Continuing with the posts
regarding the papyri of the Book of Abraham, which Joseph Smith translated, and
which have come under numerous attacks from Egyptologists and others, the
following is included in our showing the facts of the matter as opposed to many other people's beliefs and misguided criticisms.
As an
example, while some claim that the Lion Couch upon which Abraham is laying in
Facsimile 1 is a typical funerary scene with several extant papyri showing the
same basic scene with the same characters in the same positions, this it not
correct. In fact, in examining the evidence of the numerous scenes on papyri
and also temple and tomb paintings in ancient Egypt (some of which have been
displayed in these posts), we find that the “Lion Couch Scene” in Facsimile 1
is unique in several ways.
Here
are at least twelve (15) differences that are shown in the Abraham Facsimile 1
that are not found on any other Egyptian funery or similar vignette:
1. No
other funery vignette has the unfamiliar writing that frames the scene on
either side, and the stage-like foundation of elements found on the Abraham
Facsimile 1;
2. No
other funery scene has a priest other than that of the jackal-headed god Anubis
performing an activity with the image on the couch;
3. No other funery scene shows
the resurrection, procreation or embalming scene without the presence of Isis
and Nephthys and other dignitaries, including Anubis;
4. The
figure of Abraham on the couch has both arms raised, as if in prayer. In all other such scenes, the person’s arms are lowered,
or wrapped, or within a casket;
5. No
other funery scene has hatched lines designed as Expanse or Firmament;
6. No
other funery scene shows the common Egyptian religious and secular images of
the lotus and offering table;
7. No
other funery scene has twelve gates or pillars of heaven or anything like them;
8. The
clothing on the figure of Abraham is unique. No other funery vignette scene
shows the reclining figure on the couch so dressed. Others are either naked or
fully invested as mummies, though one can be found wearing a loincloth;
9. No
other funery scene shows the reclined figure wearing anklets or slippers;
10. No
other funery scene has a crocodile under the priest’s feet (in this case,
representing the idolatrous god of Pharoah—the crocodile of Egypt, or possibly
Sobrek, at one time venerated in Mesopotamia);
11. No
other funery scene shows a bird flying over the couch with the priest in the
position shown in the Abraham Facsimile 1 vignette;
12. No
other funery scene shows the bird’s wings in the position of the Abraham
Facsimile 1 vignette;
13.
Other funery scenes show the august figures of the gods standing by in solemn
religious dignity, kneeling in mourning, standing guard, or raising hands in
praise or magical passes, which Facsimile 1 does not have;
14.
Other funery scenes show the figure on the table in a tranquil position (both
legs lowered), wrapped as mummies, or in a casket. In Facsimile 1, Abraham is
in a position of action;
15. 3.
No other funery scene has the reclining figure, the priest and the couch out of
line with one another (the priest is actually standing between Abraham’s legs
and the couch to the left of the scene);
Note the priest’s body between
Abraham’s legs and the table he is supposed to be laying upon. Also note the
lettering on either side of the vignette as mentioned above
As
Hugh Nibley pointed out regarding these differences, “It is true that
individual sign and figure can be matched rather easily somewhere else, just as
every word on this page can be found in almost any English book, but it is the
combination of perfectly ordinary signs that makes extraordinary compositions
and we may well repeat the words of Professor Nagel: ‘It would be easy to find numerous parallels to each of these figures,
but that would not mean much... for the combination here is different’.”
For an
Egyptian document to be considered unique from the others, it does not have to
be spectacularly different, though Facsimile 1 certainly is, it can actually
resemble scores of others in almost every particular yet still have a message
to convey that is quite different from the others” (Nibley - A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price,
Oct. 1968).
It
should also be noted that the vignette shows a reclining, or helpless victim on the
couch beneath the standing presence of the dagger-wielding priest, while at the
same time having raised arms in the act of prayer, showing both aspects of the
story taking place—being fastened upon the altar while seeking God’s aid
(Abraham 1:15). Thus it is important to make clear that Abraham in this scene
has both hands before him for that not only makes this particular lion-couch
scene unique, but it also gives the whole drama of the situation.
In
fact, if you were to turn the image so Abraham’s feet pointed downward, you
would have the Egyptian determinative for prayer. That is, Samuel A.B. Mercer, The Handbook of Egyptian Hieroglyphics,
(p 150), shows this image to mean “worship.” And according to E.A. Wallis Budge
(An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary,
Vol 2, p 825) the hands above the head in prayer means “to pray with pure
heart,” and Sir Alan Gardiner (Egyptian
Grammar, p 23), claims it means “praise, supplicate.”
In
John Baines, Atlas of Ancient Egypt, 1980, p. 169 we see a late
Roman depiction of a lion couch scene, but again, it's clearly a mummy. It has
no pillars of heaven or a crocodile under it either. There are two figures on
either end of the couch as well, hardly the combination in Facsimile 1. On p.
118 of the same text, the lid of the anthropoid coffin of Espamai, with
a lion couch on it. But again there are 5 figures either kneeling or standing
by. There are 4 canopic jars under the couch, but no pillars of heaven or
crocodile. Also the figure on the couch does not show his leg raised nor either
of his hands or arms. This is not like Facsimile 1. The lion couch in "The
Mastaba of Mereruka", part 1, in the Sakkarah expedition, 1938, is nothing
like Facsimile 1. The lion couch scene in Raymond Faulkner's Egyptian
Book of the Dead is clearly a mummy, with only a hawk in it, no other
figures by either end of the couch, no crocodile, no clothed praying figure.
This is nothing like Facsimile 1 either. (plate 17 in the magnificent
illustrated book of his edited by Eva Von Dassow). And plate 33 has Anubis
bending over a mummy, not a living figure.
(See the next post, “The
Book of Abraham and the Facsimile Image-Part VI – Ur of the Chaldees,” for more
information on Abraham’s home and his nearly being sacrificed to Elkenah)
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