Singular Saints

One of the more unusual aspects of LDS scripture is the inclusion of three facsimiles of portions of Egyptian Funerary writings in the Book of Abraham.  Over the years a great deal of ink has been spilled over the question of whether Joseph Smith got it right and if so, how close did he get?   A couple of years ago I began studying hieroglyphics and Egyptian religion in an effort to try to broaden my understanding of the subject.  After buying copies of about a dozen books, viewing another dozen web sites and combing them all for relevant information, I decided to put up an article on Wikipedia on the subject of the Joseph Smith Hypocephalus, also known as Facsimile No. 2 from the Book of Abraham. (BTW - of all the books, I recommend “Hieroglyphics The Writings of Ancient Egypt” by Maria Carmela Betro and “How to Read Egyptian” by Collier and Manley, as they are both current and relevant.)

Most of the prior commentary on the subject is hopelessly out of date, based on hundred year old observations by Egyptologists who laid the foundations for the current understanding of ancient Egyptian language and culture.  Over the past 30 years some significant progress has been made in those fields and some of it is very relevant to this little scrap of papyrus.  Joseph Smith’s explanations are very interesting in the context of our current understanding of the Egyptian creation stories, particularly the involvement of a god named MN.  Some of my comments in the article may approach original research or synthesis, but it’s fascinating none the less. I found the ideographic meanings of the symbols for Khnum-Ra particularly interesting.  I tried to be strictly factual about the subject and avoid drawing any conclusions about Joseph Smith’s skill at translation or any other of the red herring/straw man issues that are usually woven into this sort of discussion.  I hope you find it interesting.