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An Introduction to the Book of Abraham
When the Book of Abraham was first published to the world in 1842, it was published as a translation of some ancient records that have fallen into {Joseph Smith s} hands from the catacombs of Egypt, purporting to be the writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called The Book of Abraham, Written by his Own Hand, upon Papyrus. The resultant record was thus connected with the papyri once owned by Joseph Smith, though which papyrus of the four or five in his possession was never specified. Those papyri would likely interest only a few specialists except that they are bound up in a religious controversy. This controversy covers a number of interrelated issues, and an even greater number of theories have been put forward about these issues. Given the amount of information available, the various theories, and the variety of fields of study the subject requires, misunderstandings and misinformation often prevail. Introduction to the Book of Abraham makes reliable information accessible to the general reader.
160 pages, Hardcover
Published October 2, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
March 9, 2022
In general, I am not a big fan of critics or apologists in the religious sphere. They both miss the fundamental point of religion - it is spiritual in nature not given to the scientific method of proof. At best it is man’s attempt to interpret the divine and sometimes man has gotten things terribly wrong. The latest iteration in the LDS community that has gotten way too much attention is the CES letter. News flash - there is nothing new in the CES letter. My question for the author is. How on earth did you get to the point of being a seminary teacher without having been exposed to the “shocking” material that your supervisor could not give you satisfactory answers? But I digress.
The Book of Abraham since the recovery of a partial fragment of the original papyri in 1966 has posed a vexing problem for some and fodder for critics. Gee convincingly argues that the 1966 fragments had nothing to do with the Book of Abraham. So where did The Book of Abraham come from? If the fragments are not the source, was it received through revelation, or did Joseph Smith translate it from other sources lost to the ages.
This book was not intended for the scholarly audience but for those seeking understanding about the Book of Abraham. Gee sought to make reliable information about the Book of Abraham accessible to the general reader. This a short book but gives plenty of resources and guidance to those wanting to go deeper. Gee covers a lot, but for those wanting a deeper academic treatment this is not it, and that is not the books' purpose. The notes and resources are a great resource for those looking for more. This book is however a valuable resource from a real scholar, not former seminary teacher regurgitating the same old tropes to his supervisor.
The Book of Abraham since the recovery of a partial fragment of the original papyri in 1966 has posed a vexing problem for some and fodder for critics. Gee convincingly argues that the 1966 fragments had nothing to do with the Book of Abraham. So where did The Book of Abraham come from? If the fragments are not the source, was it received through revelation, or did Joseph Smith translate it from other sources lost to the ages.
This book was not intended for the scholarly audience but for those seeking understanding about the Book of Abraham. Gee sought to make reliable information about the Book of Abraham accessible to the general reader. This a short book but gives plenty of resources and guidance to those wanting to go deeper. Gee covers a lot, but for those wanting a deeper academic treatment this is not it, and that is not the books' purpose. The notes and resources are a great resource for those looking for more. This book is however a valuable resource from a real scholar, not former seminary teacher regurgitating the same old tropes to his supervisor.
October 5, 2017
The Book of Abraham is my favorite book of scripture. Mostly it is because of chapter 3, which contains information that is not found anywhere else in LDS scripture. I also remember discovering the facsimiles as a child and thinking that they were really neat. Unfortunately, the Book of Abraham has also become a favorite for critics to attack, as it is the only book of scripture that Joseph Smith translated for which there appears to be any extant source material, and that material does not seem to match what is in the Book of Abraham. But it’s really much more complicated than that.
This book explains what is currently known about the Book of Abraham and its associated artifacts and documents, and why the critics are wrong. It is written by John Gee, who is a professor of Egyptology at BYU. He got his PhD in Egyptology at Yale and has written many research publications for professional journals as well as writing for LDS audiences. The book is written to be understandable by any reader (although an LDS background is very helpful) in a straightforward manner that actually makes for a fairly quick read.
