Faithful theories of Book of Abraham from MA&D

[_zzyzx]

Joseph Smith announced to his followers that the papyri contained the long-lost writings of Old Testament prophets Abraham and Joseph. Josiah Quincy, who visited with Smith in 1844, described his experience of being shown the papyri by Smith: Some parchments inscribed with hiero-glyphics were then offered us. They were preserved under glass and handled with great respect. "That is the handwriting of Abraham, the Father of the Faithful," said the prophet. "This is the autograph of Moses, and these lines were written by his brother Aaron. Here we have the earliest account of the Creation, from which Moses composed the first Book of Genesis."
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Why, with the clear and strong statements of Joseph Smith is there any question at all?

[_thews]

Joseph Smith announced to his followers that the papyri contained the long-lost writings of Old Testament prophets Abraham and Joseph. Josiah Quincy, who visited with Smith in 1844, described his experience of being shown the papyri by Smith: Some parchments inscribed with hiero-glyphics were then offered us. They were preserved under glass and handled with great respect. "That is the handwriting of Abraham, the Father of the Faithful," said the prophet. "This is the autograph of Moses, and these lines were written by his brother Aaron. Here we have the earliest account of the Creation, from which Moses composed the first Book of Genesis."
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Why, with the clear and strong statements of Joseph Smith is there any question at all?

Interesting. Quiincy also said this...

http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/JQuincy.html

The prophet referred to his miraculous gift of understanding all languages, and took down a Bible in various tongues, for the purpose of exhibiting his accomplishments in this particular.

[_zeezrom]

Lightbearer provided this idea about Osiris. What are your thoughts?

Actually the use of Osiris to represent Abraham sitting on the throne of Pharaoh to me is quite remarkable and appropriate. Especially when you consider the Egyptian mythology concerning Osiris and also the place of Abraham in our religion. Osiris is called the God of the underworld or the God of resurrection, or Lord of the dead, it is rather interesting that the spirit world is referred to in the scriptures as "Abraham's bosom."
Also Abraham's history and he and his son being a type of God and Christ. He is the prototype of the faithful, and an inheritor of eternal life.

(emphasis mine)

[_thews]

Lightbearer provided this idea about Osiris. What are your thoughts?

Actually the use of Osiris to represent Abraham sitting on the throne of Pharaoh to me is quite remarkable and appropriate. Especially when you consider the Egyptian mythology concerning Osiris and also the place of Abraham in our religion. Osiris is called the God of the underworld or the God of resurrection, or Lord of the dead, it is rather interesting that the spirit world is referred to in the scriptures as "Abraham's bosom."
Also Abraham's history and he and his son being a type of God and Christ. He is the prototype of the faithful, and an inheritor of eternal life.

(emphasis mine)

Sounds like the objective is to rival the pagan book of the dead... which has nothing to do with Abraham...? I still don't see how Fair claims the Book of Abraham "accords" with anything other than the story made up by Joe Smith.

[_badseed]

Why, with the clear and strong statements of Joseph Smith is there any question at all?

I feel the same way about Josephs translation or interpretation of Facsimile No. 1. We have the actual the published facsimile and Joseph's interpretation of it— as well as the papyri that was the source for it. They don't match. Joseph couldn't translate Egyptian, missing scrolls or not.

Apologetic approach #1 is the only one that has any chance of being even partly accurate. And even if it is Joseph's translation is still suspect in my opinion because of what he incorrectly claimed about Facsimile 1 and the rest of the papyri.

[_Sethbag]

Lightbearer provided this idea about Osiris. What are your thoughts?

Actually the use of Osiris to represent Abraham sitting on the throne of Pharaoh to me is quite remarkable and appropriate. Especially when you consider the Egyptian mythology concerning Osiris and also the place of Abraham in our religion. Osiris is called the God of the underworld or the God of resurrection, or Lord of the dead, it is rather interesting that the spirit world is referred to in the scriptures as "Abraham's bosom."
Also Abraham's history and he and his son being a type of God and Christ. He is the prototype of the faithful, and an inheritor of eternal life.

(emphasis mine)

This is the "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" applied to religious apologetics. The fact is that practically any god, in any belief system, has some sort of connection to either the creation of the world, "heaven" or wherever it is believers think they're going after they die, or some connection to wherever or whatever state we enter when we die. These are the bread and butter issues of religion. Therefor, given this tenuous connection of Abraham with the afterlife (ie: Abraham's Bosom), one could make some kind of strained connection between Abraham and practically any deity ever, from practically any belief system.

Saying that Osiris in the facsimile can reasonably be said actually to have been intended by the creator of that scene to represent Abraham sitting on Pharoah's throne, by virtue of "Abraham's Bosom" being equated with a state after death, and Osiris also being connected to a state after death, is an unbelievable stretch. It's really no better than grasping at straws.