Evidence and the Book of Abraham

[_aussieguy55]

I thought some scholars thought the top "hand" was the wing of another bird. Examine the "hand" on the papyri with a magnifying glass and tell me if you cannot see two dots there, similar to that of the bird above the body.I understand there not residual specks of papyri in the area where the arm of the hand would be.

[_thews]

Maybe I should change the question a bit. What is the best available evidence that the text of the Book of Abraham is ancient?

Ask Dr. Peterson... when he has time:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19774

[_consiglieri]

I thought some scholars thought the top "hand" was the wing of another bird. Examine the "hand" on the papyri with a magnifying glass and tell me if you cannot see two dots there, similar to that of the bird above the body.I understand there not residual specks of papyri in the area where the arm of the hand would be.

I have heard something similar and frankly don't know how it would play into this analysis.

If true, I guess somebody somewhere along the line might have modified the vignette.

But still, even if modified, and even if modified by Joseph Smith, he would still have made a pretty good interpretation of the modified figure, I think.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_consiglieri]

Ask Dr. Peterson... when he has time:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19774

Thanks for the link, thews.

Here is the article Dr. Peterson wrote on the subject:

http://LDS.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnex ... Nav=1//url

[_aussieguy55]

Arn't there similar scenes where the individual is holding his penis with a bird hovering above? Maybe Ritner will discuss this in his paper in the new Signature book dues this month

[_badseed]

Some defenders of the Book of Abraham look to some details tied to the Abraham story in extra-biblical sources that they claim Joseph Smith could not have known. If I recall correctly stuff about Abraham's father being an idolator and other stuff as well. I think however that these ideas may have been available in Josephus and some apocryphal books that were available in the 1830s. Joseph read at least some of the Apocrypha and I seem to have heard he or Hyrum had a copy of Josephus.

Don't CFR cuz I don't have the stuff myself currently. Anyone else know about this stuff?

[_aussieguy55]

http://user.xmission.com/~research/about/books.htm


A list of some books possibly read/used by Smith

Lectures on Universalism

http://www.archive.org/stream/lectureso ... 0/mode/1up
Googled