The book contains 17 chapters, most of them fairly short, that build on each other. At the end is a series of questions and answers that basically provides a summary of the book. It also has photos of the extant papyri, maps, charts, diagrams, and other helpful or interesting illustrations scattered throughout. At the end of most chapters is a list of “Further Reading” with notes about each item. Unfortunately, there are not many footnotes in the book; they only exist to provide sources for quotes. So you have to refer to the notes in the “Further Reading” section to deduce where some of the information came from. This did lead me to find one inconsistency - on page 97, it says “The Book of Abraham begins much like other autobiographies from Abraham’s time and place.” However, on page 103 in “Further Reading,” there is an entry that says, “This essay is a comparison of the Book of Abraham with the only other autobiographical inscription to survive from the approximate time and place of Abraham.”
After the introduction, the book begins with a historical overview which explains how Joseph Smith got the papyri and then what happened to them after his death, with the church finally receiving surviving fragments in 1967 (most of what Joseph had in his possession ended up burning in the Chicago Fire of 1871). “To the disappointment of many, although these remaining fragments contained the illustration that served as the basis for Facsimile 1, they were not the portion of the papyri that contained the text of the Book of Abraham” (page 9).
The next chapter is about the translation. Some have thought that Joseph may have used a seer stone, but Gee says that “Some thirdhand accounts claim he did, but those accounts do not come from anyone who actually observed the translation” and that “By the time that Joseph finished translating the Book of Mormon in 1829, he no longer needed to use the Urim and Thummim to receive revelation” (page 20.) What is known is that much more was translated than what ended up being published (the rest has been lost), and that it was done without using a dictionary or grammar as a conventional translation normally would. It does appear that W. W. Phelps attempted to compile an Egyptian grammar after the translation, but the extent of Joseph’s involvement in that is unknown.
Chapter 6 is about what is actually on the surviving fragments. It has been identified as the earliest known manuscript of the Document of Breathings Made by Isis, but is an abbreviated version. In fact, the translations that have been made of it and published as purported translations of the Joseph Smith Papyri have generally been a translation of the fuller versions available and “are not actually translations of the Joseph Smith Papyri” (page 76). It is noted in the Further Reading that Facsimile 1, which is included in the surviving fragments, is not used in any other copy of the Document of Breathings Made by Isis, which means it may not actually belong with it.
The next chapter covers the question of what the papyri have to do with the Book of Abraham if their content does not actually match it. There are three theories - that it came from the surviving fragments, that it came from the larger portion that no longer exists, or that it didn’t actually come from the papyri. Critics tend to go with the first theory, as mentioned at the start, which does not match historical eyewitness accounts. “The current fragments of the Joseph Smith Papyri...were all mounted on heavy paper and placed in glass frames in 1837. None of them can be the long roll described in the 1840s and 1850s.” The second theory “accounts for that evidence but is frustrating to many people. Because the papyri are no longer extant, there is no possible way to check Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Abraham” (page 85). The third theory does have some validity. Doctrine & Covenants Section 7 is a translation of ancient writing that Joseph only saw in vision, so it’s possible the Book of Abraham was produced in similar manner. However, Joseph at least thought that he was translating the papyrus in his possession.
He then talks about the historicity of the Book of Abraham, discussing four different positions: it is modern fiction and a fraud, it is inspired fiction, it is ancient pseudepigrapha, or it is an ancient autobiography. “While each of the four positions on the historical authenticity of the Book of Abraham is logically coherent, not all of them are intellectually stable….[O]nly the positions of ancient autobiography or modern fiction have proven intellectually stable and transmissible to the next generation” (pages 89-90). Those who think it is modern fiction tend to be more familiar with nineteenth century history than ancient history. “To recognize nineteenth century BC parallels, one would have to know something about the world in the nineteenth century BC, which is very different than that of the nineteenth century AD… Those who look at the text only through a nineteenth-century AD background will thus see only nineteenth-century parallels and will tend to conclude that the text is from the nineteenth century, and thus modern by default… Those who wish to understand the Abraham who wrote the Book of Abraham need to learn about the world in which he lived” (pages 93-94).
