William Schryver wrote:I would also highly recommend this recent thread, wherein it is demonstrated that the scroll from which the extant fragments of the Joseph Smith Papyri were cut was considerably longer than has long been believed.
Missing Papyrus
The paper, as presently constituted, is really just a draft. A more complete version will appear in print in the reasonably near future.
Will,
An update. Brent Metcalfe helpfully provided two more sets of photographs with rulers in the margins: one from George D. Smith and one from Wesley P. Walters. Walters' photographs materially agree with the scale of the Improvement Era photos, appearing to verify the accuracy of Mortal Man's analysis. The George D. Smith photos, however, portray the papyrus as dramatically smaller. They show PJS X, for example, as being a full two inches shorter than the Walters photos do. Brent checked his own exact-size photographs for us, and they add further confirmation for the Walters and Improvement Era measurements. The reason for the anomaly of the George D. Smith photos has not been definitively determined, but we suspect upon examining them that they may actually be photographs of photographs. Brent is trying to contact Smith to ask for clarification.
In any case, the Improvement Era scale appears to be more or less doubly confirmed, and the George D. Smith photos certainly provide no support for the apologists' case since they would actually result in a considerably smaller estimate of the length of the missing papyrus.
It is likely that I or Mortal Man will post measurements from the Walters photos in the near future. I fully expect Mortal Man's and my earlier analysis to be materially verified.
-Chris