Tobin wrote:You missed what I was saying. Joseph Smith couldn't read Egyptian Hieroglyphics. His attempts at annotating the Egyptian Facsimiles only demonstrates this fact.
Using your logic, Joseph smith, who paid $2400 for them, said he was "translating" them... only he didn't "translate" them? This isn't semantics and you are wrong.
http://mormonthink.com/book-of-abraham-issues.htm"... with W. W. Phelps and Oliver Cowdery as scribes, I commence the translation of some of the characters or hieroglyphics, and much to our joy found that one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph of Egypt, etc. - a more full account of which will appear in its place, as I proceed to examine or unfold them. Truly we can say, the Lord is beginning to reveal the abundance of peace and truth." (History of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 236).
Tobin wrote: Joseph Smith ability to translate (a better word is reveal) was not because he understood the reformed Egyptian that the Book of Mormon was written in nor was it because he could read (nor understand) the Egyptian Hieroglphics in the Egyptian papyri, which he clearly couldn't. This is a purely a false assumption. Joseph Smith could only reveal a text through the gift and power of God. And the only source that can tell you if he had that gift is God himself.
As you babble on about your theories, you missed the point that Joseph Smith claimed to "translate" the supposed Book of Abraham. Because he was wrong, you can admit this, but fail to acknowledge what he actually said.
Tobin wrote:The Book of Abraham is not contained in the Egyptian papyri. It was only the impetus for Joseph Smith to reveal the long lost writings of Abraham by the gift and power of God. These writings do not exist, nor is there any reason to expect the Egyptians would have any interest in preserving them at all.
That isn't what Joseph Smith said. Are you calling Joseph Smith a liar?
2 Tim 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.
2 Tim 4:4 They will turn their ears away from the truth & turn aside to myths