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A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions Brian M Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Maxwell Institute Publications 2010 A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions Brian M. Hauglid Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mi Part of the Religious Education Commons Recommended Citation Hauglid, Brian M., "A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions" (2010). Maxwell Institute Publications. 77. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mi/77 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maxwell Institute Publications by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions number john gee and brian m. hauglid, series editors Previously Published Volumes Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham The Hor Book of Breathings: A Translation and Commentary Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Neferirnub: A Translation and Commentary A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions brian m. hauglid brigham young university provo, utah Cover design by Bjorn Pendleton On the cover: Detail from MS 1294 folder 1, Church History Library. © 2010 IRI. All rights reserved. Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 © 2010 Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship Brigham Young University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hauglid, Brian M., 1954- A textual history of the Book of Abraham : manuscripts and editions / Brian M. Hauglid. p. cm.— (Studies in the Book of Abraham ; number 5) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8425-2774-3 (alk. paper) 1. Book of Abraham—Criticism, Textual. 2. Book of Abraham—Manuscripts. 3. Book of Abraham—History. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in the Book of Abraham ; no. 5. BX8629.B563H38 2010 289.3'2--dc22 2010029975 Contents Preface ...........................................................................................................................................vii About the Author ...........................................................................................................................x Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................xi History of the Book of Abraham ................................................................................................1 Historical Text of the Book of Abraham .................................................................................21 Abraham 1 .................................................................................................................................25 Abraham 2 .................................................................................................................................31 Abraham 3 .................................................................................................................................35 Abraham 4 .................................................................................................................................39 Abraham 5 .................................................................................................................................43 Facsimile 1 .................................................................................................................................45 Facsimile 2 .................................................................................................................................47 Facsimile 3 .................................................................................................................................51 Book of Abraham Transcripts: Manuscripts 1–7 ...................................................................53 Symbols Used in the Transcriptions ......................................................................................55 Book of Abraham Manuscript 1 (Ab1) ..................................................................................57 Book of Abraham Manuscript 2 (Ab2) ..................................................................................63 Book of Abraham Manuscript 3 (Ab3) ..................................................................................83 Book of Abraham Manuscript 4 (Ab4) ................................................................................109 Book of Abraham Manuscript 5 (Ab5 and Ab5a) ..............................................................149 Book of Abraham Manuscript 6 (Ab6) ................................................................................183 Book of Abraham Manuscript 7 (Ab7) ................................................................................195 Transcript of William I. Appleby’s Journal Entry, 5 May 1841 (WA) ...............................201 Appendices ..................................................................................................................................211 Appendix 1: Book of Abraham Translation and Publication Timeline ...........................213 Appendix 2: The Book of Abraham and the Egyptian Manuscripts ................................225 Appendix 3: Complete Color Images of Book of Abraham Manuscripts 1–7 and of the Lead Plates for Facsimiles 1–3 .......................................................................233 Appendix 4: Images of Appleby’s Journal Entry, 5 May 1841 ...........................................277 Appendix 5: Images of Talmage’s 1888 Edition of the Book of Abraham .......................283 Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship ............................................................307 Preface For the past several decades Latter-day Saint scholars have shown an increased interest in examin ing the textual history of restored scripture from the period of Joseph Smith to the present. In 1974, Robert Woodford produced a massive three-volume dissertation analyzing the his- torical development of the Doctrine and Covenants. His study remains a standard work for any serious scholar of the textual development of the Doctrine and Covenants.¹ During the mid to late 1990s, two more significant projects emerged. The Book of Mormon critical text project headed up by Royal Skousen provides a major contribution to our understand- ing of variant readings in the text that have occurred since the time of Joseph Smith. Skousen has already published the extant original manuscripts, the entire printer’s manuscript, and several more volumes analyzing textual variants of the Book of Mormon.² In the late 1990s, a team of scholars launched another project to examine and publish the origi- nal manuscripts of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, which resulted in the 2004 publica- tion of Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts.3 More recently, the Joseph Smith Papers Project has already produced two of roughly twenty planned volumes that will make available numerous documents related to Joseph Smith.⁴ Book of Abraham textual research received critical attention in 1959, when Walter Whipple produced his master’s thesis titled “An Analysis of Textual Changes in ‘The Book of Abraham’ and in the ‘Writings of Joseph Smith, the Prophet’ in the Pearl of Great Price.”⁵ In his study, Whipple 1. Robert J. Woodford, “The Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants,” 3 vols. (PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1974). 2. See Royal Skousen, The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2001), and The Print- er’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, 2 vols. (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2001). Skousen has also produced six parts of volume 4, analyzing select textual variants. 3. Scott Faulring, Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2004). Additional textual studies from the Joseph Smith Trans- lation project include Thomas A. Wayment and Tyson Y. Yost, “The Joseph Smith Translation and Italicized Words in the King James Version,” Religious Educator 6/1 (2005): 51–64; Kent P. Jackson, The Book of Moses and the Joseph Smith Translation Manuscripts (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2005); “New Discoveries in the Joseph Smith Trans- lation of the Bible,” Religious Educator 6/3 (2005): 149–60. Forthcoming is a related publication, produced by the BYU Religious Studies Center and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship: Scott H. Faulring and Kent P. Jackson, Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible: Electronic Library (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2010). 4. See The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, vol. 1 (Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press, 2008), xxxviii–xli; The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Manuscript Revelation Books (Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press, 2009). 5. Walter L. Whipple, “An Analysis of Textual Changes in ‘The Book of Abraham’ and in the ‘Writings of Joseph Smith, the Prophet’ in the Pearl of Great Price” (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1959). WJJJtA Textual History of the Book of Abraham compared his 1957 edition of the Pearl of Great Price with the “earliest available source for the particular text
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