The first is knowing what Egyptology was actually like in Joseph Smith’s day. Whoever would place Joseph Smith in the Egyptology of his day has two hurdles to overcome. In this case, some who follow the conventional wisdom do not think that Joseph Smith knew anything about the ancient world, but they think that he should have. Joseph Smith should have known better but clearly did not. According to conventional wisdom, by the time Joseph Smith ran across Egyptian papyri in 1835, Jean-François Champollion had already deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs a dozen years previously. This is the earliest record of Joseph Smith’s encounter with Egyptian artifacts. He soon knew what they were and said that the rolls of papyrus contained a sacred record kept by Joseph in Pharaoh’s court in Egypt and the teachings of Father Abraham.” As no one could translate these writings, they were presented to President Smith. With them were two papyrus rolls, besides some other ancient Egyptian writings. Phelps wrote his wife about the recent news in Kirtland, Ohio: “On the last of June, four Egyptian mummies were brought here. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University when this was written. John Gee was the William (Bill) Gay Research Chair at the Neal A.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |