MG 2.0 wrote: ↑Sat Sep 11, 2021 3:38 am
It was a project, but was it literally scripture? I haven’t seen anything directly from Joseph that appears to be direct or hard fast evidence that he believed this to be so. Now did he think that he was more or less creating a midrash, of sorts, dealing with Abraham’s writings? I think so. But that doesn’t make it scripture in the literal sense.
Let’s examine some solemn testimonials and see if it helps shed some light. A formal statement given to the saints describes the records written by Abraham & Joseph and that Joseph Smith was translating the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs of those books just like he translated the ancient reformed Egyptian from the gold plates into the Book of Mormon. More scripture was forthcoming!
Parley P Pratt, Millennial Star, July 1842, p.47 wrote:The record is now in course of translation by the means of the Urim and Thummim, and proves to be a record written partly by the father of the faithful, Abraham, and finished by Joseph when in Egypt. After his death, it is supposed they were preserved in the family of the Pharaohs and afterwards hid up with the embalmed body of the female with whom they were found.
The belief of what the Book of Abraham was originally thought to be is expressed at the time of canonization by the apostles. They were sacred writings kept in Egypt and were preserved on the bodies of the mummies. They were not just “sacred records” they were “INSPIRED WRITINGS” of Abraham while he was in Egypt. The record was just that and Joseph Smith translated it and restored it to its original form in the English language. That is what Joseph Smith claimed and his apostles stood by him in that testimony. Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses by President John Taylor, 1880, 20:64,65 wrote:The Lord told him they were sacred records, containing the inspired writings of Abraham when he was in Egypt, and also those of Joseph, while he was in Egypt; and they had been deposited, with these mummies, which had been exhumed.