The next few chapters go on to talk about the ancient world (where the Egyptian word for sister means both sister and wife), the Abrahamic covenant, Abrahamic astronomy, the preexistence, and the creation. Some time is spent discussing source criticism, which is a theory that the five books of Moses in the Old Testament were separate accounts that were put together. “This theory has gained wide acceptance in certain quarters even though no manuscript evidence supports it…. Actual tests of source criticism - where scholars have used source criticism to predict sources for a text and then the actual sources have been discovered - have usually failed. Therefore, source criticism is less a scientific theory than a scholarly dogma…. If one accepts the historicity of the Book of Abraham, then one cannot accept the validity of source criticism…. The textual presentation of what might appear as two different creation narratives is actually standard in early Mesopotamian accounts of primeval times” (pages 137-138).
Chapter 14 talks about the facsimiles. It is noted that the style of the pictures would not have matched the style of Abraham’s day, and Abraham may not have actually included any in his original account. “The references to the facsimiles within the text of the Book of Abraham seem to have been nineteenth-century editorial insertions” (page 143). Also, only Facsimile 1 matches the text that we have - the rest refer to the part that was not published. Facsimile 1 was next to the Document of Breathings Made by Isis, but does not actually belong to it, because the text makes no reference to the picture, and no other copies of the text have this illustration. There are various opinions among Egyptologists regarding what it represents. Gee explains that the scene depicted would be connected to both human sacrifice and Abraham, based on similar scenes that have been found. Not much is known about Facsimile 2 or 3, but connections are made between them and ancient Egypt regarding astronomy and Abraham.
The next chapter discusses stories about Abraham from the ancient world that have details found in the Book of Abraham but not the Bible. Most of these were not available to Joseph Smith. “The ancient world was cosmopolitan, and Jews, Christians, and Muslims interacted with each other’s traditions about Abraham, not only with their own” (page 158).
Chapter 16 talks about the role of the Book of Abraham as scripture. “To Latter-day Saints, the contents of the Book of Abraham are far more important than the contents of the remaining fragments of the Joseph Smith Papyri. What we read in the book is more important than how we got it” (page 163). It is noted that “racist interpretations were not originally applied to the Book of Abraham… Racist interpretations...first appeared in the Church in 1895, but were officially discontinued in 1978” (page 164). However, early Saints saw a connection to the temple, and the part of the book that we have was published just before the endowment was introduced. “The Book of Abraham thus serves, in a way, as an introduction to the ordinances of the temple and the covenants made there” (page 166). But the main contributions to LDS doctrine have been the details provided of the pre-earth life and the purpose of life, given in Abraham 3. Joseph seems to have been teaching these concepts from the Book of Abraham in the King Follett Discourse and other sermons. In fact, “the Book of Abraham was published in 1842, but most Church leaders gained their understanding of its core teachings from the Prophet’s sermons. These they took west with them, and it was not until after the Book of Abraham became part of the Latter-day Saint canon that the teaching about the preexistence was again tied to the Book of Abraham. The secondhand impact had nevertheless been profound, and thus there were no doctrinal shifts when it was canonized. The Book of Abraham had simply come home” (page 172).
When I first heard about this book, it sounded as if it were exactly the kind of book that has been needed for years on this topic. I was excited to get the opportunity to review it, and I was not disappointed. This will be the go-to book for those that are struggling with criticisms targeted at the Book of Abraham, as well as for those that would just like to learn more about it.
This book explains what is currently known about the Book of Abraham and its associated artifacts and documents, and why the critics are wrong. It is written by John Gee, who is a professor of Egyptology at BYU. He got his PhD in Egyptology at Yale and has written many research publications for professional journals as well as writing for LDS audiences. The book is written to be understandable by any reader (although an LDS background is very helpful) in a straightforward manner that actually makes for a fairly quick read.
The book contains 17 chapters, most of them fairly short, that build on each other. At the end is a series of questions and answers that basically provides a summary of the book. It also has photos of the extant papyri, maps, charts, diagrams, and other helpful or interesting illustrations scattered throughout. At the end of most chapters is a list of “Further Reading” with notes about each item. Unfortunately, there are not many footnotes in the book; they only exist to provide sources for quotes. So you have to refer to the notes in the “Further Reading” section to deduce where some of the information came from. This did lead me to find one inconsistency - on page 97, it says “The Book of Abraham begins much like other autobiographies from Abraham’s time and place.” However, on page 103 in “Further Reading,” there is an entry that says, “This essay is a comparison of the Book of Abraham with the only other autobiographical inscription to survive from the approximate time and place of Abraham.”
After the introduction, the book begins with a historical overview which explains how Joseph Smith got the papyri and then what happened to them after his death, with the church finally receiving surviving fragments in 1967 (most of what Joseph had in his possession ended up burning in the Chicago Fire of 1871). “To the disappointment of many, although these remaining fragments contained the illustration that served as the basis for Facsimile 1, they were not the portion of the papyri that contained the text of the Book of Abraham” (page 9).
The next chapter is about the translation. Some have thought that Joseph may have used a seer stone, but Gee says that “Some thirdhand accounts claim he did, but those accounts do not come from anyone who actually observed the translation” and that “By the time that Joseph finished translating the Book of Mormon in 1829, he no longer needed to use the Urim and Thummim to receive revelation” (page 20.) What is known is that much more was translated than what ended up being published (the rest has been lost), and that it was done without using a dictionary or grammar as a conventional translation normally would. It does appear that W. W. Phelps attempted to compile an Egyptian grammar after the translation, but the extent of Joseph’s involvement in that is unknown.
Chapter 6 is about what is actually on the surviving fragments. It has been identified as the earliest known manuscript of the Document of Breathings Made by Isis, but is an abbreviated version. In fact, the translations that have been made of it and published as purported translations of the Joseph Smith Papyri have generally been a translation of the fuller versions available and “are not actually translations of the Joseph Smith Papyri” (page 76). It is noted in the Further Reading that Facsimile 1, which is included in the surviving fragments, is not used in any other copy of the Document of Breathings Made by Isis, which means it may not actually belong with it.
The next chapter covers the question of what the papyri have to do with the Book of Abraham if their content does not actually match it. There are three theories - that it came from the surviving fragments, that it came from the larger portion that no longer exists, or that it didn’t actually come from the papyri. Critics tend to go with the first theory, as mentioned at the start, which does not match historical eyewitness accounts. “The current fragments of the Joseph Smith Papyri...were all mounted on heavy paper and placed in glass frames in 1837. None of them can be the long roll described in the 1840s and 1850s.” The second theory “accounts for that evidence but is frustrating to many people. Because the papyri are no longer extant, there is no possible way to check Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Abraham” (page 85). The third theory does have some validity. Doctrine & Covenants Section 7 is a translation of ancient writing that Joseph only saw in vision, so it’s possible the Book of Abraham was produced in similar manner. However, Joseph at least thought that he was translating the papyrus in his possession.
He then talks about the historicity of the Book of Abraham, discussing four different positions: it is modern fiction and a fraud, it is inspired fiction, it is ancient pseudepigrapha, or it is an ancient autobiography. “While each of the four positions on the historical authenticity of the Book of Abraham is logically coherent, not all of them are intellectually stable….[O]nly the positions of ancient autobiography or modern fiction have proven intellectually stable and transmissible to the next generation” (pages 89-90). Those who think it is modern fiction tend to be more familiar with nineteenth century history than ancient history. “To recognize nineteenth century BC parallels, one would have to know something about the world in the nineteenth century BC, which is very different than that of the nineteenth century AD… Those who look at the text only through a nineteenth-century AD background will thus see only nineteenth-century parallels and will tend to conclude that the text is from the nineteenth century, and thus modern by default… Those who wish to understand the Abraham who wrote the Book of Abraham need to learn about the world in which he lived” (pages 93-94).
The next few chapters go on to talk about the ancient world (where the Egyptian word for sister means both sister and wife), the Abrahamic covenant, Abrahamic astronomy, the preexistence, and the creation. Some time is spent discussing source criticism, which is a theory that the five books of Moses in the Old Testament were separate accounts that were put together. “This theory has gained wide acceptance in certain quarters even though no manuscript evidence supports it…. Actual tests of source criticism - where scholars have used source criticism to predict sources for a text and then the actual sources have been discovered - have usually failed. Therefore, source criticism is less a scientific theory than a scholarly dogma…. If one accepts the historicity of the Book of Abraham, then one cannot accept the validity of source criticism…. The textual presentation of what might appear as two different creation narratives is actually standard in early Mesopotamian accounts of primeval times” (pages 137-138).
Chapter 14 talks about the facsimiles. It is noted that the style of the pictures would not have matched the style of Abraham’s day, and Abraham may not have actually included any in his original account. “The references to the facsimiles within the text of the Book of Abraham seem to have been nineteenth-century editorial insertions” (page 143). Also, only Facsimile 1 matches the text that we have - the rest refer to the part that was not published. Facsimile 1 was next to the Document of Breathings Made by Isis, but does not actually belong to it, because the text makes no reference to the picture, and no other copies of the text have this illustration. There are various opinions among Egyptologists regarding what it represents. Gee explains that the scene depicted would be connected to both human sacrifice and Abraham, based on similar scenes that have been found. Not much is known about Facsimile 2 or 3, but connections are made between them and ancient Egypt regarding astronomy and Abraham.
The next chapter discusses stories about Abraham from the ancient world that have details found in the Book of Abraham but not the Bible. Most of these were not available to Joseph Smith. “The ancient world was cosmopolitan, and Jews, Christians, and Muslims interacted with each other’s traditions about Abraham, not only with their own” (page 158).
Chapter 16 talks about the role of the Book of Abraham as scripture. “To Latter-day Saints, the contents of the Book of Abraham are far more important than the contents of the remaining fragments of the Joseph Smith Papyri. What we read in the book is more important than how we got it” (page 163). It is noted that “racist interpretations were not originally applied to the Book of Abraham… Racist interpretations...first appeared in the Church in 1895, but were officially discontinued in 1978” (page 164). However, early Saints saw a connection to the temple, and the part of the book that we have was published just before the endowment was introduced. “The Book of Abraham thus serves, in a way, as an introduction to the ordinances of the temple and the covenants made there” (page 166). But the main contributions to LDS doctrine have been the details provided of the pre-earth life and the purpose of life, given in Abraham 3. Joseph seems to have been teaching these concepts from the Book of Abraham in the King Follett Discourse and other sermons. In fact, “the Book of Abraham was published in 1842, but most Church leaders gained their understanding of its core teachings from the Prophet’s sermons. These they took west with them, and it was not until after the Book of Abraham became part of the Latter-day Saint canon that the teaching about the preexistence was again tied to the Book of Abraham. The secondhand impact had nevertheless been profound, and thus there were no doctrinal shifts when it was canonized. The Book of Abraham had simply come home” (page 172).
When I first heard about this book, it sounded as if it were exactly the kind of book that has been needed for years on this topic. I was excited to get the opportunity to review it, and I was not disappointed. This will be the go-to book for those that are struggling with criticisms targeted at the Book of Abraham, as well as for those that would just like to learn more about it.
August 29, 2022
John Gee is an Egyptologist (BYU, Cal, and Yale educated) and Latter-day Saint scholar who provides readers with a concise, well-researched, and accessible survey of the origin and history of the Book of Abraham as found in the Pearl of Great Price. The Book of Abraham was translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the 1830s and first published in 1851. It became part of the Latter-day Saint scriptural cannon in 1880.
Gee also addresses head-on the academic controversies surrounding the book's origins. Gee's style is clinical, but comprehensive. Brevity reigns, which makes it a helpful summary. The book is also chock-full of additional scholarly reference material that one can branch into based on individual interest in various parts of this story.
I enjoyed Gee's review, especially his explanation about the ancient Egyptian family that may have owned some of the papyri once in Joseph's possession. I was fascinated to learn that Joseph likely translated more of the Book of Abraham than appears in the published version. That additional potential work is not known to be found in any church or other familial archive.
