(1989)  Tue 20 Jun 95 23:49
By: J.J. Hitt
To: All
Re: Mormon Mania
St:
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@EID:309f 1ed4be20
                -= The Book of Abraham REVEALED! =-
                             (Poof!)

  I recently picked up a small paperback (The Mormon Papers, Harry L.
  Ropp, ISBN 0-87784-789-4) on the origins of the Mormon "scriptures".
  While most of the materal it covered I was familiar with there were
  some real jewels concerning the book of Abraham.

  This book was writen in 1977, some years after the rediscovery of the
  egyptian papyrus Joseph Smith "translated" the book from. The papyrus
  (along with Smith's orignal manuscript) was examined by philogist and
  Egyptolist Dee Jay Nelson in 1968.

  And here is Nelson's complete and entire translation of the papyrus:

        "[...] the pool of The Traveler, Khensu ... [Osirus Hor, who is
         true of word], born of Tai-Khebit, who is true of word
         likewise. After [...] seized, the arms with his heart are
         wrapped up with the Book of Breathings made by [Isis] and which
         is with writing on the insides and outside of royal linen. It
         is placed near and wrapped up on the left side in alignment
         with his heart. This having been done at the final wrapping for
         burial. If this book is made for him he (will) breathe like the
         soul[s of the gods] for ever and ever."

  That's it. The complete papyrus. 46 hieroglyphs which translate into
  less than 100 English words.

  Somewhat shorter than the 1,125 English words that Smith produced from
  the same 46 characters. Smith gets an average of 25 words per
  character (that's one hell of a compression ratio!).

  As luck would have it, Smith included the characters from the original
  in his manuscript. So we can get some idea of what he thought he was
  doing when he "translated" the text.

  Here's an example of how he did it:

  The Egyptian character:

                            I  I  I
                           ---------
                              I I

  represents the demonstrative pronoun "THE" or "THIS". However, Smith
  got somewhat more than just "THIS" from it. Here's his translation of
  this single character (Abraham 1:11):

      "Now, this priest had offered upon this altar three virgins at one
       time, who were the daughters of Onitah, one of the royal descent
       directly from the loins of Ham. These virgins were offered up
       because of their virtue; they would not bow down to worship gods
       of wood or stone, therefore, they were killed upon this altar."

  Not bad... he got 59 words out of "THIS". In another section he got a
  whopping 136 words from the two characters used for the Egyptian word
  "pool".

  Nelson, a Mormon himself, renounced the LDS church in 1975. Quoteing
  from his letter of resignation:

    "I, Dee Jay Nelson, do hereby renounce and reliquish the preisthood
    which I now hold.

    "Following my translation (the first to be published) of the bulk of
    the hieratic and heiroglyphic Egyptian texts upon the
    Metropolitan-Joseph Smith Papyri Fragments three of the most eminent
    Egyptologists now living have published corroborating translations.
    These amply prove the fraudulent nature of the Book of Abraham, in
    which lies the unjust assertion that negros are unworthy of
    participation in the highest priveleges of the LDS Church.

    "We {he includes his family} do not wish to be associated with a
    religious organization which teaches lies and adheres to policies so
    blatantly opposed to the civil and religious rights of some citizens
    of the United States."



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