The fact is, Smith did not identify any of them correctly. But let's confine our discussion to these four examples.
The LDS religion stands or falls on the truth of its "scriptures" supposedly revealed by the very "God of Truth", according to the Bible. Thus, the veracity of the LDS religion hinges on this issue. Either the Mormon “prophet” translated the Sensen papyrus correctly by his alleged divine gift for translating ancient languages he could not even read, or else he was simply lying ...or possibly just delusional.
If Smith was right, all Egyptian literature needs to be corrected and these idol-gods need to be re-identified to redeem all of Egyptian literature from the gibberish to which it is reduced by the error of 100% of all qualified Egyptologists, linguists, archaeologists, historians to have ever studied ancient Egypt and made the error of mistranslating the names of the Egyptian gods. If Smith was right, we need to simply ignore the violence we need to do to Egyptian language, history, religions and mythology and just re-write all of that to accommodate Smith's alleged "revelations". But, we will have established that Smith did indeed have a divine gift for translating languages he could not read.
On the other hand, if Smith was just making stuff up to fool his hapless, uninformed, unquestioning and incurious victims, then the whole field of Egyptology can continue to make sense in its own terms and it is Mormons who must account for the demonstrated fact that they have believed the lies of a not-so-clever occult con artist.
The challenge to Mormons here is this: please SHOW US why we should think that 100% of all qualified Egyptologists and scholars from all related fields are all WRONG to identify these figures as “Qebehseneuf”, “Duamutef”, “Hapy” and “Imsety” and correct the entire academy of Egyptologists by showing us (and them) why those deities are REALLY to be identified as “Elkenah”, “ Libnah”, “Mahmackrah” and “Korash” . After all, that is who the Mormon "God" said they were. If the Mormon "God" is right, this challenge should be pretty easy, given the vast archives of Egyptian literature and archaeology available to us all.
To those who wish to meet this challenge, you may begin by showing us that the names listed by Joseph Smith AT LEAST existed somewhere in Egyptian lore BEFORE your "prophet" showed up in the early 1800s and claimed that these idols bore the names he (or actually "God") gave them. Next, you can prove the truthfulness of your scriptures and demonstrat the “inspiration” of your so-called “prophet” by simply showing us that the names he used are indeed correctly associated with the idols to which he attached them.
To those who wish to just ignore reality and continue to "think" what the LDS organization tells them to "think", just pass over this challenge and enjoy your life as best you can. And please ...don’t try to change the subject by making ME (or anyone or anything else) the issue here. Such behaviors will be quickly identified and exposed and will only prove that you yourself know you cannot meet the challenge I have presented here.
Thank you
-BH
.