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Posted on 05/27/2008 7:40:20 AM PDT by restornu
Restorations of the Facsimiles
It seems obvious in at least some instances that when the drawings were "restored" and printed for LDS publications that the restorations of the lacunae were done without inspiration. When we look at the restorations of Facsimile 2, for instance, we see that at least some of the restorations were obviously taken from the text of the Sensen text or another one of Joseph's scrolls, the Book of the Dead--the different parts. So we can see here that this part is here. That it was filled in in some of the missing pieces. So he just kind of took some of the Egyptian parts.
When we look at the restorations of Facsimile 1 we see that missing portions were penciled on the backing paper to which they were glued before being mounted. This is how Facsimile 1 looks in restored LDS scripture.6 See the lion couch in both to kind of get your bearings. According to some LDS scholars, this is more likely how Facsimile 1 would have looked.
According to the critics, Facsimile 1 appears to be a fairly typical scene from Egyptian funerary texts; the critics note that other similar Egyptian motifs depict Osiris (on the lion couch) and the priest (an embalmer) with the head of a jackal, Anubis (an Egyptian god) rather than a bald, human head. Other comparable Egyptian embalming scenes do not show the priest holding a knife, they do not show any man pleading or praying, and they generally show two hawks. The critics claim that Joseph Smith drew in the missing parts by adding (incorrectly) those things which we find in the LDS version of this Egyptian scene. What Joseph saw as the fingers of Abraham's outstretched hands, for instance, were actually (according to the critics) the wingtips of the missing second hawk as redrawn by the critics.
Now some of you may have noticed the blue dot on the anti-Mormon reconstruction. This is to cover the obscene ithyphallic that they claim would have been in the original vignette. Ed Ashment who is more informed on Egyptology than most critics did not include this in his reconstruction.MO
Now all anti-Mormon sites that I was able to find on the Internet who had a reconstruction of Facsimile 1 seemed to follow Charles Larson's (the upper one) reconstruction with ithyphallic figure and it's possible that Larson may have followed non-LDS Richard Parker's 1968 claim that the Osiris figure, which is the- what we have as Abraham here, the Egyptians say that's Osiris, and in 1968 Richard Parker thought the figure would have been ithyphallic but Ed Ashment didn't follow that; he didn't agree with that, and John Gee says he knows of no other papyrus lion couch scene with an ithyphallic figure or any Egyptian drawing where someone, wearing breeches as seen in Facsimile 1, is ithyphallic. Now why do most anti-Mormons follow Larson instead of Ashment? Now some critics may be unaware of Ashment's reconstruction and it's possible that they follow this because it is more shocking if they're trying to diss Mormonism.
There are at least three responses to the arguments regarding the restorations. Some scholars such as Kevin Barney and Michael Rhodes have noted the possibility that Joseph Smith, Reuben Hedlock (the engraver who made the facsimiles), or someone else may have filled in the lacunae in the papyri the best they could for purposes of publication. Nineteenth century printers didn't have the same standards that we have today. They wouldn't have wanted to publish incomplete facsimiles so they repaired them for publication purposes not necessary from inspiration. It's also possible that either Joseph repaired some of the parts which may not have been in the original in order to more closely approximate the details or intent conveyed by the Abrahamic text in relation to the vignettes.
Joseph's corrections to the later editions of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine & Covenants, and even the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, are all instructive on this issue. In each case, Joseph--by way of revelation, inspiration, or analysis--"restored" or amended scripture to more closely approximate the additional insights he had gleaned by divine revelation. Thirdly, since the actual papyri was not written by Abraham himself it's possible that the scribe who composed the particular Sensen text altered the traditional ways of creating the funerary scene in order to convey an illustration that more closely coincided with the teachings of Abraham.
It is significant to point out that the placement of the illustration of Facsimile 1 within a Sensen text appears to be highly unusual. According to Dr. Gee this is the only instance of which he knows wherein the illustration of Facsimile 1 has been found in a Sensen text. He also says that this embalming lion couch scene is significantly different than the lion couch scenes with which he is familiar. This suggests the possibility that 1) it is not a typical embalming scene; and 2) that there may be something highly unusual about this Sensen text as compared to other Sensen text. (I'll get to more of that later too.)
There seems to be at least some evidence that the vignette for Facsimile 1 was damaged after Joseph had already translated it. Maybe this was in the original that we see in the Pearl of Great Price. One early Latter-day Saint who saw the papyri in 1841, for instance, described them as containing the scene of an altar with "'a man bound and laid thereon, and a Priest with a knife in his hand, standing at the foot, with a dove over the person bound on the Altar with several Idol gods standing around it.'"7 Reverend Henry Caswall, who visited Nauvoo in April 1842, had a chance to see some of the Egyptian papyri. Caswall, who was hostile to the Saints, described Facsimile 1 as having a "'man standing by him with a drawn knife.'"8
Some LDS researchers have also argued that the fingers which critics claim are the wingtips of a second hawk look more significantly more like fingers (according to Egyptian drawings) than hawk wingtips. Here we see on the left these are the thumbs and these are the wings from the drawing. And then if we look at the wings from other Egyptian drawings we see that that generally the feathers are together and that they are not always spread out. They are down in this one but they go down rather than up and this artist here obviously kept these wingtips together rather than separated which makes it look like they're possibly thumbs. And we also see how some of these Egyptian artists drew thumbs. Here is a magnification of the thumbs and then again we look at the thumb lines in other Egyptian drawings.
It's also interesting to note that although embalming priests are typically drawn with Anubis heads, other Egyptian graphics show that Egyptian priests are represented as bald. In fact, shaving one's head was a common practice for those who entered the Egyptian priesthood during the Ptolemaic period which is when the Joseph Smith papyri was produced. Anubis heads were worn as masks to emulate the gods.9 Joseph got it right by representing the man with the knife as a priest so whether he has Anubis head or bald he is still represented as a priest, which is accurate.
Kerry Shirts has shown that some of the restorations of Facsimile 2 appear to be correct from an Egyptian standpoint and for the last decade and a half the late Dr. Hugh Nibley was working on his magnum opus, "One Eternal Round" which deals in part directly with Facsimile 2 and hopefully someday we'll se that published by FARMS and I'm sure we'll have additional insights to add to our list.
That explains the facsimiles and why there is the Book of Breathings and the Book of Abraham on this papyri!
Also those images have been used over and over in the Egyptian culture when telling different vignette.
CTR
Couldn’t get the video up and running but will try again later. Thanks for this post!
Got it. Thanks. CTR.
Please, not meaning to offend, but what does LDS Open mean???
It is an LDS Thread and open means town square or public can post!
Many have been critical in the pass of the facsimiles but it is a custom in Egyptian Papyri to used the same images over and over in the Egyptian culture when telling different vignette.
see post #1 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2021891/posts?page=1#1
I think it refers to a tennis match at BYU.
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