Of course I am inclined towards the spiritual elements of the book. Gee provided me with a few key takeaways here. The Book of Abraham is primarily about the importance and power of obedience. It is the most comprehensive exposition of the doctrine of pre-mortality (that we lived as spirit souls before being born on this earth), which is central to the way Latter-day Saints view their place in the cosmos.
I found it interesting that most of the Book of Abraham is ignored by Latter-day Saints, who do not often quote from it except for a few verses that explain the Abrahamic covenant, and the section that discusses the pre-mortal existence.
On a personal note, I have always found the Book of Abraham to be spiritually enriching and meaningful as I contemplate the cosmos in my place in them. I’ve also always known that there is much more to the story and have always believed this will come to light, especially for the obedient. In my experience, the book is drenched in the type of truth and wisdom that a seeking soul finds deeply satisfying.
I love the Book of Abraham. I have been deeply affected by its power to explain key portions of the very nature of our existence, and our capacity and destiny as children of God. I love Father Abraham and feel a kinship with him that I believe is available to every person who seeks to follow Jesus Christ. As I read from the Book of Abraham, I have always found spiritual illumination and a great degree of peace that Joseph gave us something ancient and authentically from Abraham, and I am grateful for it.
Gee also addresses head-on the academic controversies surrounding the book's origins. Gee's style is clinical, but comprehensive. Brevity reigns, which makes it a helpful summary. The book is also chock-full of additional scholarly reference material that one can branch into based on individual interest in various parts of this story.
I enjoyed Gee's review, especially his explanation about the ancient Egyptian family that may have owned some of the papyri once in Joseph's possession. I was fascinated to learn that Joseph likely translated more of the Book of Abraham than appears in the published version. That additional potential work is not known to be found in any church or other familial archive.
Of course I am inclined towards the spiritual elements of the book. Gee provided me with a few key takeaways here. The Book of Abraham is primarily about the importance and power of obedience. It is the most comprehensive exposition of the doctrine of pre-mortality (that we lived as spirit souls before being born on this earth), which is central to the way Latter-day Saints view their place in the cosmos.
I found it interesting that most of the Book of Abraham is ignored by Latter-day Saints, who do not often quote from it except for a few verses that explain the Abrahamic covenant, and the section that discusses the pre-mortal existence.
On a personal note, I have always found the Book of Abraham to be spiritually enriching and meaningful as I contemplate the cosmos in my place in them. I’ve also always known that there is much more to the story and have always believed this will come to light, especially for the obedient. In my experience, the book is drenched in the type of truth and wisdom that a seeking soul finds deeply satisfying.
I love the Book of Abraham. I have been deeply affected by its power to explain key portions of the very nature of our existence, and our capacity and destiny as children of God. I love Father Abraham and feel a kinship with him that I believe is available to every person who seeks to follow Jesus Christ. As I read from the Book of Abraham, I have always found spiritual illumination and a great degree of peace that Joseph gave us something ancient and authentically from Abraham, and I am grateful for it.
February 29, 2020
I was familiar with most of the modern information about how the various papyri came into Joseph Smith's hands, and with the connections between the papyri we still have copies of, ancient Egyptian religion, and LDS temple ceremonies. What was new to me was the historical context of when the papyri were produced, including information about the man some of the papyri were made for as a funerary text. I had no idea, for example, that he was a prophet with priestly duties in an Egyptian temple. (Nibley may have mentioned this but he has a hard time with following an outline and telling you facts in order.)
It also helped me to understand that Kolob was being depicted as having an orbit around the sun in a geocentric system, encircling (and thus "governing" it) rather than saying that the sun orbits Kolob as earth orbits the sun. The reproductions of the bits of papyrus from the Book of Breathings Made By Isis and The Book of The Dead were also something I don't recall having seen before.
As I have learned more about ancient Egypt, I've come to understand that there was a lot of mixing going on between other Mediterranean religions and Egyptian religion around the time these scrolls were produced, so having Abraham's name be involved with depictions of Egyptian gods (or priests dressed as them) is fairly reasonable.
The book is written from an ostensibly objective viewpoint, rather than an explicitly believing one, which I appreciated-- although there is of course a lot of bias toward the believing position in terms of which facts are presented and left out, and how they are presented.
