The Book of Abraham: Origins and Controversies 

The Book of Abraham, Joseph Smith’s final translation project, is easily one of the most controversial books of scripture in the Latter-day Saint canon, and we want to talk about it. In today’s episode of Church History Matters, we dig into the fascinating story of how the exploits of a 19th-century grave robber in Egypt ended up expanding our scriptural canon. We look at where in Egypt the papyri from which the Book of Abraham was purportedly translated came from, and how Joseph Smith came to possess both this papyri and a couple pair of mummies. We look at the three theories of what source material Joseph Smith translated from and how he did it, and we trace what we know of what happened to the papyri after Joseph’s death, how many fragments have survived to this day, and what modern Egyptologists think about those surviving fragments, which is the source of the two biggest controversies about the Book of Abraham.
This is the seventh episode of our 10-part podcast series on Joseph Smith's Revelations and Translations. For a full transcript of this episode, as well as show notes and additional resources, visit our website at doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/podcast-episode/the-book-of-abraham-origins-and-controversies/
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Originally published October 3, 2023
DISCLAIMER: While we try very hard to be historically and doctrinally accurate in what we say on this podcast, please remember that all views expressed in this and every episode are our views alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Scripture Central or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.