Show Notes
Is Facsimile 3 of the Book of Abraham really just a standard Egyptian funerary scene, as critics often claim? New research suggests the answer is far more complicated and far more interesting.
In this episode of Informed Saints, Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Quinten Barney, whose master's thesis at BYU represents the most thorough comparative study of Facsimile 3 ever conducted. Barney has examined every known copy of the Book of Breathings (only 33 exist in the world) to see whether Facsimile 3 really matches the standard Egyptian corpus, and the results are striking.
In this conversation, we cover:
Why Facsimile 3 has been the most neglected of the three facsimiles and what that means for the current debate. The significant differences between Facsimile 3 and the judgment scene from the Book of the Dead (chapter 125) that most critics compare it to. Why the identification of the figure as Anubis has real Egyptological problems, including missing hieroglyphs, wrong clothing, wrong posture, and a missing headdress. How Joseph Smith's identification of "Isis as Pharaoh" actually has grounds in the Greco-Roman Egyptian evidence. Why only two Egyptologists have ever attempted to fully translate the hieroglyphic captions (Robert Ritner and Michael Rhodes) and what their translations disagree on. The unique presence of stars above the figures in Facsimile 3 — a feature not found in any other Book of Breathings vignette — and how it ties to the astronomy theme. The more than half dozen ancient extra-biblical sources describing Abraham teaching astronomy to Egyptians, most of which were unavailable to Joseph Smith. Why the possible role of W.W. Phelps as editor matters for understanding the published explanations.
Quinten Barney's thesis is available free as a PDF from the BYU Scholars Archive for readers who want to go deeper into the technical details. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7598/ If you think Facsimile 3 has already been "solved" by Egyptologists, this episode will challenge that assumption with the receipts to back it up.
===Informed Saints Credits=== Produced by The Ancient America Foundation Producer: Spencer Clark Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye
Further Readings: Quinten Barney's Master's Thesis (Free PDF Download) https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7598/ Gustav Seyffarth Description of Joseph Smith Papyri at St. Louis Museum (1856) https://bhroberts.org/records/0ueBOW-0Wur88/gs_mentions_js_papyri_in_st_louis_museum_describes_them_and_their_content Michael Rhodes, "Facsimiles from the Book of Abraham," Encyclopedia of Mormonism https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/EoM/id/5528 The Egyptian Book of the Dead Overview https://exploreluxor.org/egyptian-book-of-the-dead/ John Gee, "Facsimile 3 and Book of the Dead 125" https://scripturecentral.org/archive/books/book-chapter/facsimile-3-and-book-dead-125 "Isis the Pharaoh: Facsimile 3, Figure 2," BYU Studies https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/isis-the-pharaoh-facsimile-3-figure-2 Fragment of Book of Breathing for Horos A, Joseph Smith Papers
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