It also helped me to understand that Kolob was being depicted as having an orbit around the sun in a geocentric system, encircling (and thus "governing" it) rather than saying that the sun orbits Kolob as earth orbits the sun. The reproductions of the bits of papyrus from the Book of Breathings Made By Isis and The Book of The Dead were also something I don't recall having seen before.
As I have learned more about ancient Egypt, I've come to understand that there was a lot of mixing going on between other Mediterranean religions and Egyptian religion around the time these scrolls were produced, so having Abraham's name be involved with depictions of Egyptian gods (or priests dressed as them) is fairly reasonable.
The book is written from an ostensibly objective viewpoint, rather than an explicitly believing one, which I appreciated-- although there is of course a lot of bias toward the believing position in terms of which facts are presented and left out, and how they are presented.
December 6, 2019
GOOD EXPLANATION OF THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM
Dr. Gee has done his homework when it comes to explaining the mysterious Book of Abraham. And mysterious may be an understatement since there remain so many unanswered questions about this important piece of Latter-day Saint scripture.
Aside from laying out all the historical background regarding the Joseph Smith papyri, Dr. Gee includes a FAQ section in which he addresses the most controversial queries critics and skeptics have. This is super, because he delivers clear, concise and reasonable answers based on his extensive research and expertise in Egyptology. And, yes, Dr. Gee is still a faithful member of the Church!
So I’m very glad to have this book in my library! It makes the whole Book of Abraham topic a little easier to comprehend. And it would be good recommended reading to anyone considering rushing to exit the Church over this issue.
Dr. Gee has done his homework when it comes to explaining the mysterious Book of Abraham. And mysterious may be an understatement since there remain so many unanswered questions about this important piece of Latter-day Saint scripture.
Aside from laying out all the historical background regarding the Joseph Smith papyri, Dr. Gee includes a FAQ section in which he addresses the most controversial queries critics and skeptics have. This is super, because he delivers clear, concise and reasonable answers based on his extensive research and expertise in Egyptology. And, yes, Dr. Gee is still a faithful member of the Church!
So I’m very glad to have this book in my library! It makes the whole Book of Abraham topic a little easier to comprehend. And it would be good recommended reading to anyone considering rushing to exit the Church over this issue.
January 21, 2018
A fairly brief (I am a slow reader and it only took me a few hours) review of the origins, content, and significance of the Book of Abraham. I appreciated Gee's conservative approach to the many questions surrounding the provenance, translation, and interpretation of the Book of Abraham (and his willingness to present all the possible options or interpretations), but I was sometimes frustrated by his failure to provide references to his statements about the world/historical context of Abraham or ancient Egypt—the book is short enough that it could have easily accommodated more recommendations of texts for reading more about both (and more references to works by non-LDS scholars would have been appreciated as well—too much of modern LDS scriptural scholarship is parasitical: they just keep citing each other!).
October 3, 2017
This book is useful for its annotated bibliography alone. Gee has produced an even-handed examination of one of the more difficult texts in the Latter-day Saint canon of scripture, addressing both the ancient provenance of the Joseph Smith Papyri and their connection to the canonical Book of Abraham. It is concise and well-written and is useful to both Latter-day Saints and non-Latter-day Saints, although Gee is writing from a position where the Book of Abraham is scripture. There are a few places where Gee makes an argument that is different from my own, but that is to be expected in any scholarly work. Highly recommended.
January 12, 2018
I'm not quite sure what my expectations were but I never felt like I was fully engaged with this book. I'm not an expert in areas of antiquity and so I thought a brief overview would fit but reading this felt a bit uneven. There was obviously a fair deal of thought that went into organization and how to break the topic matter into particular chapters but doing so limited the authors ability to really tell the story of Abraham and this book. While it wasn't the most compelling read I did appreciate the explanation of a few issues related to this scriptural work that don't generally get explained to the general LDS church membership.
