Author: Jeff Lindsay
Did Joseph’s Scribes Think He Translated Paragraphs of Text from a Single Egyptian Character? A View from W.W. Phelps
In using the Kirtland Egyptian Papers (KEP) to discredit Joseph’s “translation” of the Book of Abraham, it is assumed that these papers show that Joseph and his scribes thought that…
The Pure Language Project
To understand the strange Kirtland Egyptian Papers, we may need to understand the fascination with “pure language” that was found among some early Latter-day Saints. Brian Hauglid wrote this in…
My Hypothesis Overturned: What Typos May Tell Us About the Book of Abraham
In my previous post, “The Smoking Gun for Joseph’s Translation of the Book of Abraham, or Copied Manuscripts from an Existing Translation?,” I suggested that examination of the “smoking guns”…
The Smoking Gun for Joseph’s Translation of the Book of Abraham, or Copied Manuscripts from an Existing Translation?
Thanks to the Joseph Smith Papers website and its section on the Book of Abraham, we can explore in detail the surviving manuscripts related to production and translation of the…
Puzzling Content in the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar
When I first started looking at the Kirtland Egyptian Papers in detail on the Joseph Smith Papers site, I was immediately struck by the surprisingly specific and narrowly focused content…
Tender Mercies: How the BYU Management Society and a China Moment Turned Gloom into Contentment
Monday morning was gloomy. Perhaps my most depressing day over my 8 wonderful years of ups and downs in China. This was a day of confronting some painful suspected realities….
Do the Kirtland Egyptian Papers Prove the Book of Abraham Was Translated from a Handful of Characters? See for Yourself!
In a small but highly valuable and colorful book on the Book of Abraham, John Gee’s A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and…
The Elephantine in the Room
Location of Elephantine on the Upper Nile, courtesy of Wikipedia’s article, “Elephantine.” Over 2,400 years ago there was an active community of Jewish immigrants living on the island of Elephantine…
Maybe We Should Remember the “Hot” Part of the Prohibition on “Hot Drinks”
Some recent hot news points to the risks of drinking very hot beverages. A new study suggests that drinking piping hot tea regularly can nearly double the risk of esophageal…
My Uninspired “Translation” of the Missing Scroll/Script from the Hauglid-Jensen Presentation
While I have expressed disappointment with what was said, or rather, what wasn’t said, at the Maxwell Institute’s recent presentation, “A Window into Joseph Smith’s Translation” of the Book of…
