The Book of Abraham is unique in the scriptural canon of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because it is the only book in that canon that has pictures. Since 1842 when it was first published, the Book of Abraham has been accompanied by three facsimiles of Egyptian characters and figures that illustrate the text. Joseph Smith provided explanations for many of the figures in these...

A couple of weeks ago, Book of Mormon Central staff had a chance to sit down with Dr. Kerry Muhlestein and ask him some questions about the Book of Abraham. Dr. Muhlestein has a PhD in Egyptology from University of California, Los Angeles, and is the director of the BYU Egypt Excavation Project. He was also a research consultant and peer reviewer for the Book of Abraham content on BMC’s Pearl of...

This post is a modified version of the introductory page to Pearl of Great Price Central’s Book of Abraham Insights series. Controversy has surrounded the Book of Abraham ever since it was first published by the Church in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois. Joseph Smith’s interpretations of three facsimiles that accompany the text have come under the scrutiny of Egyptologists...

Last week Pearl of Great Price Central published a Book of Abraham Insight that explores the very real probability that the word Shinehah in the Book of Abraham is attested in ancient Egyptian texts from Abraham’s day. According to the opening paragraph of the Insight: One of the astronomical terms defined in the Book of Abraham is Shinehah, which is said to be the sun ( Abraham 3:13 )...

The prophet Moroni indicated that he and his father Mormon wrote their abridgement of the Nephite records in a script called “reformed Egyptian” ( Mormon 9:32 ). Latter-day Saints are often fascinated (and sometimes perplexed) with figuring out what “reformed Egyptian” was or how it worked. Skeptics of the Book of Mormon, on the other hand, often dismiss “reformed Egyptian” as a fabrication by...

Nephi says he wrote using “the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians” (1 Nephi 1:2). This idea was disputed almost the moment the Book of Mormon came off the press. In 1831, one critic wrote: “The plates were inscribed in the language of the Egyptians …. As Nephi was a descendant from Joseph, probably Smith would have us understand, that the Egyptian language was retained in the...

The Joseph Smith Papers Project, under the auspices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has published a new volume in the landmark series. The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Vol. 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts includes, for the first time, the extant Book of Abraham manuscripts, the first printed edition of the Book of Abraham, the...