Category: Translation
A Gift From an Early “Anti-Mormon” Attack on the Book of Abraham: Clear Evidence About the Source of Joseph’s Translation
The words of Joseph Smith give us vital evidence about the translation of the Book of Abraham. As Tim Barker demonstrates in a recent FAIR Conference, a large fraction of the characters on the papyrus fragment Joseph allegedly used to translate the Book of Abraham have been placed on Facsimile 2, and Joseph indicated that the explanations for those characters “will be given in the own due time of the Lord.” That is followed by a statement that refers to all the comments made regarding Facs. 2: “The above translation is given as far as we have any right to give at the present time.”
Janus Parallelism in Alma 32 and 33?
Alma uses the verb “spring” in an interesting way in his sermon to the Zoramites in Alma 32 and 33: But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the…
An Update in the Scholarship Regarding the Archaic Language in the Book of Mormon
One of the most interesting puzzles about the Book of Mormon is the recent discovery that much of the language is archaic in ways not easily explained by imitating the…
Further Thoughts on the Nephite Interpreters and Mesoamerican Culture
An important new study on relationships between the Book of Mormon and Mesoamerican culture was just published on Friday by Mark Alan Wright: “Nephite Daykeepers: Ritual Specialists in Mesoamerica and…
Ancient American Goggles and the Nephite/Jaredite “Interpreters,” Part 2
My previous post, “Don’t Google ‘Spectacles,’ Google ‘Goggles’: The Nephite ‘Interpreters’ as a Book of Mormon Anachronism” (hereafter Part 1), raised the possibility that ancient Mesoamerican “goggles,” sometimes depicted as…
Don’t Google “Spectacles,” Google “Goggles”: The Nephite “Interpreters” as a Book of Mormon Anachronism
When Joseph Smith received the gold plates of the Book of Mormon, he also apparently obtained the Nephite/Jaredite “interpreters,” said to be like “spectacles,” that could be used to assist…
The Willard Richards Book of Abraham Manuscript 2: Live Dictation of Abraham 3 in 1842, or Copying Existing Text?
In an important publication from the Joseph Smith Papers Project, The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts, eds. Robin Scott Jensen and…
Some Sources for the Kirtland Egyptian Paper’s Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, Part Two
In Part 1 of this topic posted earlier this week, I reviewed several pages of entries in the first part of the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, one…
Some Sources for the Kirtland Egyptian Paper’s Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, Part One
One of the vital issues in Book of Abraham debates is the role of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, including the large and mysterious work, the Grammar and Alphabet of the…
Is the Book of Abraham Translation Dependent on the Kirtland Egyptian Papers? Revisiting The Pearl of Greatest Price
A potentially troublesome flaw in the discussion of the Book of Abraham in the generally good book by Terryl Givens (with Brian Hauglid), The Pearl of Greatest Price, is its…
