Philo Sofee wrote: ↑Sat Nov 06, 2021 1:13 pmRemarkable detective work Shulem! I had not thought before of seeing if Shinehah was pre-papyri days. That changes it all, without question. Of course, I was familiar with Ritner, that is, long after my apologetic song and dance attempting to crib Egyptian hieroglyphics words together to produce Shinehah, but this is a major match to the hay of the apologetic Shinehah... I marvel at your insights!
The apologists, however, are not left without some hope that “Shinehah” was originally conceived by the prophet as being associated with the shine of the sun (sun + shine = sunshine). But they will have to dig into the infamous papers that have been dubbed as speculative or less than inspired:
Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, p.24
(Count up five lines from the bottom and look at the first word)
Things that deal specifically with astronomy and words familiar with the final translation in the published Book of Abraham are here before our very eyes, it’s unmistakably Book of Abraham-like material but with all kinds of things that never made it into the published chapters or Explanations of Facsimile No. 2.
So, let’s look at what the prophet’s scribe wrote in the bound grammar (1835) and see what goodies are there:
William with. Phelps wrote:Jah-oh-eh The earth under the governing powers of
oliblish, Enish go on dosh, and Kae-e van
rash, which are the grand governing key
or in other words, the governing power,
which governs the fifteen fixed stars
that belong governs the earth, sun, &
moon, (which have their power in one,)
with the other twelve moving planets
of this system. Oliblish=Enish go on dosh,
and Kaii , en rash, are the three grand
central stars which powers that govern
all the other creations, which have been
sought out by the most aged of all
the fathers, since the begining of the
creation, by means of the urim and
Thummim: The names of the other
twelve of the fixed stars are: Kolob,
Limdi, Ziss, Vurel, Venisti, Waine,
Wagah=ox=oan, oansli, Keble
Shineflis, flis, ots. The Egyptian names,
of the fifteen moving planets are: Oan isis,
Flos-isis, flo’ese: Abbesele, Ele ash, Sabble,
Slundlo, ear roam, Crash ma kraw
obbles isim, Izinsbah. missel
Look at all those wonderful goodies! It’s a whole package of treats, many of which are traced directly to the published Book of Abraham. You will dutifully note towards the end that these are termed “The Egyptian names” and yet they are not found in the Egyptian Dictionary. Could that be because Smith made them up out of whole cloth? I think so.
But do note that “Shineflis” (one of the listed fixed stars) and “flis” precede a list of the names of fifteen moving planets given in their “Egyptian names”. So, from this, we can gather that “Shine” is a term that Smith definitely used to represent “sun” in as early as 1835.
Score 1 for the apologists?
But with all that said and everything discussed so far it seems reasonable to conclude that had Smith really been translating Egyptian he would have said, “This is Ra which is the sun and is ever as shen-heh.”
Bear in mind that in order to incorporate Shineflis with Shinehah one must also take all the other baggage that goes with it and from the looks of it all, it’s mighty ugly.