February 12, 2022
This is a great overview of the many topics and issues surrounding The Book of Abraham. I think Gee does a good job of introducing the various topics and dealing with them in a straightforward way. I also really like how he summarizes the various scholarly articles and books that are related at the end of each chapter. This provides a good guide for further research into topics of interest. Glad I read this and I learned some good info.
June 8, 2023
Having grown up with the values inculcated in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I never considered looking for the insights that an Egyptologist might have on The Book of Abraham.
I am delighted to report that I gained quite a few such insights from John Gee's Introduction. This is well worth the time of anyone with an interest in the aforementioned Church, in Egyptology, and/or in the life of the Biblical Abraham.
I am delighted to report that I gained quite a few such insights from John Gee's Introduction. This is well worth the time of anyone with an interest in the aforementioned Church, in Egyptology, and/or in the life of the Biblical Abraham.
April 22, 2018
A good introduction
I enjoyed reading this book as I felt it gave a clear and concise rundown of the basics of what the Book of Abraham is, as well as understanding the issues from a faithful LDS perspective. I learned some new things, and gained an appreciation of the complexity of this book and how it has informed LDS theology and thought
I enjoyed reading this book as I felt it gave a clear and concise rundown of the basics of what the Book of Abraham is, as well as understanding the issues from a faithful LDS perspective. I learned some new things, and gained an appreciation of the complexity of this book and how it has informed LDS theology and thought
August 24, 2019
I was recommended this book as a good starting place to understanding the Book of Abraham. This books focuses mainly on the historical context of the scrolls used by Joseph to translate from, not necessarily on the doctrine of the Book of Abraham. Overall, I enjoyed it. There is some issues with flow that I felt John Gee went way too high level on, but thankfully it's referenced well.
February 16, 2018
Interesting background and tidbits. This is definitely an “introduction”; some chapters seem to have more material in the “further reading” section than in the main body of the chapter. But, although concise, it was satisfactory and whetted my appetite for more.
April 14, 2018
This book truly is an introduction to the Book of Abraham, but that's okay as most people really have no idea what the truth is regarding this enigmatic book. After reading it I do feel that I have a much better understanding of the issues surrounding the papyri and the Book of Abraham.
December 26, 2018
This book gives a good introduction to some of the issues surrounding the Book of Abraham. I appreciated the author's explanations but wish he had provided more detail. It was really too abbreviated on many points. Still it seems to be a good starting point.
January 5, 2019
What a great introduction to the Book of Abraham! Enough depth to be interesting and informative, short enough to be accessible to a non-scholar. The bibliographies provide great resources for those with a desire for more in-depth analysis. Highly recommended.
March 18, 2019
Current, concise information about the historicity of the Book of Abraham and Abraham's writings. Some of it was a good review for me and further information was provided in a clear accessible manner.
January 2, 2018
Generally a good overview of the Book of Abraham, but needs more recommended reading and citations outside of BYU materials.
December 30, 2017
An excellent introduction to the material. Very readable, to the point, and with excellent further reading and sources. Would recommend to those beginning an exploration of the topic.
December 7, 2018
This was an interesting educational book. It gives very good information that helps understand the history, origin and contents of the Book of Abraham.
March 29, 2019
Did a good job gathering what is known (and not known) about the Book of Abraham. Covered a lot of harder subjects surrounding it while staying objective.
June 15, 2019
Interesting stuff.
November 24, 2019
Very helpful as an introduction. I will need to dig further into the references and further reading sections. within the limits of my lack of scholarship.
November 27, 2020
A concise yet thorough introduction to the origins, understanding, and consequences of the Book of Abraham.
January 4, 2024
Gee summarizes the most recent developments in scholarship.
March 16, 2025
Insightful, well referenced, and explained the different opinions and facts for each point.
March 4, 2018
The only negative is that it was so short. John Gee's explanations were excellent and every chapter could have been so much longer.
I have read many of the papers referenced in this book, and John Gee has inspired me to read them all. This was superb. I'd have given it 5 stars if he had just given me more. We want MORE John!
I have read many of the papers referenced in this book, and John Gee has inspired me to read them all. This was superb. I'd have given it 5 stars if he had just given me more. We want MORE John!
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